14 DAY TRIAL // The KDE Project developers have just released the third beta of Applications and Platform 4.13, taking the branch a little closer to the final version.
“The KDE community today released the third beta of Applications and Development Platform 4.13. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing. We kindly request your assistance with finding and fixing issues,” reads the official announcement.
KDE SC 4.12 was a very successful release and it has been integrated in a large number of distributions. It was deemed an LTS version and has received many patches until now, but build 4.13 is coming strong from behind and features a lot of changes.
For example, the Python engine, the API, and some plugins have been refactored and improved (Kate), C++ syntax highlighter with C++11 and some C++1y features support has been added (Kate), the Build Plugin for Kate has been improved, konsole is now able to store the terminal size in the profile, users can now specify the CSS file for the tab bar style, xterm's bracketed paste mode has been added, and the Dolphin file manager has been ported from Nepomuk to Baloo.
Also, new applications for pronunciation training have been added, support has been added to Syntax Highlighting default in Script Editor (Cantor), Knotes has been ported to Akonadi, applications are now allowed to manage the user's storage service (Dropbox, YouSendit, and so on), the Archive Agent has been merged into Kmail, Grantlee printing support has been improved, KMail has received support to generate short URLs, and the quick search line has been improved.
The next Beta build in the 4.13 series is expected to arrive on March 12, and the final release should happen on April 16, but those are no certain release dates. Users have been asked to report any bugs that they might encounter.
Also, on a different note, Kubuntu 14.04 LTS might get the new KDE 1.13 release if everything goes smoothly and the final version isn’t delayed by some unforeseen problems.
More details about the changes, fixes, and new features of this build can be found in the official announcement. Also, you can download the latest KDE Applications and Development Platform 4.13 Beta 3 sources right now from Softpedia.
Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.