[SLUG] Re: Slug meeting

[Bob Garrood]

On Saturday 30 December 2006 12:15, scarborough-request at mailman. John wrote:

> Well in that case .. according to Linux Format we're supposed to be
> talking about KDE 4.0. And if that doesn't rock your boat, they're
> reviewing ten unforgettably great Linux games.
>
> So if anyone fancies rocking their way through those topics they're
> welcome.

I can lead a discussion about KDE4.0.   I have added text I 
extracted from a website (easy to track down if you want) as preliminary 
reading.  I do not have any expert input, but I can talk about Koffice 1.5.  
If anyone else plans to bring a monitor that would be great.
   
> And I still think I should run a beginners class in the way I wanted
> to run it (over six months) .. which appears to be different to the
> way everyone else seems to think it should be, so perhaps we should
> arm wrestle to settle that one.
>
> Unreal Tournament anyone?

An interesting tiny crack has opened in microsoft's local monopoly in that 
Quay Tec now offer new desktops both with and without windows.  They might 
be worth approaching in order to ask if they would give out leaflets 
offerring help with installations.

If your class does go ahead bags I do "why Slackware is best", "why I don't 
like Ubuntu" and "why SUSE are nasty Vole collaborators".

Bob

text for KDE4
Since beginning as a one-person project over ten years ago, the fourth 
generation of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) is poised to be the most 
business-friendly open source desktop to date with a host of new features 
ideal for enterprises. 
KDE 4 is now in rapid development and is scheduled for release sometime next 
year, with the final date still to be decided. 
The project's Oceania representative, Hamish Rodda, told Computerworld there 
are several concerted efforts being made to improve the underlying KDE 
libraries. 
"Some of the improvements include better hardware management, more streamlined 
multimedia control, and voice-over-IP integration," Rodda said. 
Like many open source projects, KDE will run on a variety of Unix systems, the 
most popular being Linux. 
Rodda said the step up to KDE version 4 from version 3 will be more 
revolutionary, in comparison to the step up from version 2 to version 3, 
which was more evolutionary. 
"Certainly it will be a large improvement, but at the expense of a necessary 
delay in the otherwise regular release schedule of KDE," he said. 
At the heart of KDE is the cross-platform Qt development toolkit from 
Tolltech, which Rodda believes will expand the potential audience for KDE, 
and its related software, because it is now GPL licensed on Linux, Mac OS X, 
and Windows. 
"The toolkit on which KDE 4 is based, Qt 4, means that native KDE libraries 
and applications will be available cross-platform," Rodda said. "The update 
to Qt 4 will bring a significant performance increase with improvements to 
memory usage, application start-up, and responsiveness. The great thing about 
using Qt 4 is that application developers can be much more productive and 
achieve better results than was possible with Qt 3." 
The other significant development will be the changes made to the underlying 
technologies and user interface. Enhancements over version 3 will include a 
redesigned desktop interface, better accessibility support, better hardware 
integration, integrated comprehensive search facilities, and continued 
improvement in integration between core applications. 

Also, KDE is well positioned to take advantage of improvements in graphics 
capabilities on each platform, so it should at least keep pace with 
improvements in other desktop environments," Rodda said. 
Rodda, who is based in the Australian state of Victoria, said the KDE personal 
information management (PIM) developers are working on a new framework for 
data storage, which will "bring about a more efficient and functional PIM 
suite". 
The new framework, coined Akonadi, could have particular appeal to businesses 
as it is designed to be an extensible cross-desktop storage service for PIM 
data that provides concurrent read, write, and query access across multiple 
applications. 
"The main benefit will be the performance improvements, especially in business 
environments where there are large volumes of PIM data," Rodda said. "Akonadi 
will allow us to be even more competitive with Microsoft's Exchange Server, 
continuing the work done on the Kolab (www.kolab.org) server." 
Akonadi will provide unique desktop-wide object identification and retrieval, 
according to its developers. 
The Akonadi architecture is built around a central storage repository which is 
accessed through a language- and platform-neutral protocol. On top of this 
protocol is a set of APIs which are used to access the PIM data in the 
repository. 
"There is some hope that other PIM suites might share the Akonadi framework, 
which would improve interoperability. Regardless, it is built on solid open 
standards such as IMAP and D-BUS," Rodda said. 
Akonadi's access APIs can be used by KDE applications like Kontact and KOffice 
or by other applications like Novell's Evolution, and data can also be 
transferred between the central Akonadi storage and external sources. Such 
sources can be groupware servers like Open-Xchange or GroupWise, iCalendar 
files, or through standard messaging protocols like POP and IMAP. 
According to its developers, Akonadi is designed to be accessible to a broad 
range of applications and resource implementations, and therefore it is easy 
to add additional APIs.

"Internally, the KDE PIM code base needs some rewriting to continue to attract 
quality open source developers," Rodda said. "As Akonadi decouples the PIM 
data from the user interface, writing applications which access and integrate 
with your data will be much easier. So, in the long run we hope Akonadi will 
provide a solid base for KDE PIM software and help accelerate its 
development." 
Rodda is also bullish about KDE 4's ability to attract more commercial ISVs to 
port applications to the environment, primarily because of the multi-platform 
capability that comes with using Qt 4. 
"Additionally, we're making it easier to convert a Qt program into a KDE one, 
or even maintain parallel versions," he said. "Should the improvements result 
in increased market share for KDE 4 as we expect, KDE will become a more 
important desktop for ISVs to support." 
Regarding desktop management, Rodda is not aware of any planned improvements, 
but said it is an important feature of KDE and is well maintained. 
"We have Kiosk, a framework for desktop customization and access control which 
has matured over several years of use in the business world," he said. "Plus, 
with X, and especially NoMachine's NX, it is easy to set up dumb terminals 
and have all applications run on a powerful central server. Alternatively, 
with Klik, applications can be downloaded as a single file and run without 
being installed." 
The KDE project is online at www.kde.org.