__/ [ rapskat ] on Thursday 25 May 2006 04:52 \__
> Coming soon to a desktop near you, Fall '06...
Oh, yeah! Quarter 3.
> PLASMA - A whole new desktop implementation for KDE 4. Improved Theme
> management and integrated components like the taskbar and desktop.
Look loverly and improves HCI aspects significantly. Every developer would
want to get his/her hands on some Plasma. By the way, Qt makers (Trolltech)
have announced (intentions for) an initial public offering. That's an
indication of growth and great prospects.
> OXYGEN - The eye candy factor just went critical! ACCELERATED
Nice! Never heard of it before, to be honest. XGL works in KDE as well, by
the way.
> DESKTOP - If you have the hardware, you can benefit from a full complement
> of new features for a fast, responsive and attractive computing experience.
KDE has far more function, which increases productivity by far more than any
other desktop environment, Windows XP and Mac OS X included.
> INTEGRATED WIDGETS - Visually appealing and functional, now to
> be a standard part of a KDE desktop.
I suppose it's karamba and/or superkaramba that will get some tighter
coupling. These have been available for a long while, maybe ahead of Mac OS
X. Apple stole this function from a third-party software maker (can't recall
the name at this moment). That addon was commercial as far as I can tell and
I suspect that Tiger (not Jaguar) is when it got added.
> CONTEXT BASED LAYOUTS - Now you can have various desktop configurations
> according to the apps you run and/or tasks you are doing. IMPROVED
[Mr. Burns' voice] Excellent!
> MULTIMEDIA - ARTS is dead, long live GStreamer! Fast, seamless and highly
> extensible via plugins to provide advanced universal media playback.
Good riddance to bad rubbish, with all due respect. Many people had problems
with arts in the past, although in recent years it has been very, very
reliable. In fact, I happily use it in KDE 3.4 and never have any issues.
The mixer and latency are splendid.
> SMALLER AND FASTER - The new KDE4 will load quicker, run faster and work
> better than any previous version to date, with no massive hardware
> requirements!
>
> MULTI-PLATFORM - Now Windows and Mac users don't have to look enviously at
> the Linux user's desktop wishing they could have all the cool new stuff.
> Most of KDE4 will be available for Windows and OS X as well!
It was the same with previous versions of KDE, but was a real pain to set up.
Here is a wild idea: get users accustomed to OpenOffice, Firefox,
Thunderbird and so forth on other platforms. *Then*(or beforehand), add KDE.
This makes the transition to Linux easier, but at the same time, it gives
everyone the power of KDE (without the gains of good security for no cost).
> AND MUCH MORE...!
There's a new KNode. *smile*
> After KDE4 is released, people will be saying, "Vista Who?"
I think it's not a good comparison. Windows advocates themselves admit that
OS X is ahead of Vista. They are right. I look forward to the point when
Macheads feel envious when they see KDE, so they either install it on the
Mac or migrate to Linux. I know some Machead whose house is being taken over
by Linux.
Best wishes,
Roy
PS - Thanks for the intersting information.
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | McDonald's Certified Sandwich Engineer (MCSE)
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
3:05pm up 27 days 21:37, 9 users, load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.07
http://iuron.com - Open Source knowledge engine project
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