Today sees the release of Kubuntu 8.10 featuring the KDE 4 desktop. The Kubuntu developers have been hard at work, bringing you the latest and greatest software the open source community has to offer. KDE 4 reworks your system with a major new revision of the desktop.

This Intrepid release lives up to its name by including many changes, but there are some features that are not yet available in KDE 4. If you would rather stay with what you know then remember that Kubuntu 8.04 is still fully supported, see KDE3-KDE4Migration and Is KDE 4.1 for you? for more information on deciding. You can try it first with the Kubuntu Intrepid Live CD to see for yourself whether or not it really is “for you”.

Get Kubuntu 8.10

Upgrading from 8.04

To upgrade from Kubuntu 8.04, press Alt+F2 and type in kdesudo “adept_manager –dist-upgrade” (including quotes) into the command box. Adept should open up and offer a Version Upgrade button. Click Version Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.

See the full upgrade instructions.

Download the CD

If you want to do a new install of Kubuntu the easiest way is to download a CD. You can also request a free CD if you are unable to download.

New Features since Kubuntu 8.04

KDE 4!

At last, fully supported, the reworked desktop, KDE 4. Kubuntu ships with KDE 4.1.2.

Featuring Plasma, the desktop with slick widgets

By default, our Plasma desktop has a customized offering of widgets, bringing the best configurations that our KDE3 desktop had back to KDE4, along with some new additions such as the QuickAccess plasmoid in the panel which provides quick access to the files in your home directory.

Taskmanager tooltips have also been backported from KDE trunk.

Desktop Effects

In KDE4 KWin has been given the bling-bling with shiny new Desktop effects ranging from the standard shadows and translucency to Wobbly Windows to a Coverswitch alt-tab window switcher shown above. These effects will be on by default if your video card supports them.

Dedicated File Manager

Dolphin gets a breath of fresh air in KDE 4, with numerous new features, a load of bugfixes, and those tiny polishing details that make Dolphin a very capable file manager. As in past releases, Konqueror is still available for file browsing if you prefer it.

Discover more about KDE 4.1.

http://www.kubuntu.org/news/8.10-release

Related articles

• KDE 4.1 rocks the desktop
• Hands on: Plasma continues to advance in KDE 4.1 beta 1
• KDE 4.0 released: rough, but ready for action
• Ars Technica reviews KDE 4.0
• First look: KDE 4.1 beta 2 shows solid improvements
• What went wrong with the KDE 4 release?
• Plasma improvements: KDE 4.0.2 and beyond
• The critics are wrong: KDE 4 doesn’t need a fork
• First look: KDE 4.1 alpha 1 very promising
• A first look at KDE 4.0 release candidate 2

Tags: Desktop environment, Graphic Subsystems, KDE, KDE 3, KDE 4, Kubuntu, Operating Systems, Plasma