On Thursday, the KDE Project announced the immediate availability of the first beta of KDE 3.1 beta1, the third generation of KDE's free Internet-enabled desktop for Linux and other UNIXes.
KDE 3.1, scheduled for final release in October 2002, will provide substantial improvements to the KDE desktop experience, the organization said. As the KDE 3 API is frozen for binary compatibility, KDE 3.1 will be binary compatible with KDE 3.0.
KDE 3.1 beta1 ships with the core KDE libraries, the base desktop environment, and hundreds of applications and other desktop enhancements from the other KDE base packages, including PIMs, administration, network, edutainment, development, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, and others.
The primary goal of the 3.1beta1 release is to engage experimental KDE users. KDE, including all its libraries and its applications, is available for free under Open Source licenses. KDE can be obtained in source and, for stable releases, in numerous binary formats from the KDE http or ftp mirrors, and can also be obtained on CD-ROM or with any of the major Linux/UNIX systems shipping today.
Feature enhancements include the inclusion of the Konqueror web browser with tabbed browsing; an enhanced Kmail email application, with enhanced privacy features; improved address books and file broswers, with image thumbnails; new games, including a golf game, a Monopoly clone and Blackjack; an enhanced graphics, theme managers, and other features.
The beta can be downloaded either from this list of http or ftp beta sites.
Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in ExtremeTech.
