KDE Ships Leading Desktop with Advanced Web Browser and Development Environment for Linux and Other UNIXes
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE via COLLEGIATE PRESSWIRE)--Aug 15, 2001--The KDE Project(http://www.kde.org/) today announced the immediate release of KDE 2.2, a powerful and easy-to-use Internet-enabled desktop for Linux.
Consistent with KDE`s rapid and disciplined development pace, the release of KDE 2.2 features an impressive catalog of speed/performance enhancements, feature additions and stability improvements. KDE 2.2 is available in 34 languages and ships with the core KDE libraries, the core desktop environment, and over 100 applications from the other base KDE packages (administration, multimedia, network, PIM, development, etc.).
``The productivity tools and interface improvements in the new KDE desktop provide a powerful client environment,`` said Kent Ferson, vice president of Compaq`s Tru64 UNIX Systems Division. ``We`re pleased to offer KDE 2.2 on Tru64 UNIX and to enhance our Linux-Tru64 UNIX affinity capabilities for interoperability and application mobility. Compaq acknowledges Dr. Tom Leitner of Graz University of TechnologY and the KDE development team for their support in delivering this affinity capability.``
KDE 2.2 will be complemented later this month by the stable release of KOffice 1.1 (http://www.koffice.org), a comprehensive, modular, component-based suite of office productivity applications. This combination is the first to provide a complete Open Source desktop and productivity environment for Linux/Unix.
KDE and all its components are available for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE server (http://master.kde.org/pub/kde/stable/2.2/) and its mirrors(http://www.kde.org/mirrors.html).
``Thanks to the high quality of the KDE 2 development framework and the invaluable feedback of our users we are delivering a more polished, better integrated and more feature-rich desktop experience in a relative short time. With the pending release of a stable KOffice this month, KDE offers a complete high-quality desktop and development platform without the costs and restrictions associated with proprietary desktops,`` said Waldo Bastian, release manager for KDE 2.2 and a SuSE Labs developer.
Dave Richards, the System Administrator for The City of Largo, Florida who recently spearheaded the successful roll-out of KDE on 400 thin clients serving 800 users in City offices, explained why the City selected KDE and Linux: ``All city terminals log into one big `desktop` system to get the KDE desktop. Since uptime of this server is so critical, we picked Linux. KDE gave us an excellent presentation layer with which to run all of the City applications that are running on other servers (both Unix and Windows).``
``It is important for enterprises to realize that the huge cost savings they can obtain immediately upon conversion to KDE do not require any sacrifice in terms of software available to their users,`` added Andreas Pour, Chairman of the KDE League. ``The capabilities of Konqueror, the expansive array of free software available for KDE/Qt and the large number of other Open Source projects will solve most if not all problems natively. For those applications only available for Windows at this juncture, several alternative products, both
commercial and Open Source, exist. There is no reason companies cannot today shed themselves of at least a substantial portion of wasteful licensing fees for their desktop users.``
ABOUT KDE
KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers worldwide working over the Internet to create a sophisticated, customizable and stable desktop environment employing a component-based, network-transparent architecture. Much more information about this release is available in the official announcement (http://www.kde.org/announcements/announce-2.2.html).
TRADEMARKS NOTICES. KDE, K Desktop Environment and KOffice are trademarks of KDE e.V. All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.
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