New Features In KDE 4.4.0

KDE 4.4.0 Software Compilation codenamed Caikaku has been released. KDE 4.4.0 brings an innovative collection of applications to Free Software users which enhances their experience while using KDE Desktop.

The following are a select few from the sum total of features that KDE 4.4.0 sports.

• Plasma Netbook workspace - An interface specifically optimized for mobile devices with smaller screens.
  
  
• Improved window management - KDE 4.4.0 brings with it enhanced application switching using Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut. You can now maximize and tile windows by dragging them to the edge of the screen.
• Plasma widgets improvements - "Add Widget" interface attaches to the user's main panel instead of opening in it's own window. Now it is possible to share Plasma widgets over a network. System tray can now embed Plasma widgets thus reducing visual clutter.
• KDE 4.4.0 now supports new locales, currencies and date formats in its interface. 
• A new configuration module to handle automatic mounting of removable drives. 

KDE Software Compilation 4.4.0 (Codename: "Caikaku") Released

9th February, 2010. Today KDE announces the immediate availability of the KDE Software Compilation 4.4, "Caikaku", bringing an innovative collection of applications to Free Software users. Major new technologies have been introduced, including social networking and online collaboration features, a new netbook-oriented interface and infrastructural innovations such as the KAuth authentication framework. According to KDE's bug-tracking system, 7293 bugs have been fixed and 1433 new feature requests were implemented. The KDE community would like to thank everybody who has helped to make this release possible.

 For a full list of features and lots of screenshots and videos demonstrating the enhancements in KDE 4.4.0, head over to the KDE 4.4.0 anouncement page. Also check out the KDE promotional committee YouTube Channel for all the goodies that KDE 4.4.0 has to offer.

Linus Torvalds ditches KDE 4 for GNOME

Linus Torvalds says he has ditched KDE for good and is now sleeping with its arch rival GNOME. Oh well, rhetoric apart, he says the move over to GNOME happened because in KDE 4, he found it quite bothersome that he couldn't get his Right mouse button to access the right menu he wanted. In short, he ran into usability issues while using KDE 4.0.

In an interview given to Rodney Gedda of "Computer World" - Australia, he had this to say, and I quote :

I used to be a KDE user. I thought KDE 4.0 was such a disaster I switched to GNOME. I hate the fact that my right button doesn't do what I want it to do. But the whole "break everything" model is painful for users and they can choose to use something else.

I realise the reason for the 4.0 release, but I think they did it badly. They did so may changes it was a half-baked release. It may turn out to be the right decision in the end and I will re-try KDE, but I suspect I'm not the only person they lost.

I am sure the GNOME camp must be rejoicing in having won over a high profile Linux user to their side. This when a few years back, Linus Torvalds had gone on record severely criticizing GNOME for over simplifying the user interface.

Linus Torvalds was in Australia to attend the annual linux.conf.au organised by Linux Australia. While he was rather critical of KDE 4 in its current form, he did say it was a good thing for Nokia to release Qt as LGPL. Among other things, he also gives his views on Microsoft Windows 7 advising Microsoft to release sooner and decouple the operating system from the applications. A really interesting interview.

KDE4 in -current /testing and other Slackware news

That’s right — KDE version 4.1 is now part of Slackware -current (in the /testing directory), so for everyone who can’t wait to try it out, have a look at it! We’re all (very happily) using it here now, and it has come a long way since the first 4.x release. Congratulations to the KDE team for the fine work (and many thanks to Robby Workman and Heinz Wiesinger for all the help with build scripts and testing for the initial Slackware packaging of KDE4). Have fun!

Also, we recently commissioned Mark from Senile Felines Designs to create a unique alternate Slackware Logo, as we were getting a number of bug reports that the old logo could not be read easily while standing on one’s head. We think he did a great job with it! If you like the new logo, we are selling shirts, stickers and other products with it at the Official Slackware CafePress Store, and if the design proves to be popular we’ll likely have some of these products mass produced for the main Slackware Store. Meanwhile, you can help support the Slackware project, _and_ be the first on your block to show off the new Slackware ambigram logo!

source: http://slackware.com