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KDE e.V, the nonprofit organization behind the popular KDE desktop environment, has announced the immediate availability of the first release candidate for its next major release: KDE 4.0.
With this release candidate, the majority of KDE 4s components are almost ready for prime time. At the same time, with the final bits of Plasma, the brand-new desktop shell and panel in KDE 4, falling into place, Release Candidate 1 is the first preview of KDE 4.0 that is suitable for general use.
KDE 4 is the next generation of the popular KDE Desktop Environment. The aim of the KDE project for the 4.0 release is to put the foundations in place for future innovations on the Free Desktop. The many newly introduced technologies incorporated in the KDE libraries will make it easier for developers to add rich functionality to their applications, combining and connecting different components in any way they want.
The KDE team has also released the final version of the KDE Development Platform, which provides the needed libraries and applications on which the KDE Desktop is based. The KDE Development Platform, comprising the basis for developing KDE applications, is frozen and is now of release quality. The source code for the KDE Development Platform can be found in the “stable/” subdir on KDEs FTP server and mirrors.