SIGs/KDE/KDE4FAQ

Why didn't you wait for KDE 4.1 before making it default KDE in Fedora 9?
QT 3, the underlying toolkit for KDE 3 has been unmaintained from July 2007. KDE 4.1 release is soon after the Fedora 9 release. If KDE 4.0.3 wasn't introduced in Fedora 9, updating to KDE 4.1 post release is difficult and disruptive. Providing the latest software to Fedora users and supporting upstream projects such as KDE is among the Fedora  objectives.

Will KDE 3 be released for Fedora 9 and later?
Fedora 9 does not include a complete KDE 3 desktop nor the KDE 3 versions of applications which are included in KDE 4, such as Konqueror. What is provided:
 * compatibility libraries and a compatibility development platform, allowing to build and run KDE 3 applications. These will stay as long as needed, probably for several years.
 * in Fedora 9, KDE 3 versions of modules not available or missing their main application in KDE 4.0: kdepim (not in 4.0), kdevelop (not in 4.0, 4.1 nor 4.2), kdewebdev (no Quanta in 4.0, 4.1 nor 4.2). kdepim has been replaced by the version from KDE 4.1 in Fedora 10 (and 4.2 in Fedora 10 updates). KDevelop will probably be replaced by a KDE 4.3 version starting from Fedora 12, the status of Quanta is still uncertain.
 * several third-party KDE 3 applications: third-party applications such as K3b will continue to be shipped in KDE 3 versions as long as the KDE 4 version is not ready. In future versions of Fedora, these will be gradually replaced by KDE 4 versions as they become available. For example, Fedora 10 now includes KDE 4 versions of Amarok and Digikam.
 * a kdegames3 package containing the KDE 3 games not available in the KDE 4 kdegames. These are expected to become less over time.

Why not? Can't you install both KDE 3 and KDE 4?
In short, no. Upstream does not support this configuration.

But, but, other distros are doing it.
True, while theoretically possible to do, it involves what we consider pervasive hacks including (at least) violating the FHS and/or installing into separate prefixes/roots, and additional hacks to make both KDE3/KDE4 environments not stomp on each other. None of these things we would willingly want to even try to fix and support, nor to inflict upon our userbase.

Have we mentioned that upstream doesn't support it? :)

How does that new desktop work? How do I fix it if got messed up for some reason?
Please refer to the Plasma FAQ at KDE UserBase.

Why is Compiz not installed by default in the KDE spin?
Since KDE 4.0, the default KDE window manager, KWin, supplies its own implementation of desktop effects. Since KDE 4.2, this also includes the famous "Cube" effect. The KDE project believes that adding desktop effects to a powerful window manager (such as KWin) ultimately produces a more reliable result with less developer effort than reimplementing complex window management features and desktop integration in a window manager primarily designed for desktop effects (such as Compiz). See the [http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KWin/4.0-release-notes#Why_not_Compiz.3F Why Not Compiz? section of the KWin release notes for KDE4.0] for details.

We do, however, provide Compiz with KDE 4 integration in our repository. Just install the  package to get it.

How can I package KDE 4 software for Fedora?
Included is a sample kde4_foo.spec to use as a template starting point. Please use the RPM macros as defined in /etc/rpm/macros.kde4 whenever possible.