Promo/Guidance/NextRelease

The goal of this page is to coordinate the communication for the next release.

key messages

Core communication

• focus on innovations which are presented as the result of our long-term vision
• underline collaborative efforts & touchy-feely
• focus a bit more on stability - eg give credit to the bugsquad, top bug fixing ppl, things like that. Goal is more to motivate bugfixing than communication to outside with this.
• tbd
• tbd

key features for each part of the KDE SC

Desktop Workspace

messaging

• flexible but easy to use
• innovative
• cooperation (kwin, plasma, more)
• future proof

features

• netbook interface
• remote content on Plasma
• new networkmanagement
• kinetic / animations framework (from Qt 4.6) (user impact?)
• animations and effects (kwin tiling, animations in plasma & kwin, animations in Oxygen)
• social/open desktop things
• many more, pending compiling release goals on techbase: http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules/KDE4/4.4_Release_Goals
• BE FREE

release announcement text (draft)

The KDE Plasma Workspaces offer the basic functionality a user needs to start and manage applications, files and global settings. The innovative features introduced in this release underline the flexible and future-proof nature of the Plasma technology. Building upon the new features in the underlying infrastructure and by hard work, a cooperative effort by the KDE workspace developers brings much smoother animations, refined artwork and a better workflow to Plasma. The introduction of social and on-line service features emerge from the cooperative nature of the KDE community as a Free Software team, bringing the 'Be Free' slogan to life more than ever.

KDE Applications

messaging

• wide variety of apps
• by interdependent teams working under KDE umbrella
• bringing features & stability all over the place (too much to mention, we do highlights)
• this release: much integration of innovations in infrastructure, in development for 3-5 years (we demonstrate vision):
  • search: dialogs in dolphin, virtuoso backend
  • Akonadi
• BE FREE

features

• social/open desktop things & GetHotNewStuff; knowledge base in help & plasma?
• Nepomuk: dolphin, file dialog(s), awesome bar/konqi bookmarks, contacts, timeline view?...
• New or heavily reworked edu/game apps like palapeli, cantor
• new app: blogilo
• akonadi/Kmail:
  • KAddressbook fully ported to akonadi in 4.4 with new 3-pane user interface.
  • KJots *may* be released as an akonadi port in 4.4 but you have to check with steveire (Stephen Kelly)
  • Google calendar support is already in extragear/pim

I would not say 'mostly email is lacking' since neither KMail, KOrganizer nor Akregator will be included in 4.4 as akonadi ports.

release announcement text (draft)

The international development teams which make up the KDE community offer a large variety of powerful yet easy to use applications. Among the thousands of feature and stability improvements introduced in the 4.4 release, several highlight the results of the long-term vision adopted by the KDE community. This is part of our effort to bring Free Software and its associated values to the world.

Development Platform

messaging

• focus on tech in kde community
• ease of use
• powerful & comprehensive
• building upon Qt 4.6
• introducing many new features

features

• Qt 4.6
  • improved support for touchscreens and multitouch gestures (not in X11 yet)
  • Improved tablet support (?)
• open/social desktop (get hot new stuff, etc), project silk?
• remote widgets
• new KAuth authorization framework for easy and secure privilege escalation
• printing of odd and even pages (maybe for users)
• scanner support for windows (maybe for users)
• webkit? (maybe for users)

release announcement text (draft)

The strong focus on excellent technology in the KDE community has resulted in one of the most complete, consistent and efficient development platforms in existance. The 4.4 release introduces many new collaboration and social network focussed technologies in the KDE libraries. Our focus on the freedom of users, instead striving to lock-in users in to using our products, means that the KDE community provides powerful and flexible alternatives to existing technologies while enabling innovation in both the on-line and desktop spaces.