KDE 3.5.3 Release Announcement

Wednesday, 31 May 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KDE Project Ships Third Translation and Service Release for Leading Free Software Desktop

KDE 3.5.3 features improvements in startup speed, a significant audit of small bugs, and some well-tested new functionality.

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.3, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. Unusually for a maintenance release, new features were implemented due to the long release cycle of the eagerly-awaited KDE 4. Stability and speed were also improved, along with increasingly complete translations in 65 languages.

Significant enhancements include:

• KDE startup sequence reordered to improve startup time.
• Over 800 minor issues fixed thanks to Coverity, as part of a project initiated with funding from the United States Government.
• Small new features were implemented in Akregator, KMail and KAlarm. This release alters the tradition of limiting "maintenance releases" to bug fixes. "Feature freeze" was relaxed somewhat to accommodate qualitative improvements held back by the long release cycle of stable 3.5.x series.

KDE 3.5.3 ships with a basic desktop and fifteen other packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, web development and more). KDE's award-winning tools and applications are available in 65 languages including two new languages: Vietnamese and Kazakh.

For a more detailed list of improvements since the KDE 3.5.2 release in March 2006, please refer to the KDE 3.5.3 Changelog.

Installing KDE 3.5.3 Binary Packages

Package Creators. Some operating system vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KDE 3.5.3 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 download server at download.kde.org. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available over the coming weeks.

Package Locations. For a current list of available binary packages of which the KDE Project has been informed, please visit the KDE 3.5.3 Info Page.

Compiling KDE 3.5.3

Source Code. The complete source code for KDE 3.5.3 may be freely downloaded. Instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.5.3 are available from the KDE 3.5.3 Info Page.

Supporting KDE

KDE is a Free Software project that exists and grows only because of the help of many volunteers that donate their time and effort. KDE is always looking for new volunteers and contributions, whether its help with coding, bug fixing or reporting, writing documentation, translations, promotion, money, etc. All contributions are gratefully appreciated and eagerly accepted. Please read through the Supporting KDE page for further information.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

About KDE

KDE is an award-winning, 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 including a state-of-the-art browser (Konqueror), a personal information management suite (Kontact), a full office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking application 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.

Trademark Notices. KDE^® and the K Desktop Environment^® logo are registered trademarks of KDE e.V.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.

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

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