KDE 3.0.5a Release Announcement

December 21, 2002 (The INTERNET). The KDE Project today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.0.5a. KDE 3 is the third generation of KDE's free, powerful desktop for Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.0.5a is available in 51 languages and ships with the core KDE libraries, the base desktop environment and hundreds of applications and other desktop enhancements from the other KDE base packages (PIM, administration, network, edutainment, development, utilities, multimedia, games, artwork, and others).

KDE 3.0.5a provides a number of important security improvements, as described in the security advisory, and some stability enhancements. The KDE Project strongly recommends that all KDE users upgrade to this release as soon as practicable.

KDE, including all its libraries and its applications, is available for free under Open Source licenses. KDE can be obtained in source and numerous binary formats from the KDE http or ftp mirrors.

For more information about the KDE 3 series, please read the KDE 3.0 announcement and the KDE 3.0.5a information page.

Installing KDE 3.0.5a Binary Packages

Binary Packages. Due to the Holidays few binary packages are available at this juncture. Additional binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may become available via the KDE servers or vendors' websites over the coming days and weeks. Some vendors are expected to incorporate the security improvements into new builds of KDE 3.0.5. Please check the KDE 3.0.5a information page and your vendor's website periodically for available packages.

At the moment binary packages are available through the KDE servers (or elsewhere, where indicated) for the following distributions and versions (please be sure to read any applicable README first):

• Debian:
  • Debian stable (woody): Intel i386
• Red Hat:
  • 8.0: Intel i386, Language packages
  • 7.3: Intel i386, Language packages
• SGI IRIX (README):
  • 6.5: IRIX
• Slackware (Unofficial contribution):
  • 8.1: Intel i386
• SUN Solaris (Unofficial contribution):
  • 9.0: SPARC64
  • 8.0: Intel x86 / SPARC64
  • 7.0: SPARC64
• SuSE Linux (README):
  • 8.1: Intel i386
  • 8.0: Intel i386
  • 7.3: Intel i386 and IBM PowerPC
• Turbolinux (README):
  • Language packages (all versions and architectures)
  • 8.0: Intel i586
  • 7.0: Intel i586

Please note that the KDE Project makes binary packages available from the KDE web site as a convenience to KDE users. The KDE Project is not responsible for these packages as they are provided by third parties - typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant distribution - using tools, compilers, library versions and quality assurance procedures over which KDE exercises no control. In addition, please note that some vendors provide binary packages solely through their servers. If you cannot find a binary package for your OS, or you are displeased with the quality of binary packages available for your OS, please read the KDE Binary Package Policy and/or contact your OS vendor.

Compiling KDE 3.0.5a

Library Requirements / Options. KDE 3.0.5a requires Qt 3.0.3 for X11. In addition, KDE can take advantage of a number of other optional libraries and applications to improve your desktop experience and capabilities.

Compiler Requirements. KDE is designed to be cross-platform and hence to compile with a large variety of Linux/UNIX compilers. However, KDE is advancing very rapidly and the ability of native compilers on various UNIX systems to compile KDE depends on users of those systems reporting compile problems to the responsible developers.

With respect to the most popular KDE compiler, gcc/egcs, please note that some components of KDE will not compile properly with gcc versions earlier than gcc-2.95, such as egcs-1.1.2 or gcc-2.7.2, or with unpatched versions of gcc 3.0.x. However, KDE should compile properly with gcc 3.1 and 3.2.

Source Code / SRPMs. The complete source code for KDE 3.0.5a is available for download. These source packages have been digitally signed with GnuPG using the KDE Archives PGP Key (available from the KDE Signature page or public key servers), and their respective MD5 sums are listed on the KDE 3.0.5a Info Page.

Further Information. For further instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.0.5a, please consult the installation instructions and, if you should encounter compilation difficulties, the KDE Compilation FAQ.

KDE Sponsorship

Besides the superb and invaluable efforts by the KDE developers themselves, significant support for KDE development has been provided by MandrakeSoft and SuSE. In addition, the members of the KDE League provide significant support for KDE promotion, and the University of Tübingen and the University of Kaiserslautern provide most of the Internet bandwidth for the KDE project. Thanks!

About KDE

KDE is an independent project of hundreds of developers, translators, artists and other professionals worldwide collaborating over the Internet to create and freely distribute a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop and office environment employing a flexible, component-based, network-transparent architecture and offering an outstanding development platform. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop, a full, component-based office suite (KOffice), a large set of networking and administration tools and utilities, and an efficient, intuitive development environment featuring the excellent IDE KDevelop. KDE is working proof that the Open Source "Bazaar-style" software development model can yield first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex commercial software.

Trademarks Notices. KDE and K Desktop Environment are trademarks of KDE e.V. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.