KDE 4.3 is out - How to upgrade ?

If you have flash installed on your browser you can view this shockwave screenshot of my desktop (not viewable via feed reader). It shows Mythtv playing a high def video stream from a HD Homerun tuner.While watching the high def stream, Mythtv was doing double duty as DVD ripper, compressing a DVD down to 1.2 gig. While doing all of this my kids were watching Tim Burton's Corpse Bride with a PS3. Mythtv was also serving as media server, streaming the DVD to the PS3. At the bottom you will also notice the Avant Window Manager dock. Zoom in at the bottom and look at the CPU utilization - only 25% !

What is my point ?

The Linux Desktop Rocks ! Life as a KDE user is getting better all the time and the KDE 4.3 desktop looks and feels like a million bucks. I am a heavy Gnome and Xfce user. I like to use the right tools for the job. If you have a weak machine stick with Gnome or Xfce. If you have a dual core or better, then nothing beats KDE 4.3. The eye candy (cowbell) in KDE is absolutely stunning.



How to upgrade to KDE 4.3 ?

Press Alt-F2 to bring up Krunner. Type the following command and press enter:

kdesudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list 

Add the following to the bottom of your /etc/apt/sources.list  and click save:

• deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/backports/ubuntu jaunty main
• deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kubuntu-ppa/staging/ubuntu jaunty main
  

Start Krunner again with ALT-F2 and type in the following:

kdesudo apt-key adv –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com –recv-keys 8AC93F7A

Now start Synaptic Package Manager. Click Reload and click on Upgradable (upstream), then click on Mark all upgrades and then click Apply.

Note: When I was doing this, Synaptic complained about not being able to update a file. It stopped halfway through the upgrade process. Luckily I did not panic and simply clicked on Apply change again. The second time around Synaptic was happy and everything turned out fine.