KDE 4.7 RC Is Here: GRUB2 Integration, KWin Mobile 175
dkd903 writes "KDE 4.7 is almost here and brings along with it a number of features and performance improvements such as a better Dolphin with a faster file search, ability of KWin to run on Mobile devices, Grub2 integration in KDM and offline search support in the KDE virtual globe, Marble." Here's KDE's own announcement of the release candidate; the final release is planned for July 27. Reader jrepin quotes the KDE announcement: "With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing last-minute showstopper bugs and finishing translation and documentation that comes along with the releases."
Re:Devices/network shares listed in fstab (Score:4, Informative)
Re:GRUB integration? (Score:2, Informative)
First of all, it's not a window manager, it's a desktop environment.
Secondly, it's so you can do this [ompldr.org] and walk away instead of sitting around while your computer thinks about how to be alive.
Re:GRUB integration? (Score:2, Informative)
I suppose if you want to sit around while it shuts down, POSTs, and loads grub so you can catch it during that five-second window, you can go ahead. I would prefer to click a button and then walk away.
Re:YES! NEW KDE! (Score:4, Informative)
well that happens when you add another layer (db) between the files and the userinterface
Uh, adding a database often speeds up data access.
Of course, whether MySQL was a wise choice is debatable. Tracker, for example, uses SQLite.
The main problem seems to be Strigi, which is the file indexer, because it scans your whole drive adding metadata to the database. If you disable that it'll probably help immensely.
Re:GRUB integration? (Score:3, Informative)
You can boot in to a different distro without actually restarting the machine, with KDM.
Close, you still need to restart but you can specify the distro you want to boot into from the restart dialog.
Re:Mobile devices (Score:5, Informative)
Moving away to design tablet-y interfaces while those apps are still an eyesore is beyond me.
Not the same people work on all apps and interfaces.
The mobile work is mostly done by people paid by Nokia, open-slx, and basysKom.
I don't care about Marble, and I don't think improvements to it should be "release notes".
Pre-release notes are not as detailed as the final notes.
KDE releases three software bundles every 6 months: Plasma Workspaces, Applications, and Frameworks.
In the final release, each bundle gets its own release announcement. Marble in one of the most active KDE Applications and when the devs work hard, they deserve to be mentioned in the (pre-)release notes, be it Marble, Kate, or even some game.
Kate also has significant improvements this update, but no one but Kate developers mention them at all.
Nobody is hindering any Kate dev to extend the release notes draft on KDE's Etherpad instance. It's open to edit for anyone. I look at the draft for the final release announcements at this moment. Heck, even the comments sidebar say that another application than Marble should get spotlight in the upcoming announcement. So far nobody stepped forward with an improved application that was not featured in the KDE Apps 4.6 announcement (even Kate was featured last time http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.6/applications.php [kde.org] )
Looking at http://kate-editor.org/ [kate-editor.org] I see no posts mentioning new features for 4.7. There is a quite extensive one for 4.6 but not for 4.7. There are some articles about current GSoC progress but those won't show up before 4.8.
Who is writing the release notes?
The ones who volunteer to do it, like with any other community project.
Feel free to extend release notes drafts yourself.
So yeah, less effort on Nepomuk/Strigi
KDE is a community project mostly made up of volunteers. You cannot force a volunteer to work on something he doesn't want to. Though you can hire one of the firms that do business around KDE to improve the things you prefer.
that everyone but the main devs seem to hate, at least I haven't read or heard anything positive not coming from a KDE dev
I'm not a KDE developer and I like Nepomuk.
GNOME/Tracker developers also like Nepomuk which is the reason they've adopted it long ago.
more visible, non-refactoring work so people can stop saying KDE sucks every time.
Haters will hate and are the vocal group. I happen to like KDE.
Re:Rapidly Rising Minor Version Numbers... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, although KDE 4.8 is still planned, there is talk about a KDE 5 now. However, it's not going to be a big rewrite like last time (mostly thanks to Qt 5 not being a big rewrite, like last time), but will instead just be a cleanup of current APIs and removing some old cruft from from the early days of KDE 4.0. Most of the currently used and working code will be left alone, with perhaps a bugfix here and there.
All in all, it sounds like it'll be a much smoother transition than KDE3 to KDE4 was.
Re:YES! NEW KDE! (Score:4, Informative)
The OP may have been confrontational, but he wasn't trolling.
I switched to Trinity KDE because I hated KDE4.x so much. I just can't stand it. I actually kept using an old distro because I was unwilling to "upgrade" to KDE4.x, when I discovered the Trinity KDE project, it was such a relief. I was able to go to a much new distro but keep a user experience that didn't feel like I was using a big cell phone.
LK
Re:Have they fixed the missing 3.5 features then? (Score:4, Informative)
for konqueror, I am not sure what you want. I don't remember a NeXT-like column view ever being available. If you mean the splitting of the interface recursively, it is still there.
new tab for konsole? just double-click on a free area of the tab bar.
Reintegrate file browsing into konqueror? Uh? type any local URL in the location bar, and you are browsing your files.
As for the desktop and panel right-click... Are you sure you are not confusing gnome and KDE. 'cause I can add any service menu to the right click. In fact the desktop and panel of KDE4 are way more configurable than the ones from KDE3.
But clearly, you must be an amazingly anal person to consider that the whole desktop is incomplete because you basically would like a button instead of a double-click. Seriously. Get some perspective.