The KDE development community announced today the official release of version 4.1, the first major update of the new 4.x series. This release finally delivers on the promise of a next-generation desktop environment and resolves most of the problems that afflicted the original 4.0 release.

The new version includes a huge number of interface enhancements, application improvements, bug fixes, new software, and new infrastructure components; according to statistics released by the KDE developers, over 20,803 separate changes have been committed to the version control system since the 4.0 release.

We have been testing KDE 4.1 prereleases since the early stages of the development cycle. The desktop environment has evolved at a swift pace and some of the most experimental components have been transformed from mediocre proof-of-concept implementations into fully functional and highly polished parts of the user experience. The Plasma desktop shell, which was one of the weakest pieces in the 4.0 release, has matured considerably and now offers some unique and beneficial features.

The most notable improvement is the addition of the folder view plasmoid, which displays icons representing the contents of a specified folder. It provides all of the same functionality as the conventional desktop icon display from the 3.5.x series, but it allows users to place several of these folders on the desktop at once, thus providing immediate access to more locations in the filesystem. It's not just a quick fix, it's really a tangible improvement over the original desktop paradigm.

Plasma also got full support for graphically configuring and resizing the main containment panel, a feature that was painfully absent in 4.0. The user can activate panel configuration mode by clicking a small icon on the far right edge of the panel. When the configuration mode is enabled, it becomes possible to move the panel to a different edge of the screen or change its position along the screen edge by clicking and dragging. Users can also adjust the panel's vertical and horizontal size by dragging the top sizer or the sliding arrows.

This release also introduces the new KDE 4 port of Kontact, the desktop environment's integrated PIM suite. It includes a calendar, mail program, address book, and several other components in a unified user interface. KDE 4.1 also includes the Akonadi storage framework, which will provide support for accessing Kontact data in third-party applications. Other new applications added in this release include the DragonPlayer video playback program, the Oketa hex editor, and the KSCD audio CD player.

Some noteworthy improvements landed in KDE desktop applications, too. Dolphin gained support for tabbed file browsing and the old tree view has been restored in both Dolphin and Konqueror.

Although the weaknesses of the flawed 4.0 release provoked widespread criticism from users, version 4.1 is so polished that it feels like a completely different piece of software. This version truly delivers on KDE's promise of a next-generation Linux desktop environment, and it completes the foundation for a strong 4.x series.

The initial doubts and skepticism I experienced when using 4.0 are completely gone. This is, frankly, what 4.0 should have been. The question now is whether users who were burned by the inadequacies of the 4.0 release will give KDE 4 a second chance. I certainly hope so, because there looks to be a whole lot of room for innovation.