KDE 4.11 Beginning to Take Shape

It's been just a week since KDE 4.10.3 was announced, but 4.11 is already reaching its first milestone freeze. TSDgeos reminded developers today that the 4.11 Soft Feature Freeze happens in just one more week. What does that mean for users?

Soft feature freeze mean developers have to have any new feature plans on the official Feature Plans list. So, any new little goody not listed at that time will have to wait for another release. They'll have two weeks to get their code ready because after the June 5 Hard Feature Freeze, only bug fix commits are allowed. What this means for you is, we can get an idea what might be included in KDE 4.11.

Some of the early features planned for 4.11 include:

* Up & down buttons added to Menu Editor for usability
* Ability to sort entries in sub-menus
* Notifications configuration button
* Lots of cool plugins for Kate
* Juk is getting Ogg Opus support
* Marble to receive interface, plugin, and map attention
* Several Plasma Add-ons are being rewritten in QML
* Konsole might see --separate option
* A quick preview feature is planned for Dolphin
* KWin to get Plasma theme refresh and removal of legacy themes
* Lots and lots more TO DO.

Beta 1 is scheduled for June 12 and Beta 2 June 26. RC1 is due July 10 and RC2 July 24. KDE 4.11 is planned for release on August 14, 2013. We'll check in on the progress of planned features after the Hard Feature Freeze.