KDE release adds 2,000 features

"Code-named "Caizen," release 4.3 offers a wide variety of enhancements to KDE, which competes with Gnome as well as smaller players in the competition for Linux desktop environments. The release is expected to show up in major Linux distributions in a few months.

"Improvements have been made to all the major elements of the KDE Desktop Workspace, including the Plasma Desktop Shell, the KWin window manager, Dolphin network- and content-aware file manager, KRunner search and launch system, and SystemSettings menus, says the KDE Community. Some of the biggest changes have occurred with the Plasma Desktop Shell, KDE's desktop and panels system, which offers customizable widgets.

"Sporting a new "Air" default theme (see above), the Plasma Desktop Shell boasts considerable performance improvements, with reduced memory usage and smoother animations, claims the project. Activities can now be tied to virtual desktops, enabling different sets of widgets for each desktop. Running jobs are now grouped in a single progress bar, and animations signify when jobs are running. Additional changes include improved keyboard shortcuts, easier widget creation, and new widgets such as a "Translatoid widget" that channels Google Translate."

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