KDE4 was released today. Most likely not a big surprise for most readers, but hey 
Congratulations to the KDE team!
I’d love to give KDE 4 a test-run asap, been trying to download the LiveCD ISO to boot it in my VirtualBox virtual machine, but the torrent is extremely slow here. Maybe my ISP also implemented BitTorrent bandwidth capping as iirc some others did in Belgium, which is completely unfair as this is, obviously, 100% legal content. Some of the screenshots I saw both during development phases and today do look pretty cool, especially taking into account I’m not a big fan of the KDE3.x look. I’m still a little afraid the bottom panel is very high (just like the KDE3.x one), which removes quite a lot of my precious display size… A 14.1 widescreen laptop isn’t thát big, using GNOME I only loose 2×21 pixels.
One thing made me wonder: Plasma, Solid, Phonon, Dolphin, Okular, Akonadi, Oxygen,… Where’s the K* guys?
I remember some really long and heated threads on GNOME 3 (Project Topaz, which I still consider to be a great name) some months ago, maybe those should be revamped too, to keep the vibe alive 
Last couple of years have been very interesting Free Desktop-wise: we got more integration of system components, very flashy UI stuff, great new iconsets and themes, more stabilization of desktop components, several great and innovative new applications,… PDE (Perfect Desktop Environment) doesn’t exist yet (most likely it never will… does such a thing exist, after all?) but current projects are progressing very nicely, each with their proper strengths, targeted user base and features, which can only be applauded and stimulated. Keep on rocking, all of you, so the years ahead of us will be even more surprising, creative, constructive and fun!
Dunno about KDE4, as I haven’t explored it in enough detail yet (and I will hold off upgrading my main system to it until at least 4.1), but the panel in KDE3 waste exactly zero pixels on my desktop.
It only shows up whenever I want it to (which is quite rarely really). I access my applications menu by right-clicking on the desktop,and the panel shows up only when I let the mouse pointer hover over where the panel is supposed to be.
Easy, and I would be surprised if KDE4 doesn’t allow that. If not now, in a few updates it most likely will. So, I would say you’re worried over nothing.
But you’re right: the PDE will never exist. But it will certainly be interesting to see what you Gnome guys come up with in response. A healthy competition is always a good thing in my book
Jonas: I might not like wide panels, but I truly hate auto-hiding panels
Anyway, everyone got his preferences I guess.
Panel in KDE3 is adjustable. Minimum is 24 pixels. And in KDE4 it will be adjustable too.
Find another ISP
I’ve tried a KDE4 (RC or something) live cd a while ago. I Expected something a bit more stable. But hey it looked nice.