KDE SC 4.10 Available: Let's See What's New

The day awaited by many has arrived. It has been announced the availability of KDE SC 4.10, a Desktop Environment that comes loaded with news and interesting features. Let's review some of them.

The Plasma Workspace have been refined considerably. Work continues on updating the widgets with new ones built with Qt Quick. This effort brings improvements in consistency, design behavior, stability, ease of use, and performance. It is also now easier to create widgets, and other custom enhancements. The wallpaper engine has also been updated to QML, so it is easier to write animated wallpapers. (QML is part of the Qt Quick application framework.)

In addition to improvements related to Qt Quick and QML, the task widget has received some usability updates, with a smoother look for window groups. There have also been improvements in the notification system, particularly in the area of ​​energy management. There is now improved support for high resolution displays and a new Air theme that reduces visual clutter and gives the Plasma workspace a cleaner look.

KWin Window Manager and Composer

Kwin adds additional effects and scripts that are available in the KWin configuration dialog. There is a very elegant new effect when maximizing the window or changing state.

Kwin now detects some virtual machines and allows OpenGL composition if possible. In addition, the proprietary AMD driver has OpenGL support. Support for Tiling in KWin has been removed as it had stability issues, lacked multi-screen support, and conflicted with other parts of KWin.

Various applications now support color correction so that it can be adjusted according to the color profiles of different monitors and printers. Support for color management in Kwin is designed to relieve the composer of this task. This allows the user to disable color management, and makes code maintenance easier.

The new appmenu of KDE allows a common menu for multiple applications running simultaneously. It has an option to display a top menu which is hidden by default and appears when the mouse moves near the top edge of the screen. The menu bar follows the focus of the window so that it can be used in multi-screen environments. There is also an option for the menu to be displayed as a sub-menu on a button in the window decoration. The menu can be displayed on the screen whenever the user wishes.

Faster and more reliable metadata engine

Thanks to the work sponsored by BlueSystem, the semantic search and storage backend application has seen more than 240 bugs fixed and a significant number of other enhancements. The main one is the new indexer, which makes indexing faster and more robust.

Nepomuk Cleaner is a simple new tool for managing semantic storage. It is useful for cleaning, invalid or duplicate data. Running the cleaner after the update can provide a significant speed improvement.

New Print Manager

Printer setup and job control and maintenance are improved with a new implementation of Print Manager. The plasma applet displays available printers and provides access and control over queued jobs.

The system configuration setup screen allows users to add and remove printers, giving an overview of current printers, along with access to important control functions such as sharing and default printer selection.

The New Printer Wizard automatically selects the appropriate drivers and controls the settings for recognized devices. The new Print Manager tools are fully compatible with the CUPS printing subsystem, resulting in fast and reliable feedback from information.

Dolphin file manager

The file manager Dolphin It has seen many bug fixes, improvements, and new features. Transferring files to and from a phone or other mobile device is now easier with support for MTP devices, which will be displayed in the Places panel.

The size of the panel icons can now be changed, and other usability and accessibility options have been added. Dolphin now has the ability to report the current directory and files in the Activity manager (controlled in System Settings). There have also been an impressive number of performance improvements.

Folder loading, with and without preview is now much faster and requires less memory while using all available processors to be as fast as possible. Small improvements were made to the search, drag and drop option. Dolphin also benefits from improvements to the storage of the semantic desktop and the search backend, which reduces the resources required for handling metadata.

Less intrusive notifications on Kate

Kate, the Advanced Text Editor has received improvements in many areas. Kate has an improved notification system, an optional 'minimap' as a scroll bar, a project management plug-in, predefined color schemes, enhancements to the scripting interface, and much more.

All of these improvements also benefit applications that use Kate for text editing, including the lightweight text editor KWrite y KDevelop.

Konsole improvements

Console brings back screen printing and the functionality of sending signals previously present in KDE 3as well as options to change line spacing and the CTRL key requirement when drag'n'dropping text. New support for xterm and the ability to clean up the command line before using bookmarks for some commands.

Tiled Rendering to improve Okular performance

Okular, KDE's universal document viewer, also brings new features. New features include a technique called Tiled Rendering that allows Okular to zoom faster and faster while reducing memory consumption compared to previous versions.

The embedded video function has been improved. Editing and creating annotations in Okular has become easier with the introduction of QTabletEvents. A new feature allows easy navigation in history, which can now be accessed using the forward and backward mouse buttons.

Gwenview receives support for Activities

Gwenview, the KDE image viewer, has better thumbnail handling and rendering, as well as support for activities. It supports JPG and PNG color correction, working with KWin to accommodate the color profiles of different monitors, enabling consistent color rendering of photographs and graphics.

The Gwenview image importer now works recursively, displaying all images available for viewing even within a specified folder.

Kontact improves performance

The applications of KDE PIM They have gotten many bug fixes and improvements. Major work with the search server has vastly improved email indexing and retrieval, delivering the most responsive applications with the lowest resource usage.


KMail has a new ability to automatically resize images attached to email messages, configurable in KMail settings.

KMail it also introduces automatic text correction, including replacing the word or capitalization in the first letter of a sentence. Settings and word lists are shared with Calligra and are configurable.

HTML support for composer has been expanded: tables can be inserted with row and column control, as well as the ability to combine cells. Support is also added for defined sizes of images, and the ability to insert html code directly.

Other improvements to KMail include: opening recent files in composer, adding new contacts directly from KMail and attach files vCard to emails. The import wizard supported cattle to import settings from Opera Mail, configuration and data Claws Mail y Ferry and mailing labels Thunderbird y Claws Mail.

Major game app enhancements

KDE educational games and applications have seen widespread change. The games have benefited from major enhancements to the core libraries. KTouch is improved, a writing tutor and a new game is included with this version called Picmi.


Other educational KDE games and applications have been improved, including the ability to print Ksudoku puzzles so they can be used outside of the computer. KGoldrunner was rewritten based on the new kdegames libraries; the gameplay and user interface are the same, but the game is prettier and smoother.


KJumpingCube now allows you to adjust the speed of movements and animate the movements to make them easier to understand. The user interface has been improved and you can now choose which one you would like to play against: Kepler or Newton. KAlgebra has some interface improvements and Peers gained a theme editor.

These and other novelties can be seen in this link and in this other the fonts I used for this article .. What can I say? KDE Every day I fall in love more..


67 comments, leave yours

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.

  1.   sieg84 said

    I am tempted to update.

    1.    sieg84 said

      update in openSUSE and notice the improvements over KDE SC 4.9.5

      1.    Leo said

        3 hours to update?
        Yes, a large number of packages were updated

        1.    elendilnarsil said

          is now available for Chakra ???? I am eager to try it.

          1.    Rayonant said

            Yes, it is already in the stable Chakra repos, although I had to try a couple of times because it did not download the new version of oxygen icons as a dependency, but in the end everything fixed and with KDE 4.10!

          2.    truko22 said

            ^ ___ ^ also calligra 2.6, the migration of mariadb. and the new iso of Chakra 2013.02 “Benz” is being cooked

          3.    Leo said

            Yes !!! Almost 700mb to download and that I have it very basic.

            Every bit of my system is happy !!! 😀

        2.    sieg84 said

          no, it took about 1 hr., it updated about 270 packages.

  2.   codelab said

    Lots of improvements in both performance and visuals, these guys from KDE always with good news!

    For now I will continue with my 4.9.5 and wait a little for this new version to take place on my desktop. I think that more and more users are migrating to KDE based distros due to the well-known Gnome controversy (Cinnamon, Mate, Unity and other families) and the good work of the KDE team.

    Sincerely.

    codelab

  3.   ferthedems said

    A very worked article and a great promotion for the new KDE 4.10, congratulations.

    Maybe one day I will jump headfirst into the pool and make a total migration to this environment that, without a doubt, in maturity and possibilities is practically unmatched. At the moment I am still very attached to GTK environments.

    Thanks for this great work!

    1.    Carlos said

      Come on, what can you be waiting for. I used Gnome for a long time, I gave Gnome 3 its chance, but starting to use KDE was definitely an excellent decision.

      I currently use Kubuntu, which, being maintained by BlueSystem, has become an excellent distribution. There is nothing Ubuntu or Gnome that can be missed in Kubuntu.

      Regards!

      1.    ferthedems said

        You leave me absolutely intrigued with the Kubuntu theme, the truth is that I have tried many distros but when I tried kubuntu (it must have been in the Paleolithic) it was unstable and I did not pay attention to it.

        What you say seems very interesting to me; I think for 13.04 I will test it with the new KDE 😀

        Has the integration with GTK applications been improved?

        Thank you.

        1.    Carlos said

          Of course it is my humble opinion, in my transition to KDE I tried Chakra and Sabayon, both excellent distributions with their pros and cons. Finally I installed Kubuntu 12.04LTS and there it decays for now, I have not had problems and updates are received constantly, through backports I use KDE 4.9.5, I hope that 4.10 also appears

          The integration with GTK, I do not see major problems ... Gimp, Firefox, Inkscape, etc ...

          1.    neomyth said

            Well kubuntu is an excellent distro, for now I'm waiting for kubuntu 13.04 and all its splendor because with the LTS version it left me very surprised for now I use windows for work reasons, but I get along very well with karbon and krita, I have tested them So much so that I could say that they are catching up with gimp and inkscape but by leaps and bounds 🙂

  4.   Byte said

    I know for color tastes, but this is the best desktop environment in the world, and even Apple doesn't do such great things with their OSX as the guys at KDE do.
    A 10+ to the excellent KDE community.

    1.    elav said

      Unfortunately giving an opinion on this could trigger a flame, but it is true that KDE improves a lot with each version, and it is becoming more and more complete. That is why I am so delighted, it lacks almost nothing ..

      1.    Leo said

        The only thing missing would be more forks to reach Gnome, ha: p

        1.    elendilnarsil said

          +1

  5.   Germaine said

    For those like me, the animated backgrounds do not appear or do not work for them; the solution is to install the package "kdeplasma-addons" which is the one that also creates an extra folder in ~ / .kde / share / apps / plasma / wallpapers
    Thanks to the friends of Leanuxeros for the information.

  6.   PeterCzech said

    Very good ... We will see how the general consumption of the system goes. Anyway, we will have to wait until it reaches the Debian testing repos or use OpenSUSE 12.3 which will be released in 34 days .. 🙂

    1.    Zironide said

      Any idea when it may be hitting the testing repos?

      1.    elav said

        Wait sitting, or lying down if you prefer xDDD

        1.    rsantander06 said

          +1

        2.    Zironide said

          … M *****: /

        3.    Zironide said

          I just read the article about debian testing freezing:, (

        4.    elendilnarsil said

          Hahaha.

  7.   Carlos said

    Wow, this shows how unlike other desktop environments KDE is heading in the right direction.

    All these improvements make KDE a really polished, elegant and productive product.

    I don't move from KDE, it is simply the best. The excellent article is appreciated, updates to the distros will arrive soon.

  8.   dhunter said

    A post acclaiming the genius of KDE and also with comments that support it…. finally sane people on the web !!

    I don't know what the distros are waiting for to give KDE more boom, they keep promoting a desktop that lost the concept, look, I try to find the usability of gnome3 but nothing.

  9.   Matthews said

    Tomorrow I try it in Chakra, what you win !!

  10.   Blaire pascal said

    Let's see when it gets to Arch's stable repos.

  11.   Leo said

    This is great news.
    I look forward to it appearing in Chakra repos.

    (Notice that I comment before reading)
    I have also heard of a great improvement for Nepomuk that you can choose to only index the files by name, IT WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED !!! I will no longer have to deactivate it due to its high consumption !! 😀 😀

  12.   Schweik said

    KDE, a visual high, a real drag on the retina of those who work at a computer. Very baroque-rococo.
    And those of Gnome, from autistic to zoombies ...
    Right now I bet on consort-x3 from SolusOS.

  13.   Byte said

    9:09 PM Colombian time, I'm already downloading KDE 4.10 in Chakra ^^

  14.   Carper said

    Excellent, good for the KDE guys, congratulations.
    I've been in KDE for almost a year now, thanks to Gnome 3, and I don't regret it, it's beautiful, highly configurable, well, it has everything in its place. As Elav says: "every day I fall in love more"
    Thanks for the note Elav.
    Greetings to all. XD

  15.   Algave said

    It looks too tempting to go back to KDE and with so many improvements and corrections, I'm sure as soon as it's in the arch repos, I'll try it:

  16.   VaryHeavy said

    Excellent… but among all the improvements they forgot to improve the horrible appearance of the icons in the folders of the Oxygen icon pack. Once again…

    1.    Carlos said

      Pf, but a change to the icons is the simplest there is.
      I currently use these: https://blog.desdelinux.net/potenza-nuevo-bonito-y-completo-set-de-iconos-para-nuestro-linux/

      They are very good.

      Greetings.

    2.    dhunter said

      I have come to like Oxygen this, although from time to time I put KFaenza.

  17.   fernando said

    Too bad Fedora 18 doesn't come with it by default.

  18.   kennatj said

    Too bad that just today install PC-BSD bring KDE 4.9.3 uu

  19.   Tammuz said

    Mmmmm how are you going BSD?

    1.    kennatj said

      So far great, everything running smoothly installation I'm just hoping they get to Rolling-Release fast x)

      http://blog.pcbsd.org/2013/02/status-update-and-future-plans/

  20.   tonem said

    To update to KDE 4.10 in openSUSE you can consult this article http://guiadelcamaleon.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/como-instalar-kde-410-en-opensuse-122.html

    A greeting.

  21.   lolopolooza said

    And how do I solve the dependency on chakra? i can't update

    1.    Albert said

      What's wrong?
      Do you have updated repositories?
      You have to use "mirror-check" to verify that all repositories are up to date since there are some that are not as fast as others in updating and some that are used as a copy

  22.   Carlos-Xfce said

    Hi Elav. I have not read the article; I've just looked at it. It looks very tempting to use KDE, but as long as I don't change teams I will stick with Xfce. Too bad that you no longer write about Xfce: I really miss the articles you shared about it before. Good either way. Anyway, you continue to share many other things. Thank you.

    1.    Blaire pascal said

      Aunque soy usuario de KDE, tienes razón. Aún recuerdo cuando Elav escribía posts interesantes acerca de Xfce, y recuerdo que conocí Desdelinux precisamente buscando un dock para Xfce, fue gracias a un post acerca de wbar si no me equivoco, o como los temas, los análisis y esas cosillas. Peero no es una crítica, sino que me llega algo de nostalgia jajaja, tan bueno KDE y bonito que lo olvidé completamente. Saludos…

  23.   elendilnarsil said

    At last, testing it in Chakra

    1.    Blaire pascal said

      Happy, I'm still waiting on Arch hehehe. But slowly but surely.

      1.    elendilnarsil said

        It works like a charm, except that I've had to struggle more than normal with the wifi connection. On the other hand, the problem I had with the screen was fixed, which flicked a lot when connecting the power adapter, or when the brightness was lowered or increased.

      2.    elendilnarsil said

        if I notice that the general memory consumption has increased, and that it is no longer so simple to deactivate Nepomuk + Akonadi.

  24.   Debian Gnu / Linux said

    Very good. I liked the improvements to Konsole.

    1.    dhunter said

      What did they do to Kosnole?

  25.   Adrian said

    KDE is a VERY VERY good desktop environment. There's no doubt about it.

    And GNOME, everyone criticizes it, but in the long run it will be seen if it is as bad as everyone says. I use GNOME, mostly because I don't get used to KDE.
    I will have given it about 6 chances but in the long run I always go back to the simplicity of GNOME.

    I predict a good future for GNOME, maybe in 2 years. There is nothing to say about KDE except chapó!

  26.   TUDz said

    Packages already available on Arch Linux. Everybody «sudo pacman -Syu» 😀

  27.   rots87 said

    for some strange reason in my archlinux I can't change the menu ... for the rest everything is fine much better (Y)

  28.   Carlos said

    Note that it is already available in Kubuntu.
    In Kubuntu 12.04 I received the update through the backports repository.

    (http://askubuntu.com/questions/170983/how-do-i-install-upgrade-to-kde-4-9)

    1.    elav said

      Yes, it is what I am using right now 😀

  29.   Carlos said

    I haven't tried KDE in a long time 🙁

  30.   Diego Campos said

    KDE is without a doubt a great desktop, it hurts that the integration with LibreOffice is horrible 🙁

    1.    elav said

      To me in Kubuntu as in Debian I looked perfectly integrated .. You can see a clear example here .. I mean, I see it well 😀

      LibreOffice in KDE

    2.    lawliet said

      Have you tried calligra?

    3.    pandev92 said

      If you use pclinux os, you must find out how to integrate it xD, it is an oxygen gtk bug

  31.   Diego Campos said

    Yes, indeed, so far so good but what the menus are, they look terrible, that is, it is a rectangle without shadows, curvatures and others, it does not look at all like the beautiful menus of KDE applications. At least the KDE distributions I have tried (Fedora and OpenSuSE) don't look good, I don't know what it looks like on Kubuntu with KDE 4.10 🙁
    http://i.imgur.com/fsBnN.png <=== This is how the menus look in the KDE I've tested and it doesn't look like KDE application menus at all

    1.    Give me said

      Remember that libre office is not from kde, it is a separate application

  32.   lawliet said

    I am testing my user agent