The developer of KDE (K Desktop Environment) – The KDE Team on Wednesday announced the immediate availability of KDE 4.3 Beta 1, which fetches more features and application integration. KDE is an open source desktop environment for Linux and Unix-like systems; it is a free software project to provide free and open source software for desktop and portable computing. KDE 4.3 Beta 1 is the first preview of the 3rd iteration over the KDE 4 desktop, applications and development platform.

On the official KDE blog, the spokesperson for the KDE project, Sebastian Kugler stated that the KDE 4.3 Beta 1 boasts of the “long and impressive” list of new features and improvements including a new tree view mode in System Settings, and more visible desktop search. The KDE 4.3 Beta 1 focuses on “polishing and completing the user experience by providing a modern and free working environment”. The KDE team is presently fixing bugs in order to offer a flawless KDE 4.3.0 to end users in late July.

Kugler wrote, “While KDE 4.3 already looks nice and stable, the KDE team wants to shake out as many bugs as possible before KDE 4.3.0 will be released in late July.”

According to Kugler, the KDE 4.3 Beta 1 comes integrated with new technologies including PolicyKit and Geolocation Services, New Window Animation Effects, More Usable “Run Command” Application, Bettered Add-Ons in Plasma, and Desktop Shell. The 4.3 Beta 1 comes with a slew of advancements, bugfixes, and new features. The advancements include streamlined hardware integration and multimedia experience, a “fully themable” appearance taking advantage of modern graphics hardware by blending the Oxygen artwork with Plasma. The Beta features a development platform that supports C++, Python, Ruby and JavaScript.

The KDE 4.3 Beta 1 is available for free download from kde.org. The directions on compiling and installing KDE 4.3 Beta1 are available from the KDE 4.3 Beta1 Info Page. The KDE tools and applications are available in more than 50 languages.