KDE Software Compilation 4.11.1 has been released today. The first incremental improvement in the 4.11 release offers more than 70 bugfixes, most importantly: “improvements to the Window Manager KWin, the file manager Dolphin, and others“. Startup times of the Plasma Desktop and scrolling in Dolphin have been improved, and the memory requirements of various applications have been lowered. All in all, a more pleasant experience can be expected after upgrading your current KDE.

Compiling KDE was easy as usual, and between one increment and the other there is not so much to see as perhaps there is to “feel” in terms of responsiveness of the desktop. So I have been thinking how to spice up the experience. I came up with a potential candidate which I may or may not add to the ‘ktown’ set because I doubt that Pat will add it to Slackware eventually. That added spice could be the Plasma Media Center. It looks like an intriguing piece of software with a good chance to end up on tablet computers (it supports the Plasma Active desktop). I still feel that I should buy the new Nexus 7 tablet if it finally hits the stores here in the Netherlands, and if it is indeed possible to install a common Linux on it, Slackware should get its share on the device.

If I do decide to package the Plasma Media Center without adding it to the main ‘ktown’ repository, I might just create a ‘ktown-media’ repository for it. That would allow me to also create some rebuilt KDE packages for everything that will profit from stuff Slackware does not ship with, like FFmpeg or VLC. Not decided yet on this, but it sounds like a useful addition.

How to upgrade to KDE 4.11.1 ?

Note: you have to be running Slackware-current! These packages are not suited for Slackware 14.0.

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 4.11.1 ?

Download locations are listed below (you will find the sources in ./source/4.11.1/ and packages in /current/4.11.1/ 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