Duncan wrote:
> Could you point me to anything definitive saying 3.5 is no longer 
> supported, an official page on the KDE site, something on one of their 
> lists, a blog posting, an email that can be made public, anything?

Nothing definite that I am aware of.

> So from a user perspective, it seems like they're really trying to have 
> it both ways, claiming continued support when it simply isn't happening, 

With this you basically answered your own question. KDE3 has been
dropped upstream, maybe not officially, but "de facto". Nobody is
working on it, nobody is even interested.

If you want a KDE version that is maintained, you should try 4.3.
Upstream isn't interested in or working on anything older than that.

Cheers,
Ben