The first version of the KDE4 desktop series, KDE 4.0 is planned to be release in December, 11th 2007 and our releases managers are aiming to release Lenny in September. Given that there are some months between releases, this seem to lead a lot of people to think Lenny will be released with KDE4, but this is highly improbable. It is true that KDE 4.0 could be delayed again, and almost everybody is expecting Lenny be delayed... :)
The development of KDE4 started more than 2 years ago, and actually the libraries seems to be in a pretty good shape, the next release of the KDE Development Platform is a proof of that, a lot of stuff that is what the end user actually see, like plasma, needs still some work. A lot of improvements that we are hoping see in our desktop won't be until KDE 4.1 or even 4.2. So the first release of the KDE4 desktop series will be still work in progress in some aspects and not so functional like current KDE 3.5 is.
On the other hand, KDE 3.5 is a pretty mature desktop that has been developed and tested for almost 2 years now, the 8th revision, KDE 3.5.8, was released in the beginning of this week, and we'll likely have a KDE 3.5.9 revision with more bugfixes. Also there are plans to merge the kdepim enterprise branch into the current 3.5 kdepim branch, so we'll be getting soon a bunch of bugfixes in kdepim, that have the dubious honour in being the second KDE module in Debian with more bugs after kdelibs.
So even if KDE 4.0 is released in december and lenny is delayed, there is not enough time to push KDE 4.0 or even 4.1, into a Debian stable release.
Comments
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Raphael Geissert said, on 2007-10-20 22:44:40+02:00:
I'm sad to hear that it will be unlikely to have a KDE4 version in Lenny (as stable).
Although I'm not surprised at all because a friend of mine usually updates his KDE4 desktop from SVN every week and he says it is still bogus and crashes a lot (and sometimes he can't even compile).
But when can I expect to see KDE4 at least in experimental? I'm the developer of a project which uses KDE and I don't want to loose some users because there's no KDE4 version of it.
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bla said, on 2007-10-21 07:35:48+02:00:
Freeze of the non-essential toolchain and all libraries is "Mid of June 2008", so why can't we include KDE 4.0 ?
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Mave said, on 2007-10-22 01:28:22+02:00:
The Lenny release is planned for September 2008!!! I repeat, 2008!!! I think they will make it in time. ;)
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ana said, on 2007-10-22 01:59:27+02:00:
@bla and @Mave: Package KDE4 can take a week, but you need sometime testing a software before ship it for release. I do not expect 4.0 be a full desktop enviroment, and asumming 4.1 is released in march (too way early), you do not have like 2-3 months to test it before ship...
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manatorg said, on 2007-10-24 20:43:02+02:00:
Very Good Idea,
do not risk the delay of a release by waiting for a fresh and shiny desktop. better delay, because the installer is not ready for some seldom used platforms over months. lets first have a stable frontend - core could be fixed last. most user will understand that (?!?!). p.s.: don't get me wrong - release when its ready is a very good idea. pp.s.: you know where to put the ironic tags
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tex said, on 2007-11-04 13:18:10+01:00:
Perhaps KDE4 will be shipped with Lenny if there's a way to have both, 3.5 and 4, installed on a single system. Ok, you're right, according to debian policy its unlikely but it would be an option.
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KDE4 und Debian at blog.gauner.org said, on 2007-11-04 14:23:24+01:00:
[...] So langsam nähert sich KDE4.0 der Fertigstellung und es gibt anscheinend auch schon eine LiveCD [torrent] auf Debian Basis um das ganze mal auszuprobieren. Zwar gibt es auch pessimistische Stimmen, aber ich hoffe, dass KDE 4.0, oder besser noch 4.1, es in das nächste Stable Release schafft. [...]
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David said, on 2007-11-30 22:48:41+01:00:
Perhaps the KDE4 desktop will not be available for Lenny, but at least the libraries and some apps should be :)