We are seeing more and more questions relating to Kubuntu 8.04, the Hardy Heron, and KDE 4, and some KDE 3 as well. So to hopefully save you some keystrokes on IRC, forums, or mailing lists, lets try this out first.

• Will there be a KDE 4 Live CD for 8.04?
  • YES
• If So, when will it be available for download?
  • Take the date of this blog post and look at about a week hopefully. Some infrastructure changes are needed first, which are currently being addressed.
• Once again, if so, then where will it be available?
  • A good place to keep an eye out will be Kubuntu.org for an announcement. They should be released somewhere under THIS directory.
• Hey, KDE just included the ability to resize the Plasma Panel, is that included in your latest 4.0.1 updates?
  • A straight answer would be maybe, however we really want to follow the release schedule set forth by the KDE community, so if one of our developers don’t create a patch and include it right now, all you have to do is wait a month until 4.0.2 is released.
• If KMail or Kontact for KDE 4 isn’t ready, what am I supposed to use for Email?
  • We are using KMail and Kontact from the KDE 3 PIM series. It works quite well, pretty much the same as it does in KDE 3. I am using it, with POP3 of course, and haven’t had any issues with it at all.
• Since you are working so hard on KDE 4, what about KDE 3?
  • We haven’t forgotten about KDE 3 at all. We are still working hard at fixing bugs, improving some functionality that was promised at UDS, and still supporting it. How long? Well that will only be defined with time of course.
• Can I upgrade from KDE 3 in a previous release, say Feisty (7.10) to KDE 4 in Hardy (8.04)?
  • We haven’t included a way just yet in doing this. We are working with KDE as well as other distributions to hopefully have something available by the release after Hardy (8.04). Right now, an upgrade path from KDE 3 to KDE 4 isn’t all that important as we are not looking at replacing KDE 3 with KDE 4 just yet, we are allowing them to run side-by-side on your computer.
• Hey, I am not a huge fan of the new default wallpaper for KDE 3 in Hardy, is that going to stay?
  • We have heard this from a few people on IRC. If you know of a wallpaper that is better, cleaner, easier on the eyes, more professional, and FREE in all senses, then send us an email to with a link to your suggestion, and any background information such as licensing, the artist or whatever else you think is important.
• Hey, I am a budding developer, can I help?
  • Sure you can help. It would be nice if you could stop by the Kubuntu development channel (#kubuntu-devel) on Freenode’s IRC servers and say “HI” as well as what you are interested in helping with, maybe explain your qualifications. If you are new to development and aren’t highly experienced, don’t worry, we don’t typically bite and can work with you. We have plenty of bugs for you to work on 🙂
• Hey, I am not really a developer, can I help?
  • Sure you can help. The Kubuntu support channel (#kubuntu) on Freenode’s IRC servers is a great place to start helping. Join the channel and provide any support that you can. Maybe you are good at doing artwork, our art team (1 person is all we have I think right now) can always use the help. How about some documentation writing, that is available as well. I will start working on a plan of attack along with Jonathan Jesse as we are reaching the GUI freeze that will allow us to start documenting. We should have some KDE 4 documentation available for you to write as well.

Sorry, had to throw in some “come help us” stuff in the end there 🙂

Also, another thing that needs to get done, not so much for Kubuntu, but for KDE is documentation as well. I know myself and Phil have been quite busy of late, but it would be great if we (all developers and documentation writers) could all get together in a quiet location on IRC and maybe hash out some plans. If you are working on an application in the KDE trunk and it needs some documentation, whether it is just updating old documentation, or writing from scratch, just ping me on IRC (nixternal of course) and I will start working on my TODO list that has been a work in procrastination. Sorry to those who joined the channel a few months ago to help with some documentation and didn’t get much out of us, that was my fault and I really do apologize. Hopefully this time around I will have some work ready. I plan on getting a nice list together and separating it according to skill level, before I ask for help from the world again. If you want a head start and want to meet or greet some of us on IRC, stop by #kde-docs on Freenode’s IRC servers.

Thanks everyone!