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10 August 2010, 15:54

KDE SC 4.5 final arrives

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KDE Logo Following a one week delay, the KDE Project release team have announced the arrival of version 4.5 of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC), the latest major release of the popular Linux and Unix desktop. According to the developers, the major update to the free open source K Desktop Environment (KDE) has focused on overall stability and includes various updates to the development platform, the applications compilation and the plasma workspaces.

KDE SC 4.5 addresses more than 16,000 bugs and features a new caching mechanism for applications called KSharedDataCache, resulting in noticeable speed improvements. The ability to configure Plasma Workspaces using JavaScript templates – distributable as small, separate packages – has been added to make it easier for system administrators to set-up custom configurations for users or to change the default set-up. The Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces have also received several updates, including improvements to the notification area in the panel. The KWin window manager component can now lay-out windows without overlapping, using tiling algorithms. Other changes include usability, performance and touch screen improvements for the Plasma Netbook workspace for netbooks and a restructured workspace configuration page under System Settings.


Zoom The KDE SC 4.5 desktop running the Konqueror browser.
The included applications and games have received several upgrades and additions. A new four-player Mahjongg game called Kajongg, written entirely in Python, is included and the Konquest game now lets users create and customise their own maps. The Marble virtual globe application includes the option to download map data and there is a new route planning feature. The program's mapping features are based on data from the OpenStreetMap project and the route planning is based on OpenRouteService.org. The Konqueror web browser adds support for the WebKit rendering engine and Adblock lists can now be automatically updated.

More details about the semi-annual release can be found on the KDE SC 4.5 Info Page and in the official release announcement. Source packages for self-compilation and binary packages for various Linux distributions are available to download from the project's website. KDE is licensed under a combination of the LGPLv2, BSD, MIT and X11 licences for core libraries and the GPLv2 or GPLv3 for applications.

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