"KDE has released a release candidate of the upcoming 4.7 release of the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Frameworks, which is planned for July 27, 2011. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing last-minute showstopper bugs and finishing translation and documentation that comes along with the releases." Focuses of this release are Kwin support for OpenGL-ES 2.0 (oooh purty!), an interface refresh for Dolphin, and loads of other stuff.
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Member since:2006-12-05
Compiling even the smallest programs can be a massive pain in the ass. I wouldn't want to see a complete desktop compile (that is, assuming it will compile without you pulling all your hair out in the first place...). Not to mention all the time required, even if it did work successfully.
I would actually recommend just waiting for KDE 4.7 to officially be released, and soon enough distros will start shipping it. And certainly at least a few of them will be live CDs/DVDs. And of course they will all implement it somewhat differently and with their own finishing touches, some of them better, some worse--which IMO is definitely better than having one standard sub-par set of binaries with the same exact feel (or in other words, one distribution). KDE hasn't been making too many huge changes though, so I doubt that anything new is truly groundbreaking.
I have to admit though, I was wondering "why the f*** would you want to integrate a desktop environment with a bootloader, and how the hell would you integrate it with such a low-level piece of software?," and once I read why and saw the screenshot, I thought that's pretty cool. But still... not groundbreaking, because the only difference is that you select the OS before rebooting instead of after. Very cool, but not amazing. It seems like every new release is full of those things, little things that aren't groundbreaking, but they add up and really give you feeling that the desktop is very fresh and full-featured.
Edited 2011-06-27 04:01 UTC
Member since:2005-11-02
Compiling small programs is, in fact, not a pain at all. Compiling big, complex programs can be only because of (1) the time involved and (2) the fact that large projects have large dependency lists, some of which you may not have.
Properly written build scripts will make detecting depenencies that you need simple and compiling once you have them merely a matter of waiting (and not running out of disk space).
That said, I don't think KDE4 is a good place to start if you've never compiled your own software before.
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Member since:
2006-06-12
KDE is not a Linux distribution. KDE4 live demo DVD do not seem to exist anymore. It was nice to have before KDE4 was usable to see the progress, but there is no point now. It was never intended to be a fully supported distribution, but rather a proof of progress. If you want to try KDE, the best way is to create a separated user account and use the cmakekdefull bash script or something else to compile it for you. Like that you will have an "unstable" KDE version trapped into an user account (no real installation required).