Download KDE 4.1.0

Version 4.1.0 of the K Desktop Environment was released on Tuesday, the second so-called feature release from the 4.x series. KDE is a popular desktop environment for GNU/Linux, Freebsd and Solaris, among others, and comes with a standard desktop, including fifteen packages containing applications such as a personal information manager, multimedia, administration and network management, and games. In this release we see, among other things, the return of the Personal Information Management suite KDE-PIM known from version 3 and the desktop shell Plasma has become a lot more mature. Below are the main changes from this release:

For users

• KDE-PIM is back with 4.1, containing the applications necessary for your personal information and communication. KMail as mail client, KOrganizer as planning component, Akregator as RSS feed reader and others are now available again in KDE 4 look.
• Dragon Player, an easy to use video player enters the stage
• Okteta is the new well-integrated and feature-rich hex editor
• Step, the physics emulator makes learning physics fun and easy
• KSystemLog, helps you keep track of what is going on in your system
• New games such as KDiamond (a bejeweled clone), Kollision, KBreakOut and Kubrick make taking a break from your work irresistible
• Lokalize, helps translators to make KDE4 available in your language (if it’s not among the 50-odd languages ​​KDE4 already supports)
• KSCD, your desktop CD player has been resurrected
• Dolphin, KDE’s filemanager has a new treeview in the main view, also new is the support for tabs. A new and innovative single-click selection allows for a more consistent user experience, and copy-to and move-to context actions make those actions easier accessible. Of course Konqueror is also available as an alternative to Dolphin, taking advantage of most of the above features as well. [Dolphin screenshots]
• Konqueror, KDE’s web browser now has support for re-opening already closed windows and tabs, it also scrolls smoothly through webpages.
• Gwenview, KDE’s image viewer has gotten a new fullscreen view, a thumbnail bar for easy access to other photos, a smart Undo system and support for rating images. [Gwenview screenshots]
• KRDC, KDE’s remote desktop client now detects remote desktops on the local network automatically using the ZeroConf protocol.
• Marble, KDE’s desktop globe now integrates with OpenStreetMap so you can find your way everywhere using the Free Maps. [Marble screenshots]
• KSysGuard, now supports monitoring process output or running applications so there is no need to restart your apps from a terminal anymore when you want to know what’s going on.
• KWin’s compositing window manager features have been more stabilized and extended. New effects such as the Coverswitch window switcher and the famous “wobbly windows” have been added. [KWin screenshots]
• Plasma’s panel configuration has been extended. The new panel controller makes it easy to customize your panel providing direct visual feedback. You can also add panels and put them on different edges of your screen(s). The new folderview applet allows you to store files on your desktop (in fact it provides a view of a directory on your system). You can put zero, one or more folder views onto your desktop, providing for easy and flexible access to the files you are working with. [Plasma screenshots]

For developers

• The Akonadi PIM storage framework provides an efficient way of storing and retrieving email and contact data across applications. Akonadi supports searching through data and notifies applications using it or changes.
• KDE applications can be written using Python and Ruby. These language bindings are considered stable, mature and suitable for application developers.
• Libksane provides easy access to image scanning applications such as the new scanning application Skanlite.
• A shared emoticons system which is used by KMail and Kopete.
• New Phonon multimedia backends for GStreamer, QuickTime and DirectShow9, improving KDE’s multimedia support on Windows and Mac OS.

New platforms

• OpenSolaris support in KDE is currently straightened out. KDE mostly works on OSOL, although there are some showstopper bugs left.
• Windows developers are able to download previews of KDE applications for their platform. The libraries are relatively stable already, although not all features of kdelibs are available on Windows yet. Some applications already run quite well on Windows, others might not.
• Mac OSX is another new platform KDE is entering. KDE on Mac is not yet ready for production use. While Multimedia support through Phonon is already available, hardware and search integration is not finished yet.

[break] KDE 4.1.0 desktop, click on the image for a larger version.