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List:       kde-announce
Subject:    [kde-announce]  4.6 Beta1 Brings Improved Search,
From:       Sebastian =?iso-8859-1?q?K=FCgler?= <sebas () kde ! org>
Date:       2010-11-25 13:39:43
Message-ID: 201011251439.43518.sebas () kde ! org
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   4.6 Beta1 Brings Improved Search, Activities and Mobile Device Support

KDE releases 4.6 beta1 of Workspaces, Applications and Development Frameworks, 
bringing significant improvements to desktop search, a revamped activity 
system and a significant performance boost to window management and desktop 
effects. Efforts all across the KDE codebase pay off by making KDE's 
frameworks more suitable for usage on devices. The release provides a testing 
base for a stable release in January 2011.


Plasma 4.6 Beta1 Previews Mature Themable Widget Set to QML

* Libplasma, KDE's framework for user interfaces for devices, can now be used 
as widget and component library from applications and widgets written in QML, 
the Qt Quick declarative UI. Plasma's new QML bindings offer a mature set of 
touchscreen-friendly widgets, SVG-based theming and access to Plasma's rich 
set of data-engines.

* The Plasma Desktop reintroduces Activities, a mechanism that helps 
organizing the workspace and grouping applications by their context. 
Applications can be started and stopped as part of an Activity and widgets 
used can vary per activity. This way, the desktop provides an easy way to 
organize and ease the users' workflows. For normal desktop usage, Activities 
are entirely transparant and opt-in.
* The KWin compositing manager has seen major optimizations in rendering and 
plugin handling, leading to a smoother window management experience and even 
more stunning desktop effects to enhance the users' workflow. KWin's new 
scripting interface allows to script more complex window management workflows 
using Javascript.
 

Plasma Desktop's new Activity Manager

These are only some of the improvements the Plasma Team delivers with 4.6 
coming January. This release being a first beta version, we encourage users to 
give it a try and report your findings back to us via KDE's bug tracker.
Dolphin File Manager 4.6 Beta1 Introduces Faceted Browsing

* The KDE Applications 4.6 Beta1 which is released today, adds exciting new 
features throughout the applications. Among the most striking of a large 
number of applications that are released as part of the KDE software 
compilation is Dolphin, which has made leaps forward in it's searching 
capabilities and user interface:

* The Dolphin file manager now searches inside files even when the Nepomuk 
semantic desktop is disabled. Nepomuk adds faceted browsing, a mechanism that 
uses the files' metadata to filter results and directories, or to display 
files in directories recursively.
Columns in the file manager now match the filename's length, making for a 
clearer overview.

* The newly developed Git plugin for Dolphin serves as a sign for the 
impending migration of most of KDE's source code to Git.
 

Faceted Browsing in Dolphin

Another big ticket item is the introduction of Akonadi in Kontact 4.6, 
including a mobile version of the powerful groupware client. Many more new 
features coming with 4.6 can be found in the Feature Plan for 4.6.
These are only some improvements the Plasma Team delivers with 4.6 coming 
January. This release being a first beta version, we invite testers to 
participate in the bug-hunting season via KDE's bug tracker. Many more 
bugfixes and other improvements complement these bigger changes, many of which 
can be found in the Feature Plan for 4.6.

* KDE Frameworks 4.6 Beta1 Previews Support for upower, udisks and udev
The two most significant changes in the KDE development frameworks 4.6 release 
targets the move away from HAL, which is being phased out by many Linux 
vendors, towards the u* hardware abstraction components.

* The introduction of device targets makes it easier to customize build and 
installation of KDE's frameworks, providing leaner install options for mobile 
target devices. By reducing dependencies between libraries that together form 
the KDE Platform, these parts become usable individually, thanks to a higher 
degree of modularization.

* KDE's Solid framework, a Qt-based API for hardware interaction adds support 
for upower, udev and udisks, allowing applications and the workspace to run 
without HAL. The power management framework, Powerdevil 2.0, introduces 
extendable actions for power-related events, making it easier to customize 
power management behavior for a certain device or use case. Applications using 
the Solid framework do not need to be changed to benefit from the new 
backends.

Many more bugfixes and other improvements complement these bigger changes, 
many of which can be found in the Feature Plan for 4.6. This release being a 
first beta version, we encourage users to give this release a try and help us 
improve these frameworks via KDE's bug tracker, but not use it in production 
environments, as the stabilization phase is still under way.

Read more: http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.6-beta1.php
-- 
sebas

http://www.kde.org | http://vizZzion.org | GPG Key ID: 9119 0EF9
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