KDE 2.0 FC 1 (aka 1.93) was . This release contains only bug fixes, in preparation for KDE 2.0. They included fixed proxy support, konqueror speedups and fixes, improved KWord Winword filter, and bug fixes to everything. KDE 2.0 will be released in early September. No PowerPC binaries are yet avaliable, however expect 2.0 binaries when KDE 2.0 is released.

Yesterday afternoon, KDE 1.90 was released. It is the first in a set of 3 to 5 betas planned in KDE release cycle. Many of the core features are stable, however the themeing support will be reworked again, among other things. In my experience KDE should compile cleanly on the PowerPC, if you have problems try using CXXFLAGS="-fpermissive" before using ./configure.

Ever want to have a program start iconified or maximized in KDE (from a script or a button)? Their is a real simple way to do this, use the kstart command.

was released today. Featuring qt 2.1 and KDE 2.0 support, this client has many features you would expect in a IRC Client, and many you wouldn't (like a handy file system browser). I haven't yet tried it on the PowerPC, but if you are brave soul, try it out and tell us if it works.

KDE 1.91 (2.0 Beta 2) of the K Desktop Enviroment was today. Many items have been improved since Beta 1, and several features were added. This version offers a stable API (except for a few non-core areas) for developing KDE 2.0 apps. It should be noted that this release is still far from complete, several new apps will be added in the future (including ), bug fixes, interface work, and speedups.

An excerpt:

"I am maintaining the file manager which is Konqueror, and I was maintaining KFM; the first version of it, and I am working on the rewrite of KFM, but Konqueror is not just a file manager - it's a browser; it's a viewer for any kind of documents."

KDE 2.0 will be released in 2 months, around September 4, including packages. July 18, KDE 2.0 will go into a feature freeze, anything after it will be bug fixes, documentation and implementing "missing features". July 25, KDE 1.92 aka KDE 2.0beta 3 will be released. In the middle of August, KDE 2.0 final candiate will be released. You can read the schedule in detail on the . Check frequently for PowerPC Linux debs and RPMS of KDE 2.

over at Resexcellence focuses at fixing Xsetup_0 so kdm loads kdmdesktop picture instead of the default LinuxPPC 2000 Desktop Picture.

was released today. With many improvements over Beta 2, especially in the stability department, it's worth a look. This is the last release before KDE 2.0 Final Candiate 1, planned for the middle of August. KDE has created a with info on many of the new KDE 2 features. Finally, Ian Geiseri is working on some PowerPC RPMS of KDE 2.0 Beta 3, direct links to them will be avalible on iMacLinux Files.

Update (Aug. 2 - 1:52 PM): KDE has several new now up. Check them out!

KDE 2.0 is set to be released in the next week. This article gives a quick rundown on what it has to offer to iMacLinux (and other PowerPC Linux) user out there. This article doesn't even start to go into detail with everything new and exciting it brings the PowerPC platform.

A KDE 2.0 beta is now part of Debian Woody (thanks to Qt being GPL'd), and is shown on the Debian's page. It is still out of sync on all platforms, so it won't be avalible on the PowerPC for a few days.

KDE has opened a new interactive forum and news site at , similar to . Worth taking a look at, since there isn't much better to read. ;)

I have installed some newer KDE debian PowerPC pacakges (the "offical" ones in Debian Unstable from 09/20). This version seemed much faster then the ones from about a month ago, so I decided to test using a nearby clock the speed of KWord, and compare it to Microsoft Word. The results (on my PowerMac 4400) were about a 20 seconds for a complete startup of Microsoft Word 98, and about 14 seconds for KWord. Pretty impressive, especially compared to previous versions which were far slower. Of course these results weren't scientific, or really useful, but they do show that Kword is now very fast at starting up.

It looks like KDE2 is about ready. Click read more for the full schedule.

ben writes: I wonder if KDE2.0 pakcages are ready for PPC or not? The Intel based camp are enjoying the newest version now. In general, KDE 2.0 works as well on the PowerPC as it does on the x86 platform. (continues...)

Do you want to try out the lightweight Konqueror browser, but don't want the weight of KDE 2 running to run it? The Konqueror-NOX project, is a version of Konqueror the compiles without the need of kdelibs. It works with standard X11 Qt (statically or dynamically linked depending on your prefernece) or alternatively with Qt for framebuffer (aka Qt Embedded).

KDE 2.1 is slated to be released in 1 1/2 weeks (on Monday, Feb. 26). There are many exciting new features in this release, including some features that users missed in 2.0, that existed in 1.1.2 (such as a Theme Manager, logout/lock screen button, Window Menu), along with many new ones like a better HTML rendering, image and HTML thumbnails, sharp looking control panel/konqueror graphics and more. Read more about it at .

If you can't wait for an offical release, Ian Geiser has , which included patched qt and XFree86 4.02 for the render extension anti-aliasing. Debian Woody and Pool also have 2.1 snapshot packages that are apt-get'able.

Finally, Resexcellence has an on installing KDE 2.1 on RPM-based PowerPC Linux distros.

Yeah, KDE was out on Monday. It's kinda embarassing that I/we forgot to post it. You can get it . There are OFFICIAL(!) powerppc RPMS and DEBs. For the first time ever, I actually installed the binary version of KDE. It's cool. So just try it :-)

Michael at Resexcellence has posted a new set of KDE 2.1 button and panel pixmaps. You can get them .

Ian Geiser this evening on IRC noted that work on porting to PowerPC Linux has started. He hopes to have a working version by this weekend. The objprelink hack should greatly reduce the time that KDE 2.2 applications take starting up, by reducing the number of time-expensive run-time relocations. Details of this hack can be found . On the i386 platform, Konqueror starts up twice as fast with this hack.

According to , KDE version 2.2 has been officially released yesterday.
The K Desktop Environment is a popular GUI based on the Qt graphics library by .

New features include improved support for plugins in Konqueror, the built-in file and web browser, support for smoothed fonts, many bug fixes and new or improved versions of included tools.

Source code and precompiled binaries for SuSE and Mandrake are available at .

According to KDE News, the today announced the release of 1.1. KOffice is a free, integrated office suite for KDE which utilizes open standards for component communication and component embedding. KOffice 1.1 constitutes the most stable and feature-complete release of KOffice to date. The KOffice team encourages all users of earlier KOffice releases to upgrade to KOffice 1.1.

According to on slashdot.org, KDE 3.0 alpha1 is now available for developers. KDE is a graphical desktop environment for Linux. You can read the announcement .

Version 2.2.2 of the popular KDE GUI has been released. It includes some new features and bug fixes. It will most probably be the last 2.x.x version of KDE before KDE 3.x is going to be out.

A complete changelog and download links can be found .

KDEPrint is the printing layer of , making the bridge between KDE applications and your printing daemon. An has gone online, providing advanced documentation, FAQs and screenshots.

The today announced the immediate release of . KOffice is an integrated office suite for KDE which utilizes open standards for component communication and component embedding. KOffice 1.1.1 constitutes the most stable and feature-complete release of KOffice to date, and the KOffice team encourages all users of earlier KOffice releases to upgrade to KOffice 1.1.1.

"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.

Details about the upcoming 3rd version of the popular Linux desktop as well as download links to the beta can be found .

I've put together a short howto teaching the basics of using the dcop command line program in KDE to do neat things with your KDE desktop -- like using a script to automatically display a desktop picture, change CD tracks or update KWeather info.

If you want to access your HFS+ partitions from konqueror, you may want to check out Jon Riddell's . He is currently looking for people to test this version.

Jonathan Riddell, the person behind the revolutionary beeping feature in KDE 3.0's IRC client, today announced version 0.7. Kio-mac lets any KDE user read MacOS filesystems as easy as Linux filesystems. For more information see TuxPPC's kio-mac introduction.

The KDE Project today announced the immediate release of KDE 3.0beta2, the third pre-release of the third generation of KDE's free, powerful, easy-to-use, Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. This KDE 3.0 beta ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment, and over 100 applications from the other base KDE packages (administration, games, multimedia, network, PIM, utilities, artwork, addons, development, edutainment, bindings, etc.). KDE 3.0 is scheduled for final release early in the second quarter 2002, with one or more intervening "RC" releases preceding the final release.

More info , first PPC packages for Mandrake and SuSE available.

, which lets KDE users see MacOS disks from Konqueror, has turned 1. The release gets round a wee problem with KDE 3 betas and has a better icon and version number.

On hearing of the jubilee, Tony Blair announced street parties were to be help throughout the commonwealth. George Bush declared the 21st century "the kio-mac century" and branded kio-mac as an "axis of pure dead radge".

Roland Seuhs has sent us a link to a nice of KDE, describing its features, and giving special credits to those nice things that make it different from MacOS or Windows. Screenshots included.

is a new KDE documentation site which features KDE user documentation for both the 2.2.2 and HEAD (updated daily) branches. The documentation is both browseable and searchable. While only available in English at this juncture, the goal is to eventually add all the translated documentation as well.

The premier flowcharting, graphing and vector graphics package for Linux now has a new release with more features and bug fixes. is similar to Visio from Microsoft but it goes beyond just using stencils to provide generic vector graphic ability as found in Corel Draw that allow you to mix types of images on a page.

The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.0, the third generation of the free and powerful desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.0 is available in 49 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 (administration, artwork, development, edutainment, development, Games, Multimedia, PIM, utilities, and more). Read the .

RPM packages are available for SuSE PPC, Mandrake PPC and YDL.

: "For once, I wish I could rate the installation process separately from the product itself. The K Desktop Environment (KDE) is a nice, mature Graphical User Interface (GUI). It's been around for years, a lot of people like it, and it's free. Can't ask for much more than that. The huge problem is this, though: getting a new version of KDE installed is a big pain. Once you actually get into the GUI itself it's great and a lot of fun."

Note: I personally can't share the "difficult to install" bit, I was able to upgrade my KDE2 install to KDE3 within a few minutes without any hassle. On the other hand, I know that (logically) libraries have to be installed before the rest :P

Mosfet has released version 0.9.4 of his for KDE 3 on Linux. The Liquid theme makes KDE 3's interface look a lot like MacOS X by imitating aspects of the Aqua interface.

Fixes were made for improper combobox width, stipple alignment in dialog boxes, maximize button repainting, and Liquid errors visible in KVirc. Toolbar button frames are now optional. Mouse hover behavior was modified.

KDE 3.0.1 is primarily a translation release for KDE 3.0, which shipped in early April. In addition, KDE 3.0.1 offers a number of performance and usability enhancements. For an extended list of changes since KDE 3.0, please see the .

PPC packages for SuSE 7.3 or source packages can be found .

A possible exploit has been found in KDE 3.0.2's included artswrapper. Read more on the fix . Patch em if you've got them folks (or just unset suid bit as stated in alert).

kio-mac, the masterful KDE module to let you read MacOS's HFS+ formatted disks has now been released for KDE 3. Grab it now at before the rush. Future releases will be as part of KDE (3.1).

KDE 3.0.3 has been released. You can read the announcement . The annoucement includes links to the version.