KDE's New Projects Take On Portable Devices 110
jrepin writes "Key KDE developers have been blogging about new projects aimed towards portable devices. As Aaron Seigo says, 'In a nutshell, Plasma Active is about getting the KDE Platform with Plasma providing a compelling user interface ready for and available on hardware devices outside the usual laptop and desktop form factors.' For us mortals, that means an interface for smartphones, tablets, and handhelds."
*what* tablets? (Score:2, Interesting)
I've been looking for a Linux tablet in roughly the nook/ipad form factor for a while, but I can't find anything. What's out there? Whatever it is, it seems to hide itself really well.
I don't want an iOS or android tablet - I insist on having full control over my own computers. My requirements are:
* Roughly 7" screen, at least 1024x600 in color.
* 10 hours battery life
* Can run some Debian based distro ideally with KDE support
* Supports flash natively
* Touch screen supporting multitouch
* Less than $500
* Doesn't depend on an SD card slot to run Linux
There ought to be something, I should think, but I can't find it. The Color Nook is ruled out because it consumes the SD slot to hold Linux, it's Linux is apparently not so good (not polished), and if what I read was correct, it can be remotely wiped even if you root it since the firmware can do that behind your back.
I'm all set to give someone my money, but nobody seems too eager to sell me something.
Re:Proper fork of KDE 3.5 (Score:4, Interesting)
My opinion about KDE is: it could use a good fork of KDE 3.5, which is converted to use Qt 4, and with some of the new composite features added on top of it.
Qt4 port - not going to happen. But the 3.5-series is still being developed, see Trinity desktop [trinitydesktop.org]
The application suite should be a separate project rather than considered part of KDE, so that for example changes to mail or text editor programs are something independent than changes to the actual desktop and windowing system.
...and this would be different from the current situation how, exactly? If your distribution lumps KDE into few huge packages, blame your distribution, but KDE itself is highly modular. Changes to Kwin have no impact on KMail, for example (other than potentially changing the way the windowing system works, which is obvious). Furthermore, due to the modular nature of KDE, changes to KatePart affect KWrite, Kate and KDevelop (and all applications that use the text editor widget).