A not-so anonymous Anonymous Coward puts this tough issue up for discussion: "There seem some more determined efforts underway currently in some corners of the KDE project to port substantial parts of the software stack to the MS Windows platform. These efforts are now met by fierce resistance on the part of some of their core developers. Aaron J. Seigo summarizes his reasoning in his blog: 'If the applications people want are available on Windows, they will tend to stick with Windows...by porting software to Windows, we eliminate the majority of the competitive advantage of Free Software desktops in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of consumers while Microsoft has all the rope they need to shut the door once again on us ... Free Software desktop applications on Windows represent a no-win situation for Open Source, but Open Source desktops on Free Software operating systems do.'" (Read more below.)

FOSDEM team writes "The FOSDEM guys have just released the speakers list for FOSDEM 2005. Great names like Jimbo Wales (Wikipedia), Marty Roesch (Snort IDS), Alan Cox and many others. You can submit questions for the interviews to be published later on their site. As it was for previous years, there will also be developers' rooms holding conferences on Mozilla, Gnome, KDE, etc."

linuxbeta writes "The latest major release of Mandrakelinux, 10.1 Official, is now available for public download! Empower yourself with all the new and stable 10.1 features. Mandrakelinux 10.1 comes with a great selection of software which we have covered at OSDir in our wide selection of screenshots of this distribution. Our screenshots include Installation, Desktop, Taskbars, Menus, and Configuration on the default KDE. We've also grabbed some shots of the GNOME, WindowMaker, and IceWM desktops for your viewing pleasure. The Mandrakelinux Move 2.0 Live CD was also recently released and we grabbed some shots of it for you."

twener writes "Version 3.7 of the bootable GNU/Linux Live CD Knoppix has been released and is available via Bittorrent or on the Knoppix Mirrors. Some of the new features are lots and lots of package updates including KDE 3.3.1, Kernel 2.4.27 + 2.6.9 (w/ ACPI), Java security update (1.4.2_06) and more supported graphics cards."

JRiddell writes "The KDE 3.4 release cycle has started with the first alpha release. 'Please test this out over the holidays and add your contributions. We welcome code patches, translations, documentation, great icons and detailed bug reports. A great way in to helping KDE is by joining one of the KDE Quality Teams. Get it from download.kde.org or try Konstruct.'"

MROD writes "The KDE Project has announced the release of KDE 3.3.2 with what looks like lots of fixes for the HTML engine and kmail. So, it looks like the Sun SPARC machines at work will be chewing on the source for the next week or so to get a running version."

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like Xandros has decided its consumer product line can ride a little closer to the bleeding edge. They've just announced the release of version 3 of their consumer desktop products. It's a 2.6.9 kernel, x.org 6.7, KDE 3.3, CrossOver 4.1 (deluxe only) and synced up with the latest Debian Sarge. They've added in a firewall wizard, encrypted home folders and a PPTP VPN and other new stuff. Only the Deluxe and Standard versions are available. Business edition is due next year and I couldn't find a date for release of their Open Circulation edition. With Xandros's reputation for making desktop Linux easy, this should move a few more people one step closer to a Win-free world."

Amit Upadhyay writes "KDE's award winning integrated development environment KDevelop, has integrated support for Ruby, an excellent and easy to use object oriented scrpting language. If you are looking for a good programming tool for quickly developing a professional one off application, Ruby (with KDE bindings) maybe just the thing for you. There is a quick tutorial and an online book to get you started. You may also want to read a quite informative comparison of Python with Ruby. If you are web developer or write enterprise applications with JAVA etc, take a look at Ruby on Rails(api), they have a nice blog too. KDevelop provides a GUI builder and Debugger for rapid application development(RAD) with Ruby, which is getting better. There is a nice tutorial on using KDE libraries with Ruby. And if you have lots of code in C/C++, extending Ruby to use them is easy.
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comforteagle writes "In this month's KDE: From the Source George Staikos details what is to be expected from the upcoming 3.4 version of KDE. An Alpha release is due any minute so you might as well know what you're in for if you're a loyal K head. Some changes include major rework within KHTML & Konqueror, Subversion support, and Apple's Rendezvous."

ks writes "Novell hacker Jan Holesovsky has released a build of OOo 1.1.3 that integrates with either KDE or GNOME depending on the environment it's running in. The build features KDE/GNOME look and feel, KDE/GNOME file dialogs and the Crystal icons. If you're running NLD, you have this already." Update: 11/27 18:13 GMT by T : Also on the OpenOffice.org front, the OO.o front page links to this interview with Debian ARM developer Peter Naulls, who has ported the suite to ARM processors. Hint: they're everywhere.

sombragris points out this interview on OfB, excerpting "Open for Business Associate Editor Eduardo Sánchez sits down with Scott Wheeler, creator and lead developer of JuK, and a member of the KDE Multimedia Team, to find out where the KDE multimedia department is headed in general, and concerning a replacement for aRts, more specifically."

Robin "Roblimo" Miller is well-known in the open-source world for advocating cheap, user-friendly Linux computing and demonstrating that it's not only possible but available, right now. (He's also a writer and editor at NewsForge, and the editor in chief of OSTG, of which Slashdot is a part, and therefore one of my bosses; take that for what it's worth.) Roblimo's new book Point and Click Linux really consists of three things: the book itself, an included copy on CD of the Debian-based SimplyMepis Linux distribution, and a DVD featuring Roblimo's multi-part narrated video guide for getting started with Linux, Mepis and KDE. "Getting started" is key; this book is for the interested beginner, not the power user. Read on for the rest of my review.

trustedserf writes "This year I am including a bootable Live Linux CD in many of my Christmas cards. As I'll be making the copies myself I may even change the default desktop background to something personal, or Christmasy before running it off on cheap CD-Rs. The objective is to show people the easiest possible route to using a linux desktop so that they will be: A) Aware and B) Pleasantly surprised. About Christmas they may also have more time to try it out too. Naturally, I'm thinking of Gnoppix, but there are other options.. I use KDE, so I have to decide between it and Gnome. Bearing in mind my objectives, what distro would you choose. Also, importantly, is it possible any of them will damage their hardware (monitors with incorrect refresh etc.) I would be *very* unhappy if that happened. How many of them would fail to boot, leaving a bad impression? Which way would you go about it for maximum "WOW"."

norburym writes "The publishers' blurb on the back cover describes Knoppix as 'a veritable Swiss Army knife in CD form.' Knoppix Hacks by Kyle Rankin is no less astounding in revealing the hidden versatility and power inherent in this unassuming tool." Read on for the rest of Norbury-Glaser's review.

Chris writes "With new features such as SELinux, GNOME 2.8, KDE 3.3, Evolution 2.0, Remote Desktop, Helix Player, and of course Firefox, it may be worth your while to make the switch. At OSDir our screenshot tour of Fedora Core 3 takes you through boot, installation, desktop, taskbar, menus, configuration, and the new features of this new release. Our Core 3 screenshot tours have taken you through Test 1, 2, 3, and now the final release. Check it out."

anyweb writes "Fedora Core Release 3 is out now, Heidelberg, 2.6.9-1.667 kernel, Firefox included ! Gnome 2.8 and more. Here are some screenshots" New release includes Gnome 2.8, KDE 3.3, Kernel 2.6.9, Firefox PR1, Thunderbird 0.8, Ximian Evolution 2.0 and more. Here is a Mirror List and Bit Torrent

An anonymous reader writes "After reading this article, I was pretty excited about trying an Ubuntu live CD on my Mac, because I've heard a lot about the distro. But it turns out the only live CD is for x86. Looking around for PPC live CD's that support modern hardware (like a G5) and demo modern versions of KDE and Gnome has proven fruitless so far. Does Slashdot know of any current projects that have released or are working on releasing a nice PPC live CD?"

Bruno_me writes "Some of the folks at the GameCube Linux project have gotten KDE to run on a GameCube. There's a screenshot of what it actually looks like and what it should look like. This is the first real 'GameKube.' And of course, here is the original frame buffer (dd if=/dev/fb0 of=./kde.fbdump)."

comforteagle writes "In this month's KDE: From the Source, entitled Breaking the Network Barrier George Staikos takes us on a walk-through of KDE's desktop networking protocol handlers in the vein of sftp:// webdav:// and a few really nifty ones I wasn't aware of like info:/ perldoc:/ and tar:/. The entire KDE desktop environment is decked out like this, and as George puts it, 'Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X have a long way to go to catch up with the robust, transparent functionality that KDE has provided since version 2.0.'"

InnerPhalanx writes "Today, SuSE 9.2 Professional Edition has been released. SuSE writes: 'It combines a fast, secure operating system and more than 1,000 popular open source applications. It is the first complete Linux package to harness both the improved Linux kernel 2.6 and the recently enhanced GNOME 2.6 and KDE 3.3 user desktop environments. Ideal for Linux enthusiasts and developers, SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2 improves support for mobile users and delivers a host of essential tools.' More information at the SuSE website. The price is $89.95. The update version is $59.95. A live DVD image is also available on the SuSE website, for use by DVD. Have fun, SuSE Pro users!" Reader tannhaus submits an early review.