The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE), a project that continues to cherish and refine the classic KDE 3 desktop philosophy, has just unveiled its latest update – TDE 14.1.1.
The Trinity Desktop Environment is a spiritual successor to KDE 3.5, designed and maintained by a small yet dedicated development team. If you’ve ever been nostalgic for the days when KDE 3.5 reigned supreme, Trinity Desktop Environment is your go-to solution. It keeps the spirit of the classic KDE interface alive, allowing users to experience the excellent desktop methodology of the old.
Let’s dive into what’s fresh and noteworthy in this release.
Table of Contents
Trinity Desktop Environment – TDE 14.1.1: What’s New
Now, let’s get to the good stuff. Trinity Desktop Environment 14.1.1 is the first maintenance release in the 14.1.x series, and it packs a punch with a slew of new applications, functionality enhancements, and critical bug fixes.
Kommando: Ever wished for a “Neverwinter Nights”-like wheel menu for TDE? Well, Kommando is here to fulfil your craving for a cool launcher. You can customize this wheel menu directly from the Trinity Control Center, tailoring both menu items and appearance to suit your needs.
Twin: If you’re a fan of window tiling, you’ll love this. Trinity Desktop Environment now supports aerosnap-style window tiling. Plus, there are improvements to Active Border functionality and the addition of Active Corners for an enhanced user experience.
Konqueror: The classic file manager and web browser, Konqueror, now allows you to enable or disable double-click navigation to the parent folder. This functionality has been extended to icon view modes, making navigation smoother.
KXKB and KKBSwitch: If you frequently switch keyboard layouts, you’re in luck. TDE now features re-added shortcuts to switch keyboard layouts forward or backwards, making multilingual use a breeze. KKBSwitch introduces global shortcuts for switching to the previous or next keyboard layout group.
Kmix: The Preferences dialog in Kmix has significantly improved, enhancing your control over sound settings and options.
In addition to these enhancements, Trinity Desktop Environment 14.1.1 addresses over ten critical bug fixes across various modules, making the desktop environment more stable and reliable.
Distribution updates
The update also brings changes in distribution support. This release is the last version to support Debian Stretch and Ubuntu Xenial. Starting from the next release, R14.1.2, package builds for these versions won’t be available.
On the flip side, Trinity Desktop Environment has now added support for Debian Bookworm and Ubuntu Mantic (23.10), ensuring compatibility with the latest Linux distributions.
How to Install TDE 14.1.1
If you are using Ubuntu/Debian-based distributions, you can use the following commands in sequence to download and install afresh.
While installing, the installer would prompt you to choose the display manager. Choose the option gdm/sdm as part of host distributions.
Open a terminal and open the apt sources file.
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
Add the following line and save the file. Replace jammy with the base ubuntu/debian version for your system.
deb http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-r14.1.x jammy main deps deb-src http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-r14.1.x jammy main deps
Install the keyring using the below command.
wget http://mirror.ppa.trinitydesktop.org/trinity/deb/trinity-keyring.deb sudo dpkg -i trinity-keyring.deb sudo apt update
Install the Trinity desktop:
sudo apt install kubuntu-default-settings-trinity kubuntu-desktop-trinity
After installation is complete, reboot. From the login screen, select TDE and log in.
Closing Notes
Trinity Desktop Environment 14.1.1 is a release that pays homage to the golden days of KDE 3.5 while adding modern features and fixing critical issues. If you’re a Linux user with a soft spot for nostalgia and a taste for classic desktop environments, this update is a must-try.
As always, open-source projects like Trinity Desktop Environment thrive on community contributions. If you’re passionate about TDE and have expertise to share, consider contributing to the development team’s efforts.
Via changelog; Few image credits: TDE team
