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KDE developer "Electronic Lifeform" has published the results of the Konqueror usability and file-browsing habits survey which was carried out in August 2005. A summary is available at the link above; a PDF of the survey is available here (2.5Meg file).
Version 0.3.3 of KLinPopup, a KDE-based app for sending and receiving WinPopup messages via Samba, has been released. Changes in this release include translation updates, including added support for Italian, and "cosmetic changes to configure dialog". Full changelog here, screenshots here, downloads (source and SUSE 10.0 32 & 64-bit) at the homepage.
Various reports have been posted (as at the KPilot Development blog, KDE Developers, KDE Dot News and NewsForge) that the KDE project are to remove KPilot from KDE 4, and use OpenSync as the basis for its PDA sync'ing application which is to be called KitchenSync. Adriaan De Groot writes:
Frankly, none of the syncing projects in KDE SVN was going anywhere. Chronically strapped for time and with no developer community to speak of (this certainly goes for KPilot, where I've had on-again-off-again help from Reinhold and Jason in recent years, which was useful but never grew into a concerted effort), things languished in a partly-functioning and buggy state for a long time. I do hope that working with OpenSync will bring a change there -- it's a larger developer community for one thing.
KPilot itself is to continue as a separate project; its website is www.kpilot.org.
Version 0.9.2 of a KDM Theme Manager, a KDE Control Centre module which switches and installs KDM themes, has been released. The main change is a "code clean-up"; the changelog also reads "When loading make sure a thumbnail is displayed, if one exists"; I'm not sure if this is an instruction to users or whether this is what the program does. Downloads and screenshots at the KDE Apps link above.
Here is an article, with a series of screenshots, which explains why "KDE rules" in the author's opinion. It refutes some of the myths (such as that Qt isn't Free, that "C++ sucks" and a few others) and explains the benefits of technologies like DCOP and KParts. (This is a useful rejoinder to the writings and sayings of certain GTK bigots, like the people on a certain Linux User Group radio show who called Qt "sh-t" and the guy at the Linux User expo earlier this year who said C++ is for people who can't implement OOP in C or something stupid like that.) (Hat tip: OSNews.) Here's an earlier related story.
KDE now has a Community at OpenSolaris. It was only started yesterday, hence the lack of downloads or announcements from them as opposed to the KDE project generally. There are, however, now KDE 3.4.3 downloads at SunFreeware, with download instructions and a mailing list; the main Solaris KDE page is solaris.kde.org.
Version 0.6.1 of KSquirrel, an image viewer for KDE "with disk navigator, file tree, thumbnails, extended thumbnails, dynamic format support, DCOP interface and tools to resize, rotate, convert, colorize and print images", has been released. This is a bug-fix release with minor changes over 0.6.0 (changelog here). The application supports 41 image formats and requires OpenGL and the KSquirrel libraries (also developed by the author of KSquirrel). Screenshots here, source downloads and installation instructions here.
Matthias Ettrich has posted a defence of Qt's macros in which he claims that on certain discussion fora like OSNews, "even the most verbal critics are finally running out of arguments", and the only one left is the addition of introspection to C++ through the use of macros like "signals", "slots", "emit" and so on:
The complaint comes from people that prefer other languages, and consequently they dislike Qt for making the life of C++ programmers easier. We wrote Qt, we know it is not a “pure” C++ framework, just like C++ is not a “pure” language. Qt makes use of the C-subset of C++, including the preprocessor. And it makes very good use of it. What made C++ the most successful programming language on the planet is its pragmatic design, and its compatibility with C. It’s a meta language, a language powerful enough to be extended to something as beautiful and easy to work with as Qt.
Trolltech report that its Qtopia Phone Edition has received the 2005 Editor's Choice Award from Open Source World, a Chinese-based journal with a circulation of 40,000 supervised by the Chinese Information ministry, for "Best Embedded Linux Platform". OSW's deputy editor in chief Mr. Sun Zhiyong said this of the product:
Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition is the leading application platform and user interface for Linux-based wireless devices. Manufacturers and designers can use the Qtopia Phone Edition to build feature-packed phones while maintaining complete control of branding and user experience. With these exceptional features, Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition has proven itself to be the best embedded Linux platform.
The KOffice team has received a $1,000 donation from an anonymous donor to be used as the prize in a competition to design the GUI for the upcoming KOffice 2. This version is to be released around the same time as KDE 4. Submissions could take the form of GUI mockups with written descriptions of the intended workflows. Full details at the competition page. Winning the prize does not guarantee that your ideas will actually be used in KOffice 2.
Froglogic today released version 2.1.1 of its automated testing system Squish. The announcement says that this is "a maintenance release which fixes bugs reported since the release of Squish 2.1.0".
Trolltech has released Qt 4.1. The new version features integrated SVG graphics support, a PDF back-end, a lightweight unit testing framework, Mac OS X "universal binary" support, an interactive menu and action editor in Qt Designer and improved OpenGL and Visual C++ support; full changelog here. Full documentation here, open-source downloads here.
Froglogic announced last Thursday (15th Dec) that it had released Pq, an implementation of the Perl/Tk toolkit using Qt, using a BSD-type licence. The software is entirely written in C++ and requires no more alteration to Perl/Tk source code than the replacement of "using Tk" with "using Pq". The implementation of Perl/Tk is not yet complete, but is compatible with Qt 2, 3 and 4.
Version 2.4 of Cervisia, the KDE CVS client, has been released. Unlike the previous version 2.3, it requires KDE 3.5. Apart from that, the changes (all four of them) can be found at the link above or on the front page of the Cervisia home site. Screenshots here, documentation here, downloads are with the KDE SDK package (your distro homepage may well have these).
LugRadio, the online radio show of the Wolverhampton Linux User Group which features Jono Bacon (of Linux Format fame) has an interview in the new episode with KDE hacker Aaron Seigo. The appearance consists of "a five-minute update on where the KDE desktop is headed, cool stuff they're working on, and integration with freedesktop.org". LugRadio is available in four versions, these being a choice of low and high quality OGG and MP3.
People Behind KDE has added an interview with the seven people responsible for the Qt/KDE Debian packages. Questions include how they each contribute, how they each came to get involved in KDE, what's missing, plans for KDE 4, their favourite widget styles and text editors, and who they prefer between Linus T and RMS.
Version 1.2.0 of Misfit Model 3d, an open-source, OpenGL-based 3D model editor, has been released. It is Qt3 and Qt4 compatible, and runs on all three desktop platforms. Full feature list here. The actual changes in this release are a fix to OBJ export on Windows and a correction to the documentation for the MM3D filter. Screenshots here, downloads here.
Stephen Binner (beineri) notes that the upcoming version of SUSE Linux is to feature Qt 4.1 as its Qt 4 package; the alpha version just released includes the 4.1 release candidate (package list here). It also features KDE 3.5 with several packages updated to last weekend's KDE 3.5 branch, as well as a recent snapshot of the KOffice trunk
Version 1.1 of konqil.icio.us, a KDE "service menu" for del.icio.us, has been released; the previous version appears to be 0.5. Five changes are listed in the changelog (see link above), including that "service menu items now uses the current Konqueror window" and that the password setting has been removed as unncessary. Install instructions and download location are at link above (no home page and no screenshots).
Marcel Gagné (of Moving to Linux fame) has an article on Informit.com about the Klik software installation system, its origins, its benefits and the couple of minor limitations the system has.
K3b has seen two minor releases in the past week; 0.12.9 added an Alsa output plugin and a completely new set of action icons for project types and tools, courtesy of Marcel Dierkes. It also fixed localisation bugs and a number of other problems. 0.12.10 has three more bug fixes. Source downloads (binaries are out of date; you are best advised to see your distro's homepage) here; screenshots here.
Version 1.4.4 of LinCVS, the open-source (GPL) Qt-based cross-platform CVS client, has been released. The new version "fixes a lot of bugs" according to the changelog.
Version 1.8 of the Qt-based commercial CVS client LinCVS XXL has been released. The changelog (see link above) reads "performance of diff side-by-side dramatically improved, diff of local files, minor improvements, bugfixes". Screenshots here, downloads here. This is an extended proprietary version of the original open-source LinCVS, the most recent version of which is 1.4.3; it can be used free for non-commercial purposes only. For one user, the licence costs Euro78.50.
QDevBlog have published a post about how to make universal binaries with Qt 4.1, for anyone to whom that appeals. It involves compiling Qt with an extra flag, editing one of the Qt config files (which should become unnecessary in the final 4.1 release) and your project file.
Version 2.1 of the KDE Lipstik theme (the standard on Kubuntu) has been released. This adds the capability to "compress" menus to save space, and three bug fixes. Screenshots can be found at the link above (and if you can find any Kubuntu screenshots, that's probably the theme being used).
Mandriva packages here.
A group of KDE enthusiasts and developers met at the FOSS.IN conference in Bangalore last week and founded KDE India, with such goals as spreading KDE awareness in India, particularly in colleges and local businesses, of providing support for local KDE developers and users, of driving localisation efforts and of fostering development of KDE applications specific to the needs of people in India. A mailing list (kde-india@kde.org) has also been set up.
Via Planet KDE, Sebastian Kuegler has written a basic tutorial for PyQt. The tutorial is in four steps, showing how to attach a signal to a slot to make GUI components work, how to subclass the QApplication class, and how to use Qt Designer to write PyQt applications.
The Tango Desktop Project have issued version 0.6.1 of their icon set, of which there are screenshots at both the KDE Look page linked above and at their home page. Note that they are meant to be used on GNOME and KDE and use the FreeDesktop.org naming conventions.
A new version of VariCAD, version 2.00, has been released. The new version features "substantially improved working with more documents (files), new STL file output, new options for copying objects (both between drawings and within the drawing), and more" according to the announcement. Requirements include Qt 2.3 and KDE on the Linux version, as well as hardware OpenGL support. Commercial licence, but RPMs and DEBs available for various Linux distributions; there is also a Windows version.
Trolltech is recruiting an "Open Source Community Manager" which it intends will liaise with the Open Source community on behalf of Trolltech; it will "communicate enthusiastically to the community with the voice of Trolltech, and speak to Trolltech with the voice of the community". The position will be based at Trolltech in HQ in Oslo, and require some international travel. Details of responsibilities and requirements are at the link above.
Version 2.2 of TaskJuggler, an open-source task management application for KDE, has been released. This is a new feature release, the main change from previous versions being the amalgamation of its two graphical front-ends into one, and keyboard shortcuts now work for all GUI features. Full changelog here, screenshots here. The download page is here, featuring source code and a RPM for SUSE Linux 10.
The first full of release of BitDefender FE (French homepage), a Qt-based front-end for the BitDefender anti-virus software, has been released. A new program has been added to the package, allowing the user to update the virus definitions automatically; the location for the configuration file has also changed. Both RPM and source downloads are available, as is the 1.3 beta version. Downloads here.
Version 1.0 of KBasic, a "full featured Object orientated modern BASIC language for Windows® and Linux", has been released. (Actually, it was released on 16th November, but has only just been announced on KDE Apps and thus come to my attention.) The current version is useable for producing Qt apps. The Linux version requires KDE 3.3. There is a free download, but is under a proprietary licence as the author alleges that support from the community was not forthcoming. (How legal this is depends on whether he bought his commercial licence before or after he started developing it.) Screenshots here.
A new edition of TUX magazine, "the first and only magazine for the new Linux user", has been released. It features an interview with the KDE Developer Daniel Molkentin (his blog here), about the features in the newly-released KDE 3.5 and plans for KDE 4. There is a feature on Klik in the same issue.
Version 0.9.1 of KRecipes, a KDE application to store recipes using open-source SQL databases, has been released. This release is a bug-fix on 0.9, which fixes a problem affecting the set-up of new MySQL databases. Requires KDE 3.1 and MySQL, Postgres or SQLite. Screenshots here, download at Sourceforge here.
A Qt4-based Subversion client is being developed, and version 0.2.0 has just been released. It uses an interface rather than the Subversion binary, and since version 0.1.0 has been rewritten from scratch to use Qt4. The project's Wiki-based homepage is here, with some screenshots of both the Linux and KDE versions here. Source downloads and subversion tree access here.
KDE developer Stephan Binner explains why people shouldn't rush in to full-time KDE4 development now that version 3.5 is here:
KDE 3.5.x will be the versions most users will use for likely more than a year (time until KDE 4 release + time until distributions pick it up + time until users upgrade). And KDE 3.5 will also be the version on the next year upcoming business desktop products which currently still ship KDE 3.2.
So please don't jump now full-time into KDE 4 development despite as much fun it is being able to break or rewrite everything. Please help to make KDE 3.5 series the most stable and bug-free KDE ever. After, let us say KDE 3.5.2 bugfix release, there will be still several months left to fully concentrate on KDE 4. And if you want to hack on new features based on stable kdelibs3, KOffice is always looking for helping hands and aiming for a great release early next year.
The KDEWebDev team have released Quanta Plus version 3.5, which forms part of the KDE 3.5 release. Features 11 improvements, including the ability to preview pages in Firefox, and nine major bug fixes. Screenshots here, downloads here.