KDE 3.5 release candidate 1 was released a day or two ago and I finally got it to build! I'm so excited. I had a chance to look at some of the new features in research for a previous article, but just could not get any of the betas to build. It's quite nice when compile goes as planned.

I did have initial problems with the compile when I hit the kopete section of the kdenetwork package. The requirements list state anything above qt3 3.3.2 is fine, but my troubles disappeared when I upgraded my 3.3.4 to 3.3.5. A patch was submitted to the kde-packagers list as well, but I didn't have to use it. If you need it:


--- work/kdenetwork-3.5.0/kopete/protocols/irc/libkirc/kircmessage.cpp.orig 2005-11-08 17:27:57.000000000 -0500
+++ work/kdenetwork-3.5.0/kopete/protocols/irc/libkirc/kircmessage.cpp 2005-11-12 21:43:59.000000000 -0500
@@ -168,11 +168,11 @@
//
// Some servers send '\n' instead of '\r\n' that the RFCs say they should be sending.

kdDebug(14121) << "<< " << raw << endl;

As stated, we already had a sneak peek at some of the new features and explored the changelog when we reviewed SUSE 10.1 alpha1. Things like the file properties preview, endless searches in about every application, smoothed taskbar, and the bubble tool tip were already known.

        

One of the new things I noticed today was the tinyserver applet. With this one can set up a shared directory to act like a http directory to share files with friends and such. That looks like a neato for those who may not want upload to a public server to share with the world at large.

        

Unless I've been living under a rock or using Fluxbox too long, it appears that the inclusion of superkaramba is new also. Included in the kdeutils package is superkaramba and the gethotnewstuff option introduced in 3.4 is a nice combination. One can just fire karamba up, download themes and activate them all from the same dialogue. That is really convenient. I played with that new toy for quite a while and it has certainly improved in the past year or so since I last installed and tested it. It is quite stable and cost little or no overhead at this time.

        

One can't help but notice the cool wallpaper. If you can't make it out, there is an all but transparent rendering of a world map on the background. Another little thing I just noticed is the automagically saving of edited bookmarks in konqueror. A small thing, but I had been known to forget to save and now that is no longer a problem. I imagine as time passes over the next few weeks, we'll all be discovering little improvements like this. KDE has always been the best and it remains the leader in innovation, convenience and eye candy.

Overall this release candidate is about ready to go gold in my book. Of course I base my decision on the fact that the stuff I use works and the desktop is stable. I finished my compile and have been using 3.5 r1 since about suppertime yesterday and I've yet to experience a crash or freeze. I'm very tickled I finally got a 3.5 to build and I'm just about ready to rm -rf /usr/kde/3.4.3! It seems they haven't updated the features list (done/in-progress/todo) since I wrote that Suse 10.1 article and I'm just scratching the surface here, but I'll keep ya posted.

More Screenshots in the gallery.