KDE team released a bug fix release version[4.8.2] for 4.8 series, last month we saw 4.8.1 and here is 4.8.2 with many bug fixes. There are no features added, as this is only updates and bug fix release. Major updates pushed to XRender in the Kwin window and compositing manager, dolphin new engine and tweaks in the plasma quick-based new window switcher, Kontact and many more. Head over to announcement page for more details.

If you want to install/update it in openSUSE 12.1, this post might be helpful.

Currently running KDE 4.8.1 on openSUSE 12.1 with 3.2.9 kernel. One thing i always love about KDE is it’s customization of almost everything. You can customize it from head to toe the way you want it. In the screen shots below, i would also share my desktop settings if any one else might want to try it out.

Desktop theme: Produkt

Windows decoration: Bespin

Style: Oxygen

Fonts: Droid Sans

Icons: MaliaeSVG

Colors: Mint-RGS

Kwin beclock at the right top corner.

MeliaeSVG Icon Theme is an icon set created by sora-meliae. It is quite clean and very refreshing icon theme. Love the simple and cleanse look of the icons.

It is for Gnome, and i am using KDE so how can we install it inside KDE desktop. That is quite easy. 1st download the zip file from deviantart. Extract the zip archive, a new file with .tar.gz will be extracted.

Now open ‘Configure Desktop’ in KDE from kickoff menu. Click on ‘Application Appearance’ and choose ‘Icons’ and click on ‘Install new theme’, browse for the theme which you just extracted(.tar.gz one). And bingo, there you go.. apply it and you will see the changes immediately.

More information here.

Icon-Only task manager is a task manager available in KDE 4.8 by default, so you no need to install any thing. Just checkout the widgets and it will be there. What it have and why it is different from task manager?, as from its name, it is just an icon only task manager. The good thing i found in this new version is that we can make the icon for an application stay there after closing it. That means, that the application icon will be available at the task bar, if enable the settings for that specific icon. You can move the icons and re arrange its positions, and after moving them according to your taste, it is advisable to lock the Launchers. Just right click on the bar and choose ‘Lock Launchers’, so doing that, your icons will be locked and cannot be re arranged even by a mistake. It have many options in the settings to change its behavior, look and feel(even can make it like unity launcher) etc. In short, it is a nice, complete and simple dock. The best thing about it is, that we can add widgets, system tray, kickoff menu etc beside it(like in the screen shots below). Check out the screen shots of it in action. Try it out, i am sure you will love it.