It’s Linux, of course, that started to “taste” and feel like Windows, its everlasting rival. The K Development Environment announced yesterday the much-anticipated release of the KDE 4.0, the brand new version of the popular open source desktop environment that will mark a giant step closer to KDE’s goal of creating a powerful system for an easy-to-use desktop environment.

From the underlying development architecture to the user interface, KDE 4.0 includes many significant changes compared to previous 3.5.x series, changes that made the Linux graphical interfaces software incorporate a number of features that appear also in Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

KDE 4.0 brings new ways of viewing applications and widgets, a new start menu, a revamped file browser, as well as a new look to some entertainment apps and others. Practically, KDE 4.0 introduced for example the Plasma desktop shell, which replaces the conventional panel and desktop with interactive widgets. KDE programmers also created a new smart theme engine and icon set called Oxygen, which increases the visual consistency of the desktop environment along with new vector-based artwork. The KWin window manager was as well brought compositing support and advanced graphical effects.

However, it is not only the user interface that was improved, as beneath the surface, the new desktop environment includes also a wide range of important architectural changes. For example, the DCOP interprocess-communication system was completely replaced with D-Bus, which is a standard IPC framework created through the FreeDesktop.org project.

KDE 4.0 includes also some new applications, such as the new Dolphin file manager and a new desktop configuration tool.

KDE 4.0 represents an important stage in the popular interface’s evolution.