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Unofficial KDE DEB packages released for Nokia Internet Tablets

New unofficial DEB packages of the KDE Maemo port finally make it easy to …

Last year, an industrious hacker known as Penguinbait provided instructions that described how to install the KDE desktop environment on Nokia Internet Tablet devices. As we noted at the time, the instructions required extensive use of the command-line and were not really geared towards a mainstream audience. Fortunately, the availability of recently released unofficial KDE Maemo port packages vastly simplifies development.

Users will need a memory card with at least 2 GB of free space in order to install the KDE packages. Once the packages are installed, users will be able to launch KDE from the Extras menu on the device. Links to the packages, instructions on how to use them, and all the usual disclaimers about how they can break your Nokia device can be found in the KDE Install Made Easy thread at the Internet Tablet Talk forum. A bit of additional information about KDE on OS2008 can be found at Penguinbait's Tablet Hacker web site. For a nice video and some screenshots of KDE and KOffice running on an N810, check out this blog entry by Tyler L.

Penguinbait and other developers have also ported other open source desktop environments to Nokia's platform, including XFCE. These community efforts to bring alternate software to Internet Tablet devices demonstrate the power and versatility of open, Linux-based devices. The ability to run third-party software environments will ensure that Nokia Internet Tablet devices remain useful even after they are no longer officially supported by Nokia.

Channel Ars Technica