I'll spend a few hours over the next week or so working on the problems I've already found, and reporting to the KDE team anything I can't fix. Then I have some definite plans on what I'd like to do in the new KDE 2.

For starters, I want to learn more about the KDE object model that has been added into this version. I have heard rumblings of Java bindings being written, or at least possible, and I'm intrigued. As an avid Java programmer, I like the idea of being able to do both cross-platform and natively-targeted applications in Java. Microsoft did something like this with DirectX, and I never objected to it until they started cramming it down everyone's throat with Visual J++ 6.0. But I like having the option as a programmer to use native tools where they make sense, and cross platform tools where they make sense. KDE Java bindings, if they really are under development, would do for Linux Java what Microsoft DirectX did for Java on Windows--except that in KDE it'll be an Open Source toolset.

Next, I need to get my sound and multimedia support working. I didn't have sound working on my prior version of KDE (I broke it during a kernel upgrade and hadn't gotten around to fixing the modules list yet), but I'd like to try the new audio server architecture under KDE2.

Finally, I think I might even be adventurous enough to fool around with KDevelop. I haven't seen it in action yet, but everything I've heard about it suggests that this C/C++ IDE is very promising and maturing rapidly. I need to refresh my long-disused C++ skills, and this just might give me the impetus I need.

I hope you've enjoyed this little romp on the wild side, living out on the bleeding edge with some pretty untested code and configurations. I won't claim to be an expert on what I've just done--but I certainly have learned a lot by doing it, and I intend to keep on learning as long as Linux and Linux software keep innovating. I suppose some people buy a computer to do useful work, or so I have been told. Not me--I'm having too much fun!

If you have suggestions of better ways to do things than what I've described here, by all means let me know by e-mail. When I do any follow-up articles on this topic, I'll include some of the most helpful suggestions. If you send me an idea, please let me know if I may use it in print and if you would like your name mentioned in the credits.

XFree86 4.0 and KDE2 can be a challenging installation, but over the past few days I've learned that they can be made to play together. I'm looking forward to what the future holds for both of these excellent Open Source projects, and I congratulate the teams on what has been accomplished so far.

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