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Curious about how the next generation of KDE looks like? Be curious no more: here’s a bleeding-edge (really, sometimes it bleeds) look at the latest — 3.94 — beta of KDE 4.

I’ve been following KDE since KDE 1.1 was released — in fact, back in the day, I used to compile KDE from source. Being the grownup that I am today, I no longer have the time to indulge in days-long compilation — instant gratification is the name of the game for me nowadays. Nevertheless, installing KDE betas has always been an interesting experience for me.

Evidently, I rejoiced when I discovered that Kubuntu is carrying the latest betas of KDE 4. After following the instructions on the aforementioned page, and installing the kde4base-dev package, I started to screencap and document the newest release.

There’s a new article called A cursory look into KDE 4 file management: Dolphin beta to go along this article. Make sure you check it out afterwards!

##First impressions

I took home two distinct impressions:

1. KDE 4 started up faster than KDE 3 on my system.
2. There’s *no* flicker. KDE 3 applications used to flicker all the time. KDE 4 apps don’t anymore.

Long live Trolltech and Qt4 — I understand it’s in no small part responsible for these dramatic improvements.

For now, here are some key points to notice:

- It’s broken. If you know your way around a computer, you might be able to take advantage of it (so-to-speak).
- It’s gorgeous and interesting.
- It’s not gonna eat your configuration, since it uses a separate configuration directory. So it’s generally safe.
- It’s a big download. Dialup need not apply.

##It’s all horribly broken right now

That’s right. KDE 4 starts up half-drunk and half-broken. In my opinion, this beta is (judging from the developmental stage) not really a beta but rather closer to alpha quality.

I don’t mind. KDE has always rocked, and even in its utter brokenness, it’s still awesome:

These first screenshots show you how KDE starts up. The picture of the devs in the splash screen is a nice touch! And the desktop appears unusually clean. That would be a good thing, except for the glaring absence of a menu with which to launch applications. All my attempts to add one were futile.

##Plasma

KDE abandons the “desktop-as-scratch-folder” metaphor. It also abandons the notion of a panel separate from the desktop (Kicker’s dead. Long live Kicker damnit!.). Don’t be fooled — there *is* a panel as you can see in the screenshots. It’s just that now any object you want to place on the desktop can also be placed on the panel, and viceversa. This concept is called Plasma, and while it’s still rough on the edges, it’s a true revolution.

Let’s take a look at the desktop toolbox — where Plasma applets dwell before being added:

After toying around with the toolbox, these are a few examples of what I got:

 

Interesting, huh? The picture frame looks awesome both in concept and in real life.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 9:17 and is filed under Free software, KDE, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.