release announcement

Fri Oct 7 11:04:59 UTC 2011

hi all :)

attached is a draft release announcement. i'm going a little crossed eyed from 
having gone over it and changed it so many times already .. i should probably 
stop screwing with it ;) 

(maybe should have stopped yesterday? :P)

anyways... please provide feedback, edit as needed, add screenshots and post 
on Sunday. i leave in about 6 hours and will be reachable primarily only by 
phone for the next two weeks .. and even then i'd prefer not ;)

see you on the flip side and CONGRATULATIONS and THANKS to everyone who has 
made Plasma Active a reality.

you. all. ROCK.

seriously. :)

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

KDE core developer sponsored by Qt Development Frameworks
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== 9.10.11: Plasma Active One Arrives! ==

A mobile device should be more than a bucket for applications. It should reflect who you are. Plasma Active infuses your tablet with the power to support what you are doing, when you are doing it with the all-new, touch-based Activities user experience.

[ insert screenshot here of activity screen ]

On the 9th of October, 2011 (or 9.10.11) the first release of the Plasma Active tablet user experience has been made available to the public. Plasma Active One's touchscreen interface offers more than just an application launcher: as soon as the device is turned on, rather than the traditional grid of applications you are presented with the Activities view showing your current project, task or idea. Activities allow you collect all of the documents, people, web sites, media and widgets related to a topic in one place, building personalized and interactive views on your life.

With Plasma Active the possibilities are unlimited. You can add as many things to an Activity as you wish with its "infinite scroll" feature which accomodates the content that you add to it. You can create as many Activities as you wish and switch between them using the finger-friendly Activity Switcher. 

[ insert screen shot ]

The theme of an Activity is up to you: planning a vacation, working on a business or school project, collecting photos from that amazing party last weekend, keeping tabs on your social scene, collecting your favourite news sites on the Internet ... When you create an Activity you give it a name and a background image and then can immediately start adding things to it, either directly using the Add button or by using the new Share Like Connect interface.

[ insert screen shot of SLC ]

Share Like Connect is three small icons that are always available in the top panel. They let you quickly connect web sites, images and more as you are viewing them to any Activity. You can also use Share Like Connect to add bookmarks and email what you are viewing to people in your address book.

Complimenting Activities, Plasma Active also provides a fast and efficient application launcher and includes a number of applications for you to use and enjoy out of the box. By simply pulling down on the top panel, the Application Peek area is made visible. The Peek area shows every application that is currently running, letting you quickly switch between them or close applications. By pulling it down a little further, the launcher itself is exposed. In addition to a simple icon listing familiar from other tablet and phone interfaces an integrated search bar is provided that allows you to quickly search through applications that are installed on the system. 

[ insert screen shot of launch and peek ]

When an application is launched, it also automatically connected to the current Activity which lets you keep related applications together and out of your way when you switch to a different Activity. 

A web browser, image viewer, media player (Bangarange Active), office document viewer with simple editing features (Calligra Active [beta]), full-featured mail and calendaring (Kontact Touch) and several great games are included by default allowing you to be productive with Plasma Active immediately.

[ insert screen shot of one of the apps in action? maybe the web browser? ]

Plasma Active is designed and built in the open and released as free, open source software. Behind the ideas and the software is a vibrant team of community participants and companies working together with a common goals: creating amazing open software for devices. There are no proprietary lock-ins or iron curtains in front the design and development efforts, just a terrific user experience that you can use, enjoy and participate in.

== How To Get Plasma Active One ==

Both installable and live images of Plasma Active are available for download:

<a href="link to meego image"><img src="" alt="Plasma Active One MeeGo Image"></a> <a href="link to balsam image"><img src="" alt="Plasma Active One Balsam Image"></a> 

Detailed installation instructions can be found on the <a href="http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Active/Installation">Plasma Active Installation</a> wiki page. Typically it is a simple matter of inserting a bootable USB stick into the tablet, rebooting and following the on-screen instructions. Alternative installation bases such as openSuse are also described on the <a href="http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Active/Installation">Plasma Active Installation</a> page.

[NOTE: this only goes in if we can put together a quick page about running PA1 in a VM] It is also possible to run Plasma Active in a virtual machine for testing and review purposes only. For more information, as well as caveats with this approach, please visit the <a href="http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Active/VirtualMachine">Plasma Active in a Virtual Machine</a> page on our wiki. We strongly recommend running Plasma Active on a tablet for the full experience, however.

== Our Path Forward ==

Plasma Active One is one more step in the long journey the Plasma team have been on since the project was started in 2007, originally to create a new desktop shell. It is not, however, the end of that journey. Plasma Active Two will be released in mid-December, 2011 with Plasma Active Three set for release Summer 2012.

Plasma Active Two will gain automated recommendations support for Activities, which allows Plasma Active to aid you in collecting and adding relevant information and documents to Activities you create. We will also be adding enhanced collection viewing, filtering and sorting for all types of media and information accessible in Plasma Active. More actions for the plugin-based Share Like Connect system will also be developed. This will be in addition to stability, performance and feature fixes.

Plasma Active Three will be another significant release where we will be focussing on security concepts as applied to devices to keep your data safe and under your control. This will also be the timeframe in which we begin looking at further device form factors, such as set top box or handheld. Plasma is built in the philosophy of "highly componentized, re-usable and re-composable interfaces" and this allows us to nimbly move from device type to device type with sensible user experiences for each, and we intend to exploit that flexibility to the fullest in coming development cycles.

In coming development cycles, we will also be working on adding to the number of Active applications and widgets that are available. Existing application developers are invited to join us in "Activating" their applications for touch and other device form factors. The best and most useful of these applications will be shipped with future Plasma Active images and an easy to use application downloading service will be provided for other applications.

We are actively working on adding ARM as an officially supported architecture target next to the Intel platforms already supported. This effort tandems with continuing to find ways to slim down the footprint of the base OS required to run a Plasma Active interface, as well as to provide a clearly documented specification for the underlying OS requirements.

== How To Get Involved ==

Plasma Active is an open project: all design, planning and development is done in the open in a consensus-based working environment. Community contributors and companies creating devices or software for them are equally welcome and able to participate on their terms. Whether you wish to create new widgets, add-ons for Share Like Connect, new applications, target new devices or create entire new user experiences using Plasma Active there is room for your efforts. Testing, stabilization, usability efforts and graphic design for the existing software are also areas for potential participation.

The libraries Plasma Active uses are licensed under the permissive LGPL license, allowing for a variety of licensing options and customization / add-on possibilities.

You can contact the Plasma Active team on our <a href="https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/active">mailing list</a> or on irc.freenode.net in #active. Private and press inquiries can be made to <insert at least 2 people and their email addresses which are available for official contact>.

== Hardware Compatibility ==

Plasma Active One images have been tested and are supported on the WeTab, ViewSonic ViewPad and other ExoPC tablets as well as the Lenovo Ideapad. More information on device compatibility can be found <a href="http://community.kde.org/Plasma/Active/Devices">here</a>. Plasma Active may install and work on other Intel-based devices as well.

ARM device support is still in development, though it has been successfully installed and run on Nokia N900 and other ARM devices by community participants.

== Software Compatibility ==

Virtually any software that is available for Linux platforms can be run on Plasma Active. We recommend KDE and Qt based software as they provide the best integration with Plasma Active One, which itself is based on KDE Platform 4.7 and Qt 4.7. Other software, however, runs and works as it would on any other Linux based system. This includes command line software which is accessible via the touch-ready terminal application included with Plasma Active.

Plasma Active is also compatible with the <a href="http://kde.org/workspaces/plasmadesktop/">Plasma Desktop</a> and <a href="http://kde.org/workspaces/plasmanetbook/">Plasma Netbook</a> interfaces. This is due to being based on the same frameworks, sharing upwards of 95% of code between these different user interfaces. This represents a radically different approach to interface commonality across devices. While other tablet products are either completely unique to themselves sharing little or nothing in common with other device interfaces and some desktop interfaces attempt to also offer tablet features, Plasma based interfaces are crafted for the specific device but are able to do so while sharing nearly all their code and engineering efforts. This allows widgets and applications written for Plasma Desktop or Netbook to run seamlessly on Plasma Active devices.

== Thanks and Acknowledgements ==

Plasma Active One would not have been possible without the incredible support of the Plasma community and the development and financial support of <a href="http://www.basyskom.com">Basyskom</a> and <a href="http://www.open-slx.de/">OpenSLX</a>. Plasma Active is built on top of the excellent KDE and Qt frameworks which gave us a huge head start, and we are humbled to be able to stand alongside (and on the shoulders of) the thousands of people who have been involved in this community over the last 15 years. We would also like to acknowledge the efforts that went into creating both the MeeGo OS and the <a href="http://openbuildservice.org/">Open Build Service</a> which were instrumental in helping get Plasma Active One on its feet and out the door.

[1] MeeGo (https://meego.com/) is registered trademark of the Linux Foundation
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