KDE 3.1 Second Beta Testing Release

Wednesday, 2 October 2002

KDE Project Ships Second Beta Release of Leading Open Source Desktop

The KDE Project Ships Second Beta Release for the Third-Generation of the Leading Desktop for Linux/UNIX, Seeks Testing and Feedback

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.1 beta2, the third development release of a significant feature upgrade for KDE 3 (screenshots). KDE 3 is the third generation of KDE's free, powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.1, scheduled for final release in early November 2002, will provide substantial improvements to the KDE desktop experience. As the KDE 3 API is frozen for binary compatibility, KDE 3.1 will be binary compatible with KDE 3.0.

KDE 3.1 beta2 ships with the core KDE libraries, the base desktop environment, and hundreds of applications and other desktop enhancements from the other KDE base packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, development, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork and others).

The primary goal of the 3.1beta2 release is to provide experienced KDE users who prefer to enjoy some of the many great new KDE 3.1 features now a chance to do so as well as to report any problems with their installation. Instructions for maintaining a KDE 3.1 beta installation side-by-side with a stable KDE release are available.

KDE, including all its libraries and its applications, is available for free under Open Source licenses. KDE can be obtained in source and, for stable releases, in numerous binary formats from the KDE http or ftp mirrors, and can also be obtained on CD-ROM or with any of the major Linux/UNIX systems shipping today.

For more information about the KDE 3 series, please view the early KDE 3.1 screenshots (!), or read the KDE 3.0 announcement, the list of KDE 3.1 planned features and the KDE 3.1 release plan.

New Features / Enhancements

In addition to the large number of new features previously announced in the KDE 3.1alpha1 press release, the principal new features and enhancements in KDE 3.1beta2 include:

• a new Exchange 2000 plugin for the calendar / scheduling application (KOrganizer);
• a desktop-sharing client server (KRfb) and client (KRdc) compatible with VNC;
• support for common Microsoft character symbols (TM, bullet, smart quotes, etc.) in the HTML rendering engine (KHTML);
• a file browser (Konqueror) plugin for displaying and/or setting meta-information about JPEG images (comments) and digital camera (extended information);
• numerous enhancements to the translation tool (KBabel), such as mailing .PO files, a tag structure tool, rough translations in the catalog manager and automatic updates of the .PO header comment; and
• public key authentication support for kio_sftp^*.

For a more complete list of features added in the KDE 3.1 branch, please see the KDE 3.1 feature plan.

Installing Binary Packages

Binary Packages. Some Linux/UNIX OS vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KDE 3.1beta2 for some versions of their distribution, and in other cases community volunteers have done so. Some of these binary packages are available for free download from KDE's http or ftp mirrors. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available via the KDE servers over the coming weeks.

Please note that the KDE Project makes these packages available from the KDE web site as a convenience to KDE users. The KDE Project is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties - typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution - using tools, compilers, library versions and quality assurance procedures over which KDE exercises no control. In addition, please note that some vendors provide binary packages solely through their servers. If you cannot find a binary package for your OS, or you are displeased with the quality of binary packages available for your OS, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy and/or contact your OS vendor.

Library Requirements / Options. 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 shipped with the system (e.g., LinuxDistro X.Y may have shipped with Qt-3.0.0 but the packages below may require Qt-3.0.3). 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 through the KDE servers (or elsewhere, where indicated) for the following distributions and versions (please be sure to read any applicable README first):

Binary packages contributed by users rather than the relevant OS vendor are located in the contrib directory.

Additional binary packages will likely become available over the coming days and weeks; please check the KDE 3.1 Info Page for updates.

Compiling Source Code

Library Requirements / Options. KDE 3.1 beta2 requires Qt 3.0.3 for X11, though version 3.0.5 is recommended (Qt 3.1 beta1 will not work, while either Qt 3.1 beta2 or qt-copy should). In addition, KDE can take advantage of a number of other optional libraries and applications to improve your desktop experience and capabilities.

Compiler Requirements. KDE is designed to be cross-platform and hence to compile with a large variety of Linux/UNIX compilers. However, KDE is advancing very rapidly and the ability of native compilers on various UNIX systems to compile KDE depends on users of those systems reporting compilation and other build problems to the responsible maintainers.

With respect to the most popular KDE compiler, gcc/egcs, please note that some components of KDE will not compile properly with gcc versions earlier than gcc 2.95, such as egcs 1.1.2 or gcc 2.7.2, or with unpatched versions of gcc 3.0.x. GCC 3.2 is recommended, though KDE should compile properly with gcc 3.1.

Source Code. The complete source code for KDE 3.1 beta2 is available for free download. These source packages have been digitally signed with GnuPG using the KDE Archives PGP Key (available from the KDE Signature page or public key servers), and their respective MD5 sums are listed on the KDE 3.1 Info Page.

Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.1 beta2, please consult the installation instructions and, if you should encounter compilation difficulties, the KDE Compilation FAQ.

KDE Sponsorship

Besides the superb and invaluable efforts by the KDE developers themselves, significant support for KDE development has been provided by MandrakeSoft and SuSE. In addition, the members of the KDE League provide significant support for KDE promotion, and the University of Tübingen and the University of Kaiserslautern provide most of the Internet bandwidth for the KDE project. Thanks!

About KDE

KDE is an independent project of hundreds of developers, translators, artists and other professionals worldwide collaborating over the Internet to create and freely distribute a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop and office environment employing a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and offering an outstanding development platform. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop, a full, component-based office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking and administration tools and utilities, and an efficient, intuitive development environment featuring the excellent IDE KDevelop. KDE is working proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.