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Subject: [kde-promo] Beta 2 announcement
From: "Jos Poortvliet" <jos () mijnkamer ! nl>
Date: 2007-09-02 10:47:28
Message-ID: 5c77e14b0709020347k69c0cfd5lb8b4da43b638ab8e () mail ! gmail ! com
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Dear people,
I have the first drafts for the Beta 2 announcement ready. This time, I have
NOT contacted a bunch of distributions about their plans for Beta 2, as I
generally receive the same stuff (Kubuntu and OpenSuse have packages for
their stable distro, others only have packages in their development branch).
I wrote about the summer of code results, this needs ppl to go through, as I
haven't contacted ALL students about their parts. And yes, it's not
complete, feel free to add stuff. I just don't have the energy and time to
write extensively about ALL SoC stuff - its soo much...
I have the Dot announcement, and the info page. Both not ready, probably
some errors etc.
PLEASE just take a minute, read through it, and mention those small mistakes
you see (and the larger as well, of course). It's really a big thing for me
if you take this minute, and it doesn't cost you much time, so again -
please. I don't feel comfortable letting sebas do all the fixing of my
mistakes, he has enough to do, and besides, more eyeballs... you know the
drill...
One thing to specifically note:
In light of the recent change in release schedule (and some first emails
requesting exceptions) I changed the part about "plasma is exempt from
feature freeze" to "Yet some KDE components like Plasma are exempt from this
freeze, so in some area's, KDE will still see major improvements."
thank you in advance.
Love,
Jos
[Attachment #5 (text/html)]
Dear people,<br><br>I have the first drafts for the Beta 2 announcement ready. This \
time, I have NOT contacted a bunch of distributions about their plans for Beta 2, as \
I generally receive the same stuff (Kubuntu and OpenSuse have packages for their \
stable distro, others only have packages in their development branch). <br><br>I \
wrote about the summer of code results, this needs ppl to go through, as I \
haven't contacted ALL students about their parts. And yes, it's not complete, \
feel free to add stuff. I just don't have the energy and time to write \
extensively about ALL SoC stuff - its soo much... <br><br>I have the Dot \
announcement, and the info page. Both not ready, probably some errors \
etc.<br><br>PLEASE just take a minute, read through it, and mention those small \
mistakes you see (and the larger as well, of course). It's really a big thing for \
me if you take this minute, and it doesn't cost you much time, so again - please. \
I don't feel comfortable letting sebas do all the fixing of my mistakes, he has \
enough to do, and besides, more eyeballs... you know the drill... <br><br>One thing \
to specifically note:<br>In light of the recent change in release schedule (and some \
first emails requesting exceptions) I changed the part about "plasma is exempt \
from feature freeze" to "Yet some KDE components like Plasma are exempt \
from this freeze, so in some area's, KDE will still see major improvements." \
<br><br>thank you in advance.<br><br>Love,<br><br><br>Jos<br>
["dot announcement.html" (text/html)]
The KDE Community proudly presents <a \
href="http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.0-beta2.php">the second Beta \
release for KDE 4.0</a>. This release marks the beginning of the feature freeze, and \
the stabilization of the current codebase. Simultaneously the <a \
href="http://www.koffice.org/">KOffice</a> developers have released their <a \
href="http://www.koffice.org/announcements/announce-2.0alpha***.php">xxx release</a>, \
marking significant improvements in this innovative office suite. Both <a \
href="http://behindkde.org/people/soc2007-one/">KDE</a> and <a \
href="http://dot.kde.org/1188249220/">KOffice</a> have enjoyed the inclusion of the \
<a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/about.html">Google Summer of Code</a> \
results. </p>
<p>
Since the libraries where frozen with the <a \
href="http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.0-beta1.php">first beta</a>, KDE \
developers have been adding features and functionality to their applications. Now it \
is time to start polishing these features, write and translate documentation and \
improve the artwork and usability. Bigger changes in the sourcecode will now have to \
wait for KDE 4.1, KDE 4.0 is feature-frozen now and going into bugfixing mode. Yet \
some KDE components like <a href="http://plasma.kde.org">Plasma</a> are exempt from \
this freeze, so in some area's, KDE will still see major improvements. </p>
<p>
The <a href="http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.0-beta2.php">announcement \
page</a> has more information and download links for packages for several \
distributions.
["KDE 4 beta 2.html" (text/html)]
<h1>KDE 4.0 Beta 2 Release Announcement</h1>
<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</p>
<h3 align="center">
KDE Project Ships Second Beta Release for Leading Free Software Desktop, Codename \
"Duth" </h3>
<p align="justify">
<strong>
With the second beta, the KDE project begins with stabilizing it's codebase.
</strong>
</p>
<p align="justify">
August 2, 2007 (The INTERNET).
The KDE Community proudly presents the <strong>second Beta release for KDE \
4.0</strong>. This release marks the beginning of the feature freeze, and the \
stabilization of the current codebase. Simultaneously the <a \
href="http://www.koffice.org/">KOffice</a> developers have released their <a \
href="http://www.koffice.org/announcements/announce-2.0alpha***.php">xxx release</a>, \
marking significant improvements in this innovative office suite. Both KDE and \
KOffice have enjoyed the inclusion of the <a href="">Google Summer of Code</a> <a \
href="http://dot.kde.org/1188249220/">results</a>. Some highlights are .... </p>
<p>
Since the libraries where frozen with the <a \
href="http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-4.0-beta1.php">first beta</a>, KDE \
developers have been adding features and functionality to their applications. Now it \
is time to start polishing these features, write and translate documentation and \
improve the artwork and usability. Bigger changes in the sourcecode will now have to \
wait for KDE 4.1, KDE 4.0 is feature-frozen now and going into bugfixing mode. Yet \
some KDE components like <a href="http://plasma.kde.org">Plasma</a> are exempt from \
this freeze, so in some area's, KDE will still see major improvements. </p>
<h2>Current status</h2>
<p>
Many parts of KDE have seen improvements over the last month, not the least thanks to \
the inclusion of the results of the <a href="">Google Summer of Code</a>. In the \
following sections, we will highlight some of the most visible changes and \
improvements. </p>
<h3>Architectural</h3>
<p>
Long time KDE developer <a href="http://cia.vc/stats/author/mosfet/">Daniel M. Duley \
(aka. Mosfet)</a> <a \
href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-08-12/moreinfo/698744/">joined us \
again</a>. He developed <a \
href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/qimageblitz">Blitz</a>, a graphics librarie \
designed to fill the gap for the KDE libraries when we wait for <a \
href="http://zrusin.blogspot.com">Zack Russin's</a> Quasar. He introduced himself and \
his work (again) in this <a href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-08-19/">Commit \
Digest</a>. And it is not just Blitz which is on his mind, he is working hard to <a \
href="http://daniel-duley.livejournal.com/1582.html">introduce</a> some great \
performing yet easy to use <a \
href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-08-19/files/scaledbackground2.png">graphical</a> \
<a href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-08-19/files/overlay_khtml.png">tricks</a> \
for the KDE developers. </p>
<p>
Another basic component of the KDE libraries also received some attention. <a \
href="http://cia.vc/stats/author/marchand/">Mickael Marchand</a> <a \
href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-08-19/moreinfo/699749/#changes">spend some \
time</a> on Kconfig, the Configuration system for KDE. When committed, his work will \
make it possible to support several backends for the KDE configuration, including \
SQL. </p>
<p>
Meanwhile, several developers <a \
href="http://people.fruitsalad.org/adridg/bobulate/index.php?/archives/449-Sun-Studio-and-const.html">threw \
themselves</a> at the better support for BSD and Sun in KDE, <a \
href="http://dot.kde.org/1176310483/">Strigi</a> <a \
href="http://www.flavio.castelli.name/query_strigi_using_xesam">now</a> <a \
href="http://kemistry-desktop.blogspot.com/2007/08/strigi-now-understands-xesam-queries.html">has</a> \
<a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/XesamAbout">XSESAM</a> <a \
href="http://www.flavio.castelli.name/strigi_xesam_query_language_support">support</a> \
and <a href="http://blog.cryos.net/">Marcus</a> <a \
href="http://blog.cryos.net/archives/153-Avogadro-Gets-More-Eye-Candy-Visual-Cues.html">continued</a> \
to <a href="http://blog.cryos.net/archives/154-Avogadro-and-POV-Ray-Export.html">work</a> \
on the <a href="http://avogadro.sourceforge.net/wiki/">Avogadro</a> 3D molecule \
visualisation library and it's integration in <a \
href="http://edu.kde.org/kalzium/">Kalzium</a>. Chemical data is in good hands on the \
KDE desktop these days, seeing how also <a \
href="http://dot.kde.org/1176310483/">Strigi</a> <a \
href="http://neksa.blogspot.com/2007/08/strigi-chemical-gsoc-final-timeline.html">received \
support for</a> <a href="http://neksa.blogspot.com/2007/08/strigi-now-extracts-chemical.html">chemical</a> \
<a href="http://neksa.blogspot.com/2007/08/mdl-sd-file-support.html">files</a>. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.hartwork.org/">Sebastian Pipping</a> spend a lot of time on <a \
href="http://www.kate-editor.org/">Kate</a>, KDE's advanced text editor (or \
lightweight Development Environment). He <a \
href="http://blog.hartwork.org/?p=70">improved</a> the way <a \
href="http://blog.hartwork.org/?p=65">search works</a> in Kate, both making it more \
powerfull and easier to use. Now the component used in Kate to edit text happens to \
be used throughout KDE for pretty much every text input widget you see, thus \
applications like Kwrite but also Konqueror will profit from this! </p>
<p>
Another area where Kate inspired some improvements which have their effect KDE-wide \
is the plugin dialog. This was initiated by <a href="http://www.ereslibre.es/">Rafael \
Fernández López?</a> who <a href="http://www.ereslibre.es/?p=59">started to improve \
it</a>, and then integrated his work in other applications like <a \
href="http://www.ereslibre.es/?p=61">Kopete</a>. And in the great spirit of Free \
Software, he didn't do it all alone. Not only did he get some <a \
href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-08-26/moreinfo/704390/#changes">help</a> \
in the coding area, but on his blog you can see how many tried to help him improve \
the plugin dialog. </p>
<h3>Applications</h3>
<p>
The applications got a lot of love. For example, <a \
href="http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-07-29/moreinfo/692114/">Kolourpaint got \
many features merged.</a> Not only usability work and new effects but the application \
got a lot more robust. Better handling of text, improved scanning support and session \
management are just a few things that have been improved in this easy to use image \
editor. Our old and trusted KGPG got some <a \
href="http://cia.vc/stats/project/kde/kgpg">love</a>, in the usability area but also \
concerning features. And <a href="http://okular.kde.org">Okular</a> received further \
<a href="http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2922">usability work</a>. <a \
href="http://amarok.kde.org">Amarok</a> saw <a \
href="http://amarok.kde.org/blog/archives/467-Amarok-Plasmification.html">integration</a> \
with <a href="http://plasma.kde.org">plasma</a>, where plasma will provide the \
infrastructure for the now much more central Context View. Imagine the ability to \
drag'n'drop items from the context view on the desktop or on the panels on the side \
of the screen and back! </p>
plaatje van amarok: http://pwsp.cleinias.com/amarok.current.png
<h3>Summer of Code</h3>
<p>
A big, visible bulk of application and infrastructural work was added to KDE when the \
<a href="http://code.google.com/soc/kde/about.html">Google Summer of Code</a> \
students added their work. We will go through some of these additions, but if you \
want to read more we recomment the <a href="http://dot.kde.org">dot</a> article about \
the <a href="http://dot.kde.org/1188249220/">KOffice SoC results</a> and the \
excellent interview series with Summer of Code students on <a \
href="http://behindkde.org">People Behind KDE</a>, starting <a \
href="http://behindkde.org/people/soc2007-one/">here</a>. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://bertjan.broeksemaatjes.nl/">Bertjan Broeksema</a> has spend his \
summer working on <a href="http://cvs.codeyard.net/kpilot/">KPilot</a>. His mentor, \
<a href="http://www.movingparts.net/">Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper</a> <a \
href="http://movingparts.net/2007/08/18/wrapping-up-the-summer-of-code/">mentioned</a> \
on his blog how this work lead to a much improved infrastructure and a port to KDE 4, \
allowing the <a href="">other developers</a> to integrate new features and leverage \
frameworks like <a href="http://www.opensync.org/">OpenSync</a>. Meanwhile, the other \
<a href="http://pim.kde.org/">KDE PIM</a> applications also received some love. <a \
href="http://kontact.kde.org/korganizer/">KOrganizer</a> had <a \
href="http://mikearthur.co.uk/">Mike Arthur</a> <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=CE22F8A7E2641D25">working \
on better blog support</a> and <a href="http://blog.loic.corbasson.fr/">Loïc \
Corbasson</a> <a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=5D66C1579098460C">improving \
the look and feel</a>. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://uwolfer.fwo.ch/blog">Urs Wolfer's</a> <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=9064143E62AF5BA6">work</a> \
on KRDC, the KDE Remote Desktop Client is finished as well. Making use of <a \
href="http://libnvserver.sourceforge.net/">libraries</a> ensures the application's \
maintainability in the long run. Coupled with new features like a tabbed interface \
and much improved configuration, users can count on a greatly improved remote desktop \
experience in KDE 4.0 - and beyond, as Urs is comitted to continue working on it! <a \
href="http://opsiland.blogspot.com/">Juan González Aguilera</a> also spend time on \
getting some older tools freshened up, focussing on <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=97E78A84F9F491CF">Bluetooth \
support in KDE</a>. </p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.proli.net/">Aleix Pol Gonzà lez</a> <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=D8C84D62733DAD1">ensured</a> \
that <a href="http://www.kdevelop.org/">Kdevelop</a> has proper <a \
href="http://www.cmake.org/">CMake</a> support, while <a \
href="http://meson10.wordpress.com/">Piyush Verma</a> worked on <a \
href="http://www.python.org/">Python</a> integration in this great development tool. \
And <a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=93F720A476DF8E71">Matthias \
Wieser integrated</a> the cool <a href="http://dot.kde.org/1087424515/">Kommander \
tool</a>, which enables even very unskilled developers to quickly build GUI \
applications. <a href="http://youonlylivetwice.info/">Nick Shaforostoff</a> developed \
<a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=85B77CD7BD8B30B1">KAider</a>, \
a tool to help the KDE translation teams to quickly and efficiently translate KDE in \
the many languages we support. </p>
<p>
The <a href="http://edu.kde.org">KDE education project</a> received much work, not \
the least on <a href="http://edu.kde.org/marble/">Marble</a>. It alone had three \
Summer of Code projects, with <a href="http://realate.blogspot.com/">Andrew \
Manson</a> working on <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=58AE7448FBEEEAE0">GPS \
support</a>, <a href="http://carloslicea.blogspot.com/">Carlos Licea</a> on <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=DCE4DBD4A0509DC7">2D \
projection</a> and <a href="http://cia.vc/stats/author/muradt/">Murad Tagirov</a> \
busy with <a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=D67FADC741D4F4C4">KML \
support</a>. But there has also been exciting work on <a \
href="http://edu.kde.org/step/">step</a> by <a \
href="http://cia.vc/stats/author/ksvladimir/">Vladimir Kuznetsov</a> and on <a \
href="http://edu.kde.org/kalzium">Kalzium</a> by <a \
href="http://blog.cryos.net/">Marcus Hanwell</a>. You can check out <a \
href="http://cniehaus.livejournal.com/39087.html">find</a> <a \
href="http://cniehaus.livejournal.com/40837.html">some</a> <a \
href="http://cniehaus.livejournal.com/41117.html">video's</a> if you want. </p>
<p>
Further work was done on <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=F3389CEA023E0E9D">Kopete</a>, \
<a href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/appinfo.html?csaid=FBBF1AFF3A34E55B">KWin</a> \
and more applications. The <a \
href="http://code.google.com/soc/2007/kde/about.html">Google Summer of Code page</a> \
has more complete information. </p>
<h2>Next up</h2>
<p>
The following months will see fanatical work to stabilize the KDE applications and \
libraries, and the finishing touch on the components not yet frozen. Two further \
beta's are planned, after which KDE will be frozen for a release candidate cycle \
ending in a release planned around Christmas at the end of the year. </p>
<h3>Get it, run it, test it...</h3>
<p>
For those interested in getting packages to test and contribute, several \
distributions notified us that they will have KDE 4.0 Beta 2 packages available at or \
soon after the release. The complete and current list can be found on the <a \
href="http://www.kde.org/info/3.93.php"> KDE 4.0 Beta2 Info Page</a>. </p>
<h2>KOffice Releases Third Alpha<h2>
<p>
Along with KDE 4.0 Beta 1, KOffice releases its <a \
href="http://www.koffice.org/announcements/announce-2.0alpha3.php">third alpha \
version</a>. This version is released as a technology preview to let the public catch \
a gleam of what is coming in KOffice version 2.0. It does not have the same level of \
maturity as the rest of KDE 4.0 Beta 1.
The infrastructural changes are enormous. KOffice version 2 series will take full \
advantage of the improved Qt 4, giving it new features like text directionality and \
improved layouting. The text rendering is also much improved, giving it a \
professional quality text layout if the fonts support it.
The core of the new improvements is the revolutionary Flake library which will allow \
KOffice to use any shape in any application. A Flake shape can be something as simple \
as a circle or something as complex as a complete spreadsheet. It is also extremely \
simple to create new shapes, something that is demonstrated by the Google-sponsored \
Summer of Code project Music Notation flake, in which a student creates a music \
notation plugin in just 6 weeks.
Although KOffice is included in KDE 4.0 Beta 1, it has its own release cycle, and the \
first version of the KOffice version 2 series is expected around the new year \
2007-2008
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