KDE 4.4 Brings Social Media Improvements and Netbook Interface

by Joe Brockmeier - Feb. 09, 2010Comments (2)

KDE fans are in for a treat today. The KDE Project released its KDE Software Compilation 4.4 today, spot on time and with more than 1,433 new features. The project has also decked out the KDE Website with a fresh new design. Code-named "Caikaku," this release brings social media features to Plasma and a brand-new netbook interface for users who dig the tiny notebooks.

The Plasma Netbook is debuting in 4.4.0 as an alternative to the standard Plasma Desktop shell. Specifically designed for small screens, it has a full-screen app launcher and is ready to work with touchscreen devices. It's been in development for some time. The interface features a special "newspaper" layout that organizes KDE applets (plasmoids) to better make use of limited space.

The new Community Widget ties into the openDesktop.org knowledge base, as well as sites like Twitter, Identi.ca, and other social media sites, so users can work with their social media directly through the desktop. The Community Widget work was done in part by KDE e.V. board member Frank Karlitschek, who manages the openDesktop.org sites.

As evidenced by the rename from K Desktop Environment to KDE Software Compilation, KDE 4.4 is more than a desktop shell and plasmoids. The complete package includes quite a few applications and underlying infrastructure. 4.4 sports a faster version of Nepomuk search framework, improvements to KDE speech support, and more flexibility in the KDE print system. KDE's file manager, Dolphin, has a better search interface in 4.4 to make it easier to specify attributes for a search, and users can save searches as well.

KDE's Aaron Seigo notes that some might not notice all the changes in the release, because KDE 4.4 was a smooth jump from 4.3. The KDE release does include a mighty number of bugfixes, 7,293 according to the release announcement. Though the KDE Project no doubt wants users to recognize new features in 4.4, if users are not seeing as many visible improvements it could be because the platform has matured to a point where big visible changes aren't necessary.

If you can't wait to get your hands on KDE 4.4, plenty of distros have packages ready. A full list is on the 4.4.0 info page. Users can find packages for Fedora Rawhide, Gento, openSUSE, and others.