KDE 4 is out!

KDE 4.0 was released today!  After seeing screenshots like the ones I want to share with you, I can’t wait to try it.  Too bad Fedora won’t be including it until Fedora 9 in April.

All of the following images were produced by/for KDE.org.  I’m just borrowing them for illustrative purposes.

First of all, here’s the default GUI:

Not too shabby.  Looks pretty similar to KDE3, but with a “Vista Black” thing going on.  But here’s where I really got excited:

What’s going on here is that the desktop is being hidden and the widgets are being brought to the forefront.  This is precisely the answer to my problem with widgets - they’re always hidden behind the Programs I’m using!  Now they can become a lot more useful to me!

They appear to have appropriated (as is OK in open source) the K Menu setup from SuSe.  I tend to really like menu systems which emphasize favorite/most used programs because I tend to use the same 5 or so programs on a daily basis.  So there are only two solutions - add shortcuts on the taskbar, taking up precious space, or have a favorites menu.

As you can see here, Compiz Fusion is no longer necessary in KDE as KWin now supports compositing.  Here’s an effect similar to Expose on the Mac and with Compiz.

Finally, a screenshot of one of my favorite KDE games, Konquest.  It’s been graphically updated and I’m sure it’s still as fun as ever.

To learn more, visit the KDE 4.0 Visual Guide.

(Note to KDE.org - I used Flock’s Web Clipboard to obtain these screenshots and didn’t realize they’d be inlined.  I’ll fix it ASAP)

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Tags: KDE4

• Kde4