DATELINE AUGUST 19, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The KDE Project Ships Service Enhancement Release for the Leading Linux/UNIX Desktop, Offering Enterprises, Governments, Schools and Others an Outstanding Free and Open Desktop Solution
August 19, 2002 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.0.3, the third generation of KDE's free, powerful desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.0.3 is available in 50 languages and ships with the core KDE libraries, the base desktop environment, an integrated development environment, and hundreds of applications and other desktop enhancements from the other KDE base packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, development, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, and others).
KDE 3.0.3 primarily provides useability and stability enhancements over KDE 3.0.2, which shipped in early July 2002, and also contains a security correction for SSL (Internet security) certificate handling. For a list of some changes since KDE 3.0.2, please see the change log, and for additional information about the SSL certificate handling, please see the separate security advisory.
"KDE 3.0.3 contains an important fix for handling SSL certificates," explained Waldo Bastian, the KDE developer responsible for implementing a fix shortly after the KDE Project became aware of the issue. "Anyone who uses Konqueror for secure transactions on the Internet is strongly urged to upgrade. Users of Internet Explorer, which suffers from the same problem but which does not yet have a fix available, are also encouraged to switch to KDE 3.0.3."
KDE, including all its libraries and its applications, is available for free under Open Source licenses. KDE can be obtained in source and numerous binary formats from the KDE http or ftp mirrors, and can also be obtained on CD-ROM or with any of the major Linux/UNIX systems shipping today.
For more information about the KDE 3 series, please read the KDE 3.0 announcement and the KDE 3.0.3 information page.
Binary Packages. Some Linux/UNIX OS vendors have kindly provided binary packages of KDE 3.0.3 for some versions of their distribution, and in other cases community volunteers have done so. Some of these binary packages are available for free download from KDE's http or ftp mirrors. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available via the KDE servers over the coming weeks.
Please note that the KDE Project makes these packages available from the KDE web site as a convenience to KDE users. The KDE Project is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties - typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution - using tools, compilers, library versions and quality assurance procedures over which KDE exercises no control. In addition, please note that some vendors provide binary packages solely through their servers. If you cannot find a binary package for your OS, or you are displeased with the quality of binary packages available for your OS, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy and/or contact your OS vendor.
Library Requirements / Options. 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 other libraries than was shipped with the system (e.g., LinuxDistro X.Y may have shipped with Qt-3.0.0 but the packages below may require Qt-3.0.3). For general library requirements for KDE, please see the text at Source Code - Library Requirements below.
Package Locations.
At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available through the
KDE servers (or elsewhere, where indicated) for the following distributions
and versions (please be sure to
read any applicable README first):
Binary packages contributed by users rather than the relevant OS vendor are located in the contrib directory.
Additional binary packages will likely become available over the coming days and weeks, so please check the KDE 3.0.3 Info page for updates.
Library Requirements / Options. KDE 3.0.3 requires Qt 3.0.3 for X11. In addition, KDE can take advantage of a number of other optional libraries and applications to improve your desktop experience and capabilities.
Compiler Requirements. KDE is designed to be cross-platform and hence to compile with a large variety of Linux/UNIX compilers. However, KDE is advancing very rapidly and the ability of native compilers on various UNIX systems to compile KDE depends on users of those systems reporting compile problems to the responsible developers.
With respect to the most popular KDE compiler, gcc/egcs, please note that some components of KDE will not compile properly with gcc versions earlier than gcc-2.95, such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2, or with unpatched versions of gcc 3.0.x. However, KDE should compile properly with gcc 3.1 and 3.2.
Source Code / SRPMs. The complete source code for KDE 3.0.3 is available for download. These source packages have been digitally signed with GnuPG using the KDE Archives PGP Key (available from the KDE Signature page or public key servers), and their respective MD5 sums are listed on the KDE 3.0.3 Info Page.
Additionally, source rpms are available for Conectiva Linux, Mandrake Linux and SuSE Linux.
Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.0.3, please consult the installation instructions and, if you should encounter compilation difficulties, the KDE Compilation FAQ.
Besides the superb and invaluable efforts by the KDE developers themselves, significant support for KDE development has been provided by MandrakeSoft and SuSE. In addition, the members of the KDE League provide significant support for KDE promotion, and the University of Tübingen and the University of Kaiserslautern provide most of the Internet bandwidth for the KDE project. Thanks!
KDE is an independent project of hundreds of developers, translators, artists and other professionals worldwide collaborating over the Internet to create and freely distribute a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop and office environment employing a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and offering an outstanding development platform. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop, a full, component-based office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking and administration tools and utilities, and an efficient, intuitive development environment featuring the excellent IDE KDevelop. KDE is working proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.
Trademarks Notices. KDE, K Desktop Environment, KDevelop and KOffice are trademarks of KDE e.V. Compaq, Alpha and Tru64 are either trademarks and/or service marks or registered trademarks and/or service marks of Hewlett-Packard Company. IBM and PowerPC are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Intel is a trademark or registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS. UNIX and Motif are registered trademarks of The Open Group. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.
| Press Contacts: | |
|---|---|
| United States: |
Andreas Pour KDE League, Inc. pour@kdeleague.org (1) 917 312 3122 |
| Europe (French and English): |
David Faure faure@kde.org (33) 4 3250 1445 |
| Europe (German and English): |
Ralf Nolden nolden@kde.org (49) 2421 502758 |
| Europe (English): |
Jono Bacon jono@kde.org |
| Southeast Asia (English and Indonesian): |
Ariya Hidayat ariya@kde.org (62) 815 8703177 |