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KDE 4.2: first beta released

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K Desktop Environment - KDE 4.2 Beta 1 Release Announcement

A first beta of KDE 4.2 has been released. Major new features in this release include:

  • New desktop effects including "magic lamp", the cube and sphere desktop switchers, with improved motion
  • Improvements to taskbar and system tray, and other central desktop elements
  • Support for Google gadgets and for Plasma applets written in Python and Ruby, and improved JavaScript and Mac dashboard applets
  • Theme improvements in the taskbar and other Plasma components
  • Improvement to multi-screen through new Kephal library
  • Improved file previews and zooming in Dolphin file manager
  • Files load faster in Konqueror
  • New message header list in KMail
  • Vi mode in Kate and KWrite
  • New power management infrastructure "PowerDevil"
  • Print configuration system restores features missing in earlier KDE 4 releases
  • KRDC improves Microsoft Active Directory support
  • KDE on Windows now supports FISH and SFTP (secure file transfer)

Downloads and compile instructions available here, with links to binaries (currently for OpenSUSE only).