All dates given here are subject to revision, but we will try our best to stick to them if possible. The KDE Release Team is acting as the coordinator for the 4.0 release.

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:550 height:300 DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:08/01/2006 till:12/31/2007 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:mm/yyyy

ScaleMajor = increment:1 unit:year start:01/01/2007 ScaleMinor = increment:1 unit:month increment:1 start:08/01/2006

PlotArea = left:65 bottom:30 top:30 right:15 # e.g. extra space to the left and below the plot area for axis labels and legend

Colors =

 id:yellow6          value:rgb(1,0.6,0)
 id:skyblue3         value:rgb(0.172,0.447,0.780)

BarData =

 bar:MS1 text:Milestone 1
 bar:MS2 text:Milestone 2
 bar:BC  text:Beta Cycle
 bar:RC  text:RC Cycle
 bar:TL  text:Events

PlotData =

 bar:TL width:40 color:yellow6 
 from:start till:end
 at:08/16/2006 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(50,-20) text:Technical Preview 1
 at:11/02/2006 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(0,-10) text:Technical Preview 2
 at:01/23/2007 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(-10,0) text:Technical Preview 3
 at:04/01/2007 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(0,10) text:"Subsystem Freeze"
 at:05/01/2007 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(0,-10) text:"Soft API Freeze"
 at:06/01/2007 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(0,0) text:"Feature Freeze"
 at:06/25/2007 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(0,10) text:"Full API Freeze"
 at:10/23/2007 mark:(line,skyblue3) align:center shift:(0,0) text:"Final Release"

 width:2
 bar:MS1     from:04/01/2007 till:05/31/2007 color:skyblue3
 bar:MS2     from:06/01/2007 till:06/24/2007 color:skyblue3
 bar:BC      from:06/25/2007 till:09/24/2007 color:skyblue3
 bar:RC      from:09/25/2007 till:10/22/2007 color:skyblue3

</timeline>

KDE 4.0

August 2006: Technical Preview 1

The first technical preview, a developer release.

November 2006: Technical Preview 2

The second technical preview, a developer release.

February 2007: Technical Preview 3

The third technical preview, a developer release.

The kdelibs API will remain as stable as possible after that, so that application developers (in particular those not having their code in the KDE SVN) can start porting towards a stable kdelibs API.

Of course the applications in the KDE SVN will have been ported all along, and it will possible to alpha-test them at this stage.

Milestones

Milestones help guide us toward a final release, and the dates are subject to change. For more details see our roadmap.

April 2, 2007: Subsystem Freeze

After this date forward, no new KDE subsystem or major changes can be committed to kdelibs.

The buildsystem requirements (i.e, cmake version) are fixed.

May 1, 2007: Alpha Release + kdelibs soft API Freeze

Alpha will be source only - without translations.

The kdelibs API is "soft-frozen", meaning that changes can be made but only with the consent of the core developers.

June 1, 2007: trunk/KDE is feature frozen

Trunk is frozen for new or resurrected applications.

Trunk is frozen for feature commits. i18n string changes are allowed.

A list of main modules that will be included in the final release will be made.

June 25, 2007: Beta1

Beta 1 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity.

July 20, 2007: Message Freeze

Only previously untranslated strings or clear errors in strings can be fixed - no new strings.

July 25, 2007: Beta2

Beta 2 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity.

August 25, 2007: Beta3

Beta 3 is prepared and released after some initial testing. The incoming bugs will be reviewed for their severity.

September 23, 2007: Total Release Freeze

This is the very last for committing anything that isn't reviewed on the development lists. If in doubt, ask the release coordinator.

September 25, 2007: Release Candidate 1

Targeted date for first release candidate. Only regressions (breakage caused by the KDE4 port) or grave bugs can be fixed.

October 9, 2007: Release Candidate 2

Targeted date for second release candidate and then wait for show stoppers to appear.

Schedules/KDE4/4.0 Release Schedule