The Beta1 of KDE 4.2 Desktop Environment has been released at 26.11.2008. So it’s been there for a while – let’s take a look at the revision 893046.

Plasma

KDE 4.2 is now officially frozen, which means that no new features are allowed to be added. Before the freeze however, Plasma got one new feature: while zooming out of the desktop, we are given a handy panel underneath, which offers us several options:

• adding widgets to the desktop
• adding a new action/desktop
• enlarging and shrinking of the action
• action’s settings
• and finally, if another action/desktop is already there, you can delete any of them here.

KWin

As mentioned, KDE 4.2 is frozen, so the programmers are focused on bug fixes only. Frankly, I can’t feel any difference between this and the previous version. One annoying thing is that KWin can stall while working, and then I get informed that the effects were working too slow and have been suspended. I don’t know if this is still the NVidia drivers or the Window Manager problem. It is, however, annoying and happening all too often. I hope it will be fixed before the final released. The final release is said to be able to enable the effects automatically, if the system can manage. One other addition is the handling of the Cover Switch window switching effect.

Amarok

Our beloved music player is now in RC1 stage. Which means, that we can expect the final release really soon. Maybe KDE 4.2 and Amarok 2.0 will be released on the same day (update: Amarok 2.0 has just been released)? Nevertheless, I have to moan a little on the Wolf’s behavior. Album covers are still getting mixed up. Recently I could not open my collections. Amarok wouldn’t play files which filenames contain diacritics. Well, that one is a known problem and should get fixed in the near future. The 2.0 version however, will contain that error. As for it’s look – let’s be honest – the Amarok is not ugly, but it doesn’t mean its looks are something to envy. As for the UI itself, the kde-look.orgpage contains a few concepts on proposed UI changes. Maybe Amarok 2.1 will be a better looking application. Hopefully.

The application starts fast and the environment works really smooth. One can see in the techbase, that many functions have not been implemented into 4.2 release yet. But this version is fit to be used on a desktop, no doubt about it.

I think there is no point writing more about KDE 4.2 until the official release. That’s why the next dip into programmers’ work will appear only at the point of 4.3 release. In between that time, after the 19/01/2009 I will try to present a short description of the default KDE4.2 look-and-feel.

This article has been originally published in Polish on author’s blog :KDE 4.2 beta1++
Translated-by : el es