The weekend in San Diego was a good time to get rested from my training activities (training a new helpdesk team here) and prepare Slackware packages for KDE’s monthly maintenance release 4.13.3. These packages were built for Slackware -current and have not been tested to work properly on Slackware 14.1. YMMV

I hope that this final 4.13 release will work its way into Slackware-current. After the recent kernel updates in -current and other stability updates and functional enhancements, today saw an awesome upgrade of X.Org and the stage is now set for an upgrade from the rather stale KDE 4.10 to a new super stable and feature-rich KDE 4.13!

Then I can finally move to working on a package set for Frameworks 5 and Plasma 5, both of which got released after I started my US trip (Plasma 5 was released earlier today). The evenings in my hotel give me little opportunity to do the required testing/rebuilding/retesting. And yes, getting loaded with two pints of Stone IPA, the local alcoholic beverage, causes the brain to wander off .-)

News for all you conservative types: when moving to KDE 4.14 in august, I will build a set of KDE 4.13 packages for Slackware 14.1 to please those who prefer a stable Slackware and have no desire to run -current.

What’s new in KDE 4.13.3 ?

This is another maintenance release, so it’s targeting more stability and fixing bugs. The packages I upgraded next to KDE 4.13.3 are kdeconnect-kde (even more cool things to do with your Android phone) and the Calligra office suite (upgraded to the very latest version 2.8.5). Search my older posts on KDE 4.13 if you want to know more about what the highlights of this release cycle are.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.13.3 ?

You will find all the installation/upgrade instructions that you need in the accompanying README file. That README also contains basic information for KDE recompilation using the provided SlackBuild script.

You are strongly advised to read and follow these installation/upgrade instructions!

Where to find packages for KDE 4.13.3 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.13.3/ and packages in /current/4.13.2/ subdirectories). Using a mirror is preferred because you get more bandwidth from a mirror and it’s friendlier to the owners of the master server!

Have fun! Eric