The first alpha release of KDE 4.0 has just been released. Exciting times are certainly ahead for this desktop environment.
At the link you'll see some pictures, which are not radically different but do contain the spiffy new Oxygen icon set. There are improvements to the backend including being based on the latest Qt, and multimedia and hardware support through projects like Phonon and Solid.
The release is expected in October 2007. Most of the work looks like it will start to concentrate on bringing the apps and the look up to scratch.
They are also asking for help to make sure the apps follow the Human Interface Guidelines here.
