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KDE 4.0.0 tagged and ready for release
Posted by JLP on January 5th, 2008
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been very busy. Like many other people all around the world I’ve also been working hard to make the first release of KDE 4 series as good as possible. About three hours ago KDE 4.0.0 has finally been tagged and is now getting ready to be officially released on January 11th.
In addition to occasional bug fix here and there I’ve mostly been testing and reporting bugs. But by far the largest part of my contribution to this release is translation into Slovenian language. Our team managed to get 63% of KDE 4.0.0 translated into Slovenian. Not bad at all for our small country and small team. We currently hold 23rd place on the list of top translation teams.
I’ve been using pre-4.0.0 KDE as my main desktop ever since our KDE Education metting in Pariz in the beginning of December. During this past month it was improving very fast and was usable just fine. Sure there were a few features and settings missing (and still are in the final version), but nothing that big. There are also some rough edges and a few bugs left, either known or still hidding, but that can be expected for a release with so many changes all around. There is already a lot to like about this new series of KDE 4 and what I like the most in KDE 4.0 is the new gorgeous artwork (icons, widget style, sounds), the idea behind Plasma desktop shell and the cool new applications (like Okular, Gwenview, new games, new educational applications). And with such a solid foundation in place we can expect a lot more cool stuff in the future.
While you are waiting for your favourite distribution to provide packages of KDE 4.0.0 and before you go writing a review about it, be sure to read these two blog posts: talking bluntly, KDE 4.0 Review Reminders and this podcast: The Linux Linux Tech Show - Episode 226. And remember, KDE 4.0.0 is not for everyone. It is for those who like cool new technology and who like living on the bleeding edge. It is also for you if you are an active user of software and not just a passive user. Now is a great time to help change the history and help make the dream become true. In any case KDE 3.5 is still here and it is still an excellent desktop environment and no one will force you to start using KDE 4.0. It’s all your choice.
January 5th, 2008 at 09:29:36
Woot! Congrats, good job on the localization work. I know from lots of experience in testing, some of it in 20+ languages that it’s not an easy thing. And to think, Slovenian of all languages had the 23rd best team, you should be proud. I looked at the language team rankings and i would have thought there’d be greater participation for some other popular languages like Russian and Hebrew .
I’m a linux newbie and mostly just poke around on Ubuntu w/ Gnome in vmware on my vista desktop from time to time, why do you say that kde 4 is not for passive users?
Thanks!
January 5th, 2008 at 10:31:10
[...] his team participated in the Slovenian development of latest version of the K Desktop Environment, he talks about his efforts and why you need to get this next week or as soon as it’s ready for your [...]
January 5th, 2008 at 12:25:40
I did not really pay attention to translations, but this is really great result! Looking forward to install KDE4 for my kids with all new games/education programs.
January 6th, 2008 at 16:38:20
Andy, I’d say KDE 4.0.0 won’t be for passive users because it doesn’t have all the functions implemented, this is because the developers have re-written most of the code in kdelibs and kdebase, so they have build very good foundations for development of 4.0.0 as well as all other versions in KDE4 series (4.1, 4.2, …). The real KDE4 experience is expected to be with the release of KDE 4.1 later this year. For a long time, KDE4 was quite unusable, because developers were mostly working on kdelibs and kdebase (as I said before), but now Plasma (the desktop shell) is developing at a very high rate. I’ve tested a lot of betas and RCs of KDE 4.0 and the progress was visible from version to version.
This is my point of view, not sure if it is right, maybe some KDE guru will correct me if I’m mistaking.
January 8th, 2008 at 14:48:03
[...] parlato di questo evento, ecco la segnalazione dei post che ritengo più interessanti da leggere: JLP in un suo post parla della gestione delle traduzioni (nel suo caso in lingua slovena) e di come [...]