KDE Archive

Interview: Sebastian Trug, Lead Developer of k3b

Submitted by AdamW 2007-05-10 KDE 80 Comments

"k3b is one of the most important applications for many Linux users. The immensely popular and fully-featured CD/DVD writing application has been a mainstay of the standard Linux desktop since its early releases. Since last year, Sebastian Trüg, the initial author and present lead developer of k3b, has been employed by Mandriva both to work on k3b and to work on the Nepomuk desktop project. We asked Sebastian a few questions about k3b, Mandriva and Nepomuk."

The Road to KDE 4: Solid Brings Hardware Configuration to KDE

Submitted by elsewhere 2007-04-25 KDE 28 Comments

"One of the many new technologies for KDE 4 is the often mentioned, but seldom explained Solid hardware API. Hardware has always been a bit of an annoying element of using Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, but Solid hopes to fix that for KDE 4. In many ways, Solid is like Phonon, in that it's a Qt/KDE style API around already existing components at the lower level, such as freedesktop.org's HAL. It is already quite functional in the backend, and it's already affecting visible KDE components."

KDE 4 Snapshot Screenshot Tour

Submitted by linuxbeta 2007-04-23 KDE 86 Comments

"Stephan Binner, a well-known KDE and openSUSE developer, has released a set of live CDs featuring the latest development snapshot of KDE 4 (screenshots). Unlike the SLAX-based live CD called KLAX, which he used to develop in order to demonstrate new KDE releases, his 'KDE Four Live' images are based on openSUSE. After a large, uncompressed live DVD released earlier in the week, a set of smaller live CDs (compressed with Squashfs) is now also available for download. Don't expect trouble-free computing with these early KDE 4 snapshots, but as demonstration tools designed to give KDE users an early taste of things to come, they aren't too bad. The first alpha build of KDE 4 is scheduled for release early next week."

The Road to KDE 4: Strigi and File Information Extraction

Submitted by dylansmrjones 2007-04-12 KDE 12 Comments

"After a short delay due to a heavy dosage of 'Real Life', I return to bring you more on the technologies behind KDE 4. This week I am featuring Strigi, an information extraction subsystem that is being fully deployed for KDE 4.0. KDE has previously had the ability to extract information about files of various types, and has used them in a variety of functional contexts, such as the Properties Dialog. Strigi promises many improvements over the existing versions."

KDE 4.0 Release Schedule Finalised

Submitted by SQwerl 2007-03-21 KDE 40 Comments

The KDE Community and the release team have put together a release plan for the long anticipated version 4.0, which is planned to be released in October 2007. KDE 4.0 will likely contain initial versions of all the major subsystems that have been described in recent Dot articles. These 'Pillars' of KDE set the stage for desktop and application growth and maturity over the life of the KDE 4 series.

Review: Dockers for Linux

Submitted by dumbkiwi 2007-03-15 KDE 24 Comments

"If you run KDE, you aren't just stuck with the standard 'kicker' panel to operate as your app launcher and taskbar. There are a bunch of nice panel replacements that will spice up your desktop nicely. The ones that I've used and tested are kooldock, kxdocker and kiba-dock. So, what do these docks do, and what's cool about them?"

KDE4 Release Schedule Discussion; Oxygen Hits Street

Submitted by twenex 2007-03-07 KDE 60 Comments

The KDE 4 release team started a discussion about a possible release schedule for KDE 4. Of course nothing is set yet but the topic is now hot and some interesting problems and point of views come up. In other but related news Oxygen hit the mirrors, or better, kdelibs.

The Road to KDE 4: Dolphin, Konqueror

Submitted by C2H5OH 2007-03-02 KDE 28 Comments

"As some of you who monitor the KDE news sphere may have noticed, there has been a recent addition to the kdebase module. The Dolphin File Manager has been added to complement Konqueror's browsing capabilities. Read on for more information about this new File Manager and its relationship to Konqueror and the rest of KDE."

New KDE 4 Preview Shows Progress

Thom Holwerda 2007-02-26 KDE 58 Comments

"On Friday, the KDE Project released the third in a series of development previews for the upcoming KDE 4.0 release. Dubbed 'Kludge', the 3.80.3 release includes the Sonnet language library, the new Dolphin file manager, and the Solid hardware library." Read on for an overview.

KDE, Krita, Webkit, Nepomuk-KDE News

Submitted by KugelKurt 2007-02-26 KDE 38 Comments

Boudewijn Rempt writes about the KDE image manipulation program Krita. He writes about Flake support and various features regarding image rendering quality like a new fast scaler. Zack Rusin writes about the ongoing effort to port WebKit to Qt4 for possible inclusion in KDE 4. A new issue of the KDE Commit-Digest has also been released, telling us about various topics like NetworkManager support in KDE 4 or the installment of techbase.kde.org. In addition, this document presents what has been accomplished in the Nepomuk-KDE project so far.

Third KDE 4 Development Snapshot Released

Submitted by reldruh 2007-02-23 KDE 25 Comments

The KDE project announces the availability of the third development snapshot of the upcoming KDE 4. This snapshot is meant as a reference for developers who want to play with parts of the new technology KDE 4 will provide, those who want to start porting their applications to the new KDE 4 platform and for those that want to start to develop applications based on KDE 4. This snapshot is not for end users, there is no guarantee that it will be stable, the interfaces are subject to changes at any time.

The Road to KDE 4: CMake, a New Build System for KDE

Submitted by ronaldst 2007-02-23 KDE 30 Comments

When a project with the size and scope of KDE gets to be as big as it is, sometimes changing a decision established almost a decade earlier is very difficult. KDE has relied on autotools to build most of the project since its inception, but for the last year, KDE 4 has been building with CMake, a newer build system that is rapidly becoming a heavyweight contender. Read on for more.

Dolphin To Become Default File Manager in KDE 4?

Submitted by anonymous 2007-02-20 KDE 116 Comments

In the transition from KDE 3 to KDE 4, a new file manager, Dolphin, was often discussed and now officially moved to the base part of KDE. "I just stumbled over this message saying that the file manager Dolphin is now part of kdebase (of KDE 4): 'Moving Dolphin to kdebase, as discussed with Peter and others. The big plan is: Dolphin will become the default file manager (kicker buttons and file:/ links bring it up).' The question remains what now happens with Konqueror - keep in mind that one of the goals of KDE 4 was to only keep one app for each task inside the base packages. But with Dolphin as the potentially new file manager and Webkit as the new browser we may see Konqueror vanish."

The Pillars of KDE 4: Decibel Definitions and Benefits

Eugenia Loli 2007-02-17 KDE 39 Comments

Decibel is a service that is concerned with real time communications; therefore, everything that connects one user with another user and makes it possible to get replies instantaneously is in the scope of Decibel. Decibel is based on the Telepathy D-Bus API's and uses the Tapioca implementation of these API's.

The Road to KDE 4: Okular, Ligature Document Viewers

Submitted by ronaldst 2007-02-14 KDE 31 Comments

"Focusing again on applications this week, specifically I'll look at two of the promising document viewers for KDE 4, Okular and Ligature. They are two of the rising stars of KDE 4, but they both have their roots as KDE 3 applications that have grown up."

The Pillars of KDE 4: Decibel

Submitted by elsewhere 2007-02-09 KDE 18 Comments

"The KDE development team is working hard on the KDE 4 platform. KDE 4 will include many exciting new technologies which will greatly enhance the functionality of KDE. One of these new technologies is Decibel. We would like to give you an idea of what Decibel is all about."

KDE 4’s Sonnet Will Turbocharge Language Processing

Eugenia Loli 2007-02-08 KDE 21 Comments

With the Sonnet library for KDE 4, developer Jacob Rideout hopes to reinvigorate the field of desktop linguistics by adding automatic language detection and other innovative features. Sonnet is to be for KDE 4 what KSpell 2 is for the current version of the K Desktop Environment, providing spell-checking facilities to applications as diverse as the Konqueror Web browser, Kopete instant messenger, and KWord office software. Unlike KSpell, however, it will also provide grammar checking, multilingual tools, and perhaps even translation, dictionary, and thesaurus functionality across all of KDE.

The Road to KDE 4: Phonon Makes Multimedia Easier

Submitted by ronaldst 2007-02-07 KDE 66 Comments

"Like the previously featured articles on new KDE 4 technologies for Job Processes or SVG Widgets, today we feature the shiny new multimedia technology Phonon. Phonon is designed to take some of the complications out of writing multimedia applications in KDE 4, and ensure that these applications will work on a multitude of platforms and sound architectures. Unfortunately, writing about a sound technology produces very few snazzy screenshots, so instead this week has a few more technical details. Read on for the details."

KHTML 3.5.6 is the Most CSS3-Compliant of All

Submitted by diegocg 2007-02-04 KDE 49 Comments

"As one of our readers has pointed out to us, the latest (3.5.6) release of the KHTML rendering engine passes all of the tests in our CSS selector testsuite - making the Konqueror 3.5.6 browser the most CSS3-compatible of all. Also in the latest release is the implementation of text-overflow: ellipsis. It really is a shame that only a tiny proportion of web users have access to this excellent browser."

The Open Source Hook: Porting KDE to Mac, Windows

Submitted by elsewhere 2007-02-01 KDE 43 Comments

"I had the opportunity to speak with several KDE developers recently. Benjamin Reed, Jaroslaw Staniek and Ralf Habacker are several of the many talented developers working on porting KDE to Mac and Windows respectively. They explain in detail what's involved in making KDE and its myriad of applications boot under Mac and Windows."