Seeing that KDE 4.3 is set to release less than 3 weeks, will this new version be included in the upcoming Slackware release? Or will we see it through an update later on?

Doubtful, from the changelog

Hi folks -- the TODO isn't entirely empty here, but it's pretty much down
to minor nits, and so we're going to call this release candidate #1 and
(mostly) freeze further updates unless they happen to fix problems.

Alien Bob says no.

With 4.3 more or less ready for release, I *suspect* the 4.2.x version is dead in the water, so I guess any future KDE 4.3 releases will be made available as regular updates to whatever Slackware 13 ships with?

If not, how will Slackware 13 cope with security related issues in the 4.2.x branch? I doubt the KDE people will apply security fixes to an abandoned branch.

Please note that I'm just guessing here - I really have no clue how long the KDE people support "old" versions. It might very well be that 4.2.x is supported for a loooong time to come, and if that is the case, then YAY!.

http://kde.org/announcements/announce-4.2.4.php
In the case that a security issue or another grave bug arises, there might be a KDE 4.2.5, of course.

Well, you know what they say about assuming, but....
I would have thought that 4.x and each subsequent release/version is a step by step improvement on each previous release until the changes result in such a substantial improvement a new release is warranted?
Isn't this what is done with Slackware?
However, from what I've been reading about KDE, apparently 4.3 is a completely new release un-related to 4.2.x ?! Is that so?
Again, I would thought that by the time they are ready to release 4.3 that means all the bugs have been tweaked and worked out of 4.2.x and the result warrants a new version number.
If not, the whole procedure seems ass backwards....

Welcome to the KDE development model. For years I've been wondering
the same thing. Just like the Linux kernel ... each new 2.6.30.x, for
example, is a bug release. Then 2.6.31 is a new stable series. Not so
with KDE, though. Bug fixing does not seem to be high on their priority
list, but rather, feature releasing. Still, the 4.2.4 that I'm using
now is nicer than 3.5.x, and less buggy than <4.2.4.

This whole 4.x thing has been one of the more negative experiences in the 22 years I've been fiddling around with PCs. I've grown very leery of an outfit, KDE, that seems to place more importance on tweaking their games than on taking care of the more significant, IMHO, aspects of putting together a GUI.

Erm, KDE's development model is about the same as the one of the linux kernel. 4.2 was a feature release, 4.2.1 a bugfix release.
4.3 will be another feature release, which of course contains all the bugfixes of 4.2.1-4.2.4 and many more.

KDE 4.3+ is going to require PolicyKit. PolicyKit is going to need allot of work and testing to make it into Slackware if and when they decide to include it.

May I ask, just what is "PolicyKit"?
Thanks.

OK, just found a description:
"PolicyKit allows easy and secure password management, it can be used by applications to ask their users for a password. Each application defines a set of actions that can be executed by their program. The application will call PolicyKit to see if the user can perform a given action, if not, the application can issue the auth dialog where the user can enter his/her password, root password, the password of a given group of users or even swipe the finger."

Why does this sound like "sudo" hell, a la Ubuntu?

The bit I like about policykit is in the documentation, where they use the inability of userland programs to poke holes through iptables as a reason for policykit. They don't seem to understand that it is deliberate and a very good thing.

I dislike a lot of the stuff that's come out of freedesktop.org. It all seems to be somewhat over-complicated and not at all in the spirit of the UNIX philosophy. I get the feeling they won't be completely satisfied until they turn Linux into a big windows-like mess!

GazL++

I don't see a "hell" in there..as it reads in my profile, I use Ubuntu (and alike) systems quite often, and don't need to use sudo too much. And when I do, it's really a lot less trouble than popping up a terminal just to be able to 'su' and deal with the thing..it's nowhere near the Vista-style "are you sure you just clicked that button? Should we agree that you agreed to agree this agreement? Are you serious?" -questioning.

I have used and do use the lighter de/wm options available at Slackware out-of-the-box, but I do think it would be good to have a "big" desktop environment such as KDE or Gnome available. I understand a lot of Slackware people hold some kind of grudge against Gnome, so KDE seems the only way to go. Nothing bad in that, but I would encourage sticking to the new releases of KDE 4.x if they decide to use 4.x versions at all, because the 4.2 (and below) seem to me mostly useless, and all in all I see more sense in keeping the latest&greatest KDE version 3 rather than a semi-ready version 4-something.

If PolicyKit is needed, then attention should be given to it in order to get KDE 4.3 and newer on Slackware. In the meantime I'll stick to WindowMaker and plain good 'ol terminal..