Difference between revisions of "Release Notes For R14.0.0"

Revision as of 21:30, 13 December 2014

(TODORemove this note) !!!NOTE!!! This page is still under construction. TDE R14.0.0 has not yet been released

2014.12.15: TDE R14.0.0 is now available for download!

The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) development team is happy to announce the immediate availability of the new R14.0.0 release.

TDE R14.0.0 has been in development for over 2 years. This extended development period has allowed us to create a better, more stable and more feature-rich product than previous TDE releases. R14 is brimming with new features, such as a new hardware manager based on udev (HAL is no longer required), full network-manager 0.9 support, a brand new compositor (compton), built-in threading support and much more!

Also new in this release is a change from the old, confusing KDE v3.5.x series naming. In line with our new, separate identity, and to avoid incorrect comparisons with KDE SC based on version number alone, we are dropping the old versioning scheme and replacing it with our new R-series versioning scheme. Each new release from this point forward will be identified with three numbers prefixed with an R (standing for "Release"); the first number is the major series, the second is the minor series, and the last is the Stable Release Update (SRU) identifier. A stable series will be indicated by a single Rxx.yy identifier, e.g. R14.0. Major overhauls of the codebase that significantly and permanently change the way TDE functions, such as the transition from HAL to the TDE Hardware Library or the new style engine, will only occur when the major series number increments. Normal, incremental development, including new features, will be indicated with an increment of the minor version number Bugfixes backported to a stable series (Rxx.yy) with no new features or changed functionality will be indicated via an increment of the SRU identifier alone.

(TODO: Update screenshot for final release. Possibly add one more screenshot)

Installation instructions

(TODO: Update installation instruction for RedHat, Fedora, Mageia, OpenSUSE, PCLinuxOS)

(TODO: are packages for Slackware going to be provided? What about Arch? Are we forgetting some other distros for which packages will be available?)

Installation instructions and binary packages are available for Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat/CentOs, Fedora, Mageia, OpenSUSE, PCLinuxOS.

Live CDs are also available following the instructons at this page.

Major Improvements from 3.5.13

The following is a list of the major improvements TDE R14.0.0 includes.

New HAL-independent hardware support based on udev. HAL support is still available for those systems (such as *bsd) that require it.
Significant renaming of applications, libraries and packages to avoid conflicts with other desktop environments (most notably KDE). This allows TDE to be installed in parallel with other desktop environments without significant negative interaction.
Upgrades to TQt3 (TDE's fork of Qt 3.3.8) include a new, modern style engine, multi-threading support, and improved speed and stability.
Support for network-manager 0.9 and newer.
Switched compositor from Kompmgr to Compton-TDE, a fork of Compton with TDE-specific features.
Added builds for armel/armhf architectures on Debian and armhf on Raspbian Wheezy.
File mimetype detection system now based on libmagic.

Other important changes

This is a non-comprehensive list of other significant changes made in R14.0.0.

Significant branding overhaul and restyling.
Further improved XDG compliance.
Additional theme engines available.
Continued migration from autotools to cmake.
TDE integration support for LibreOffice available and maintained in upstream GIT.
Improved Secure Attention Key support.
Added optional Mac-like window switching.
Kate sort plugin now available.
Tasks are now manually rearrangeable in the taskbar.
Added Show Icons Only option for taskbar.
Improved application crash report framework, now also including source code commit references for better debugging.
A mouse double-click speed test option in the control panel.
A smooth crossfade effect is now available when changing the desktop wallpaper.
Improved project documentation and localization.

For a more detailed list of improvements please refer to the TDE R14.0.0 Release Notes (available here or by typing help:/khelpcenter/releasenotes in Konqueror or khelpcenter help:/khelpcenter/releasenotes from the CLI).

New applications

The following applications have been added in this TDE release.

GTK3/TQt Theme Engine
Kasablanca
Kate sort plugin
KBibTex
KBiff
KControl Autostart
KControl LDAP Manager
KDbg
KFTPGrabber
KLCDDimmer
KNmap
KRecipes
KScope
KSensors
KShowmail
KShutdown
LDAP/Kerberos Toolkit
MPlayerthumbs
Qt4/TQt Theme Engine
Tdeio-ftps
Tdeio-sword
TorK

About TDE

The Trinity Desktop Environment was born as a fork of the K Desktop Environment version 3.5, which was originally written by the KDE Team, a world-wide network of software engineers committed to Free Software development. The name Trinity was chosen because the word means Three as in continuation of KDE 3. Since then, TDE has evolved to be an independent and standalone computer desktop environment project. The developers have molded the code to its own identity without giving up on the efficiency, productivity and traditional user interface experience characteristic of the original KDE 3 series.

The TDE project was founded by and is still led by Timothy Pearson. Timothy is an experienced and skilled software developer and was the KDE 3.x coordinator of previous Kubuntu releases.

Contributing to the project

The TDE development team is small but friendly. Anyone who wishes to take part in developing and shaping the next TDE version is welcomed. If you wish to participate, have a look at the Get involved page.

User Feedback

Feedback from users is an important part of a project such TDE. Whether you want to report a bug, suggest an improvement or simply let us know your opinion, please feel free to come forward. Two good places to start from are the bug tracker and the project mailing lists.

Helping the TDE Project

Creating TDE requires significant computing resources and bandwidth; please consider helping to keep us online with a donation on our Donations page!

Press Contact Information

Project Leader: Timothy Pearson, kb9vqf@pearsoncomputing.net
Release Coordinator: Slavek Banko, slavek.banko@axis.cz

@@ Line 7: / Line 7: @@
 ----
-'''2014.xx.yy (<span style="background:red">TODO</span>: Insert final release date): TDE R14.0.0 is now available for download!'''
+'''2014.12.15: TDE R14.0.0 is now available for download!'''
 The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) development team is happy to announce the immediate availability of the new R14.0.0 release.
-R14 has been over 2 years in development. Such long development period has allowed us to create a better, more stable and more feature-rich product than previous TDE releases. R14 is brimming with new features, such as a new hardware manager based on udev (HAL is no longer required), full network-manager 0.9 support, a brand new compositor (compton), built-in threading support and much more!
+TDE R14.0.0 has been in development for over 2 years. This extended development period has allowed us to create a better, more stable and more feature-rich product than previous TDE releases. R14 is brimming with new features, such as a new hardware manager based on udev (HAL is no longer required), full network-manager 0.9 support, a brand new compositor (compton), built-in threading support and much more!
+Also new in this release is a change from the old, confusing KDE v3.5.x series naming.  In line with our new, separate identity, and to avoid incorrect comparisons with KDE SC based on version number alone, we are dropping the old versioning scheme and replacing it with our new R-series versioning scheme.  Each new release from this point forward will be identified with three numbers prefixed with an R (standing for "Release"); the first number is the major series, the second is the minor series, and the last is the Stable Release Update (SRU) identifier.  A stable series will be indicated by a single Rxx.yy identifier, e.g. R14.0.  Major overhauls of the codebase that significantly and permanently change the way TDE functions, such as the transition from HAL to the TDE Hardware Library or the new style engine, will only occur when the major series number increments.  Normal, incremental development, including new features, will be indicated with an increment of the minor version number  Bugfixes backported to a stable series (Rxx.yy) with no new features or changed functionality will be indicated via an increment of the SRU identifier alone.
 (<span style="background:red">TODO</span>: Update screenshot for final release. Possibly add one more screenshot)
@@ Line 31: / Line 32: @@
 ===Major Improvements from 3.5.13===
-The following is a list of the major improvements TDE R14.0.0 brings along.
+The following is a list of the major improvements TDE R14.0.0 includes.
 * New HAL-independent hardware support based on udev. HAL support is still available for those systems (such as *bsd) that require it.
-* Significant renaming of applications, libraries and packages to avoid conflicts with other desktop environments (most notably KDE) allowing TDE to be installed in parallel with other DE.
+* Significant renaming of applications, libraries and packages to avoid conflicts with other desktop environments (most notably KDE).  This allows TDE to be installed in parallel with other desktop environments without significant negative interaction.
+* Upgrades to TQt3 (TDE's fork of Qt 3.3.8) include a new, modern style engine, multi-threading support, and improved speed and stability.
-* Switched from 'plain' Qt3 to the 'new' TQt3 interface, an enhanced version of Qt3 with a particular eye on improved stability and multi-threading support.
-* A new TQt interface layer between TDE libraries/applications and TQt3. This allows selective adaptation of some Qt4 programming widgets.
 * Support for network-manager 0.9 and newer.
-* Switched compositor from Kompmgr to Compton.
+* Switched compositor from Kompmgr to Compton-TDE, a fork of Compton with TDE-specific features.
-* Added support for ARM architectures and RaspBian.
+* Added builds for armel/armhf architectures on Debian and armhf on Raspbian Wheezy.
-* MIME detection system now based on libmagic.
+* File mimetype detection system now based on libmagic.
-* New website design.
@@ Line 47: / Line 46: @@
 This is a non-comprehensive list of other significant changes made in R14.0.0.
-* Migrated the TDE source repository to [https://git.trinitydesktop.org/cgit GIT].
 * Significant branding overhaul and restyling.
 * Further improved XDG compliance.
 * Additional theme engines available.
 * Continued migration from autotools to cmake.
-* TDE-style dialog box support for LibreOffice.
+* TDE integration support for LibreOffice available and maintained in upstream GIT.
-* Improved Secure Attention Key.
+* Improved Secure Attention Key support.
-* Mac-like window switching.
+* Added optional Mac-like window switching.
 * Kate sort plugin now available.
-* Rearrangeable items in the taskbar.
+* Tasks are now manually rearrangeable in the taskbar.
-* Show Icons Only option for taskbar.
+* Added Show Icons Only option for taskbar.
 * Improved application crash report framework, now also including source code commit references for better debugging.
 * A mouse double-click speed test option in the control panel.