'Smart' graphics framework for KDE nears release

Norwegian software company Trolltech has unveiled a release candidate of Qt 4, the graphical framework on which the next major version of Linux desktop KDE will be based. The final version of Qt 4 will be released later this month, the company said last week.

Trolltech has revised the entire toolkit in version 4 so it is smarter about how it uses resources, Qt product manager Eivind Throndsen told ZDNet in an interview earlier this year. These changes could lead to performance improvements of up to 30 percent in KDE 4 -- the next major release of KDE, according to Throndsen.

Aside from performance improvements, Qt 4 includes improved support for accessibility, networking and threading, according to the Trolltech Web site.

KDE developers have not set a release date for KDE 4, but the release is not expected until the second half of 2006, according to KDE developer Stephan Binner. The release of KDE 4 is therefore likely to coincide with Longhorn, the next major version of Microsoft's operating system, which is also slated for release in the second half of next year.

"Let us all together ensure that KDE 4.0 will be released at latest before the 10th anniversary of the KDE project (14th October 2006): this will put us into a good position against that legacy OS' major release 'late next year'," said Binner in a blog posting last week.