DATELINE JULY 4, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New KDE Beta Released for Linux Desktop

KDE Ships Beta of Leading Desktop with Advanced Web Browser, Anti-Aliased Font Capabilities for Linux and Other UNIXes

July 4, 2001 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the release of KDE 2.2beta1, a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux. KDE features Konqueror, a state-of-the-art web browser, as an integrated component of its user-friendly desktop environment, as well as KDevelop, an advanced IDE, as a central component of KDE's powerful development environment. KDE 2.2beta1 completely integrates the XFree anti-aliased font extensions and can provide a fully anti-aliased font-enabled desktop.

The primary goals of this release, which follows two months after the release of KDE 2.1.2, are to provide a preview of KDE 2.2 and to involve users and developers who wish to request/implement missing features or identify problems. Code development is currently focused on stabilizing KDE 2.2, scheduled for final release later this quarter. Despite all the improvements, KDE 2.2 will be binary compatible with KDE 2.0.

Major changes to KDE since the last stable release are enumerated below. In addition, a more thorough list of changes since the KDE 2.1.1 release, as well as information on using anti-aliased fonts with KDE, are available at the KDE website.

KDE 2.2beta1 and all its components are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE server and its mirrors (including many precompiled packages) and can also be obtained on CD-ROM. As a result of the dedicated efforts of hundreds of translators, KDE 2.2beta1 is available in 38 languages and dialects. KDE 2.2beta1 ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment (including Konqueror), developer packages (including KDevelop), as well as the over 100 applications from the other standard base KDE packages (addons, administration, artwork, bindings, games, graphics, multimedia, SDK, network, PIM and utilities).

Incremental Changelog

The following are the major improvements, enhancements and fixes since the KDE 2.1 release earlier this year:

For a much more complete list, please read the official ChangeLog.

Downloading and Compiling KDE

Source Packages. The source packages for KDE 2.2beta1 are available for free download at http://ftp.kde.org/unstable/2.2beta1/src/ or in the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors.

Library Requirements. KDE 2.2beta1 requires at least qt-x11-2.2.4, which is available from Trolltech at ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/ under the name qt-x11-2.2.4.tar.gz, although qt-2.3.1 is recommended (for anti-aliased fonts, qt-2.3.0 and XFree 4.0.3 or newer is required). KDE 2.2beta1 will not work with versions of Qt older than 2.2.4.

Compiler Requirements. Please note that gcc 3.0 is not recommended for compilation of KDE 2.2beta1. Several known miscompilations of production C++ code (such as virtual inheritance, which is used in aRts) occur with this compiler. The problems are mostly known and the KDE team is working with the gcc team to fix them.

Further Instructions. For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE, please consult the installation instructions and, if you encounter problems, the compilation FAQ.

Installing Binary Packages

Binary Packages. Some distributors choose to provide binary packages of KDE for certain versions of their distribution. Some of these binary packages for KDE 2.2beta1 will be available for free download under http://ftp.kde.org/unstable/2.2beta1/ or under the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server mirrors. Please note that the KDE team is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties -- typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution (if you cannot find a binary package for your distribution, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy).

Library Requirements. The library requirements for a particular binary package vary with the system on which the package was compiled. Please bear in mind that some binary packages may require a newer version of Qt and/or KDE than was included with the particular version of a distribution for which the binary package is listed below (e.g., LinuxDistro 8.0 may have shipped with qt-2.2.3 but the packages below may require qt-2.3.x). For general library requirements for KDE, please see the text at Source Code - Library Requirements above.

Package Locations. At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:

Please check the servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other distributions. More binary packages will become available over the coming days and weeks. In particular, RedHat Linux packages should be available shortly.

About KDE

KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environment employing a component-based, network-transparent architecture. KDE is working proof of the power of the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model to create first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

Please visit the KDE family of web sites for the KDE FAQ, screenshots, KOffice information, developer information and a developer's KDE 1 - KDE 2 porting guide. Much more information about KDE is available from KDE's web site.


Trademarks Notices. KDE and K Desktop Environment are trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Unix is a registered trademark of The Open Group. PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.

Press Contacts:
United States: Kurt Granroth
granroth@kde.org
(1) 480 732 1752
 
Andreas Pour
pour@kde.org
(1) 917 312 3122
Europe (French and English): David Faure
faure@kde.org
(44) 1225 837409
Europe (English and German): Martin Konold
konold@kde.org
(49) 179 2252249