Frequently Asked Questions About KDE

K Desktop Environment
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# Chapter 16. Frequently Asked Questions About KDE

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There are some questions that are always raised on the KDE mailing lists. To keep the traffic as l quesow as possible (making the lists more readable), we have included them in this section. So please be kind and do not ask them in the mailing lists anymore - think of the quote above!

16.1. What does "KDE" stand for?
16.2. I cannot compile package xxx
16.3. KDE is not stable?

16.1. What does "KDE" stand for?

KDE stands for the "K Desktop Environment", which itself is intended to be a collection of small tools, a window manager, a file manager and tools that bring all this together. It is created to make your life with UNIX easier.

16.2. I cannot compile package xxx

Always be sure that you have the newest version of the KDE libraries installed. The software is in constant development, so the dependencies can change from one day to another. You may also find the general compilation hints helpful. Another problem could be that you are using a program written for a very old version of KDE, which depends on outdated include files. Please check the file dates. They should be more recent the dates of your current KDE version.

16.3. KDE is not stable?

One can, in general, obtain KDE in many ways. Obtaining pre-compiled binaries in a package format (rpm,deb,tgz) labelled with a particular version (i.e. 2.0) is the best way to encourage stability on your KDE desktop.

The price of stability is that one must wait for each release to get new features. If you want the latest and greatest versions of software, you may have to go with source code, perhaps even to the point of CVS snapshots. These are daily snapshots of whatever the developers are working on, and some things are guaranteed to be broken.

DO NOT RELY ON CVS SNAPSHOTS TO MAINTAIN OPERATIONAL DESKTOPS. You will get burned eventually!

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