August 19, 2004 (The Internet) - The KDE Project is pleased to announce the immediate availability of KDE 3.3, the fourth major release of theaward-winning KDE3 desktop platform. Over the past six months, hundreds ofapplications and desktop components have been enhanced by a community of developers, with a particular focus on integration of components.

Stephan Kulow, KDE Release Coordinator, said: "The desktop reached a quality hard to top in previous releases. Nevertheless, KDE 3.3 is a great improvement and will further strengthen KDE's position as the leading Free desktop environment."

Building upon previous releases, noticeable improvements in usability, stability and integration have been achieved, enhancing the desktop experience. A range of new applications and features have also been implemented, including Kolourpaint, an easy-to-use paint program. Over 7,000 bugs have been fixed, and 2,000 wishes fulfilled, with over 60,000 lines of code and documentation being written in the past six months. KDE is now available in 89 different languages, with recent additions including Farsi (Iran) and Indic character support.