Features/KDE43

KDE 4.3

Summary

Rebase to KDE 4.3 and offers new features such Phonon Gstreamer back end as the default

Owner

• KDE SIG
• IRC: #fedora-kde

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 42
• Last updated: 2009-07-16
• Percentage of completion: 30%

Current status: 4.2.95 already in Rawhide. 4.2.96 tarballs and version bumps committed to CVS, not built yet.

Detailed Description

We are going to rebase KDE to 4.3 version.

New features overview

• KDE 4.3
  • Plasma:
    • new default theme, Air
    • improved job and notification management
    • fully configurable keyboard shortcuts
    • new and improved Plasma widgets
  • faster Systemsettings with an optional treeview
  • new effects like "Sheet" and "Slide Back" and better performance in KWin
  • Applications:
    • Solid integration in KGpg
    • Ark supports LZMA/XZ
    • improved contact list in Kopete
    • Google Calendar synchronization in KOrganizer
    • new Bug Report Tool
    • KDELirc, a frontend for the Linux Infrared Remote Control system (LIRC)
• DeviceKit Solid backend
• PolicyKit KDE frontend
• Gstreamer Phonon backend as default
• Continue work on Fedora branding effort

Benefit to Fedora

KDE is popular, feature rich and stable desktop environment used by lot of Fedora users.

Scope

Requires rebasing to the latest upstream version and preparing distribution specific patches.

Modified packages

How To Test

1. yum groupinstall "KDE (K Desktop Environment)"
2. set KDE as default environment + KDM
3. login to KDE desktop

or use Fedora KDE Desktop spin

What should be checked (KDE):

• distribution integration - (Policy/Console/Device)Kit, DBUS
• custom branding changes (KDM theme, KSplash theme, artwork) - for Preview Release

We are working on test plan for KDE QA.

User Experience

Modern, feature rich and stable desktop environment.

Dependencies

Depends on upstream KDE 4.3 release, see [1].

Custom Fedora branding depends on Fedora Artwork team!

Contingency Plan

Given how the KDE 4.3 and Fedora 12 schedules align, there should be plenty of buffer time between the KDE 4.3 and Fedora 12 releases. We are already working on importing and polishing beta version of KDE. In case of problems with upstream release we can revert to older release or we can omit individual problematic modules of this feature. KDE 4.3 could be later shipped as an update.

Documentation

The Fedora KDE Destop User Guide is very important part of this feature for users. It guides users how-to use the new KDE 4 Desktop and it's targeted to both former KDE 3.5 user and first time KDE 4 users.

Fedora KDE Desktop User Guide (draft)

Upstream documentation sites:

• http://docs.kde.org/
• http://www.kde.org/documentation/

Release Notes

This release features KDE 4.3.

KDE 4.3 is the latest release of KDE 4. There are a lot of enhancements and new features. Plasma has new Air look, improved job and notification management and fully configurable keyboard shortcuts. There are also new Plasma widgets and existings ones are improved. KWin is optimized for performance and brings new desktop effects to KDE. KDE now contains new bug reporting tool, DeviceKit integration and PolicyKit support. GStreamer Phonon backend is now default one.

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/KDE43

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