KDE Software Compilation 4 (KDE SC 4) was the only series of the so-called
KDE Software Compilation
The KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC) was an umbrella term for the desktop environment plus a range of included applications produced by KDE. From its 1.0 release in July 1998 until the release of version 4.4 in February 2010, the Software Compi ...
(short: KDE SC), first released in January 2008 and the last release being 4.14.3 released in November 2014.
It was the follow-up to
K Desktop Environment 3
K Desktop Environment 3 is the third series of releases of the K Desktop Environment (after that called ''KDE Software Compilation''). There are six major releases in this series. After the release of KDE 4, version 3.5 was forked into the Trinit ...
. Following KDE SC 4, the compilation was broken up into basic framework libraries, desktop environment and applications, which are termed
KDE Frameworks 5
KDE Frameworks is a collection of libraries and software frameworks readily available to any Qt-based software stacks or applications on multiple operating systems. Featuring frequently needed functionality solutions like hardware integration, fi ...
,
KDE Plasma 5
KDE Plasma 5 is the fifth and current generation of the graphical workspaces environment created by KDE primarily for Linux systems. KDE Plasma 5 is the successor of KDE Plasma 4 and was first released on 15 July 2014.
It includes a new default ...
and
KDE Applications
The KDE Gear (also known as the KDE Applications Bundle or KDE Applications) is a set of applications and supporting libraries that are developed by the KDE community, primarily used on Linux-based operating systems but mostly multiplatform, and ...
, respectively.
Major releases (4.x) were released every six months, while minor bugfix releases (4.x.y) were released monthly.
The series included updates to several of the
KDE Platform's core components, notably a port to
Qt 4. It contained a new multimedia API, called
Phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. A type of quasiparticle, a phon ...
, a device integration framework called
Solid
Solid is one of the State of matter#Four fundamental states, four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and Plasma (physics), plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount o ...
and a new style guide and default icon set called
Oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...
. It also included a new, unified desktop and panel user interface called
Plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
, which supported
desktop widgets
A software widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-use software application or component made for one or more different software platforms.
A desk accessory or applet is an example of a simple, stand-alone user interface, in contrast with a mo ...
, replacing
K Desktop Environment 3's separate components.
One of the overall goals of KDE Platform 4 was to make it easy for KDE applications to be portable to different operating systems. This was made possible by the port to Qt 4, which facilitated support for non-
X11
The X Window System (X11, or simply X) is a windowing system for bitmap displays, common on Unix-like operating systems.
X provides the basic framework for a GUI environment: drawing and moving windows on the display device and interacting wi ...
-based platforms, including
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
. Versions 4.0 to 4.3 of KDE Software Compilation were known simply as ''KDE 4'' – the name change was a component of the KDE project's re-branding to reflect KDE's increased scope.
Major updates
This is a short overview of major changes in KDE Software Compilation 4.
General
The port to the Qt 4 series was expected to enable KDE 4 to use less memory and be noticeably faster than KDE 3. The KDE libraries themselves have also been made more efficient. However, tests reveal that KDE 4.4 has the highest memory utilization on default
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: ''Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All the ...
installations when compared to
GNOME
A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...
2.29,
Xfce 4.6, and
LXDE
LXDE (abbreviation for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements. This makes it especially suitable for use on older or resource-constrained personal computers such as netb ...
0.5. Qt 4 is available under the
LGPL
The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...
for
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
and
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
, which allows KDE 4 to run on those platforms. The ports to both platforms are in an early state. , KDE Software compilation 4 on Mac OS X is considered beta, while on Windows it is not in the final state, so applications can be unsuitable for day to day use yet. Both ports are trying to use as little divergent code as possible to make the applications function almost identically on all platforms. During ''
Summer of Code 2007'' an icon cache was created to decrease application start-up times for use in KDE 4. Improvements were varied – Kfind, an application which used several hundred icons, started up in about a quarter of the time it took previously. Other applications and a full KDE session started up a little over a second faster.
Many applications in the
Extragear
The KDE Gear (also known as the KDE Applications Bundle or KDE Applications) is a set of applications and supporting libraries that are developed by the KDE community, primarily used on Linux-based operating systems but mostly multiplatform, and ...
and
KOffice
KOffice is a free and open source office and graphics suite developed by KDE for Unix-like and Windows systems. KOffice contains a word processor ( KWord), a spreadsheet (KSpread), a presentation program ( KPresenter), and a number of other comp ...
modules have received numerous improvements with the new features of KDE 4 and Qt 4. But since they follow their own release schedule, they were not all available at the time of the first KDE 4 release – these include
Amarok,
K3b,
digiKam,
KWord
KWord is a deprecated word processor and a desktop publishing application, part of the KOffice suite. It has been obsoleted by Calligra Words of the Calligra Suite.
History
KWord was created by Reginald Stadlbauer as part of the KOffice projec ...
, and
Krita
Krita ( ) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital art and 2D animation. The software runs on Windows, macOS, Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on th ...
.
Visual
The most noticeable changes for users are the new icons, theme and sounds provided by the
Oxygen Project
The Oxygen Project is a project created to give a visual refresh to KDE Plasma Workspaces.
It consists of a set of computer icons, a window decoration for KWin, widget toolkit themes for GTK and Qt, two themes for Plasma Workspaces, and a Tr ...
. These represent a break from previous KDE icons and graphics, which had a cartoonish look. Instead Oxygen icons opt for a more
photorealistic
Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...
style. The Oxygen Project builds on the
freedesktop.org
freedesktop.org (fd.o) is a project to work on interoperability and shared base technology for free-software desktop environments for the X Window System (X11) and Wayland on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It was founded by Hav ...
br>
Icon Naming Specificationan
allowing consistency across applications. The Oxygen team uses community help for better visuals in KDE 4, with both alternate icon sets and the winners of a wallpaper contest held by the Oxygen project being included in KDE 4. There is also a new set of
human interface guidelines for a more standardized layout.
Plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
provides the main desktop user interface and is a rewrite of several core KDE applications, like the desktop drawing and most notably the widget engine. Plasma allows a more customisable desktop and more versatile widgets.
KWin
KWin is a window manager for the X Window System and a Wayland compositor. It is released as a part of KDE Plasma 5, for which it is the default window manager. KWin can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments.
KWin can be c ...
, the KDE Window Manager, now provides its own compositing effects, similar to
Compiz
Compiz () is a compositing window manager for the X Window System, using 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. Effects, such as a minimization animation or a cube workspace, are implemented as lo ...
.
Development
Phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. A type of quasiparticle, a phon ...
is the name of the multimedia API in KDE 4. Phonon is a different approach to multimedia backends than in previous versions of KDE. This is because Phonon only functions as a wrapper, abstracting the various multimedia frameworks available for Unix-like operating systems into runtime switchable backends that can be accessed through a single API. This was done to provide a stable API for KDE 4 and to prevent it from depending on a single multimedia framework. Applications that use the Phonon API can be switched between multimedia frameworks seamlessly by simply changing the backend used in
System Settings.
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
adopted Phonon for multimedia use in Qt 4.4 and are developing backends for Gstreamer, Windows and OS X in the KDE SVN repository under the LGPL.
Solid
Solid is one of the State of matter#Four fundamental states, four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and Plasma (physics), plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount o ...
is the hardware API in KDE 4. It functions similarly to Phonon as it does not manage hardware on its own but makes existing solutions accessible through a single API. The current solution uses
HAL,
NetworkManager
NetworkManager is a daemon that sits on top of libudev and other Linux kernel interfaces (and a couple of other daemons) and provides a high-level interface for the configuration of the network interfaces.
Rationale
NetworkManager is a software ...
and
BlueZ
A Bluetooth stack is software that is an implementation of the Bluetooth protocol stack.
Bluetooth stacks can be roughly divided into two distinct categories:
# ''General-purpose'' implementations that are written with emphasis on feature-richn ...
(the official Linux bluetooth stack), but any and all parts can be replaced without breaking the application, making applications using Solid extremely flexible and portable.
ThreadWeaver
ThreadWeaver is a system library initially developed for KDE Software Compilation 4 and later refactored for KDE Frameworks 5.
ThreadWeaver allows developers to easily take advantage of multi-core processors and multithreading. In ThreadWeaver th ...
is a programming library to help applications take advantage of multicore processors and is included with kdelibs.
Kross is the new scripting framework for KDE 4. Kross itself is not a scripting language, but makes it easier for developers to add support for other scripting languages. Once an application adds support for Kross, any language Kross supports can be used by developers. New scripting languages can be added by creating a plugin for Kross, which benefits all applications using it.
Decibel
The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...
is a
Telepathy
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...
-based communication framework, which was expected to be fully used by Kopete by KDE 4.2, but which is reported to be postponed indefinitely.
Strigi
Strigi was a file indexing and file search framework (see desktop search) adopted by KDE SC. Strigi was initiated by Jos van den Oever. Strigi's goals are to be fast, use a small amount of RAM, and use flexible backends and plug-ins. A benchm ...
is the default search tool for KDE 4, chosen for its speed and few dependencies. In concert with other software like
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
, an
RDF storage framework, and the
NEPOMUK
Nepomuk (; german: Pomuk) is a town in Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,700 inhabitants. It is known as the birthplace of Saint John of Nepomuk, who was born here around 1340 and whose statue can b ...
specification, Strigi will provide the beginnings of a
semantic desktop in KDE 4. Users can tag files with additional information through
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
, which Strigi can index for more accurate searches.
KDE 4 uses
CMake
In software development, CMake is cross-platform free and open-source software for build automation, testing, packaging and installation of software by using a compiler-independent method. CMake is not a build system itself; it generates anothe ...
for its build system. Since previous versions of KDE were only on Unix systems,
autotools
The GNU Autotools, also known as the GNU Build System, is a suite of programming tools designed to assist in making source code packages portable to many Unix-like systems.
It can be difficult to make a software program portable: the C compiler ...
were used, but a new build system was needed for builds on operating systems like Windows. CMake also dramatically simplified the build process. The autotools build system had become so complicated by KDE 3 that few developers understood it, requiring hours of work for simple changes. In early 2007 CMake was shown to compile KDE 4 version of KDElibs 40 % faster than the autotools compiled KDE 3 version.
DXS, previously known as GHNS (Get Hot New Stuff) and now adopted by
freedesktop.org
freedesktop.org (fd.o) is a project to work on interoperability and shared base technology for free-software desktop environments for the X Window System (X11) and Wayland on Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It was founded by Hav ...
, is a web service that lets applications download and install data from the Internet with
one click. It was used in the KDE 3 series but has been extended for use throughout KDE 4. One example was Kstars, that can use Astronomical data that is free for personal use but cannot be redistributed. DXS allows that data to be easily downloaded and installed from within the application instead of manually downloading it.
Akonadi
Akonadi is a storage service for personal information management (PIM) data and metadata named after the oracle goddess of justice in Ghana. It is one of the “pillars” (core technologies) behind the KDE SC 4 project, although it is designed t ...
is a new
PIM framework for KDE 4. Akonadi is a unification of previously separate KDE PIM components. In the past each application would have its own method for storing information and handling data. Akonadi itself functions as a server that provides data and search functions to PIM applications. It is also able to update the status of contacts. So if one application changes information about a contact, all other applications are immediately informed of the change.
Released versions
KDE 4.0
![KDE 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/KDE_4.0.png)
The majority of development went into implementing most of the new technologies and frameworks of KDE 4. Plasma and the Oxygen style were two of the biggest user-facing changes.
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
replaces Konqueror as the default file manager in KDE 4.0. This was done to address complaints of Konqueror being too complicated for a simple file manager. However Dolphin and Konqueror will share as much code as possible, and Dolphin can be embedded in Konqueror to allow Konqueror to still be used as a file manager.
Okular
Okular is a multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. It is distributed as part of the KDE Applications bundle. Its origins are from KPDF and it replaces KPDF, KGhostView, KFax, K ...
replaces several document viewers used in KDE 3, like KPDF, KGhostView and KDVI. Okular makes use of software libraries and can be extended to view almost any kind of document. Like Konqueror and KPDF in KDE 3, Okular can be embedded in other applications.
Pre-releases
On 11 May 2007, KDE 4.0 Alpha 1 was released marking the end of the addition of large features to KDE base libraries and shifting the focus onto integrating the new technologies into applications and the basic desktop. Alpha 1 included new frameworks to build applications with, providing improved hardware and multimedia integration through
Solid
Solid is one of the State of matter#Four fundamental states, four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and Plasma (physics), plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount o ...
and
Phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. A type of quasiparticle, a phon ...
.
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
and
Okular
Okular is a multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. It is distributed as part of the KDE Applications bundle. Its origins are from KPDF and it replaces KPDF, KGhostView, KFax, K ...
were integrated and a new visual appearance was provided through
Oxygen icons.
On 4 July 2007, Alpha 2 was released. The release focused on integrating the Plasma desktop, improving functionality and stabilizing KDE.
On 2 August 2007, Beta 1 was released. Major features included a pixmap cache – speeding up icon loading, KDE PIM improvements, improved
KWin
KWin is a window manager for the X Window System and a Wayland compositor. It is released as a part of KDE Plasma 5, for which it is the default window manager. KWin can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments.
KWin can be c ...
effects and configuration, better interaction between Konqueror and Dolphin and
Metalink
Metalink is an extensible metadata file format that describes one or more computer files available for download. It specifies files appropriate for the user's language and operating system; facilitates file verification and recovery from data ...
support added to
KGet
Konqueror is a free and open-source web browser and file manager that provides web access and file-viewer functionality for file systems (such as local files, files on a remote FTP server and files in a disk image). It forms a core part of ...
for improved downloads.
On 6 September 2007, Beta 2 was released with improved
BSD
The Berkeley Software Distribution or Berkeley Standard Distribution (BSD) is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix, developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berk ...
and
Solaris
Solaris may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Literature, television and film
* ''Solaris'' (novel), a 1961 science fiction novel by Stanisław Lem
** ''Solaris'' (1968 film), directed by Boris Nirenburg
** ''Solaris'' (1972 film), directed by ...
support. The release included the addition of the Blitz graphic library – allowing for developers to use high performance graphical tricks like icon animation – and an overhaul of
KRDC
The KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC) was an umbrella term for the desktop environment plus a range of included applications produced by KDE. From its 1.0 release in July 1998 until the release of version 4.4 in February 2010, the Software Com ...
(K Remote Desktop Client) for
Google's ''Summer of Code''.
Plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
was also integrated with Amarok to provide Amarok's central context view.
On 16 October 2007, Beta 3 was released. The beta 3 release was focused on stabilizing and finishing the design of libraries for the release of KDE Development Platform. Plasma received many new features including an applet browser. The educational software received many improvements in Marble and Parley (formerly known as KVoctrain) with bugfixes in other applications. A program called Step, an interactive physics simulator, was produced as part of the
Google Summer of Code
The Google Summer of Code, often abbreviated to GSoC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to contributors who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during the summer. , the program is ...
.
On 30 October 2007, Beta 4 was released. A list of release blockers was compiled, listing issues that need to be resolved before KDE will start with the release candidate cycle for the desktop. The goals were to focus on stabilization and fixing the release blockers.
At the same time, the first release candidate of KDE 4.0 Development Platform was released. The development platform contains all the base libraries to develop KDE applications, including "high-level widget libraries, a network abstraction layer and various libraries for multimedia integration, hardware integration and transparent access to resources on the network."
On 20 November 2007, Release Candidate (RC) 1 was released. This release was called a "Release Candidate" despite Plasma requiring further work and not being ready for release. On 11 December 2007, RC2 was released. The codebase was declared feature-complete. Some work was still required to fix bugs, finish off artwork and smooth out the user experience.
Release
KDE 4 was released on 11 January 2008. Despite being labelled as a stable release, it was intended for early adopters.
Continuing to use KDE 3.5 was suggested for users wanting a more stable, "feature complete" desktop.
Reception
The release of KDE 4.0 was met with a mixed reception. While early adopters were tolerant of the lack of finish for some of its new features, the release was widely criticized because of a lack of stability and its "beta" quality.
Computerworld
''Computerworld'' (abbreviated as CW) is an ongoing decades old professional publication which in 2014 "went digital." Its audience is information technology (IT) and business technology professionals, and is available via a publication website ...
reporter Steven Vaughan-Nichols criticised KDE 4.0 and KDE 4.1 and called for a fork of KDE 3.5 by rebuilding it on top of Qt 4. The same reporter later praised KDE 4.3 and welcomed the KDE 3.5 continuation project ''Trinity''. Although
Linus Torvalds
Linus Benedict Torvalds ( , ; born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish software engineer who is the creator and, historically, the lead developer of the Linux kernel, used by Linux distributions and other operating systems such as Android. He also c ...
switched from GNOME to KDE in December 2005, he switched back to GNOME after Fedora replaced KDE 3.5 with 4.0. In an interview with Computerworld, he described KDE 4.0 as a "break everything" model and "half-baked" release, claiming that he expected it to be an upgrade of KDE 3.5, when the reality was that there were significant cases of features being regressed due to its extensive changes. (Torvalds did point out, however, that he understood why the developers in charge of the KDE project had chosen to make such drastic changes to the desktop environment in KDE 4.0 and the reason for its premature release, and that his criticism was more on the way KDE 4.0 was pushed out to the public.) Despite the criticism, reviewers such as
Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
’s Ryan Paul noted that the visual style "is very attractive and easy on the eyes" and "exhibits a relatively high level of polish" and that "the underlying technologies still have a lot of very serious potential".
Image:Kde4alpha1.png, KDE 4.0 Alpha 1, showing Dolphin and early Oxygen icons
Image:Kde4Beta1.png, Beta 1, showing the run dialogue, Clock Plasma widget and Dolphin file manager
Image:Kdebeta2 plasma.png, Beta 2, showing a number of Plasma widgets
Image:KDE 4 beta 4.png, Beta 4, showing the new Kickoff menu
Image:KDE 4.0RC2.png, RC2, showing Dolphin and Konqueror
KDE 4.1
![KDE 4-1 desktop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/KDE_4-1_desktop.png)
KDE 4.1 was released on 29 July 2008.
KDE 4.1 includes a shared emoticon theming system which is used in PIM and Kopete, and DXS, a service that lets applications download and install data from the Internet with one click.
Also introduced are
GStreamer
GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one format, processes them, ...
,
QuickTime
QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...
7, and
DirectShow
DirectShow (sometimes abbreviated as DS or DShow), codename Quartz, is a multimedia framework and API produced by Microsoft for software developers to perform various operations with media files or streams. It is the replacement for Microsoft's ear ...
9
Phonon
In physics, a phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, Elasticity (physics), elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter physics, condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. A type of quasiparticle, a phon ...
backends.
Plasma improvements include support for Qt 4 widgets and
WebKit
WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as on the iOS and iPadOS version of any web browser. WebKit is also used by the BlackBerry Browser, PlayStation consoles beginning from the PS ...
integration – allowing many
Apple Dashboard widgets to be displayed.
There will also be ports of some applications to Windows and
Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. Within the market of ...
.
New applications include:
*
Dragon Player
Dragon Player is a simple media player (application software), media player for the KDE desktop environment. It is the renamed continuation of a video player for KDE 3 called Codeine, which was originally created and developed by Max Howell, and ...
multimedia player (formerly Codeine)
*
Kontact
Kontact is a personal information manager and groupware software suite developed by KDE. It supports calendars, contacts, notes, to-do lists, news, and email. It offers a number of inter-changeable graphical UIs (KMail, KAddressBook, Akregator, ...
– with some
Akonadi
Akonadi is a storage service for personal information management (PIM) data and metadata named after the oracle goddess of justice in Ghana. It is one of the “pillars” (core technologies) behind the KDE SC 4 project, although it is designed t ...
functionality
*Skanlite scanner application
*
Step
Step(s) or STEP may refer to:
Common meanings
* Stairs#Step, Steps, making a staircase
* Walking
* Dance move
* Military step, or march
** Marching
Arts Films and television
* Steps (TV series), ''Steps'' (TV series), Hong Kong
* Step (film), ' ...
physics simulator
*Games – Kdiamond (a
Bejeweled
''Bejeweled'' (also referred as ''Bejeweled Deluxe'' in some releases) is a tile-matching puzzle video game by PopCap Games, developed for browsers in 2001. The first game developed by PopCap under their current name, ''Bejeweled'', involves ...
clone), Kollision, Kubrick, KsirK, KBreakout
Image:Krunner4 1 beta1.png, krunner in KDE 4.1 Beta 1.
Image:Plasma-panelcontroller 4.1 beta 1.png, New panel configuration interface in Beta 1.
Image:Kontact-calendar 4.1 Beta 1.png, Kontact in Beta 1.
Image:Kwin-coverswitch4.1 beta 1.png, "CoverSwitch" effect.
Image:Kdepim-4.1.png, Kontact Suite.
KDE 4.2
![KDE 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/KDE_4.2_desktop.png)
KDE 4.2 was released on 27 January 2009. The release is considered a significant improvement beyond KDE 4.1 in nearly all aspects, and a suitable replacement for KDE 3.5 for most users.
KDE Workspace improvements
The 4.2 release includes thousands of bug fixes and has implemented many features that were present in KDE 3.5 but had been missing in KDE 4.0 and 4.1.
These include grouping and multiple row layout in the task bar, icon hiding in the system tray, panel autohiding, window previews and tooltips are back in the panel and task bar, notifications and job tracking by Plasma, and the ability to have icons on the desktop again by using a Folder View as the desktop background where icons now remain where they are placed.
New Plasma applets include applets for leaving messages on a locked screen, previewing files, switching desktop Activity, monitoring news feeds, and utilities like the pastebin applet, the calendar, timer, special character selector, a QuickLaunch widget, and a system monitor, among many others. The Plasma workspace can now load Google Gadgets. Plasma widgets can be written in Ruby and Python. Support for applets written in JavaScript and
Mac OS X dashboard widgets has been further improved. Theming improvements in the Task Bar, Application Launcher, System Tray and most other Plasma components streamline the look and feel and increase consistency. A new System Settings module, Desktop Theme Details, gives the user control over each element of various Plasma themes. Wallpapers are now provided plugins, so developers can easily write custom wallpaper systems in KDE 4.2. Available wallpaper plugins in KDE 4.2 will be slideshows, Mandelbrot fractals, and regular static images.
New desktop effects have been added such as the Magic Lamp, Minimize effect and the Cube and Sphere desktop switchers. Others, such as the desktop grid, have been improved. The user interface for choosing effects has been reworked for easy selection of the most commonly used effects. Compositing desktop effects have been enabled by default where hardware and drivers support them. Automatic checks confirm that compositing works before enabling it on the workspace.
KRunner – the "Run command…" dialog – has extended functionality through several new plugins, including spellchecking, Konqueror browser history, power management control through PowerDevil, KDE Places, Recent Documents, and the ability to start specific sessions of the Kate editor, Konqueror and Konsole. The converter plugin now also supports quickly converting between units of speed, mass and distances.
Multi-screen support has been improved through the Kephal library, fixing many bugs when running KDE on more than one monitor.
New and improved applications
New applications include PowerDevil, a power management system for controlling various aspects of mobile devices. A new printing configuration system brings back a number of features users have been missing in KDE 4.0 and 4.1. The components "printer-applet" and "system-config-printer-kde" are shipped with the kdeadmin and kdeutils module. Killbots is a new game shipped with the kdegames module.
All applications have seen bugfixes, feature additions and user interface improvements. Dolphin now supports previews of files in toolbars and has gained a slider to zoom in and out on file item views. It can now also show the full path in the breadcrumb bar. Konqueror offers increased loading speed by prefetching domain name data in KHTML. A find-as-you-type bar improves navigation in webpages. KMail has a new message header list, and reworked attachment view. The KWrite and Kate text editors can now operate in Vi input mode, accommodating those used to the traditional UNIX editor. Ark, the archiving tool has gained support for password-protected archives and is accessible via a context menu from the file managers now. KRDC, the remote desktop client improves support for Microsoft's Active Directory through LDAP. Kontact has gained a new planner summary and support for drag and drop in the free/busy view. KSnapshot now uses the window title when saving screenshots, making it easier to index them using search engines.
Reception
The KDE 4.2 release "marks the end of the testing phase by being the first release ready for everyone – instead of just developers and enthusiasts" according to Thom Holwerda, a member of OSNews.
KDE 4.3
![KDE 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/KDE_4.3_desktop.png)
KDE 4.3 was released on 4 August 2009. Polishing KDE 4 was a focus of 4.3, with this release being described as incremental and lacking in major new features.
KDE 4.3 fixed over 10,000 bugs and implemented almost 2,000 feature requests. Integration with other technologies, such as
PolicyKit
Polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a component for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems. It provides an organized way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged ones. Polkit allows a level of control ...
,
NetworkManager
NetworkManager is a daemon that sits on top of libudev and other Linux kernel interfaces (and a couple of other daemons) and provides a high-level interface for the configuration of the network interfaces.
Rationale
NetworkManager is a software ...
&
Geolocation
Geopositioning, also known as geotracking, geolocalization, geolocating, geolocation, or geoposition fixing, is the process of determining or estimating the geographic position of an object.
Geopositioning yields a set of Geographic coordinate s ...
services, was another focus of this release.
KRunner's interface has been overhauled. A much more flexible system tray has been developed. Many new Plasmoids have been added, including the
openDesktop.org Plasmoid – an initial take on the Social Desktop. Plasma also receives more keyboard shortcuts.
File:Screenshot of KDE 4.3.png, The folder view widget's new "folder content tool tip" feature, the note taking widget, and Amarok 2.1's new Playlist Layout Editor.
File:KDE 4.3 social desktop.png, KDE 4.3's social desktop and other online services.
File:Krunner kde4.3.png, Krunner new interface.
KDE SC 4.4
![Screenshot of KDE 4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Screenshot_of_KDE_4.4_plasma-netbook.png)
KDE SC 4.4 was released on 9 February 2010 and is based on version 4.6 of the
Qt 4 toolkit. As such, KDE SC 4.4 carries Qt's performance improvements as well as Qt 4.6's new features, such as the new animation framework ''Kinetic''.
KAddressBook
Kontact is a personal information manager and groupware software suite developed by KDE. It supports calendars, contacts, notes, to-do lists, news, and email. It offers a number of inter-changeable graphical UIs (KMail, KAddressBook, Akregator, ...
Is replaced by a completely new application with the same name – previously tentatively called KContactManager. Key features of the new KAddressBook are
Akonadi
Akonadi is a storage service for personal information management (PIM) data and metadata named after the oracle goddess of justice in Ghana. It is one of the “pillars” (core technologies) behind the KDE SC 4 project, although it is designed t ...
integration and a streamlined user interface.
Another major new feature is an additional new Plasma interface, targeted towards
netbook
Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...
s.
Kopete
Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client released as part of the KDE Software Compilation. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE Plasma Workspaces. Kopete was star ...
is released as version 1.0.
KAuth, a cross-platform authentication API, made its début in KDE SC 4.4. Initially only
PolicyKit
Polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a component for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems. It provides an organized way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged ones. Polkit allows a level of control ...
is supported as back-end.
KDE SC 4.5
KDE SC 4.5 was released on 10 August 2010. New features include the integration of the
WebKit
WebKit is a browser engine developed by Apple and primarily used in its Safari web browser, as well as on the iOS and iPadOS version of any web browser. WebKit is also used by the BlackBerry Browser, PlayStation consoles beginning from the PS ...
library, an open-source web browser engine, which is used in major browsers such as
Apple Safari
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple. It is built into macOS, iOS, and iPadOS, and uses Apple's open-source browser engine, WebKit, which was derived from KHTML.
Safari was introduced in Mac OS X Panther in January 2003. It was inclu ...
and
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...
. KDE's own
KHTML
KHTML is a browser engine developed by the KDE project. It is the default engine of the Konqueror browser, but it has not been actively worked on since 2016. Moreover, KHTML will be discontinued for KDE Frameworks 6.
Built on the KParts framewor ...
engine will continue to be developed.
KPackage
KPackage was KDE's package manager frontend.
It supported BSD, Debian, Gentoo, RPM and Slackware packages. It provided a GUI for the management and upgrade of existing packages and the installation and acquirement of new packages. Additionall ...
has been deprecated.
KPackageKit was suggested to replace it but it didn't make it to replace it.
KDE SC 4.6
KDE SC 4.6 was released on 26 January 2011 and has better OpenGL compositing along with the usual myriad of fixes and features.
KDE SC 4.7
KDE SC 4.7 was released on 28 July 2011. This version updated KWin in order to be compatible with OpenGL ES 2.0, which will enhance its portability to mobile and tablet platforms. Other optimizations, such as the use of Qt Quick, were made in order to enhance this portability. This version also brought updates and enhancements to Plasma Desktop such as better network management and updates to certain widgets (like the Kickoff menu) as well as activities.
Aside from the desktop environment, version 4.7 updates many applications within the Software Compilation. Dolphin file manager has been updated to include a cleaner user interface. Marble, the virtual globe software, now supports voice navigation, a map creation wizard, as well as many new plugins. Gwenview image viewer now allows users to compare two or more photos side by side. The Kontact database has also been ported to Akonadi which allows the database to be easily accessible from other applications. Furthermore, the KMail database has also been ported to Akonadi. DigiKam has been updated to support face detection, image versioning, and image tagging. Other applications such as Kate, Kalzium, KAlgebra, KStars, and KDevelop have also been updated in this release. Moreover, version 4.7 fixed over 12,000 bugs.
KDE SC 4.8
Release 4.8 was made available on 25 January 2012.
Plasma Workspaces
KWin's rendering performance was increased by optimizing effect rendering. Window resizing was improved as well.
Other KWin features are: QML based Window switcher (Tabbox), AnimationEffect class and initial
Wayland support.
Applications
A new major version of
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
shipped with KDE Applications 4.8. It has improved performance, better file name display, animated transitions, and many other new and improved features.
Cantor
A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds.
In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...
shipped with additional back-ends based on
Scilab
Scilab is a free and open-source, cross-platform numerical computational package and a high-level, numerically oriented programming language. It can be used for signal processing, statistical analysis, image enhancement, fluid dynamics simulat ...
and Qalculate.
KDE SC 4.9
KDE SC 4.9 was made available on 1 August 2012. The release featured several improvements to the
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...
file manager, including the reintroduction of in-line file renaming, back and forward mouse buttons, improvement of the places panel and better usage of file metadata. Additionally, there were several improvements to
KWin
KWin is a window manager for the X Window System and a Wayland compositor. It is released as a part of KDE Plasma 5, for which it is the default window manager. KWin can also be used on its own or with other desktop environments.
KWin can be c ...
and
Konsole
Konsole is a free and open-source terminal emulator graphical application which is part of KDE Applications and ships with the KDE desktop environment. Konsole was originally written by Lars Doelle. It ls licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later and t ...
. Activities were better integrated with the workspace. Several applications were updated, including
Okular
Okular is a multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. It is distributed as part of the KDE Applications bundle. Its origins are from KPDF and it replaces KPDF, KGhostView, KFax, K ...
,
Kopete
Kopete is a multi-protocol, free software instant messaging client released as part of the KDE Software Compilation. Although it can run in numerous environments, it was designed for and integrates with the KDE Plasma Workspaces. Kopete was star ...
,
Kontact
Kontact is a personal information manager and groupware software suite developed by KDE. It supports calendars, contacts, notes, to-do lists, news, and email. It offers a number of inter-changeable graphical UIs (KMail, KAddressBook, Akregator, ...
, and educational applications.
KDE SC 4.10
KDE SC 4.10 was released on 6 February 2013. Many of the default Plasma widgets were rewritten in
QML
QML (Qt Modeling Language) is a user interface markup language. It is a declarative language (similar to CSS and JSON) for designing user interface–centric applications. Inline JavaScript code handles imperative aspects. It is associated wi ...
, and
Nepomuk
Nepomuk (; german: Pomuk) is a town in Plzeň-South District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 3,700 inhabitants. It is known as the birthplace of Saint John of Nepomuk, who was born here around 1340 and whose statue can b ...
,
Kontact
Kontact is a personal information manager and groupware software suite developed by KDE. It supports calendars, contacts, notes, to-do lists, news, and email. It offers a number of inter-changeable graphical UIs (KMail, KAddressBook, Akregator, ...
and
Okular
Okular is a multiplatform document viewer developed by the KDE community and based on Qt and KDE Frameworks libraries. It is distributed as part of the KDE Applications bundle. Its origins are from KPDF and it replaces KPDF, KGhostView, KFax, K ...
received significant speed improvements.
KDE SC 4.11
4.11 was released on 14 August 2013. Kontact and Nepomuk received many optimizations. The first generation Plasma Workspaces entered maintenance-only development mode.
KDE SC 4.12
KDE SC 4.12 was released on 18 December 2013. Kontact received substantial improvements.
KDE SC 4.13
KDE SC 4.13 was released on 16 April 2014. Nepomuk semantic desktop search was replaced with KDE's in house Baloo. KDE SC 4.13 was released in 53 different translations.
KDE SC 4.14
KDE SC 4.14 was released on 20 August 2014. The release primarily focused on stability, with numerous bugs fixed and few new features added. This was the final KDE SC 4 release.
Release schedule
References
Further reading
*
External links
The KDE websiteKDE DocumentationKDE LocalizationKDE Bug Tracking SystemKDE-Apps KDE and Qt software repository
KDE-LookKDE on Windows InitiativeKDE on Mac OS X
{{KDE
2008 software
KDE Software Compilation