Today was the first "Official" validation that I have been saying for a several months now: KDE Software Compilation 4.X is ready for the enterprise. This affirmation came today via Novell's announcement that OpenSUSE will include KDE 4.3.4 as an upgrade for OS 11.2 users. The article in reference is from an issue in December 7th, 2009's Linux Today magazine. Novell's reasons were listed as follows:
For the current openSUSE 11.2, Novell broke with tradition for the first time by declaring KDE 4.3.4 a stable version and including it in the STABLE repository for an online update to 11.2. There are many reasons for the change, the main one being that KDE 4.3.4 is the official version planned for next year's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server/Desktop 12. Novell and openSUSE developers thus will spare themselves having to maintain two practically identical yet in many points distinct KDE versions. The KDE 4.3.1 in openSUSE 11.2 brought a couple of critical bugs in the Plasma desktop that were fixed in 4.3.4. Because KDE 4.4 will appear in February 2010, KDE 4.3.4 is the last version in the 4.3 series and will be the longest and best maintained in that series.
The fact that, from here on out, KDE SC 4 will be included by default in SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 server and desktop series is a welcome announcement. And should make the KDE Community at large very proud. As the American cigarette ad for Virginia Slims used to say, "you've come a long way, baby!". Clearly one of the big OpenSource enterprise Linux players, Novell, is leading the way towards further establishing KDE SC 4 as a serious presence in the open source desktop market. Or, should I say, re-establishing?
What does this mean for us here at the The Blue Mint, and you? It means that this is the first wave of what I predict will be much more adulation to come. It also means that the days are numbered for the KDE Software Compilation to be considered any of the following:
- Unstable
- Hard to use
- The desktop is too complex
- To Vista-ish - I never did get this one. Is it just because it looks different than Gnome? Or maybe because it's so blue...
- Bloated
- Did I mention unstable?
For Linux Mint KDE and every distribution running KDE SC 4, it means, in a nutshell, that you should not fear it. Try Linux Mint KDE, and make up your own mind. It's up there on the top of this page, right above the Google Ads that help make THB possible. It says "Get Linux Mint". You know you want to.
It also means good times ahead for the people in the outstanding KDE Community. For as is often said in life and in business, "Success breeds success".
Throughout it all, TBM will be along for, and thoroughly enjoying, the future of free desktop computing.
I would like feedback from people in the community who have either just discovered Linux Mint KDE (or other KDE SC distro), or have recently come back to try it after some period of absence. What are your thoughts? Would you recommend Linux Mint KDE, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, or other KDE SC-based flavor of Linux? Why or why not? Do you think KDE has "arrived"? Let's discuss this anew and in light of Novell's announcement.
source link: Enterprise Benefit: openSUSE Brings KDE Update for 11.2 - Linux Magazine Online
*OK well of course I am neither condoning or dismissing smoking, just throwing in an appropriate and reinforcing message made popular years ago in the 80's in America. It's called "editorial license". Long live nostalgia.
Actually, the linux magazine guy who wrote that is not completely accurate. Will Stephenson, who wrote the announcement on openSUSE mailing lists, said that KDE 4.3.4 will be in SLED but didn't said which version. Since SLED 11 was released with KDE 4.1.3 (see http://bit.ly/8Kzoal) which is what openSUSE 11.1 had, I believe SLED 12 will have KDE 4.7.x (if it ever exists by then), which is what openSUSE 12.1 will probably have too. And based on that, I think KDE 4.3.4 will end up in the first service pack for SLED 11.
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