KDE 3.0 Ready ...

"Beta1 is a stabilized snapshot of the current KDE 3 development branch and is meant for testers, developers and translators," explained Dirk Mueller, the KDE 3 release coordinator. "Users can assist in the development effort by testing this release and providing constructive feedback or helping to update or complete documentation. We´re especially interested in feedback about the support for RTL languages and about the new KDE 3 features. For developers, now is a great time to complete porting your applications to KDE 3, or to pitch in and help implement the still-incomplete planned features. In addition, the KDE translation project needs new contributors who can translate KDE 3 into their native language. Translation is another great way for non-programmers to contribute to the continuing success and rapid improvement of KDE."

The primary goals of the 3.0beta1 release are to:

enlist volunteers to help find bugs and provide constructive feedback through the KDE bugs database, and to help complete or update KDE documentation;
provide a stable API so developers can port their KDE 2 applications to KDE 3;
solicit developer feature requests before the KDE 3 API is finally frozen for binary compatibility, as well as developer assistance in completing the planned features; and
provide a consistent snapshot for the translation teams (this release already provides some support for 57 languages).
Additional information about KDE 3, including instructions for setting up a KDE 3 system side-by-side with a KDE 2 system, a tentative release plan, a KDE 3 info page, a list of planned features, as well as a list of open tasks containing interesting projects for both users and developers who wish to contribute to KDE, is available at the KDE websites. Please use the KDE bugs database to report bugs or make feature requests.

KDE and all its components (including the IDE KDevelop) are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE ftp server and its mirrors.

Improvements
Besides the improvements to the underlying Qt library noted in the KDE 3.0alpha1 announcement, this release offers the following additional improvements compared to the KDE 2 series:

a new clipboard system to satisfy the preferences of all users:
KDE continues to offer the standard X-type clipboard; selected text is copied to this clipboard, and clicking the middle mouse button pastes the contents of this clipboard; and
KDE also offers a complementary, independent Windows/Mac-type clipboard; text is inserted in the clipboard using an application´s cut/copy (or generally Ctrl-x, Ctrl-c) function, and the application´s paste (or generally Ctrl-x) function pastes the contents of this clipboard;
(note that the clipboard in Qt 3.0.1 hangs sometimes; using qt-copy or upgrading to Qt 3.0.2 when it is released should cure this problem);
many new KMail features, including:
maildir support;
support for distribution lists (groups) and aliases;
SMTP authentication;
SMTP over SSL/TLS;
pipelining for POP3 (increases download speed on slow networks);
support for both on-demand downloading and deletion without downloading;
IMAP improvements (header caching, faster header fetching, creating/removing folders, drafts/sent/trash folders on the server, and mail checking in all folders);
auto-configuration of IMAP/POP3/SMTP security features;
automatic encoding selection for outgoing mails;
DIGEST-MD5 authentication;
keyboard shortcuts for switching between mono-spaced/proportional fonts;
UTF-7 supports; and
enhanced status reports for encrypted/signed messages;
important feature additions for KDevelop, including:
full cross-compiling support, with the ability to specify a compiler, compiler flags, target architecture, etc.; and
support for Qt/Embedded projects (such as the Zaurus and iPAQ);
(note that a release of KDevelop for KDE 2.2 with these new features is included in most of the download directories listed below);
SSL certificate and CA management tools;
a new URL speed bar in file dialogs;
support for actions in the Konqueror sidebar; and
numerous feature enhancements to Konsole, including:
cluster management (sending input to all active sessions);
clearing, searching and saving of session histories;
specification of a working directory per session type;
easier renaming of sessions with a keyboard shortcut;
pausing scrolling while selecting text; and
writing utmp entries (requires the utempter library).
Additional improvements to the KDE libraries and applications are planned for the successive RC releases leading to the first stable KDE 3.0. A partial list of these planned features is available at KDE´s developer website.

Porting to KDE 3
Since KDE 3 is mostly source compatible with KDE 2, porting applications from KDE 2 to KDE 3 can usually be done with relative ease and comfort. The process is substantially easier than the one for porting KDE 1 applications to KDE 2; even very complicated applications have been ported in a matter of hours.

Instructions for porting KDE 2 applications to KDE 3 are available separately for the KDE libraries and the Qt libraries. Most of the changes required for the port applications pertain to changes in the Qt API. Although the KDE 3 API is not yet frozen, few changes are anticipated for the final release of KDE 3.0.

SOURCE: http://www.kde.org