Software Update: KDE Software Compilation 4.5.0

Tuesday version 4.5.0 of the KDE Software Compilation was released. This popular desktop environment used to be known as the K Desktop Environment, but the developers now believe that KDE Software Compilation covers the load better. KDE is primarily developed for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris, but there are versions for it too Windows and Mac OS X, although they are somewhat less advanced in their development. The KDE Software Compilation comes with a standard desktop, including fifteen packages of applications, including a personal information manager, multimedia and network management programs, and games. In version 4.5.0, the focus has been on improving usability, performance and stability. In the announcement you can read more about the improvements in the three main components, namely Development Platform, Plasma Workspaces and Applications.

KDE Releases Development Platform, Applications and Plasma Workspaces 4.5.0

New Versions of the KDE Development Platform, the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, and many applications are released today with the version number 4.5.0. The KDE team focused on the usability, performance and stability of many previously introduced new features and technologies. Below, find the 3 separate announcements for each of KDE’s products: The Development Platform, the Applications Compilation and the Plasma Workspaces.

The KDE Development Platform 4.5.0
KDE today releases the KDE Development Platform 4.5.0. This release brings many performance and stability improvements. The new KSharedDataCache is optimized for fast access to resources stored on disk, such as icons. The new KDE WebKit library provides integration with network settings, password-storage and many other features found in Konqueror. Read The Full Announcement

Plasma Desktop and Netbook 4.5.0: improved user experience
KDE today releases the Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook Workspaces 4.5.0. Plasma Desktop received many usability refinements. The Notification and Job handling workflows have been streamlined. The notification area has been cleaned up visually, and its input handling across applications is now made more consistent by the extended use of the Freedesktop.org notification protocol first introduced in Plasma’s previous version. Read The Full Announcement

KDE Applications 4.5.0: enhanced usability and map routing
The KDE team today releases a new version of the KDE Applications. Many educational titles, tools, games and graphical utilities have seen further enhancement and usability improvements. Routing backed by OpenRouteService has made its entry in Marble, the virtual globe. Konqueror, KDE’s web browser can now be configured to use WebKit with the KWebKit component available in the Extragear repository. Read The Full Announcement

KDE Software Compilation 4.5.0 screenshot, click on the image for a larger version.