An anonymous reader writes "The license changes in the last version of Xfree86 have caused many distributions to reject the project in favor of the forked X.Org X server. As X.Org prepares to release the second version of the X.Org "monolithic" X Server (dubbed version 6.8), Ars Technica investigates the future of the X platform, as cooperation between X.Org and projects like GNOME and KDE begin to take take hold at freedesktop.org. Already host to an impressive array of projects, it appears that freedesktop.org will become the hub in which other Free Desktop projects can collaborate. Daniel Stone, release manager for freedesktop.org, gets into the details on how it's all going to work, in conjunction with freedesktop.org's upcoming platform release."

comforteagle writes "O'Reilly's OSDir has published the first of a new bi-weekly column called "KDE: From the Source" from which KDE developer and unofficial North American spokesperson George Staikos will be regularly writing on issues and happenings from the KDE camp. Naturally, his first piece focuses on KDE 3.3 and its implications for Linux on the desktop."

An anonymous reader writes "Knoppix-3.6 has been released. It is supposed to have the announced FreeNX Server, Kernel 2.4.27 and 2.6.7, KDE 3.2.3. It also includes ndiswrapper to use windows drivers for wlan cards. Download using bittorrent tracker at http://torrent.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/. Remember: Leave your bittorrent client running after the download is finished! Distribution to ftp mirrors will follow tomorrow."

scorp1us was one of several to note that KDE 3.3 has been released. You can also read the infopage and the requirements. Commence downloading. Features a new spell checking library, a new theme manager, and much more.

HulkProtector1 writes "The latest version of KDE beta 3.3 has been released. This version has already received a lot of feedback and has been deemed stable enough for a public release candidate. The KDE team requests that all testers try and break this release as soon as possible, as the bug reports are invaluable to the developers. Please note that binary packages will not be available for this version. Then source code can be downloaded from download.kde.org (or alternately use the excellent Konstruct build tool). For a list of new features skim over the KDE 3.3 Feature Plan."

joestar writes "Just announced on Mandrakelinux.com: 'At last something to make your summer hotter, far better than all these linux unaware suntanned chicks and chaps you would like to get along with on the beach. Forget them and go back home, full up your fridge with soya drinks (or your favorite one, but remember that fast assimilated sugar shorten your life expectancy). It is time to test your new air conditionner limits, switching on all the computers sitting arround to test this new Mandrakelinux 10.1 beta! '. Software packages include: Linux 2.6.8 rc2, Glibc 2.3.3, Xorg 6.7.0, KDE 3.2.3 and GNOME 2.6.0."

norburym writes "This is an interesting format for a techie book geared at non-techies: instead of providing a detailed installation and configuration instruction set for a particular full Linux distribution, Marcel Gagne has included a Knoppix CD with his book, Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye! The author's intention is clearly to give the reader a no-risk introduction to Linux. As such, this book is not intended for power users or professionals; there are other books more suited for this market. At the same time, this book is not really for the Dummies style audience, either. It's for the Windows user who is looking to migrate to the Linux platform and find solutions to his or her day to day computing needs." Read on for the rest of norburym's review.

HandyAndE writes "For everybody out there who has been waiting for Enlightenment 0.17 or been thinking what alternatives are there to Gnome/GTK and KDE/QT this is an important day for you. The Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL) today have an (albeit pre) release named Asparagus. From the E site: 'We are pleased to announce the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries Preview Release, codenamed "Asparagus"! After years of work, we've come to a place where it is time to start opening these powerful tools to the wider world to use.' " Read more for more information.

Telex4 writes "The aKademy Team is proud to announce the schedules for the KDE Community World Summit 2004, code-named 'aKademy', taking place in Ludwigsburg, Germany from August 21st to 29th. Featuring speakers from IBM, Novell, SUSE, Conectiva, Trolltech, HP and many community hackers and activists, it promises to be a highlight of the Free Software calendar. With presentations both for developers and users, tutorials from the experts in their field, and plenty of opportunities to discuss significant issues like usability and Qt4/KDE4, you can't afford to miss it. For more information, you can read the full announcement. Go to the conference web site and register now to avoid disappointment!"

Pieroxy asks: "As a web developer, both professionally and personally, I try to always make sure what I write works in every browser at my disposal. When the choice came for me to choose a platform for my PC, I went the Windows route, because I cannot afford not to test IE on all those websites/applications. But now I am facing a problem with all browsers that don't have a native Windows port, such as IE5/Mac, Safari/Konqueror. kde-cygwin helped very little because the version of Konqueror shipped doesn't display most JPEG, making any testing worthless. IE5 for Mac should die soon, but is still widely used as being the default browser for so long. How do you test your web pages? Have you noticed discrepancies on how a specific engine (Gecko, Opera, KHTML) renders content on different Platforms? Do I need a Mac and a Linux machine to make sure it is working on these platforms?"

bakreule writes "Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! are teaming up to link their separate instant messaging services for use in the workplace, 'the first major step by the industry leaders to enable computer users to communicate with one another no matter which of the three systems they use.' Sound to good to be true? It is. 'What this does not do,' Root said (yes, that's his name), 'is the holy grail of instant messaging, which is to allow anybody on any network to send a message to anybody on any other network.' It seems that the system, which is aimed for corporations, involves some MS software which acts as an intermediary between the different systems. Sounds like a fancy version of all the open source IM clients out there."

Gudlyf writes "Notice just went out to the Fedora Announce List about the availability of Fedora Core 3 Test 1. Things expected in FC3 include Linux kernel 2.6.7, GCC 3.4, GNOME 2.8, KDE 3.3, and Evolution 2.0. As always, you can get Fedora Core test releases at redhat.com, specifically here and (for a torrent) here."

An anonymous reader writes "Trolltech has announced the availability of the first Qt 4 Technical Preview. Qt 4, the next major release of the popular cross-platform C++ application framework which KDE is based on, is scheduled for final release in late Q1, 2005. Download mirrors here, here and here."

twener writes "The KDE team has announced the Beta 1 development version of the upcoming KDE 3.3 release. This release is named 'Klassroom' following the 'Kindergarten' Alpha; the goal is to make this child visit the "aKademy" KDE World Summit in August. Most planned features are there, next week starts the feature freeze. Source and provided binary packages are listed on the KDE 3.3 Beta 1 Info Page next to the KDE 3.3 Requirements List."

BRTB writes "Slackware 10.0 is out! X.org 6.7.0, kernel 2.4.26 (2.6.7 optional), KDE 3.2.3, GNOME 2.6.1, GCC 3.3.4... it's all new, and just as stable as you'd expect from Slackware, if RC2 was any indication. There's an official announcement, as well as some ISO BitTorrent links, and a mirror list. Of course, the non-cheapskates among us should go buy the CD-set to support the project. Have fun, everybody..."

An anonymous reader writes "While the 'Linux on the desktop' battle has yet to be won, KDE and Gnome are making great progress. There are too many apps to list on the cutting edge of software development for the X environment. But what about those of us stuck with old machines? Or who just want to work with the console? What console-based apps, that are undergoing just as much development as their X counterparts, do you use? Things like instant messengers and bittorrent clients, for example..."

norburym writes "This is not an intro Linux book for your mom. Well, actually it's an intro Linux book for the author's mom! Linux for Non-Geeks came about by virtue of Rickford Grant's desire to create an easy to follow guidebook to installing, configuring and using Linux for his mom who, at 72, was on a fixed income. Her erstwhile son suggested giving her an old box of his with Linux installed. Willing to go along, she asked for book suggestions to learn about Linux. Stumped by the meager offerings, Grant decided to write up a set of instructions on his own. Egged on by relatives and friends to subsequently publish his manuscript, Penguinistas the world over can now rejoice! A far cry from dumbed down editions of how-to comic book style manuals from other publishers, No Starch Press has adopted a smart series of books for the capable, no nonsense audience; those folks who are not afraid to try new things and who want a clear and (more importantly) practical approach to enhancing their skill set. This book is a stand out in that series." Read on for the rest of norburym's review.

Lemmingue writes "Ars Technica published a very good article about the KDE architecture. It's a essential read for anyone wondering how Konqueror can open documents in the same window or just understand the license issues regarding the Qt use. The article describes most of the technologies behind the KDE (Qt, KParts) and how the project is organized. The article is full of links, screenshots and diagrams."

Chaxid writes "According to the latest Slackware ChangeLog, release candidate one of the next iteration of Slack is upon us. I asked Patrick Volkerding via e-mail if the 2.6 series of the Linux kernel would be included in this version, and this was his response: 'To have support for using the 2.6 kernel in the installer might not be a good idea quite yet, and it would delay the release a lot. I'm planning to wait on that for the next one'. It's worth noting the Slackware 10 RC1 is fully 2.6 compliant however." As TouchOfRed writes, though, "A test kernel 2.6.6 option is offered via the 'testing' tree. Slackware does not offer ISOs for the RCs (however there are some third party users that compile the RCs or the -Current tree regularly as ISOs), so if you are already running Slackware 9.1, you can use the excellent Swaret to upgrade to the latest packages (make sure you edit your /etc/swaret.conf prior of using swaret to allow for kernel upgrades and other options)." This release includes kernel 2.4.26 , Gnome 2.6.1+, KDE 3.2.3, GCC 3.4, XOrg 6.7 and more.

An anonymous reader writes "OSNews has a commentary on spatial Gnome and why you KDE/Windows people hate them so much (hint: because almost all of you use Windows and/or a Windows 'interface clone'). Steve Jobs, however, denounced spatial interfaces because they make the users janitors. Hmmm!"