Guess Who Started to Look like Windows? |
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 It’s Linux, of course, that
started to “taste” and feel like Windows, its everlasting rival. The K Development
Environment announced yesterday the much-anticipated release of the KDE 4.0,
the brand new version of the popular open source desktop environment that will
mark a giant step closer to KDE’s goal of creating a powerful system for an
easy-to-use desktop environment.
From the underlying development
architecture to the user interface, KDE 4.0 includes many significant changes
compared to previous 3.5.x series, changes that made the Linux graphical interfaces
software incorporate a number of features that appear also in Windows Vista and
Mac OS X.
KDE 4.0 brings new ways of
viewing applications and widgets, a new start menu, a revamped file browser, as
well as a new look to some entertainment apps and others. Practically, KDE 4.0
introduced for example the Plasma desktop shell, which replaces the
conventional panel and desktop with interactive widgets. KDE programmers also
created a new smart theme engine and icon set called Oxygen, which increases
the visual consistency of the desktop environment along with new vector-based
artwork. The KWin window manager was as well brought compositing support and
advanced graphical effects.
However, it is not only the user
interface that was improved, as beneath the surface, the new desktop
environment includes also a wide range of important architectural changes. For
example, the DCOP interprocess-communication system was completely replaced
with D-Bus, which is a standard IPC framework created through the
FreeDesktop.org project.
KDE 4.0 includes also some new
applications, such as the new Dolphin file manager and a new desktop
configuration tool.
KDE 4.0 represents an important
stage in the popular interface’s evolution.
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