KDE 4.0 Alpha 1

This is the first alpha test version of the next general release of KDE.

KDE 4.0 Alpha1 marks the end of the addition of large features to the KDE base libraries and shifts the focus onto integrating those new technologies into applications and the basic desktop. The next few months will be spent on bringing the desktop into shape after two years of frenzied development leaving very little untouched.


The cool stuff in this release is:

• A new visual appearance through Oxygen
• New frameworks to build applications with, providing vastly improved hardware and multimedia integration (through Solid and Phonon, spelling and grammar checking, to name just a few)
• New applications that focus on a smooth user experience, such as Dolphin, the file manager, and Okular, the document viewer

While Alpha1 is nowhere near finished, it includes all of the exciting new frameworks that lift the Free Desktop to an unparalleled level of integration. Areas that need attention include:

• Finishing Plasma and turning it into the default desktop shell
• Finishing porting applications and integrating the new technologies into them
• Fixing lots of bugs
  

There are a lot of things to be done until KDE 4.0 goes stable
If you want to test KDE 4.0 without installing it, you could try the "KDE Four Live" CD.