KDE's Seigo gives sneak peek at version 4.3

Rodney Gedda

Rodney Gedda is the former deputy editor of CIO and former editor of Techworld.

Core KDE developer Aaron Seigo posted a much-anticipated screencast of the upcoming 4.3 release. This snapshot is approaching the final release (due in a month) and comes after more than 2300 bugs (including duplicates) were closed.

Despite all the doubts about the initial direction of the KDE 4 series, the project is moving ahead well and, at the very least, 4.3 should finally dispel any claims that it is not ready for general consumption.

Watch the YouTube video and make your own decision about where the KDE project is headed. Right or wrong direction, what do you think?

Plasma, KDE's desktop shell and widget development platform, is beginning to get up and run bringing a unified, network-transparent, and context-aware environment to the free desktop.

Indeed, one of the design goals of Plasma was not simply to be just another widget set, but to re-define the way people can manage information on the desktop.

As KDE passes 4.3 (and 4.4 is already in the works, BTW) and the Linux kernel matures, 2009 looks like being a bigger than ever year for the free desktop. And, no, I won't go and make another “year of the Linux desktop” prediction!

Couple the free software developments with the release of Vista and Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and 2009 is already a much better year for everyone's desktop.

We've been starved of desktop innovation for years, so it's good to see KDE serving up a radical new direction.