KDE 4.10 Beta1 Released

sfcrazy writes "The KDE team has released the first beta for its renewed Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. 'With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality.' QtQuick in Plasma Workspaces has received a lot of work: 'Plasma Quick, KDE's extensions on top of QtQuick allow deeper integration with the system and more powerful apps and Plasma components. Plasma Containments can now be written in QtQuick. Various Plasma widgets have been rewritten in QtQuick, notably the system tray, pager, notifications, lock & logout, weather and weather station, comic strip and calculator plasmoids. Many performance, quality and usability improvements make Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces easier to use.' Here's the Feature Plan for 4.10."

KDE

[Osgeld]

Given the choices of the new DE's I have to say I could see my self actually using these last few KDE's, they have come quite a way since the early 4x days. Course I use XFCE cause I am more interested in my computer actually computing than having floaty windows and bullshit widgets all alpha blended like a hollywood production, but IF my choices were limited to GNOME3, Unity or KDE... I honestly believe KDE is the less bloaty pile of pain in the ass.

Accessibility

[binaryhat]

Still no focus adding an onscreen keyboard with word completion. This needs to be added. KDE is now in the mainstream. Windows 7 onscreen keyboard is great...Linux alternatives, suck. https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=265452 [kde.org]

Re:Accessibility

[Hatta]

The onscreen keyboard is a low priority for KDE desktop, because it's a desktop OS, not one intended for tablets.

I imagine, given the title of his post, that tablets are not his first concern.

Re:Definitely fun

[Anonymous Coward]

LLVM? CLANG? I hope so. Otherwise how will we get it through the FreeBSD ports for the year of the FreeBSD Desktop?

Re:Accessibility

[binaryhat]

Actually I've been a Linux/KDE user since 2001. Yes Linux onscreen keyboards do stink. I have tried them. There is no reason why KDE desktop can't have a viable onscreen keyboard. I am pushing for one because I am disabled and cannot physically type, only operate a touchpad. Don't be so quick to judge : )

Re:KDE

[yet-another-lobbyist]

...they also seemed to have a rough spot in the past months. For months, there was no stable version available for ubuntu Precise, which is an LTS. Last month, they finally released 3.5.13.1, with support for Precise. I also had trouble accessing their web page and repos for many days in a row. Not exactly the kind of stability I would expect for my main DE.

By the way, KDE 3.5 was my first Linux experience. It was my DE of choice; it worked well and I liked the configurability. But I always found it butt ugly. Looked way old-fashioned and outdated compared to OSs/DEs. Tried a few different themes, but that only made it worse. I still stayed with it for its functionality. But I always found it totally unsexy.

They could make me happy by

[Lord Kano]

abandoning the 4.x tree and revamping the 3.5 tree. I'm using Trinity KDE because I can't stand 4.x.

LK

Re:KDE

[chargersfan420]

This is pretty much how I feel too. I use XFCE + compiz for the perfect blend of speed and desktop customizability. Gotta have a little bling. But the way compiz has been going, it looks like the day might come where it is no longer an option, and I hope that KDE will have their shit together by then. I've checked out KDE several times in the past, but it's just never looked "ready" yet. (to be fair it has been a while)