To check out this new version, I used openSUSE 11.1. SUSE and KDE developers have long worked hand in glove with each other. So, whenever you want to try out the latest versions of KDE, the easiest way to is to use one of the openSUSE KDE builds.

What really struck me about this release aren’t any of the new features. Instead, it was the improvement in its overall performance and looks that caught my attention.

The new desktop style, Plasma Air, is both very attractive and very flexible. It’s a nice combination. I’m both happy with its default look and feel, and I appreciate that I can easily set it to working the way I want it to work.

If you’ve been sticking with KDE 3.5.x, or if you’ve never tried KDE before, the KDE 4.3 release might be a good time to take another look when it’s released. You can find KDE live CDs here, courtesy of Stephan Binner. KDE 4.3 RC 3 images are available now.

John is still using Fedora 8 in part because he’s not a big fan of KDE 4 — an interesting data point. When I mentioned that Fedora 10 would include KDE 4.1 (addressing a lot of the stability problems that people have disliked in Fedora 9), he indicated that it wasn’t KDE 4.0 versus 4.1 that was the problem, but more that he simply preferred the general KDE 3 architecture. This is not the first time we’ve heard about loyal KDE users who prefer KDE 3 to KDE 4, but it’s an anecdote that I thought our KDE team might want to hear. I wonder if there is sufficient demand for the older KDE as to warrant a Fedora Spin that is essentially “Fedora 10 but with the latest KDE 3.x code instead of KDE 4.x code”. I use GNOME, so I don’t presume to make suggestions. I’m just trying to offer some reporting, and let the KDE experts make the decisions that they think are best.

A reminder, KDE 3.5x and KDE 4.1x will both be available on openSUSE media for openSUSE 11.1 — meaning the DVD images and DVDs produced for shows and so forth — but KDE 3.5 will be listed as one of the “extra” desktop environments, rather than as a primary DE in the installer.

It’s been a major topic of debate over the past few weeks on the factory list and in other arenas. I’m sorry to say that not all of the discussion has been productive or positive — but we have gotten a huge amount of feedback, and the KDE team has decided on a course of action.

The long and short of it is that KDE 3.5x and KDE 4.1x will both be available on openSUSE media for openSUSE 11.1 — meaning the DVD images and DVDs produced for shows and so forth — but KDE 3.5 will be listed as one of the “extra” desktop environments, rather than as a primary DE in the installer.

There’s been a great deal of grumbling about the state of KDE and whether or not KDE 4.x is a suitable replacement for KDE 3.x. Some of it has been constructive and valid, some of it has been less so — but I’d like to remind people that the openSUSE developers are working with what the upstream project is producing. If you’re unhappy with KDE 4 and want to use KDE 3 indefinitely, then that’s possible — but community members are going to have to step up and start maintaining those packages.

That is the beauty of open source, of course — the source is available, and the licensing gives you every right to maintain any project like KDE as long as you want to keep using it.

From a downstream standpoint, the transition has been a bit of a challenge, to put it mildly, and I think our KDE team deserves major kudos for the work they’ve put in polishing KDE 4 while also maintaining the 3.x branch.

Do I sound biased? Oops! What can I say? I love the openSUSE green….

If you’re running openSUSE 11.0 or 10.3 already and want the 4.1.1 packages, you can grab those as well. Check out the wiki and pick the right one-click installer for you. (Also linked off the official KDE 4.1.1 announcement.)

Thanks Carlos!

I’m going to be whipping these packages onto one of my systems today to give 4.1 a test drive. If you’re a KDE user and want to help shake out bugs prior to 11.1 for the KDE 4.x series, you might want to give it a shot too. Share and enjoy!

There’s a discussion going on in the Factory mailing list about how to arrange the desktop choices when a user installs openSUSE 11.0. Stephan Kulow posted a screenshot of the selector to the list:

Of course, there were the inevitable (but polite!) comments regarding the order of the selection. I do like the suggestion that we replace the radio buttons with checkboxes, so users can choose multiple desktops from this screen.

And then Lukas Ocilka provides the helpful suggestion to arrange the desktop selections in a circle, so as to show no preference whatsoever.

As a sometimes Xfce user, I’d like to see that choice added to the list. Perhaps we should add Xfce and then place the desktops in reverse alphabetical order…

Maybe we could take a cue from Google, and add an “I’m Feeling Lucky” button here. Users who don’t have a strong preference could just take the luck of the draw and have the opportunity to get to know a new desktop environment.

Of course, it really matters very little what order the desktop choices are ordered in — the majority of users are going to pick the desktop that they’re familiar with, and it won’t matter if that choice is placed first, second, or third. The users who have no idea which desktop is which are probably going to pick the desktop that has the most appealing (for them) description — not the desktop that happens to be placed first.

Given that the two projects are working quite well together these days, it shouldn’t really matter much whether KDE or GNOME gets top billing, and not worth spending a lot of cycles on.

If you can’t attend and/or just want to know what’s discussed, the logs are posted after the meetings — so check the wiki for the transcripts after the meetings.

First thing this morning I went to the General Session (a.k.a. “keynote”) with Ron Hovsepian, Jeff Jaffe, John Dragoon, and Jim Ebzery. (If you couldn’t make it, or just want to relive the experience, the vids are already up on the BrainShare site here.) The room was packed — not sure how many people were at the general session, but it was a huge room, and looked quite full from where I was sitting.

Jeff talked about Novell’s Fossa project, which is about “computing and collaborating with agility.” (The fossa is a particularly agile animal that’s native to Madagascar.) Jeff spent a fair amount of time talking about Linux and the importance of open source to Novell’s strategy.

Even though I knew that already, it’s good to hear it articulated during a major keynote like this — and, of course, it’s important to talk about with Novell’s partners and customers. One of the things I’m enjoying at BrainShare is the opportunity to talk with people who’ve been using Novell stuff for years and years, and who are getting excited about Linux and open source. It’s also fun to get to talk about openSUSE with BrainShare attendees.

I had a chance to wander backstage after the keynote… I don’t mind saying that Novell really has some grade A showmanship going on. Seriously — I’ve spent quite a lot of time attending trade shows as a journalist, and I don’t think that I’ve been to any other shows that are quite so well-produced. (The Salt Palace, by the way, is huge — I wonder if I can rent a bike for getting from the Technology Lab to the Press Room…) After the session I spent a fair amount of time catching up with fellow Novell employees that I typically only interact with over the phone, or via email and IM, and spending some time at the openSUSE counter in the Technology Lab.

Tomorrow Adrian and I will be giving a presentation on KDE4 at 4 p.m. We went over it this afternoon, and I think it’s going to be a good session — many thanks to Will Stephenson who put the presentation together originally, but was unable to be at BrainShare to do the presentation himself.

If you’re at BrainShare, be sure to stop by the openSUSE booth in the Novell Technology Lab. We’re showing off openSUSE Factory and answering questions about openSUSE development and the build service.