OStatic

Users of the KDE desktop know it has a dozens of handy tools and functions built right in, but the beauty of open source means you can tweak it to your heart's content by adding extra plugins to make your desktop do even more. Here are five KDE desktop applications that you might not have ever heard of, but are definitely worth checking out.

soundKonverter - This handy app provides a front end to the audio converter you're already using. Use it for CD ripping, audio conversion, and replay gain calculation. This version of soundKonverter is designed for KDE 3.5.x, but a version for KDE 4.0 is in the works.

This week marked the release of a number of significant open source applications, platforms and tools. Just today, a new version 4.3 of the KDE desktop environment arrived, and it's getting good marks from early testers. Meanwhile, there were significant announcements surrounding the Google Chrome browser, Firefox, Canonical's tool set, and Phoronix's widely used test suite. Here are more details, and download destinations.