KDE releases version 4.1
THE LINUX K Desktop Environment (KDE) community let loose upon the world its long awaited milestone KDE 4.1.0 release yesterday.
As the version number implies, KDE 4.1 is built upon the rearchitected codebase that had been established previously by KDE 4.0. That release disappointed some users because it was intentionally merely a structural skeleton, a new baseline for subsequent full-featured development, so it lacked desktop integration, features and some applications that they'd become accustomed to in previous releases culminating with KDE 3.5.
Most, though not all of that, is delivered in KDE 4.1. The developers consider 4.1 the first release of the new series that's suitable for installation by early adopters, although some features available in 3.5 are still missing.
There are many improvements in 4.1, including a much improved Personal Information Manager, KDE-PIM, a video player, Dragon Player, a CD player, KSCD, a new filemanager, Dolphin, an Earth globe and streetmap, Marble, an improved window manager, KWin, and a spiffy panel controller, Plasma, to name just a few. There's a lot to discover inside KDE 4.1.
The new release also begins the extension of KDE to other operating systems, with early but not yet fully complete support for Open Solaris, Windows, and Mac OSX.
KDE 4.1 is already beginning to appear in some beta releases of Linux distributions. Or the more technically inclined can acquire the source and compile it themselves on a test system.
As good looking and fun as it is, however, KDE 4.1 probably still isn't ready for production use on mission critical Linux systems. But just give it another six months or so, and then....
The next release, KDE 4.2, is targeted for January 2009. The announcement, with more details and eye-candy screenshots, is here. µ
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Where else you can fine that a new version doesn't support some old application version? And than add it again in a next version. What warratity if other application still exist in next new version?
KDE 4.1 is made entirely of *delicious eye candy*. It’s still slightly unfinished and geeky, but remains deeply tasty. As I say that “KDE is like Windows but it works,” so KDE 4.1 is like Vista but it works. Which is a bit like “like anthrax but not bad for you,” but anyway.

Still takes a bit of fiddling - if you're not a geek, don't bother. But if you are, do bother. I has a <a href="http://davidgerard.co.uk/notes/2008/08/01/kde-41-is-really-nice/">blag post</a> on how I got it going on Kubuntu 8.04.