KDE SC 4.6 RC1 lacks KDE PIM

Following two beta versions, the KDE project development team has announced the arrival of a first release candidate (RC1) for version 4.6 of the KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC), a development preview of the next major release of this popular Linux and Unix desktop manager. Aimed at early adopters and testers that would like an early look at what's coming in the next major release of KDE, the RC1 release focuses on fixing bugs, as well as completing translations and artwork.

KDE SC 4.6 RC1, code named "Chanukkah", features the latest updates for the Plasma workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Platform. The developers note that they have not included the latest version of KDE PIM, which contains the Kontact personal information manager and the new KMail2 which is based on the Akonadi framework for storing data, due to an open issue related to migrating large sets of data from the traditional client.

As with all development releases, use in production environments and on mission critical systems is not advised. Users testing the release are encouraged to provide feedback and report any bugs that they encounter.

Further information about the development preview can be found in the official release announcement and on the KDE SC 4.5.90 Info Page. Source code for self-compilation and binary packages for various Linux distributions are available to download from the project's web site. The final version of KDE SC 4.6.0 is expected to arrive on 26 January 2011.

KDE is licensed under a combination of the LGPLv2, BSD, MIT and X11 licences for core libraries and the GPLv2 or GPLv3 for applications. The latest stable release is KDE SC 4.5.4, a maintenance update from 2 December – the next bug fix update, KDE SC 4.5.5, is scheduled for release on 4 January.

See also:

• Amarok 2.4 Beta 1 adds new features, a report from The H.
• KDE: KOffice becomes the Calligra Suite, a report from The H.
• Third beta of KDE PIM Suite uses Akonadi, a report from The H.

(crve)