14 DAY TRIAL // One week passed since the dependency freeze stage took place for the upcoming KDE Applications 17.08 software suite, which means that today we can download and test drive the Beta milestone.
KDE Applications 17.08 it's now in freeze, and the Beta release that was announced today is here to give the community a first preview of the improvements and new features that are coming later this summer to the apps and components included in the open source software suite that's used for the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment and other DEs.
"The KDE Applications 17.08 releases need a thorough testing in order to maintain and improve the quality and user experience," reads today's announcement. "Actual users are critical to maintaining high KDE quality, because developers simply cannot test every possible configuration. We're counting on you to help find bugs early so they can be squashed before the final release."
With both the dependency and final freeze in place, the KDE team will now concentrate all of their efforts on fixing bugs and further polishing for the upcoming KDE Applications 17.08 software suite, which will get an RC (Release Candidate) milestone in about two weeks from the moment of writing, on August 3. The final release of KDE Applications 17.08 is expected on August 17, 2017.
As usual, there are three point releases scheduled for a new KDE Applications series, and the first one for KDE Applications 17.08 will launch on September 7, versioned 17.08.1. The other two, KDE Applications 17.08.2 and KDE Applications 17.08.3 are expected to land on October 12 and November 9 respectively. Until then, you can download and test the Beta of KDE Applications 17.08 right now.