Ladies and Gentlemen, We did it! We’ve released a fantastic set of applications, a beautiful and organic desktop that enables the user to do a couple of things that were previously simply not possible in this form. I was particularly intrigued by Jos’ KDE 4.3 screencast (the one you can see in the announcement page). Such a screencast always gives a bit of a personal feeling and it shows what other people do with the software were working on, often it reveals new and cool and useful features, it did to me.
Right now, I’m anxiously awaiting the reaction of those people out there. Will the users like what we’ve created? Is the direction we’re taking really reflecting in the user experience, and do people out there value our approach, our ideas?
Until now, only very little people have seen KDE 4.3. It was in freeze for quite some time already, and there have been some reviews around on the net (most of them rather positive). Many people, however will not try the release until we actually say it’s stable. So today, another big wave will install KDE 4.3 and see it. Over the next months it will come with many of the Linux and BSD systems so an even wider range (say those that stick to standard distro packages) will give it a try, and probably also many people that haven’t used KDE, or Free Desktop systems before — many of them attracted by the Appeal and Freedom that KDE – The Software and KDE – The Community provides.
In the release announcement (which has been written by the excellent Jos Poortvliet), the message is rather careful: This is an incremental release, many (in fact about 30 bathtubs full of tiger tails ;-)) small annoyances have been corrected, and new features added that really make applications and the desktop shine. The rock-stable development platform that is KDE 4 supports this well, and has in itself gotten nice additions, polish and many fixes. Overall, the performance and polish has improved, resulting in a smooth and attractive user experience. In short: KDE 4 is mature, and it’s alive and kicking. (Join the team! :-))
Congratulations, my fellow gearheads. Have a mango-carrot juice, a beer, a mango lassi or a vintage port to celebrate!