html version online at
http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-1.92.html
======================================================
DATELINE JULY 31, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
**** KDE Desktop Available for Linux® ****
Third Beta Preview of Leading Desktop for Linux® and Other Unixes®
July 25, 2000 (The INTERNET). The KDE_Team today announced the release of KDE
1.92, codenamed "Korner", the third beta preview of KDE's next-generation,
powerful, modular desktop. Following on the heels of the release of KDE 1.91
(Kleopatra) on June 24, 2000, Korner is based on a snapshot of Trolltech'stm
upcoming Qt® 2.2.0 and will include the core libraries, the core desktop
environment, the KOffice suite, as well as the over 100 applications from the
other standard base KDE packages: Administration, Games, Graphics, Multimedia,
Network, Personal Information Management (PIM), Toys and Utilities. Korner is
targeted at users who would like to help the KDE team make usability and
feature enhancements and fix the remaining set of bugs before the release of
KDE 2.0, scheduled for early September 2000.
Korner benefitted greatly from a productive 10-day_conference of many core KDE
developers in Norway last week. "A lot has happened since the last KDE
release", said Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, President of Klarälvdalens Datakonsult
AB and long-time core KDE developer. "Besides fixing many of the remaining
bugs, we also achieved numerous improvements in useability, functionality and
appearance. I am especially impressed by the remarkable advances in HTML
display and in KOffice."
Korner offers a quite stable desktop suitable for a non-critical environment.
The principal benefits lie in the cutting-edge technologies provided by
Konqueror and the KOffice_suite, in KDE's enhanced customizability and in KDE's
continued improvements in ease of use.
* Konqueror reigns as the next-generation web browser, file manager and
document viewer for KDE 2.0. Widely acclaimed as a technological break-
through for the Linux desktop, Konqueror has a component-based
architecture which combines the features and functionality of Internet
Explorer®/Netscape Communicator® and Windows Explorer®. Konqueror will
support the full gamut of current Internet technologies, including
JavaScriptTM, Java®, HTML 4.0, CSS-2 (Cascading Style Sheets), SSL
(Secure Socket Layer for secure communications) and Netscape
Communicator® plugins (for viewing FlashTM, RealAudioTM, RealVideoTM and
similar technologies). In addition, Konqueror's network transparency
offers seamless support for browsing Linux® NFS shares, Windows® SMB
shares, HTTP pages, FTP directories as well as any other protocol for
which a plug-in is available.
*
* The KOffice suite is one of the most-anticipated Open Source projects.
The suite consists of a spreadsheet application (KSpread), a vector
drawing application (KIllustrator), a bitmap drawing application
(KImageShop), a frame-based word-processing application (KWord), a
presentation program (KPresenter), and a chart and diagram application
(KChart). Native file formats will use XML, and work on filters for
proprietary binary file formats is progressing. Combined with a powerful
scripting language and the ability to embed individuals components within
each other using KDE's KParts technology, the KOffice suite will provide
all the necessary functionality to all but the most demanding power
users, at an unbeatable price -- free.
*
* KDE's customizability touches every aspect of this next-generation
desktop.
Korner benefits from Qt's style engine, which permits developers and
artists to create their own widget designs down to the precise appearance
of a scrollbar, a button, a menu and more, combined with development
tools which will largely automate the creation of these widget sets. Just
to mention a few of the legion configuration options, users can choose
among: numerous types of menu effects; a menu bar atop the display
(Macintosh®-style) or atop each individual window (Windows-style); icon
styles; system sounds; key bindings; languages; toolbar and menu
composition; and much much more.
*
*** Downloading and Compiling Korner ***
The source packages for Korner are available at ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/
unstable/distribution/2.0Beta3/tar/src/ or in the equivalent directory at one
of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Korner requires Trolltech's Qt 2.1.9-
korner, which is a snapshot only available from the above locations under the
name qt-copy-1.92. Please note that Qt 2.1.9-korner is not an official
Trolltech release and is also not part of KDE's beta testing.
Please be advised that Korner will not work with older versions of Qt,
including Trolltech's latest stable release, Qt 2.1.1, which formed the basis
of the Kleopatra release.
For further instructions on compiling and installing Korner, please consult the
installation_instructions and, if you encounter problems, the compilation_FAQ.
*** Installing Binary Packages of Korner ***
The binary packages for Korner are available under ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/
unstable/distribution/2.0Beta3/ or under the equivalent directory at one of the
many KDE ftp server mirrors. Korner requires Trolltech's Qt 2.1.9-korner, which
is a snapshot only available from the above locations under the name qt-copy-
1.92. Please note that Qt 2.1.9-korner is not an official Trolltech release and
is also not part of KDE's beta testing.
Please be advised that Korner will not work with older versions of Qt,
including Trolltech's latest stable release, Qt 2.1.1, which formed the basis
of the Kleopatra release.
At the time of this release, precompiled packages are available for:
* Caldera-2.4
* Mandrake
* Redhat
* SuSE
Check the ftp servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other
distributions.
*** About KDE ***
KDE is a collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide to create a
sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environment employing a network-
transparent, intuitive user interface. Currently development is focused on KDE
2, which will for the first time offer a free, Open Source, fully-featured
office suite and which promises to make the Linux desktop as easy to use as
Windows® and the Macintosh® while remaining loyal to open standards and
empowering developers and users with Open Source software. KDE is working proof
of how the Open Source software development model can create technologies on
par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.
For more information about KDE, please visit KDE's web_site.
===============================================================================
Press Contacts:
United States: Kurt Granroth
granroth@kde.org
(1) 480 732 1752
Europe (French and English): David Faure
faure@kde.org
(44) 1225 471 300
Europe (English and German): Martin Konold
konold@kde.org
(49) 179 2252249