A research team from the University of Maryland Baltimore County has launched an online study to explore the usability of KDE notifications. Participants are asked to describe a recent KDE notification experience to deepen the understanding of what makes a good or bad notification. Results from the research will help improve the usability of KDE notifications, and will make a contribution to the academic field of Human-Computer Interaction.

Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform.

KDE has announced its Version 4.9 Releases to KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications, and the KDE Development Platform, dedicated to the memory of KDE contributor Claire Lotion. The full announcement has details.

These releases got special attention to the general levels of quality and stability. In particular, there was a focus on eliminating any regressions from previous releases. Thanks to the efforts of the KDE Quality Team and its new contributors, the 4.9 Releases are the best ever.

Background

Project Neon provides daily builds of KDE modules for Kubuntu. It is an easy way to get the latest code without having to build the entire KDE-Git/SVN tree and maintain the checkout. Project Neon is unstable, but it installs alongside stable packages. It is suitable for contributors such as new developers, translators, usability designers, documenters, promoters, and bug triagers. With Project Neon, people can experiment freely without risk to a working KDE environment.

Now that Akademy 2012 is behind us and life is getting back to normal, we can now share videos and slides from the conference talks with those who weren't there.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest:

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest:

KDE at SouthEast (US) LinuxFest

KDE was represented at the SouthEast LinuxFest again this year with a booth showing off our latest software. The Calligra Suite, Kontact, Telepathy, and Plasma Workspaces were featured. Krita particularly intrigued many people. As a result, many copies of the Comics with Krita training DVD were handed out along with the accompanying comic book, Wasted Mutants and Wisdom Mountain.

Today KDE released the second 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 other polishing. Highlights of 4.9 will include:

• Qt Quick in Plasma Workspaces. Qt Quick continues to make its way into the Plasma Workspaces. The Qt Quick Plasma components, which were introduced with 4.8, mature further. Additional integration of various KDE APIs was added through new modules. More parts of Plasma Desktop have been ported to QML. While preserving their functionality, the Qt Quick replacements of common Plasmoids are more attractive, easier to enhance and extend and behave better on touchscreens.
• The Dolphin file manager has been improved in its display and sorting and searching based on metadata. Files can now be renamed inline, giving a smoother user experience.
• Deeper integration of Activities for files, windows and other resources. It is now easier for users to associate files and windows with an Activity, and enjoy better Workspace organization. Folderview can now show files related to an Activity, making it easier to organize files into meaningful contexts.
• Many performance improvements and bugfixes improve the overall user experience, making KDE Applications and Workspaces more productive and fun to use than ever before.

More improvements can be found in the 4.9 Feature Plan. There are many changes, so 4.9 needs a good testing in order to maintain and improve quality and to deliver an exceptional user experience.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: