The first beta release of KDE SC 4.6 was released yesterday. OpenSUSE had packages up almost immediately, so being curious as to what’s new, I’ve downloaded and upgraded to the new release. These are my impressions thus far.
KDE’s release notes tout the following (main) features of the 4.6 release:
libplasma now does does something with QML for widgets on devices – why this is the number one feature listed on a PR release about the new release I do not know. It’s hardly sexy;
the reintroduction of activities, which now includes starting and stopping applications as part of an activity. This sounds interesting – more below;
optimization of Kwin. The release notes say that this will LEAD to smoother window management and more stunning desktop effects. So I’m guessing these aren’t in this release;
faceted browsing in dolphin. What I think this means is that you can filter particular files by various categories in a folder view;
git plugin for dolphin – yawn;
introduction of akonadi to the PIM applications.
KWIN Optimisations
This is actually really hard to show, because any screen capture program I use to show the improvements will be jerky and completely defeat the purpose. However, I can say on my desktop running an NVIDIA card, using the 256.53 version – for some reason the 260 series has a few issues on my machine – is smoooooooth. No tearing on wobbly windows. That eternal bug bear, resizing windows is smooth, even if I have the wobble on resize thing going. Basically, on an NVIDIA card, Kwin compositing performance is awesome.
On my intel 945GM desktop things are slightly different. There is definite improvement in most areas. However, wobbly windows are now unusable and even moving windows with the wobble turned off is jerky. I’m not sure if I’m alone on this or not, but hopefully this will be fixed in subsequent beta’s.
Filters in Dolphin
This is actually quite cool. I think this is what the release notes refer to as “faceted” browsing. It allows you to filter progressively on various categories, including filetypes, time periods, size as well as text in the filename, or inside the file. This can be really useful for finding files in large directories or file systems. Particularly when you’re looking for a particular file, but don’t know exactly what it is – you just know that you’ll know it when you see it. I am going to have a further play with this to see what else it can do, but finally we are seeing how nepomuk can be incorporated into KDE apps. I just hope they add this to the file open dialog.

Read more: everyday linux how2s

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It's been a while since the four Pirate Bay founders lost their case in a Stockholm district court -- April 2009, to be more precise. The verdict was of course appealed, but alas, it was not to be. A Swedish appeals court has upheld the original ruling but changed the sentencing. Three of the quartet have had their jail time reduced: Fredrik Neij gets ten months, Peter Sunde eight months, and Carl Lundstrom four (Gottfrid Svartholm was too ill at the time of the hearing; his "criminal liability" will be determined later, according to BBC News). The fine, however, has been upped from the original 30 million kronor to 46 million (US $6.4m). That's seriously going to cut into their Black Friday shopping plans, but hey, we know a great way to pick up the Adobe suite. Well, maybe not.

Read more: Engadget

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Even with the pre-Christmas buying rush, Microsoft is already desperately offering a new buy one get one free offer similar to the ones they gave for the KIN. According to the article, 'Windows Phone 7 devices can't even manage two per cent of the fortnight's sales.' These aren't official Microsoft figures; they come from online shopping sites. But since Microsoft official sales figures seem subject to manipulation, this is perhaps one of the better guesses we will get at the success of Windows Phone 7 until well into next year. This also strongly backs up other reports of deeply disappointing phone sales. Even Microsoft supporters have been wondering for a while whether it's time for Ballmer to go. If the sales reports are true, then he may be pushed before he jumps.

Read more: Slashdot

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This list of 10 free, essential tools is an amalgam of tools for all sizes of companies and networks. The range of tools covered here are generally cross-platform (i.e., they run on multiple OSes) but all are extremely useful to the system administrator, network administrator and first-level support personnel. While all of these tools are free to download and use in your network without payment of any kind to their developers or maintainers, not all are open source. The 10 essential tools listed here, in no particular order, are from various sources and represent the very best in tools currently used in large and small enterprises alike.

1. PSTools
PSTools is a suite of useful command-line Windows tools that IT professionals consider essential to survival in a Windows-infested network. It provides automation tools that have no rival. There is no greater free toolset for Windows available anywhere. Microsoft provides this suite free of charge. If it's not part of your Windows diagnostic and automation arsenal, stop reading and download it now. Be sure to come back and finish the list. You can multitask, can't you?)

2. SharEnum