The latest set of KDE releases has been announced. It includes major updates to Plasma Workspaces, Applications, and the Development Platform. Version 4.8 provides many new features, as well as improved stability and performance. Check out the highlights below and read the full announcement.

Dolphin gets a new display engine (click for larger)

Today KDE released the second release candidate for its renewed Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality. Please give this release another good round of testing to help us release a rock-solid 4.8 later this month.

Today KDE released the first release candidate for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing. Compared to Beta2, RC1 contains hundreds of fixes. Please give this release another good round of testing to help us release a rock-solid 4.8 in January.

Plasma Active Two has been released. In just two months, the Plasma Active development team has made significant improvements over Plasma Active One. The release announcement has more information, including a video and sites for downloading and installation instructions.

Today, KDE makes available two new releases of its Workspaces, Applications and Development Platform. 4.7.4 provides bugfix updates, new translations and performance improvments on top of the stable 4.7 series, while 4.8 Beta2 gives a glimpse at what is coming in 4.8, to be released next month.
As 4.7.4 is limited to low-risk fixes, it is a recommended update for everyone using 4.7.3 or earlier versions. 4.7.4 will be the last release of the 4.7 series. The next stable release of KDE's Workspaces, Applications and Development Frameworks will be 4.8.0, which will be ready in January 2012. Among the highlights which will be in 4.8 are a new and fancy view engine for Dolphin, Qt Quick Components for Plasma, and of course all the fixes that went into 4.7.4.

Today KDE released the first beta for its renewed Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team's focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality. Highlights of 4.8 include, among other things:

• Qt Quick in Plasma Workspaces -- Qt Quick is making its way into the Plasma Workspaces, the new Plasma Components provide a standardized API implementation of widgets with native Plasma Look and Feel. The device notifier widget has been ported using these components and is now written in pure QML. KWin's window switcher is now also QML-based, paving the way for newly designed window switchers.
• Dolphin's file view has been rewritten for performance, scalability and more attractive visual appearance.
• Many performance improvements and bugfixes improve the overall user experience, making the KDE Applications and Workspaces more productive and fun to use than ever before.

Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform.
These updates are the third in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.7 series. 4.7.3 updates bring many bugfixes and translation updates on top of the latest edition in the 4.7 series and are recommended updates for everyone running 4.7.0 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE’s software is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come.

The October updates contain many performance improvements and bugfixes for applications using the Nepomuk semantic framework.

To download source code or packages to install go to the 4.7.3 Info Page. The changelog and Bugzilla list more, but not all improvements since 4.7.2.
Note that these changelogs are incomplete. For a complete list of changes that went into 4.7.3, you can browse the Subversion and Git logs. 4.7.3 also ships a more complete set of translations for many of the 55+ supported languages.
To find out more about the KDE Workspace and Applications 4.7, please refer to the 4.7 release notes and its earlier versions.

Today marks a major milestone for KDE Plasma Workspaces. Plasma Active One has been released, primarily for tablet computers. It is the latest expression of the Plasma concept, following Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook. In the KDE tradition, Plasma Active One is designed for the best User Experience—for people on the move and engaged in many activities.

Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. These updates are the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.7 series. 4.7.2 updates bring many bugfixes and translation updates on top of the latest edition in the 4.7 series and are recommended updates for everyone running 4.7.0 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE’s software is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come. The October updates are especially interesting for those using the new Akonadi-based Kontact Suite, as it contains many performance improvements and bugfixes for applications such as KMail, and others retrieving information using Akonadi.

KDE e.V., the non-profit organization that supports the KDE community in legal and financial matters, has published its report for the second quarter of 2011 (pdf). The report introduces the KDE e.V. administrative staff, and has information about the various contributor sprints and events that KDE members attended in the second quarter of 2011.