KDE 3.3 Beta "Klassroom" Released

twener writes "The KDE team has announced the Beta 1 development version of the upcoming KDE 3.3 release. This release is named 'Klassroom' following the 'Kindergarten' Alpha; the goal is to make this child visit the "aKademy" KDE World Summit in August. Most planned features are there, next week starts the feature freeze. Source and provided binary packages are listed on the KDE 3.3 Beta 1 Info Page next to the KDE 3.3 Requirements List."

Comments

KDE Methods

[feilkin]

I'm not sure, I'm kinda of weary of the way that KDE goes around and does things. I was always under the impression that Linux was built up of smaller tools to make a useable operation system, yet KDE seems intent on combining many programs into larger ones to manage the system. I'm not saying that this approach is wrong, it's just something that I don't really think is beneficial. Something that really pops out at me is the fact that the browser and filesystem viewer are combined into one. Sounds a little familiar, and we all know what happened with the other one..

soo stable !!

[phreakv6]

The last time i restarted X was when i installed KDE 3.2 almost 2 months back... am waiting for KDE 3.3 to restart X again... KDE rocks !!

Re:soo stable !!

[Mmm coffee]

I've tried just about every WM in the *nix world and I always come back to KDE. GNOME is slow, hell to upgrade and install, and I have yet to see it working perfectly. There's always some odd bug that is painfully noticable and you are completely lost as to how to fix it. WindowMaker is my #2 favorite, but the UI drives me nuts. I have to minimize everything just to restore a program I minimized. XFCE falls short, it's UI just doesn't fit me. Ditto for everything else out there.

KDE works perfectly for me. Everything just comes together and works without a single complaint, and it's nicely polished to boot. I can live with ugly, but I'd prefer not to if it's at all possible, and KDE can be the prettiest WM if you tweak it right. She's fast, stable, and easy to use to the point where I don't even have to think about stuff, I just do. Customizable enough that if I don't like something I can almost totally change it, while not drowning in a clusterfsck of options. Some have mentioned that it's bloated. I'm on a 500Mhz system and it runs just a notch slower than freakin' WindowMaker. It's more than fast enough for me. :)

Toss in the GPL'ed QT and you have a totally Free Software WM that rocks. It just works.

How about some screenshots?!

[DFossmeister]

I see all these new things, but I am a visual person, and I need pictures man, I need pictures!

Does anyone have any screenshots of the new features or pictures of why I should bother trying this new version over the version that I have installed but don't use now anyway?

DFossmeister

Re:How about some screenshots?!

[leonscape]

What would you like to see? Theres quite a lot of new things, my personal favourite being the seemless integration of most spam tools into kmail.

Re:Heh

[JabberWokky]

I don't know - is it called Highskool in German? Since that's where all the names come from - and they are spelled correctly with no extra 'k's inserted.

People make fun of names like Konsole, unaware that that is the correct spelling... in Germany, which is where the app was originally written. Several of the apps that originate in English speaking countries have a 'K' sound but do not start with a gratuitous 'K' (like Quanta), or they add a K- prefix (KPDF, kPlayer) the same way Microsoft adds a MS prefix (MS Office, MS Money, etc) or Apple adds an i or Power prefix (iBook, PowerBook, iMac, PowerMac). Very few app names are mangled with an extra K where a C should be.

--
Evan

Finally

[Bobke]

Konqueror: Added option to activate previous active tab if closing the current one

I'm there...

Re:wrong side?

[Ford Prefect]

I end up with a seriously ugly desktop unless I'm willing to spend quite some time trying to figure out why all the fonts are so big

Feature, not a bug (sort of) - the X server asks your monitor what DPI it does, and KDE sets the font sizes as appropriate. 10pt on one monitor should look physically the same size as 10pt on another, even if the monitors are different sizes and are running at different resolutions.

Admittedly, it annoys the hell out of me, particularly with one of my monitors which reckons 10pt should be enormous, so I invariably bodge the XF86Config file so that everything runs at a fixed 75dpi...

Also Kopete / Kontact integration

[brunes69]

You can now see a user's online status inside KMail and inside KAddressbook, if you have Kopete running. You can also click on an address to IM them, from inside either of these applications.

To me this is a killer feature. Gnome still has a bounty out on it ( http://www.gnome.org/bounties/IM.html

KDE's Konsole Vs. Gnome Terminal

[linuxguy]

I really like KDE. However I love Gnome Terminal. It allows me to *really* make a it a fullscreen app. No sliding bars or menus there to distract me and take away precious screen space. I couldn't get Konsole to do this. Also I tried using Gnome Terminal under KDE and it had a few problems. It has been a while and I forget exactly what those problems were.

Once Konsole is as good as Gnome Terminal, I am making the switch to KDE full-time.

Re:KDE's Konsole Vs. Gnome Terminal

[ross.w]

To each his own, but as an addicted mc user I found that the way Gnome Terminal hijacks the F10 key (and other F* keys) very annoying.

Sure it's a little thing, and I'm sure it's possible to change it, but Konsole suits the way I work better.