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A first alpha of version 4.1 of KDE has been released. This version is based on Qt 4.4 and features improved SVG rendering and general performance and the ability to draw widgets on canvasses. It also features Akonadi, the framework for storing personal data, and (non-Akonadi-based) versions of KMail and KOrganizer. Source code can be downloaded here. This is strictly a preview and is not suitable for daily use.
Akademy 2008 - Call for Presentations
Kevin Ottens has posted a reminder (via Planet KDE) that the deadline for papers for Akademy 2008 is 1st May, i.e. this Thursday. Information as to what sort of presentations are welcome can be found here. Submissions should contain a 150-word abstract, a short biography (up to 100 words) and a picture (250x250px max).
Version 0.9.4 of Smb4K, the Windows/Samba share browser for KDE, has been released. Changes:
Screenshots here, downloads (source only, with links to third-party binaries) here. Requires KDE/Qt 3.3 and Samba 3.
Mark Summerfield (of C++ GUI Programming fame) has written an introductory article on using the PyQt Undo framework. The four-page feature is at InformIT.
Version 2.92 of Yakuake, the drop-down terminal for KDE (a bit like the console in Quake) based on Konsole, has been released. Changes:
Screenshots and downloads from the KDE Apps page. Requires KDE 4.
Version 8.04 (i.e. April 2008, codenamed Hardy Heron or just 'hardy' for package management purposes) of Kubuntu, the version of Ubuntu with a KDE desktop, has been released. This comes in two flavours, the mainstream version with KDE 3.5.9 and a "remix" with KDE 4.0.3. Unlike the GNOME-based version, simply called Ubuntu, this does not come with long-term support. Important new features in this version:
Downloads are available here or you can buy or order through Shipit; APT upgrade instructions here. The main Ubuntu announcement is here and you can download that here.
Version 0.6 of QTM, the blog management application, has been released. Changes since last stable version:
Screenshots here, downloads (source, Windows installer, SUSE and Ubuntu binaries) here. Requires Qt 4.1 (many features require 4.2 or 4.3).
KDE Developer Friedrich Kossebau has published a list of KDE Utils projects which are without proper maintainers. Some of them have been ported from KDE 3 to 4 and others are in limbo and won't compile. The former category includes kcharselect (character selector), kdessh (SSH front-end), KFloppy, KTimer (to schedule the execution of a program), KWallet (the password manager) and Sweeper ("cleans unwanted traces the user leaves on the system"), and kregexpedit. Anyone interested should subscribe to the KDE development mailing list and introduce themselves.
Via Planet KDE, Roland Wolters has published a list of the KDE-related projects which are getting a Summer of Code slot this year:
* Media Device Support in Amarok 2 with Collections * Amarok and UPnP * Notes and Presenter View Support for KPresenter * Easy monitor hot-plug support in KDE * Integrate Decibel into the KDE 4 environment * Jingle video and voice chat in Kopete * KMail enhancements and porting to native Qt4 * Integration of the QtWebKit based KPart * Integration of WebKit SVG library with KHTML * StepGame: educational game based on Step
Kubuntu Release Candidate announcement
A release candidate of the upcoming version of Kubuntu, the version of Ubuntu with a KDE desktop, has been released. Version 8.04 (Hardy Heron) has a choice of version 3.5.9 or 4.0.3 of KDE and, unlike the mainstream Ubuntu, with a GNOME desktop, will not be a long-term support (LTS) release. Major changes since the beta:
For a list of major new features in Hardy, see the announcement linked above; screenshots are there also (and here). The announcement also has download instructions and links.
Version 2.2.6 of KTorrent, a BitTorrent client for KDE, has been released. This is the last bug-fix release for the KDE 3 version of the application and contains bug fixes over version 2.2.5. Screenshots here, downloads (source only) here or from home page. The latest version (3.0.1) requires KDE 4.
Version 1.3.1 of Kommander, a dialog authoring application for KDE, has been released. Changes include:
Full changelog here. Screenshots here, downloads (source only) here. Requires KDE 3.4.
A set of new logos has been designed for KOffice, the office and graphical application set for KDE, which was sponsored by the Dutch NLnet foundation which "aims to financially support organisations and people that contribute to an open information society", and designed by Michiel van Kleef of 30 Media. The KOffice logo itself is a K in a circle, while the individual component logos are variants on that theme. NLnet also sponsored Girish Ramakrishnan to improve KWord 2's ODF support.
The KDE BugSquad are holding a BugDay this coming Sunday (midnight to midnight UTC). Participants should have a recent version of KDE 4 (or 3.5.9) and do not need programming experience. Join #kde-bugs on irc.freenode.net for details. There is also a mailing list.
The Maemo project has announced that Qt is to be supported on that mobile device platform, used on the Nokia N770 and N800 wireless internet tablets, which currently supports the GTK+ toolkit. They have also announced that Nokia will be hiring Qt developers to work on Maemo. Maemo reckon that the first Qt libraries to be delivered will appear in the last quarter of this year.
Version 0.9.5 of QtiPlot, a data analysis and scientific plotting application similar to Origin, has been released. Changes:
Screenshots linked off home page; downloads (source, with binaries for all supported platforms available in return for a maintenance contract) here. Requires Qt 4.2.
Version 0.9.4 of cb2Bib, a tool for extracting bibliographic references from emails, journal web pages and PDFs, has been released. Changes:
Screenshost here, downloads (source, Windows installer) here. Requires Qt 4.2.
Qt Centre have announced their programming contest for 2008, sponsored by KDAB, Integrated Computer Solutions, Trolltech, BitRock, Thorsen Consulting, APress and basysKom. The contest starts today, registration closes 31st May and the contest finishes on 30th September. Categories are collaboration tools (this includes the likes of version control and chat clients), science and education software, project management, automation, products demonstrating Qt, a KDE 4 Plasmoid, and a category for any new application developed for the contest. Rules are here.
UKUUG (not-an-acronym of UK Unix Users' Group) is holding a talk on OpenMoko, the operating system commonly used on the Neo1973 device as a basis for open-source development for Qtopia-based phones, at UCL this Wednesday coming (9th April), at 1830 BST (for approx 2 hours) in Cruciform Lecture Theatre 2, Cruciform Building, Gower Street, London WC1 (map here). The speaker is Ole Tange, a former Hostmaster for .dk and currently a software developer who has worked with Unix since 1991 and with GNU/Linux since 1992. More details at UKUUG here.
A first beta of version 0.6 of QTM, a blogging application (written by the author of this blog), has been released. Changes:
Screenshots (old) here, downloads (source, Windows installer with other binaries possibly to follow) at SourceForge here. Requires Qt 4.1 (4.2 strongly recommended).
Another test
Version 2.5 of Gambas, the Visual Basic-like development environment for Unix with a KDE-based front-end, has been released. Changes include:
For full changelog see here. Screenshots here, downloads (source with links to third-party binaries) here. Requirements info here; requires KDE 3.5.
A first release candidate of Qt 4.4 is out. Thiago Macieira says that this is considered release quality and good enough to use for most tasks. Major new features include support for Windows CE, a WebKit-based HTML rendering module (WebKit is based on KHTML and used in Safari), a Phonon-based multimedia module, XQuery 1.0 (and thus XPath 2.0) support in XML, a concurrency framework allowing multi-threading without the mutexes needed previously, and a new help system. Downloads are available (source, Windows and Mac installers) here.
Version 0.10 of SpeedCrunch, the scientific calculator, has been released. Changes:
Screenshots here, downloads (source, Windows installer, links to third-party Linux binaries) here. Requires Qt 4.2.
KDE 4.0.3 release announcement
The KDE project has announced that version 4.0.3 of its desktop environment for Unix type operating systems has been released. Major improvements:
Full changelog here; source downloads and links to third-party binaries here.
The digiKam project has issued a call for students to do projects in the Google Summer of Code this year. This is a paid internship with Google mentored by people from the digiKam projects. They suggest four possible new features, all of them requested through the digiKam bug tracker, including face recognition and KROSS integration, allowing Python and Ruby scripting. More information at the call for students page; deadline is 7th April.