Features/KDE48

= KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8 =

Summary
Rebase to KDE Plasma Workspace 4.8. including Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, the KDE Applications and the KDE Platform.

Owner

 * KDE SIG
 * Email: jreznik@redhat.com, than@redhat.com, rdieter@fedoraproject.org, ltinkl@redhat.com
 * IRC: #fedora-kde

Current status

 * Targeted release: Fedora 17
 * Last updated: 2012-04-04
 * Percentage of completion: 100%

4.8.1 currently available for F17.

Detailed Description
We have rebased KDE Plasma Workspaces to 4.8

New features overview
 * KDE Plasma Workspaces, KDE Applications and KDE Platform 4.8
 * more split packages for some previously monolithic modules (kdeaccessibility, kdeutils)
 * desktop effects enabled by default to follow default upstream settings
 * llvmpipe will be whitelisted to allow software accelerated rendering (see Gnome Shell Software rendering feature)
 * postponed for now
 * based on top of Qt 4.8
 * interactive Qt Quick splash screen
 * QML based Device Notifier and Logout Dialog
 * improved Window switcher in KWin based on Qt Quick
 * new input method panel and on-screen keyboard
 * Dolphin's file view has been rewritten for better performance, scalability and more attractive visual appearance.
 * KSecretService optionally enables a shared password storage
 * ConsoleKit removal

Developers:
 * Plasma Qt Quick components

As main components of 4.8 release are already devel-frozen due to development of version 5, we'd like to backport interesting features to be released within Fedora 17.

Benefit to Fedora
KDE Plasma Desktop is a popular, feature rich and stable desktop environment used by a lot of Fedora users.

Scope
Requires rebasing to the latest upstream version and preparing distribution specific patches. All new required packages are already included in distribution. But as upstream changed release schema and now provides split tarballs for some previously monolithic modules, we are going to follow this decision in Fedora too as we want to stick as close as possible to upstream. This involves changes in packaging, new reviews and small overload for packaging system.

How To Test

 * 1) yum groupinstall kde-desktop
 * 2) set KDE as default environment + KDM
 * 3) login to KDE desktop

or use Fedora KDE Plasma Workspaces spin

What should be checked (KDE):
 * distribution integration
 * custom branding changes (KDM theme, KSplash theme - the QML one, artwork) - for Preview Release
 * working sound in Phonon, esp. with regards to the PA and GStreamer integration
 * "root" modules in System Settings (due to pk1)

We are working on test plan for KDE QA.

For more specific Desktop testcase see Desktop Validation testing page.

User Experience

 * Modern, feature rich and stable desktop environment.
 * split packages (advantage especially for other desktop environments users to select favourite applications without need to install the whole KDE stack)

Dependencies

 * upstream KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8 release, see.
 * final release is January 25
 * Fedora branding/theming from Fedora Design team!
 * Qt 4.8 release (http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2011/12/15/qt-4-8-0-released/)

Contingency Plan
Given how the KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8 and Fedora 17 schedules align, there should be plenty of buffer time between the KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8 and Fedora 17 releases. We are already working on importing and polishing beta version of KDE. In case of problems with upstream release, we can revert to older release or we can omit individual problematic modules of this feature. KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8 could later be shipped as an update.

Documentation
The Fedora KDE Desktop User Guide is very important part of this feature for users. It guides users how-to use the new KDE 4 Desktop and it's targeted to both former KDE 3.5 user and first time KDE 4 users.

Fedora KDE Desktop User Guide (draft)

Upstream documentation sites:
 * http://docs.kde.org/
 * http://www.kde.org/documentation/

Release Notes
This release features the KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.8, the KDE Applications and the KDE Platform.

The 4.8 is the latest release of KDE 4. There are a lot of enhancements and new features.

Comments and Discussion

 * See Talk:Features/KDE48