KDE 4.5 Released

An anonymous reader writes "KDE 4.5.0 has been released to the world. See the release announcement for details. Highlights include a Webkit browser rendering option for Konqueror, a new caching mechanism for a faster experience and a re-worked notification system. Another new feature is Perl bindings, in addition to Python, Ruby and JavaScript support. The Phonon multimedia library now integrates with PulseAudio. See this interview with KDE developer and spokesperson Sebastian Kugler on how KDE can continue to be innovative in the KDE4 age. Packages should be available for most Linux distributions in the coming days. More than 16000 bug fixes were committed since 4.4."

Comments

W00t

[bcmm]

Now we can have a thread with KDE haters AND PA haters in it!

Re:W00t

[bcmm]

Seriously though, phonon has pluggable backends, and this does not mean the PulseAudio is going to be compulsory for KDE users, any more than its DirectShow integration makes MS Windows compulsory for KDE users.

Re:W00t

[ultrabot]

Seriously though, phonon has pluggable backends, and this does not mean the PulseAudio is going to be compulsory for KDE users, any more than its DirectShow integration makes MS Windows compulsory for KDE users.

I really appreciate this feature. Instead of just hearing sound from speakers, I find it tremendously important to be able to "plug my own backend" to hear it, you know, somehow differently.

Re:W00t

[Anonymous Coward]

Or your distributor can plug in the best backend on your OS (yeah, they really might be different on Solaris, BSD, Linux, Windows and Mac) so that you can get sound from your speakers.

Of course if you're an obsessive tinkerer or your distributor ships you a broken version of a particular backend then you have the option to fix it yourself too.

Stu J (who can't be bothered to register and account)

Re:W00t

[Richard_at_work]

It does amaze me, as someone who tried the 'modern' Linux desktop several times over the past 15 years and always came away shaking my head, that audio support within Linux is still a topic that prompts regular discussion - when I am on Windows or OSX, I don't even know what the audio subsystem is called because its never been an issue, Ive never had to tinker with it. Hell, for the past 5 years I haven't even needed to install drivers and its still produced beautiful sound.

I can't comment on the rest of the Linux UI experience (my Linux knowledge is firmly positioned in the headless server region), but come on - audio is something that shouldn't even be on a users agenda for worrying about these days.

Re:W00t

[marcosdumay]

It's KDE. Any change is a reasonable change for a user to do. That's why I use it.

Re:W00t

[MrHanky]

If something completely screws up your system sound, it's the system sound's fault. No app should be able to do that, no matter how broken.

Re:W00t

[chill]

You don't game much, do you?

Game sounds go thru speakers. VoIP (TeamSpeak or in-game) go thru headset. At night, when people are sleeping, both sets of sound go thru headset.

notifications

[Anonymous Coward]

i like the new notification system, but it still feels hacked together.
if you close tabs or subwindows in your notification it resizes in a jerky way.
doesnt feel really smooth and looks unprofessional.
it would be nice if you could make the notifications "transparent" in front of
certain windows (the way its done with the ubuntu notifications).
it annoys me to no end having notifications pop up, while you are gaming.
but i hope they will fix that in later releases.

Bug fixed

[VincenzoRomano]

More than 16000 bug fixes were committed since 4.4

I'm not really sure whether this is a good thing or not.
At least for code quality.

Re:Bug fixed

[betterunixthanunix]

What I am left wondering is if we are going to see more of the same: 16000 bugs fixed, more than 16000 new bugs introduced.

Re:Bug fixed

[Anonymous Coward]

More than 16000 bug fixes were committed since 4.4

I'm not really sure whether this is a good thing or not.

At least for code quality.

KDE SC does contain a lot of code. 16000 bugs may sound like a lot, but combined over all the different apps and subsystems it really isn't.

Re:Bug fixed

[Kjella]

Just because it complies with some formal coding styles and formatting doesn't say anything about the actual content and sanity of the structure. Very many systems seem to get do-overs on a regular basis.

Why do I need KDE?

[Viol8]

I think I'm the typical techy user. During the day I'll use xterm , open office, firefox and gxine. And maybe one or 2 other apps.
Can someone explain to me why I need a huge resource hungry window manager, sorry - desktop enviroment - like KDE running as my machine? This is a genuine question, not an anti KDE troll. I simply don't get it.

Re:Why do I need KDE?

[Urkki]

I think I'm the typical techy user. During the day I'll use xterm , open office, firefox and gxine. And maybe one or 2 other apps.
Can someone explain to me why I need a huge resource hungry window manager, sorry - desktop enviroment - like KDE running as my machine? This is a genuine question, not an anti KDE troll. I simply don't get it.

If you start integrating things like GUI file manager, GUI system configuration/control panel, and a desktop widget system (application launch menu, volume control, network/WLAN status&control, printer status&control, application notifications...), you quickly end up with something very much like Gnome or KDE.

KDE and Gnome are also a set of application libraries. It saves memory and simplifies updates when all the applications use the same libraries, not to mention unified look&feel of applications.

Desktop environment is also a set of default applications that somebody else has tested and made sure the whole more or less works. That's great if you don't want to spend time finding the application for your need, and tracking each application for updates if you want to stay "current".

Desktop environment is something, where somebody else has done all the hard things for you. If you want to use a WLAN or check printer status, click on the icon in notification area that is there by default. If you want to launch an application, just find it in the menu. If you want to change some system setting or just desktop option (like title bar style and color), just open whatever "control panel" the desktop environment has.

If you don't want or need these things, then you can easily get by with slightly "configured" (by which I mean, change the source and recompile) tinywm.

Re:Why do I need KDE?

[bcmm]

Can someone explain to me why I need a huge resource hungry window manager, sorry - desktop enviroment - like KDE running as my machine?

First of all, if you really aren't trolling, you should know the difference between a window manager and a DE. It's about as irritating as saying "Ubuntu is a terrible window manager, sorry - distribution".

As to why you need a DE? You don't. Some people like using them, others don't. A few examples of things I use KDE for:

• most importantly, a well-integrated suite of applications with a consistent look at feel (and not just in terms of appearance: for example, the dialogue for configuring keyboard shortcuts is always in the same place in the menu structure in a KDE application). This includes an office suite, web browser, basic utilities and so on. Example of integration: dragging a link from a web page to a directory (both open in konqueror) saves the file there rather than creating a shortcut or something.
• if you don't care about disk space and do a full KDE SC install, you have a matching set of utilities such as a calculator, basic text editor, magnifier, volume control, clipboard manager (very useful), etc.
• you get some integration between the WM and the rest of the system: applications will not have keyboard shortcuts that conflict with your WM, for example.
• various user daemons: reminders of calendar events, graphical display of messages sent with wall(1), etc.
• an easy way to mount and unmount removable media

KDE also has some very nice features for application developers, such as the kparts system, which further improves consistency. For example, kate (an advanced text editor), kwrite (a notepad-style editor), Kile (a LaTeX IDE) and kdevelop (a software development IDE) all use katepart for text editing, which gives their text editing widgets the same appearance, keyboard shortcuts, indenting options and so on.

I've only scratched the surface here, but it's still perfectly reasonable to use a simple WM with some kind of launcher instead, or to switch between them.

Re:Why do I need KDE?

[mystik]

That philosophy is flawed. It prioritizes eye candy instead of guarantying desktop usability

While that may be debatable, I'm alluding to (IMHO) brilliant technical achievements of kio-slaves, kparts, dcop (which worked really well before dbus was widely adopted), and so on. The component architecture of KDE, when fully embraced, is a great modern interpretation of the old unix philosophy "Each tool should one thing, and do it well"

If they've lost sight of that, then I too would be saddened.

Re:Konqueror and Webkit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple forked KHTML, making Webkit. Webkit advanced, was open-sourced, and became popular (Safari, Chrome), but there were some hard feelings between Apple and KHTML before it was open sourced (which is probably why KHTML still exists separately).

Re:Konqueror and Webkit?

[xrayspx]

KDE + Konqueror gave us KHTML. Apple took KHTML and extended it and gave us WebKit, which ended up being hugely popular, powering Chrome, Palm's WebOS browser, and now Flock as well is switching.

Strangely, WebKit integration back in Konqueror has never been particularly "robust".

KDE is like Ford!

[yet-another-lobbyist]

Yep, that's right! I am still not buying Fords since their disaster model Pinto in the early 1970s. And it'll take them many more decades to regain my trust!
I am not stubborn or anything, but if KDE made a mistake once, they can never be trusted again! Ever! Especially in the software business, where hardly anybody takes any wrong decisions these days.

Re:KDE is great

[MrHanky]

Funny you should say that, since OS X 10.0 was barely beta quality as well.

Re:Coolest feature yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

KDE is in bad shape if that's the coolest feature yet...

Which backend works for your hardware?

[tepples]

I'd rather have just the working backend; not as a default, but as the only option.

How is the distributor supposed to know, in advance, which backend is the best working backend for your particular hardware? The options are there in case automatic detection fails, so that you can at least have sound for the six months between when you install a distribution and when the distributor releases the next version that may or may not correct the defect in automatic detection of your particular hardware.

Re:KDE vs GNOME

[Viski]

The most popular option is never the highest quality.

Dunno, Ubuntu is pretty popular.

Exactly. So is Windows.

Re:Coolest feature yet...

[Anonymous Coward]

I can see that working great in a non home environment, hey Ted the network is slow, well Bob there is 124 computers updating clouds from the net

more fluff, more toys to keep you from getting stuff done