KDE 2.2.1 Release Announcement

Wednesday, 19 September 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Free KDE Desktop Ready for Enterprise Deployment

KDE Ships Leading Desktop with Advanced Web Browser and Development Environment for Linux and Other UNIXes

The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KDE 2.2.1, a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux. KDE 2.2.1 is available in 42 languages and ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment, and over 100 applications from the other base KDE packages (administration, multimedia, network, PIM, development, etc.). The KDE Project strongly encourages all users of the award-winning KDE to upgrade to KDE 2.2.1.

The primary goals of the 2.2.1 release, which follows one month after the release of KDE 2.2, are to improve documentation and provide additional and improved language translations for the user interface, although the release includes some performance enhancements (particularly application startup time), numerous minor bugfixes, and significant improvements to the HTTP protocol. A list of these changes and a FAQ about the release are available at the KDE website. Code development is currently focused on the branch that will lead to KDE 3.0, scheduled for its first beta release this December and for final release in late February 2002.

"In response to customer demand, we have made KDE the default desktop environment in the latest release of our Turbolinux Workstation product," said Dino Brusco, VP of Marketing at Turbolinux Inc. "Our customers really appreciate the features and stability that KDE provides and we will be offering this latest version of KDE in an upcoming release of our Turbolinux Server product."

"KDE 2.2.1 delivers the stability that people have come to expect from KDE," said Waldo Bastian, release manager for KDE 2.2.1 and a SuSE Labs developer. "We are very pleased to provide our users with this stable release while we get to work on the next generation of KDE."

KDE 2.2.1 complements the release of KOffice 1.1 late last month. KOffice is a comprehensive, modular, component-based suite of office productivity applications. This combination is the first to provide a complete Open Source desktop and productivity environment for Linux/Unix.

KDE and all its components (including KOffice) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE server and its mirrors and can also be obtained on CD-ROM.

For more information about KDE 2.2, please see the KDE 2.2 press release and the KDE 2.2.1 Info Page, which is an evolving FAQ about the release.

Installing KDE 2.2.1 Binary Packages

Binary Packages. All major Linux distributors and some Unix distributors have provided binary packages of KDE 2.2.1 for recent versions of their distribution. Some of these binary packages are available for free download under http://download.kde.org/stable/2.2.1/ or under the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Please note that the KDE team is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties -- typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution (if you cannot find a binary package for your distribution, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy).

Library Requirements. The library requirements for a particular binary package vary with the system on which the package was compiled. Please bear in mind that some binary packages may require a newer version of Qt and other libraries than was included with the applicable distribution (e.g., LinuxDistro 8.0 may have shipped with qt-2.2.3 but the packages below may require qt-2.3.x). For general library requirements for KDE, please see the text at Source Code - Library Requirements below.

Package Locations. At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

• Caldera Systems (README)
• OpenLinux-3.1: Intel i386
• Conectiva Linux
• 7.0: Intel i386
• Debian GNU/Linux (package "kde"): ftp.debian.org: sid (devel) (see also here)
• RedHat Linux:
  • 7.2-beta (Roswell): Intel i386, HP/Intel IA-64 and Alpha
• SuSE Linux (README):
  • 7.2: Intel i386 and HP/Intel IA-64 (see also the noarch directory)
  • 7.1: Intel i386, PowerPC, Sun Sparc and Alpha (see also the noarch directory)
  • 7.0: Intel i386, PowerPC and IBM S390 (see also the noarch directory)
  • 6.4: Intel i386 (see also the noarch directory)
• Tru64 Systems (README)
• Tru64 4.0d, e, f and g and 5.x: Alpha
• Yellow Dog Linux
• 2.x: PowerPC (see also the add-ons directory)

Downloading and Compiling KDE 2.2.1

Library Requirements. KDE 2.2.1 requires qt-2.2.4, which is available in source code from Trolltech as qt-x11-2.2.4.tar.gz. In addition, for SSL support, KDE 2.2.1 requires OpenSSL >= 0.9.6x; versions 0.9.5x are no longer supported. For Java support, KDE 2.2.1 requires a JVM >= 1.3. For Netscape Communicator plugin support, KDE requires a recent version of Lesstif or Motif. Searching local documentation requires htdig. Other special features, such as drag'n'drop audio CD ripping, require other packages.

Compiler Requirements. Please note that some components of KDE 2.2.1 will not compile with older versions of gcc/egcs, such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2. At a minimum gcc-2.95-* is required. In addition, some components of KDE 2.2.1 (such as the multimedia backbone of KDE, aRts) will not compile with gcc 3.0 (the problems are being corrected by the KDE and GCC teams).

Source Code/RPMs. The complete source code for KDE 2.2.1 is available for free download at http://download.kde.org/stable/2.2.1/src/ or in the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Additionally, source rpms are available for the following distributions:

• Conectiva Linux
• Caldera Systems
• RedHat Linux
• SuSE Linux
• Yellow Dog Linux (see also the add-ons directory)

Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE 2.2.1, please consult the installation instructions and, if you should encounter problems, the compilation FAQ. For problems with source rpms, please contact the person listed in the .spec file.

About KDE

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide working over the Internet to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environment employing a component-based, network-transparent architecture. KDE is working proof of the power of the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model to create first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

Please visit the KDE family of web sites for the KDE FAQ, screenshots, KOffice information and developer information. Much more information about KDE is available from KDE's family of web sites.

Corporate KDE Sponsors

Besides the valuable and excellent efforts by the KDE developers themselves, significant support for KDE development has been provided by MandrakeSoft and SuSE. Thanks!

KDE, K Desktop Environment and KOffice are trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Unix and Motif are registered trademarks of The Open Group. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS. Netscape Communicator is a trademark or registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.