KDE 3.0 Beta 1 Released

Dec 20, 2001, 00:04 (16 Talkback[s])

[ Thanks to Hap for this link. ]

December 19, 2001 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KDE 3.0beta1, the third generation of KDE's free, powerful, easy-to-use, Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. This second pre-release of KDE 3.0, which follows two months after the release of KDE 3.0alpha, ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment, and over 100 applications from the other base KDE packages (administration, multimedia, network, PIM, utilities, development, etc.). KDE 3.0 is scheduled for final release in the second quarter 2002, with one or more intervening "RC" releases preceding the final release. The KDE Project will demonstrate the latest pre-release of KDE 3 at the LinuxWorld Expo in New York (Jan. 29 - Feb. 1, 2002).

"Beta1 is a stabilized snapshot of the current KDE 3 development branch and is meant for testers, developers and translators," explained Dirk Mueller, the KDE 3 release coordinator. "Users can assist in the development effort by testing this release and providing constructive feedback or helping to update or complete documentation. We're especially interested in feedback about the support for RTL languages and about the new KDE 3 features. For developers, now is a great time to complete porting your applications to KDE 3, or to pitch in and help implement the still-incomplete planned features. In addition, the KDE translation project needs new contributors who can translate KDE 3 into their native language. Translation is another great way for non-programmers to contribute to the continuing success and rapid improvement of KDE."

The primary goals of the 3.0beta1 release are to:

• enlist volunteers to help find bugs and provide constructive feedback through the KDE bugs database, and to help complete or update KDE documentation;
• provide a stable API so developers can port their KDE 2 applications to KDE 3;
• solicit developer feature requests before the KDE 3 API is finally frozen for binary compatibility, as well as developer assistance in completing the planned features; and
• provide a consistent snapshot for the translation teams (this release already provides some support for 57 languages).

Press Release