The 3 release includes improved printing set-up (one of the banes of using Linux), an improved Web browser called Konqueror, an updated office suite called KOffice, and a whole lot more. You can see the official KDE 3 release announcement online.

KDE (the K Desktop Environment) is available translated into 50 languages and remains free. KDE has been providing quality Linux applications for years. KDE provides the primary desktop environment for virtually all Linux distributions, except for Red Hat, the most popular distribution in the United States. Even so, Red Hat Linux includes KDE as well as GNOME, the main competitor to KDE and the default desktop on Red Hat systems.

In addition to using KDE as a unified desktop environment, you can also run KDE applications from other desktop environments, such as GNOME. You can also run GNOME applications under KDE. This allows you to run the applications you want on the desktop environment you want.

You'll find hundreds of available KDE applications, many distributed as part of the desktop and many more available separately. Another site provides a huge list of KDE applications. For each application, you'll see links to home pages, screen shots, and downloads.

With KDE 3, Linux on the desktop is even closer. I find that each desktop release, be it from the KDE or GNOME efforts, improves the overall ability of Linux to c...

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