New Features For KDE 4.4 Desktop

[phoronix]

Phoronix: New Features For KDE 4.4 Desktop

KDE 4.4 is scheduled to be released in early February of 2010 as the six-month feature update to KDE4 and now its feature plan has surfaced. KDE 4.4 is poised to pickup a number of exciting new features along with various bug-fixes and other updates...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzY2Nw

[d2kx]

There's also the announcement of Project Timelord that is hopefully going to improve Kubuntu, which isn't as polished as the Gnome's Ubuntu.

Exciting times!

[callegar]

I hope that I am wrong, but it looks like this is going to be the fourth major release of kde4 with poor bluetooth support.
How is it that kde is not aiming at feature parity with gnome on this front? I cannot believe there is such little request for exploring/transferring photos and the files on the handy phone from the kde desktop.

Kde is doing great on many aspects of its new desktop. However, I keep thinking that it should be prioritizing a few things in a different way.

Currently a big effort seems to be put in polishing new functionalities for which alternative easy approaches do anyway exist (improved search bars, social desktops, etc...). However, there are functionalities that one takes for granted in other desktops (and used to take for granted in kde 3.5) for which an easy replacements does not exist. If these are completely missing (support for managed printing for legacy applications, exploring mobile devices via bluetooth to name a couple) the appeal of the desktop is reduced, notwithstanding its innovation.

Please, now that the new foundations are in place, address regressions and feature parity with other desktop environments /before/ adding new stuff.

[thefirstm]

kdebluetooth4 works just fine....

[callegar]

Originally Posted by thefirstm

kdebluetooth4 works just fine....

mmm... good to see I was not up to date. But neither is the kde-apps page then, since for kbluetooth4 says that currently there is no

- kio obex module (so it is impossible to browse remote filesystem)
- support to pair audio devices (for Device Manager and Wizard)

nor my system that got updated to kde 4.3.2 has such functionality. Is kbluetooth distributed separately from the main kde packages?

[thefirstm]

To get some of those features, you have to use an unreleased version. I think the latest SVN has some of these features.

[callegar]

Originally Posted by thefirstm

To get some of those features, you have to use an unreleased version. I think the latest SVN has some of these features.

So it is probable that they will get into kde4.4 in spite of the planned features not mentioning them! Great!... but they should have the doc about the new features enriched then!

[eric.frederich]

Are there any long term plans to ditch GPL PyQt in favor of LGPL Nokia Supported PySide?

[frische]

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/4057

lrn2google

[Joe Sixpack]

Above all, phonon is FINALLY going to have equalizer support. I know the amarok devs are thrilled about this, as they were talking all the blame for not having an eq in amarok2.

There is also some major bug in plasma or solid that gets fixed too. I forget what it was, but it was discovered around the time of 4.3rc1, so it was too late to fix it.