The K Desktop Environment (of kortweg KDE) is zoals de naam het al aangeeft een desktopomgeving, maar dan specifiek voor Unix-achtige systemen. De ontwikkelaars van KDE hebben onlangs de tweede bètaversie van de 4.0-tak uitgebracht, die vanaf deze pagina gedownload kan worden in de vorm van versie 3.93. Tweakers die de nieuwbakken KDE willen testen zonder deze te installeren, kunnen gebruikmaken van de live-cd waarop een versie van OpenSuse staat met KDE 4.0 beta 2, KOffice 2 SVN en Amarok 2 SVN. Wat er zoal getest wordt in de tweede bèta kan nagelezen worden in dit document:
The KDE Community proudly presents the second Beta release for KDE 4.0. This release marks the beginning of the feature freeze and the stabilization of the current codebase. Simultaneously the KOffice developers have released their third Alpha release, marking significant improvements in this innovative office suite. Both KDE and KOffice have benefited from the Google Summer of Code, as most resulting code has now been merged.
Since the libraries were frozen with the first Beta, KDE developers have been adding features and functionality to their applications. Now it is time to start polishing these features; writing and translating documentation, improving the usability, and completing the artwork. As KDE 4.0 is feature-frozen now, going into bugfixing mode, major ideas and changes will be held off until 4.1. However, some KDE components, such as Plasma, are exempt from this freeze and will still see significant improvements.[break] De desktop van KDE 4.0 beta 2 - klik op de prent voor een grotere afbeelding