The first experimental release of the MiDesktop project has been introduced, which develops a fork of the KDE 1.1.2 desktop environment, adapted for use in modern systems. The KDE 1 codebase has been ported to the Qt 2 framework to address problems and licensing restrictions specific to the Qt 1 branch. The Osiris project, developed by the same team, is modernizing the Qt 2.3.2 fork. The MiDesktop code is distributed under the GPLv2 license. Ready-made builds are available for Debian 13 and Ubuntu 24.04.
The project's goal is to modernize the KDE 1 codebase without overloading the environment with excessive functionality. MiDesktop aims to maintain a minimalist approach to desktop system development from the late 1990s and early 2000s, while eliminating the drawbacks of systems from that era. Key features of MiDesktop include interface simplicity and lightweight design. high performance.
Future plans include creating a version for Wayland; redesigning KDM for operation in modern systems; porting KDE applications such as KEdit, KWrite, KCalc, and KMix; addressing scrolling issues in all applications; adding power management options (shutdown, restart, etc.) to the system's shutdown menu; and supporting sound effects and the current sound stack.
Among the unresolved known issues are incorrect window resizing in Firefox and Chrome; disappearing menus on the taskbar; categories not expanding in the configurator (KDE Control Center); and windows expanding across all screens in multi-monitor configurations.
To run MiDesktop, any Linux system with glibc and an X server, such as XWayland or X.Org Server, or a Wayback layer is sufficient. Dependencies include the libjpeg, libtiff, libpng, Osiris Toolkit 2.4.4+, libxcb, libxkb, and gettext libraries. CMake and GCC 12+ are required for building.
Source: opennet.ru
