All dates given here are subject to revision, but we will try our best to stick to them if possible. Note that "Tagging" that the codebase is closed for this release on the date mentioned. The tarballs and packages are then being prepared and released approximately one week later. The KDE Release Team is acting as the coordinator for the 4.0 release.

Note the release is done in two portions: the KDE Development Platform 4.0 and the KDE Desktop 4.0. See the KDE Components Definition for details what SVN modules the two portions include. Note the earlier freeze date for the platform and make sure you don't miss the deadline to get your fixes in.

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

All deadlines are due 23:59 in your local timezone.

If in doubt about any milestones please ask the release team or your module maintainer.

KDE 4.0 Release Schedule

Definitions

KDE Components

Platform (libraries and runtime dependencies): kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdebase-runtime, kdebindings
Workspace (desktop infrastructure, window manager, plasma): kdebase-workspace, extragear-plasma
Applications (core applications): kdeaccessibility, kdeadmin, kdeartwork, kdebase-apps, kdeedu, kdegames, kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdepim, kdesdk, kdetoys, kdeutils
Desktop: Workspace and Applications

Freeze States

Soft Freeze: no new features, bufixes only, incomplete features are disabled
Hard freeze: as soft freeze plus: only patches which have been reviewed on the relevant mailing lists, no new or changed messages
Tagging Freeze: only allowed changes: compile fixes, reviewed fixes of blocker bugs, changes needed to build the release tarballs

Upcoming milestones

These are the upcoming milestones. When they have been passed move them to the top of the Past Milestones section.

14 November 2007: Tagging RC 1

Hard freeze Desktop
Message Freeze
Workspace interface freeze (source and binary compatibility until KDE 4.1)
Tagging freeze until tarballs are ready
Tag Platform 4.0.0
Tag Desktop 3.96 (RC 1)

20 November 2007: Release KDE Development Platform 4.0.0 and KDE Desktop 4.0 RC 1

Announce release
Make tarballs available on download servers

5 December 2007: Tagging RC 2 (final)

decide if RC 3 is needed, if it is, add another RC to the cycle, if not release RC 2 as final by proceeding with the following:
Create 4.0 branch
Hard freeze on the 4.0 branch
Tagging freeze on the branch until release tarballs are ready
Tag Platform 4.0.1
Tag Desktop 4.0.1
Trunk is unfrozen and open for 4.1 development

11 December 2007: Release KDE 4.0

KDE 4.0, the first stable release of the KDE 4.x series consists of Platform 4.0.1 and Desktop 4.0.1
Announce release
Make tarballs available on download servers
Party

Tentatively early January 2008: first bugfix release (4.0.2)

18 January 2008: KDE 4 Launch Event

Past Milestones

These milestone have already been passed. They are listed in reverse chronological order to keep the most recent milestones at the top of the list.

30 October 2007: Release KDE Development Platform 4.0 RC 1 and KDE Desktop 4.0 Beta 4

Announce release
Make tarballs available on download servers

October 24, 2007: KDE 4 Release Freeze

Platform interface freeze (source and binary compatibility until KDE 5)
Hard freeze Platform
Soft freeze Desktop
Release Freeze until release tarballs are ready (estimated two days)
Tag Platform 3.95 (RC 1)
Tag Desktop 3.95 (Beta 4)

October 8, 2007: Beta3

Beta 3 is prepared, initially tested and released on October 18.

October 8, 2007: KDE Development Platform frozen solid

The KDE Development Platform is frozen. For the modules that are included in the KDE Development Platform, only patches reviewed on the development lists are permitted. If in doubt, contact the release coordinator. The KDE Development Platform covers kdesupport, kdelibs, kdepimlibs, kdebase/runtime and kdebindings (Ruby and Python bindings only).

August 29, 2007: Beta2

Beta 2 is prepared and released after some initial testing.

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

July 26, 2007: Beta1

Beta 1 is prepared and released after some initial testing.

July 24, 2007: Core Library Freeze

The core library APIs are frozen solid.

June 27, 2007: Alpha2 Tagging

The Alpha2 will be source only -- without translations.

June 1, 2007: trunk/KDE is module frozen

Trunk is frozen for new or resurrected applications.

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

May 3, 2007: Alpha Tagging

The Alpha will be source only -- without translations.

May 1, 2007: kdelibs Soft Freeze

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

April 2, 2007: Subsystem Freeze

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

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

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.

November 2006: Technical Preview 2

The second technical preview, a developer release.

August 2006: Technical Preview 1

The first technical preview, a developer release.