KDE 3.0 is Out

Emilio Hansen noted that KDE 3.0 is on their site. There is no official announcement yet, but this looks like the real deal. No debian packages yet, but you can snag RPMs from various distros or src for the do it yourself. Updated by HeUnique:Here is the announcement, enjoy.

Comments

KDE 3.0 Scoop

[fruey]

What I want to know is who is spending time lurking on ftp sites to get scoops like this?

Re:KDE 3.0 Scoop

[Rushuru]

Just check the KDE cvs

KDE 3.0 was tagged a couple of days ago..and they didn't want to announce it on April 1st :)

How Incredibly Discourteous

[gnugeekus]

The KDE developers have not announced the release of KDE 3.0 yet because the mirrors have not gotten KDE 3.0 yet. Since they have not announced the release, do you think there might be a *reason* they have not announced it?

The editors at slashdot *know* the effect it has on a web site or ftp site when a story runs about that site. They *know* that the kde ftp site will get hammered because of this story. The *know* that the KDE developers obviously aren't ready yet BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT ANNOUNCED THE RELEASE.

Yet, you announce the story anyway, before the actual release. Now, the ftp site will be slammed *before* the mirrors get a copy, which insures that things will be a huge mess for quiet some time.

This is the most incredibly discourteous and unprofessional behavior I've seen on a web site. Show some freaking respect towards the open source developers who create code (and give you something to write about on this site) and DO NOT ANNOUNCE A RELEASE BEFORE THE RELEASE.

Your lack of caring about the impact of your actions on this site really disgusts me.

Re:How Incredibly Discourteous

[gnugeekus]

What good would that do? Someone would find the files on a mirror, and instantly we'd get a slashdot story about the kde3 release with a link to the ftp site, and it would get slammed again.

I think it is much easier and simpler for slashdot to not run false stories. In fact, the kde developers have NOT announced the release of KDE 3.0, and therefore, KDE 3.0 *has* *not* *been* *released*.

KDE3 -pre is in Red Hat's Skipjack

[MSG]

I tried the CVS release of KDE 3 included in Red Hat's Skipjack beta. Like a man admiring his neighbor's well groomed lawn, I've got to say that it looks *beautiful*. There's some good stuff in there.

One of my favorite features is that the panel can optionally display the "description" of each item, rather than the "name" of the application. That's far more useful for the novice user. I suggested that the GNOME panel do that about.... 2 years ago (??) on one of the gnome mailing lists, but never got around to submitting a patch myself.

New KDE version?

[Nighttime]

Then it must be time for the following posts:
- how KDE kicks GNOME's butt
- GNOME is now a dead-end for the Linux desktop
- why GNOME 2.0 will be better
- KDE looks too much like Windows
- KDE loading times
- KDE/GNOME are bloated, use iceWM/XFCE/Blackbox/whatever
- who needs a GUI? the command line is where it's at
- people making lists of expected posts :)

Any more?

Ethics in Journalism?

[Trilaka]

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this unethical behavior? Granted, the release of KDE 3.0 is News for Nerds, and Stuff that Matters, but is it so important to get the scoop on something like this that you are unwilling to allow time for propogation? For a popular software release like this, I believe the editors should consider it their ethical duty to wait for the official announcement, and post a list (or at least a link to a list) of mirror sites.

The way it stands now, the mirrors may be having difficulty getting a copy of the distribution, as a hoard of eager slashdotters floods the primary ftp site.

Just to recap, I have no problems with someone submitting this story as soon as they see they possibly can, but I believe the editors have a responsibility to be respectful in their decision when to post the story.

Re:Ethics in Journalism?

[stienman]

Slashdot is a journal, and as such wants 'the scoop'. When they get 'the scoop' they post it. While it may not be nice, there are dozens of things the ftp manager can do to limit their problems. First (and most important) is to NOT RELEASE IT if it's not released. They can do this by disabling anonymous access to that directory, while enabling mirrors to log in and get access (either using IP, or ssh ftp with usernames and passwords, etc). This is something they will have to implement for following releases. It's plain common sense to give official mirrors front row seating and advance notice. Independantly run mirrors can wait like everyone else.

No one would be complaining if some other tidbit of software was available but not announced at some other FTP site.

The sooner people start treating slashdot like the Enquirer, the fewer people will complian. This site is not much more than mental candy for nerds, and provides very little real value to its users. But it is fun, interesting, and often entertaining.

-Adam

KDE 3.11

[9633]

When it reaches that version then we will have reached nirvana.

Re:KDE 3.11

[bbh]

And when we reach 3.14... does that mean we have come full circle?

bbh

apt-get[able] for Conectiva Linux

[rsd]

KDE 3 is already apt-get_able for Conectiva Linux for a few days

Just make sure you have the snapshot in your /etc/apt/sources.list the lines:

rpm ftp://ftp.nl.linux.org/pub conectiva/snapshot/conectiva main extra orphan gnome experimental games kde
rpm-src ftp://ftp.nl.linux.org/pub conectiva/snapshot/conectiva main extra orphan gnome experimental games kde

then:

apt-get update
apt-get install task-kde
apt-get clean

and go for it.

of course if you are not using the snapshot version yet, you might want to:
apt-get dist-upgrade

What's the correct way to upgrade my KDE?

[antdude]

I have Red Hat Linux 7.1 and 7.2 boxes. What's the correct way to upgrade from KDE v2.2.1 and v2.2.2? Should I uninstall KDE packages and then install or use rpm -Uvh?

Thank you in advance. :)

Re:What's the correct way to upgrade my KDE?

[ZaMoose]

It's generally a better practice to remove all your previous KDE packages. I've never gotten a -Uvh to work. Crashes, freezes, all sorts of wackiness usually result.

I have been using the KDE3-pre that's included in RH's Skipjack and I do have to say that it appears to be well worth the upgrade. It seems slower to start initially, but once it's running, it seems just fine.

And the xrender menu transparencies finally work (semi)correctly (i.e. less/no annoying menu flicker as it grabs the image behind itself).

Slashdot != Professional Journalism

[Seanasy]

Don't confuse Slashdot with journalism. The site is still run like a college kid's pet project. Sure they're making money and have thousands of readers but that doesn't make the staff qualified journalists/editors. They're geeks with a popular geek web-site -- nothing more.

I come here almost everyday to see what they've collected because it's usually a nice mix. It has a the right amounts of tech, science and politics to keep me coming back. But, I never read their 'editorials' or Jon Katz because it's amateurish bunk. And, usually skip or skim the comments for the same reason :).

At least use a mirror!

[RPoet]

It's not even been announced yet, so please don't take down kde.org by slashdotting it. Use a mirror, list here. I got it from the Norwegian mirror which was very fast for me (I'm in Norway, YMMV, look out your window and check). It's a cool 100 megs though.

Re:Valgrind and memory leaks

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm; try writing some real world application with more than 5 lines of code in it, and then come back here telling about impossible memory leaks.

KDE For Workgroups!

[wiredog]

I can't wait...

Better looking....

[JPriest]

Although I am still working on getting connected the to ftp server and have not yet installed it, I have seen some Screenshots of the 3.0 theme and think it's overall smoother and more professional looking than 2.2.

You really need to get out more

[drew_kime]

Linking to the kde.org ftp site before they've had a chance to mirror and announce it first is like bombing a hospital.

No it's not. It's not even close. If I really have to explain why, it wouldn't do you any good anyway.

Re:My wife uses KDE and likes it..

[WildBeast]

well her needs are probably more than extremely basic. I tried that experience with my cousin, a casual user who doesn't know much about computers, so I rebooted in Linux and told him to try it out. His first impression is that it was ugly. He used KWord and plenty of other apps and most of the time he was unable to understand what was going on because of the lack of messages. Why not put messages like "Please wait while loading", "Cannot open file", etc.? Some apps have it but many don't.

For some reason, he didn't like Mozilla. What bothered him is that he couldn't use the microphone to talk with his MSN Messenger Buddies, he could only type the messages. He didn't like the games much, im some games he had to use the mouse in other games he had to use the keyboard. What bothered him most in this is that he couldn't exit some games by clicking on the X, I told him that he had to press ESC.

In short, there's way too many usability problems. If KDE or GNOME had at least 1 usability expert helping them, they would get rid of most of those problems.

Re:Valgrind and memory leaks

[swillden]

You've always had to pair allocate/free constructs in C and C++

I haven't done that for years. I just use constructs like the following:

{
auto_ptr<Foo> f = new Foo();
// ....
}

Or, in some rare cases where the lifetime of the object is less obvious:

{
smart_ptr<Foo> f = new Foo();
// ...
}

Add the careful use of auto-destroying and smart pointers to careful implementation of constructors and destructors and memory leaks are a complete non-issue for my C++ code. Using auto and smart pointers inside classes wastes a small amount of memory per instance, but, in many cases, makes default copy ctors and destructors do the Right Thing, reducing programmer error. Same thing works for other resources as well, like file handles, drawing contexts, etc.

Thus requiring consistent use of copy constructors, if only to print a message saying "you didn't really mean to copy me, did you?".

There's a better way. Make a class "Uncopyable", like so:

class Uncopyable
{
public:
Uncopyable() {}
private:
Uncopyable(const Uncopyable&);
void operator=(const Uncopyable&);
};

And provide *no* implementation for the copy ctor and assignment operator. Then, when you have a class that shouldn't be copied, just mix in Uncopyable like so:

#include "uncopyable.h"
class MyClass : Uncopyable
{
//...
};

There you are! Most accidental copies will be flagged by the compiler, because the copy methods of Uncopyable are private. Copies made within, for example, MyClass won't be caught by the compiler, but since there are no implementations of the Uncopyable methods, the linker will barf. This method has zero overhead; the only Uncopyable method that will ever be "called" is the default ctor, and it's empty and inlined. Uncopyable has no virtual functions, so no vtable. Any code that happens to generate calls to the copy ctor or the assignment operator is a bug that will be diagnosed by the linker.

Re:Give them a chance...

[Rob Kaper]

The KDE project is famous for its funded and organised trolling of weblogs and message board associated with Linux and Free software/open source.

So there is money in open source! :-)