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DevelopmentThe first beta release of KDE 4.0The K Desktop Environment (KDE) project has announced the first beta release of KDE version 4.0:
This release marks the beginning of the integration process which will bring the powerful new technologies included in the now frozen KDE 4 libraries to the applications.
Almost two months after the foundations of KDE 4 have been laid with the first alpha, KDE enters the stage of a full freeze of the library interface. From now on, the applications will focus on integrating the new technology refined during the last months, and the library developers will try to fix all bugs found during this process. No new applications will enter the official KDE modules and usability and accessibility work is of course an ongoing process. In the following weeks KDE developers will be able to add features to their applications until the next beta is released and the application features will be frozen as well.
![[KDE Logo]](/images/ns/kdelogo.png){kind=small}
One interesting new application that will be included with KDE 4.0 is Marble, a lightweight earth viewing application that is similar to Google Earth, but will work on systems without graphics accelerator hardware:
Marble is a generic geographical map widget that is meant to be used by KDE4 applications. It shows the earth as a sphere but doesn't make use of any hardware acceleration (No OpenGL). So although it might look similar to professional applications like Google Earth or Nasa World Wind it's rather meant to be a small light weight multi purpose widget.
Changes coming to existing KDE applications in version 4.0 will include: KWin, the KDE window manager, will have some new effects to work with, it will also run well on low-end video hardware. Integration between the Dolphin file manager and the Konqueror web browser will be improved. The Gwenview image viewer is getting some new features and usability improvements. The Konsole terminal emulator will have some user interface improvements, new background choices, support for clickable URLs and support for default color schemes. The okular universal document viewer will get usability improvements, better multithreading capabilities and improvements to the print previewer. The KRDC remote desktop tool will undergo a code rewrite, new features will include tabbed viewing and support for the KWallet password manager. The KDE PIM personal information management suite will get some new features from its Enterprise branch. KOrganizer, the calendar and scheduling component of the Kontact personal information management suite, will get new Gantt chart time line and Outlook-style views. The theming interface has also had some improvements added. If you want to give it a try, KDE 4.0 beta 1 is available for download here. An openSUSE-based KDE4 Live CD has also been released.
System Applications Database Software PostgreSQL Weekly NewsThe August 5, 2007 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS articles and resources.
Libraries libnetfilter_queue release 0.0.15 announcedRelease 0.0.15 of libnetfilter_queue is out with an API change. "libnetfilter_queue is a userspace library providing an API to packets that have been queued by the kernel packet filter. It is is part of a system that deprecates the old ip_queue / libipq mechanism."
Networking Tools fetchconfig 0.8 releasedStable version 0.8 of fetchconfig has been announced "fetchconfig is a script for retrieving configurations for multiple devices. It has been tested under GNU/Linux, and currently supports a variety of devices, including Cisco IOS, Cisco Catalyst, FortiGate, ProCurve, Parks, Alcatel Ethernet Routers (Riverstone), and Dell PowerConnect switches."
Web Site Development Django weekly roundupThe August 6, 2007 edition of the Django weekly roundup has been published. Take a look for the latest Django web platform news.
Desktop Applications Audio Applications Ardour MIDI progress continuesThe Ardour multi-track audio editor project has announced project with the MIDI system. "Dave Robillard continues his work on Ardour's MIDI recording, playback and editing capabilities as part of the Google Summer of Code program. Since the last screenshot (below), Dave has added color coding of velocity values, percussion tracks, two modes for delivering MIDI CC data (discrete+interpolated), and some basic editing operations such as quantize, note selection and pencil-based note creation & deletion."
An Introduction to Linux Audio (O'Reilly)John Littler discusses the writing of Linux audio software on O'Reilly. "Now, let's have a look at what we're trying to do and the main options available for doing it. The three main things to do are capturing (recording) audio, replaying it, and altering it. All of this comes under the heading of Digital Signal Processing (DSP). We'll be looking at the first two options: capturing and replaying. What we want to do is talk to the sound card in the computer, tell it what to do, what sort of arrangement the data should have (bearing in mind the card's capabilities), and then store it somewhere."
Desktop Environments Compiz 0.5.2 releasedVersion 0.5.2 of the Compiz compositing window manager is out with some new features and bug fixes.
GARNOME 2.19.6 releasedVersion 2.19.6 of GARNOME, the bleeding edge GNOME distribution, is out. "This release includes all of GNOME 2.19.6 plus a bunch of updates that were released after the GNOME freeze date. This is the sixth release in the unstable cycle, with more features, more fixes and yet more madness added. It is for anyone who wants to get his hands dirty on the development branch, or who'd like to get a peek at future features. With this release, GNOME entered Feature Freeze for 2.20."
GNOME 2.19.6 releasedVersion 2.19.6 of the GNOME desktop environment has been announced. "This is our sixth development release on our road towards GNOME 2.20.0, which will be released in September 2007. New features are still arriving, so your mission is simple : Go download it. Go compile it. Go test it. And go hack on it, document it, translate it, fix it."
GNOME Software AnnouncementsThe following new GNOME software has been announced this week:
KDE Software AnnouncementsThe following new KDE software has been announced this week:
Quickies: Awards to Enter, Magnatune Hires Amarok Developer, and an Old Interview from the Time Machine (KDE.News)KDE.News presents another Quickies article collection. "A few quickies again this week: the 4th Trophées du Libre (International Free Software Awards) contest is open. Please consider submitting your favourite KDE applications since the award is some 3000 in each category. Also new this week: Nikolaj Hald Nielsen has announced that he is being hired full time to work on Amarok, courtesy of the Magnatune music store. (Don't worry, this doesn't exclude support for other music stores). PyQt released a new version of their bindings. And every once in a while, we stumble upon an old piece of KDE history that just needs to be shared. Check out this 1998 Interview with KDE's grand-daddy: Matthias Ettrich."
Xorg Software AnnouncementsThe following new Xorg software has been announced this week:
Desktop Publishing LyX 1.5.1 is releasedVersion 1.5.1 of LyX, a GUI front end to the TeX typesetting program, is out. "It includes a few bug fixes and, more importantly, fixes a bug where files produced with the Document>Compressed option on would be malformed on windows. It was therefore decided to revert to the trusty 1.4.x code in this area and release 1.5.1 sooner than anticipated. All 1.5.0 users are urged to upgrade to 1.5.1."
Financial Applications SQL-Ledger 2.8.7 releasedVersion 2.8.7 of SQL-Ledger, a web-based accounting system, is out with a number of new features and some bug fixes.
Games EGv8 version 0.4.1 releasedStable version 0.4.1 of EGv8 has been announced. "Evil Greg Vs. Eight Year Olds (EGv8) is an arcade game with a simple premise. You control an adult character named Evil Greg who battles swarms of eight year old children. As you battle the children you face new enemy types and gain new abilities. "
GUI Packages PyQt v4.3 releasedVersion 4.3 of PyQt, the Python bindings for Qt, is out. "The highlights of this release include: - Full support for Qt v4.3.0. - Partial functions can be used as slots. - Many Qt classes now support the standard Python pickle protocol for data serialisation."
Qt 4.3.1 Allows for More Free Software Licences (KDE.News)KDE.News covers the Qt 4.3.1 release. Perhaps the most significant change is that the license exemption list has been expanded, allowing Qt to be linked with software under a number of other free licenses without the requirement that the resulting work be distributed under the GPL.
Instant Messaging Zimbra Collaboration Suite 4.5.6 for RHEL5 released (SourceForge)Version 4.5.6 of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite has been announced. "We've released ZCS 4.5.6 for RHEL5 32 & 64. Zimbra is an open source server and client technology for next-generation enterprise messaging and collaboration. Zimbra delivers innovation for both the administrator and the end-user as well as compatibility with exising infrastructure and applications. ZCS 4.5.6 contains 121 fixes."
Mail Clients Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 Released (MozillaZine)MozillaZine has announced the release of the Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 email client. "This update fixes two security issues, which are detailed in the Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 section of the Mozilla Foundation Security Advisories page (they're the same bugs that were eliminated in the equivalent Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6 release earlier this week)." The security issues involve the passing of URIs to external programs and privilege escalation through chrome-loaded about:blank windows.
Medical Applications CK-ERP 0.23.1 released (LinuxMedNews)LinuxMedNews has announced the release of CK-ERP 0.23.1. "This release features connectors for MirrorMed, ClearHealth, OpenEMR, and osCMax. XOOPS connector has been enhanced to provide group-module ACL control. Locale-aware monetary figure printing has been added. Sample cheque format has been improved."
Music Applications horgand 1.9 releasedVersion 1.9 of horgand, an organ synthesizer, is out. "No new features, but a hard work to improve the sound engine, now is decent. Also is fixed the crash with RT-Kernels, and some minor bugs. This is the last release with my own code because at last a DSP guru is involved on this project and I think we have good perspectives and will rewrite all."
LV2 Simple Sine Generator plugin UpdatedRelease 20070808 of the LV2 Simple Sine Generator plugin has been announced. "This brings plugin in sync with latest lv2 (changed uri, double srate, header) LV2 Simple Sine Generator is very simple plugin, generating sine when feed with notes. It should load in any host supporting midi port LV2 extension, i.e. elven, ingen, lv2_jack_host and zynjacku."
PHASEX 0.11.0 releasedVersion 0.11.0 of PHASEX, the [P]hase [H]armonic [A]dvanced [S]ynthesis [EX]periment, has been announced. "This release contains many fixes and improvements and is highly recommended for all PHASEX users."
Streaming Media GNonLin 0.10.9 announcedVersion 0.10.9 of GNonLin is out with a bug fix and support for modifying compositions during playback. "The GStreamer team is proud to announce a new release in the 0.10.x stable series of GNonLin. This module contains a set of plug-ins for GStreamer to ease the creation of multimedia editors, or any other application where a timeline-oriented use of GStreamer makes sense."
Video Applications Freevo release 1.7.3 is out (SourceForge)Version 1.7.3 of Freevo has been announced. "Freevo is a Linux application that turns a PC with a TV capture card and/or TV-out into a standalone multimedia jukebox/VCR/PVR/HTPC. It uses MPlayer or Xine to play and record audio and video. It is optimized for use with a TV+remote. This release contains some new (Greek and Chinese) and updated translations. An audio scrobbler plug-in. Scrollable descriptions for various menus."
Web Browsers Gran Paradiso Alpha 7 available for downloadThe Alpha 7 release of Gran Paradiso is out. "Gran Paradiso Alpha 7 is an early developer milestone for Firefox 3 and the next generation of Mozilla? layout engine, Gecko 1.9. Gran Paradiso Alpha 7 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use alpha releases."
SeaMonkey 1.1.4 Released (MozillaZine)MozillaZine covers the release of SeaMonkey 1.1.4. This release fixes several security issues. There is more information in the SeaMonkey 1.1.4 release notes.
Miscellaneous Twitux 1.0 releasedStable version 1.0 of Twitux, a Twitter client for the Gnome desktop, has been announced. "Twitux provides features such as Nedirect messages, time-lines and many other features."
Languages and Tools Haskell Haskell Weekly NewsThe August 7, 2007 edition of the Haskell Weekly News is online. This issue marks the second anniversary of the Haskell (not quite) Weekly News. Thanks to the Haskell community for support, content and for reading over the last two years!
Introduction to Haskell, Part 3: Monads (O'ReillyNet)O'Reilly has published part three of an article series on the Haskell language. "So far, Adam Turoff has given us the basics of Haskell and looked at pure functions. In the final part of his introduction to the language, he looks at Monads, which are functions that are allowed to have side effects."
Java Introduction to JavaFX Script (O'Reilly)Anghel Leonard introduces JavaFX on O'Reilly's ONJava site. "In the spring of 2007 Sun released a new framework called JavaFX. This is a generic name because JavaFX has two major components, Script and Mobile, and, in the future, Sun will develop more components for it. The core of JavaFX is JavaFX Script, which is a declarative scripting language. It is very different from Java code, but has a high degree of interactivity with Java classes. Many classes of the JavaFX Script are designed for implementing Swing and Java 2D functionalities more easily. With JavaFX Script you can develop GUIs, animations, and cool effects for text and graphics using only a few straightforward lines of code. And, as a plus, you can wrap Java and HTML code into JavaFX Script. The second component, JavaFX Mobile, is a platform for developing Java applications for portable devices."
Perl Making Perl Reusable with Modules (O'Reilly)Andy Sylvester discusses Perl modules on O'Reilly's Perl.com. "Perl software development can occur at several levels. When first developing the idea for an application, a Perl developer may start with a short program to flesh out the necessary algorithms. After that, the next step might be to create a package to support object-oriented development. The final work is often to create a Perl module for the package to make the logic available to all parts of the application. Andy Sylvester explores this topic with a simple mathematical function."
PostScript GPL Ghostscript 8.60 announcedVersion 8.60 of GPL Ghostscript has been announced. "The major milestone of this release is a merge from the ESP Ghostscript fork, used to support the CUPS printing system. This means that free operating systems can now ship a single copy of upstream Ghostscript with their releases. Thanks to Till Kamppeter and Mike Sweet for making this possible. This release also includes numerous important bug fixes over the previous stable versions, as well as improvements to performance, memory footprint, shading and image handling. We recommend this upgrade to all free users."
Python Jython 2.2 rc3 is outVersion 2.2 rc3 of Jython, a Java implementation of the Python language, has been announced. "A few new pieces of functionality have been added since 2.2rc2: * Added telnetlib from CPython * Added cpython_compatible_select to select. See here for information on when to use it. * Several more java.nio exceptions are mapped to their corresponding Python error codes when thrown."
Libraries html5lib 0.9 announcedVersion 0.9 of html5lib, a library for working with HTML5 documents, is available. Changes include: "* Parses invalid and valid HTML documents to a tree * Support for minidom, ElementTree and a custom simpletree output format * DOM to SAX converter * Collects parse errors * Character encoding detection * XML mode for working with illformed XML e.g. feeds * Many unit tests".
Version Control monotone 0.36 releasedVersion 0.36 of monotone, a version control system, is out with a number of new features and some bug fixes. "Finally, monotone 0.36 has arrived. There are quite a number of changes and corrections in this release, well worth investigating."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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