   #copyright

GNOME

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Computing hardware and
infrastructure

   CAPTION: GNOME

   GNOME 2.16 screenshot showing the Nautilus file manager and the gedit
   text editor
   Developer: GNOME developers
   Latest release: 2.16.2 / 23 November 2006
   OS: Cross-platform
   Available language(s): Multilingual (more than 25)
   Use: Desktop environment
   License: GNU Lesser General Public License
   GNU General Public License
   Website: http://www.gnome.org/

   The GNOME project is an international effort to create an easy-to-use
   computing platform built entirely from free software. This goal
   includes creating tools which help developers write new stand-alone
   application software, selecting applications for inclusion in the
   official product, and working on what is known as the desktop
   environment — the programs which manage application launching, file
   handling, and window and task management.

   A great deal of software is created or hosted under the umbrella of the
   GNOME project, some of which is collected and released as GNOME. GNOME
   is used in conjunction with an operating system such as Linux or Sun
   Microsystems' Solaris, to create a fully functional computer system.

   GNOME is the official desktop of the GNU Project and the official
   pronunciation of the name is /gəˈnoʊm/ with a hard "G", although /noʊm/
   (as in the English word " gnome") is also in common usage.

Aims

   According to the GNOME website:


GNOME

      The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment,
          an intuitive and attractive desktop for users, and the GNOME
     development platform, an extensive framework for building applications
                  that integrate into the rest of the desktop.


                                                                           GNOME

   The GNOME project puts heavy emphasis on simplicity, usability and
   making things "just work". The other aims of the project are:
     * Freedom — to create a desktop environment that will always be free
       of charge, with the source code available for re-use under a Free
       software license.
     * Accessibility — ensuring the desktop can be used by anyone,
       regardless of technical skill or physical disability.
     * Internationalisation and localisation — making the desktop
       available in many languages.
     * Developer-friendliness — ensuring it is easy to write software that
       integrates smoothly with the desktop, and allow developers a free
       choice of programming language.
     * Organisation — a regular release cycle and a disciplined community
       structure.
     * Support — ensuring backing from other institutions beyond the GNOME
       community.

Multilingual

     * Available languages for GNOME 2.16
     * Available languages for GNOME 2.14

Origin

   GNOME 2.13.3 (development version) using the Japanese language, with
   Tango Desktop Project pre-release icons.
   Enlarge
   GNOME 2.13.3 (development version) using the Japanese language, with
   Tango Desktop Project pre-release icons.

   The GNOME project was started in August 1997 by Miguel de Icaza and
   Federico Mena in response to licensing concerns over software used by
   KDE, a free software desktop environment that relies on the Qt widget
   toolkit. At the time, Qt did not use a free software license and
   members of the GNU project became concerned about the use of such a
   toolkit for building a free software desktop and applications. Two
   projects were started: the Harmony toolkit, to create a free
   replacement for the Qt libraries, and GNOME to create a new desktop
   without Qt and built entirely on top of free software.

   In place of the Qt toolkit, GTK+ was chosen as the base of the GNOME
   desktop. GTK+ uses the GNU Lesser Public License (LGPL), a free
   software license that allows software linking to it, such as
   applications written for GNOME, to use a much wider set of licenses,
   including proprietary software licenses. The GNOME desktop itself is
   licensed under the LGPL for its libraries, and the GPL for applications
   that are part of the GNOME project itself. While Qt is now available
   under the terms of the GPL, the freedom to link proprietary software
   with GTK+ freely makes it differ from Qt.

   The name "GNOME" was proposed as an acronym of GNU Network Object Model
   Environment by Elliot Lee, one of the authors of ORBit and the Object
   Activation Framework. It refers to GNOME's original intention of
   creating a distributed object framework similar to Microsoft's OLE.
   This no longer reflects the core vision of the GNOME project, and the
   full expansion of the name is now considered obsolete. As such, some
   members of the project advocate dropping the acronym and re-naming
   "GNOME" to "Gnome".

Organization

   As with most free software projects, the GNOME project is loosely
   organised. Discussion chiefly occurs on a number of public mailing
   lists.

   In August 2000 the GNOME Foundation was set up to deal with
   administrative tasks, press interest and to act as a contact point for
   companies interested in developing GNOME software. While not directly
   involved in technical decisions, the Foundation does coordinate
   releases and decide which projects will be part of GNOME. Membership is
   open to anyone who has made a non-trivial contribution to the project.
   Members of the Foundation elect a board of directors every November,
   and candidates for the positions must be members themselves.

   Developers and users of GNOME gather at an annual meeting known as
   GUADEC in order to discuss the current state of the project and its
   future direction.

Platforms

   GNOME 2.10 screenshot (on Fedora Core 4) showing Rhythmbox (music
   player), GThumb (image manager), gedit (text editor), and the Nautilus
   file manager.
   Enlarge
   GNOME 2.10 screenshot (on Fedora Core 4) showing Rhythmbox (music
   player), GThumb (image manager), gedit (text editor), and the Nautilus
   file manager.

   Originally designed for Linux, GNOME now runs on most Unix-like systems
   and in particular has been adopted by Sun Microsystems as part of Java
   Desktop System, replacing the ageing Common Desktop Environment on
   their Solaris platform. It is the default desktop environment for many
   modern desktop Linux distributions, including Fedora Core and Ubuntu. A
   list of Linux distributions that include GNOME is maintained on the
   GNOME website.

   An official GNOME LiveCD, which allows a computer to boot directly from
   a Compact Disc without removing or changing existing operating systems,
   is available for download from the GNOME website.

   Many GNOME components have been ported to Cygwin, allowing GNOME
   applications to run on Microsoft Windows.

Architecture

   GNOME is built from a large number of different projects. A few of the
   major ones are listed below:
     * Bonobo — a compound document technology.
     * GConf — for storing application settings.
     * GNOME VFS — a virtual file system.
     * GNOME Keyring — for storing encryption keys and security
       information.
     * GNOME Translation Project — translate documentation and
       applications into different languages.
     * GTK+ — a widget toolkit used for constructing graphical
       applications. The use of GTK+ as the base widget toolkit allows
       GNOME to benefit from certain features such as theming (the ability
       to change the look of an application), smooth anti-aliased
       graphics. Sub-projects of GTK+ provide object oriented programming
       support (GObjects), extensive support of international character
       sets and text layout ( Pango) and accessibility ( ATK). GTK+
       reduces the amount of work required to port GNOME applications to
       other platforms such as Windows and Mac OS X.
     * Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) — research and documentation on
       building easy-to-use GNOME applications.
     * LibXML — an XML library.
     * ORBit — a CORBA ORB for software componentry.

   A number of language bindings are available allowing applications to be
   written in a variety of programming languages, such as C++ ( gtkmm),
   Java ( Java-GNOME), Ruby ( ruby-gnome2), C# ( Gtk#), Python ( PyGTK),
   Perl ( gtk2-perl) and many others. The only languages currently used in
   applications that are part of an official GNOME desktop release are C,
   C# and Python.

Look and feel

   GNOME is designed around the traditional computing desktop metaphor.
   Its handling of windows, applications and files is similar to that of
   contemporary desktop operating systems; The desktop has a launcher menu
   for quick access to installed programs and file locations, open windows
   may be accessed by a task bar along the bottom of the screen and the
   top-right corner features a notification area for programs to display
   notices while running in the background.

   The appearance of GNOME can be changed by the use of themes, which are
   sets consisting of an icon set, window manager border and GTK+ theme
   engine and parameters. Popular GTK+ themes include Bluecurve and
   Clearlooks (the current default theme).

   GNOME puts emphasis on being easy for everyone to use. The HIG helps
   guide developers in producing applications which look and behave
   similarly, in order to provide a cohesive GNOME interface.

Usability

   Since GNOME v2.0, a key focus of the project has been usability. As a
   part of this, a large effort was put into creating the GNOME Human
   Interface Guidelines (HIG). The HIG is an extensive guide for creating
   high quality, consistent, usable GUI programs, covering everything from
   GUI design to recommended pixel-based layout of widgets.

   GNOME HIG introduction:


   GNOME

     This document tells you how to create applications that look right,
    behave properly, and fit into the GNOME user interface as a whole. It
      is written for interface designers, graphic artists and software
     developers who will be creating software for the GNOME environment.
   Both specific advice on making effective use of interface elements, and
   the philosophy and general design principles behind the GNOME interface
                                are covered.


   GNOME

   During the v2.0 rewrite, many settings were deemed to be "crack"
   settings (of little or no value to the majority of users) and were
   removed. For instance, the preferences section of the Panel were
   reduced from a sprawling dialog of six large tabs to a much simpler one
   with two small tabs.

Freedesktop.org and GNOME

   Freedesktop.org is a project to assist interoperability and shared
   technology between the different X Window desktops such as GNOME, KDE
   or Xfce. Although it is not a formal standards organization,
   Freedesktop.org defines certain basic features of an X Desktop,
   including drag and drop between applications, window manager
   specifications, menu layouts, recent files lists, copy and pasting
   between applications and a shared MIME type database, among other
   things. Following Freedesktop.org specifications allows GNOME
   applications to appear more integrated into other desktops (and vice
   versa), and encourages cooperation as well as competition.

   Examples of technologies originated at Freedesktop.org which now form
   part of GNOME's core technology set include:
     * Cairo — a sophisticated 2D graphics library.
     * D-Bus — interprocess communication system.
     * GStreamer — a multimedia framework.
     * HAL — a specification and an implementation of a hardware
       abstraction layer.
     * Poppler — a PDF rendering library.
     * Tango Desktop Project, which aims to provide a common visual
       standard across different platforms.

   These initiatives aim to allow users and developers to choose the
   technologies and applications they like regardless of which desktop
   environment they use.

Applications

   Along with those applications bundled with the desktop, a large amount
   of other applications have been developed for use in GNOME. See List of
   GNOME applications for a more complete list.

Official applications

   Here is a selection of applications typically supplied as part of a
   GNOME release:
     * Ekiga — a phone and video conferencing application using voice over
       IP.
     * Epiphany — a web browser.
     * Evince — a document viewer for PDF and PostScript documents.
     * Evolution — an email and groupware application.
     * Eye of GNOME — a simple image viewer.
     * File Roller — an archive manager.
     * gedit — a text editor.
     * gnome-dictionary — a DICT protocol client.
     * gnome-panel — a desktop panel for launching applications and
       showing applets.
     * GNOME Terminal — a terminal emulator.
     * Metacity — a window manager.
     * Nautilus — a file manager.
     * Sound Juicer — a CD ripping tool.
     * Tomboy — a notetaking tool.
     * Totem — a media player.

Other applications

   Here is a selection of applications that use technology from the GNOME
   project and are likely to be used on an average GNOME desktop:
     * AbiWord — a word processor.
     * Banshee — a music player.
     * F-Spot — a digital photo organizer.
     * Gaim — an instant messaging client.
     * The GIMP — an advanced bitmap graphics editor.
     * GnomeBaker — a CD/DVD authoring application.
     * Gnumeric — a spreadsheeting program.
     * GnuCash — double-entry book-keeping software.
     * Inkscape — a vector graphics drawing application.
     * Rhythmbox — a music-management application similar to iTunes.

Stable releases

   Each of the parts making up the GNOME project has its own version
   number and release schedule. However, individual module maintainers
   coordinate their efforts to create a full GNOME stable release on a
   roughly six-month schedule. The releases listed in the table below are
   classed as stable. Unstable releases for testers and developers are not
   listed, nor are bugfix releases for individual modules.
   Version Date Information
   August 1997 GNOME development announced
   1.0 March 1999 First major GNOME release
   1.0.53 October 1999 "October"
   1.2 May 2000 "Bongo"
   1.4 April 2001 "Tranquility"
   2.0 June 2002 Major upgrade based on GTK2. Introduction of the Human
   Interface Guidelines.
   2.2 February 2003 Multimedia and file manager improvements.
   2.4 September 2003 Epiphany, accessibility support.
   2.6 March 2004 Nautilus changes to a spatial file manager, and a new
   GTK+ file dialog is introduced. A short-lived fork of GNOME, GoneME, is
   created as a response to the changes in this version.
   2.8 September 2004 Improved removable device support, adds Evolution.
   2.10 March 2005 Lower memory requirements and performance improvements.
   Adds: new panel applets (modem control, drive mounter and trashcan);
   and the Totem and Sound Juicer applications
   2.12 September 2005 Nautilus improvements; improvements in cut/paste
   between applications and freedesktop.org integration. Adds: Evince PDF
   viewer; New default theme: Clearlooks; menu editor; keyring manager and
   admin tools. Based on GTK+ 2.8 with Cairo support.
   2.14 March 2006 Performance improvements. Adds: Ekiga video
   conferencing application; Deskbar search tool; Pessulus lockdown
   editor; Fast user switching; Sabayon system administration tool.
   2.16 September 2006 Performance improvements. Adds: Tomboy notetaking
   application; Baobab disk usage analyser; Orca screen reader;
   improvements to Totem, Nautilus and GNOME Power Manager; compositing
   support for Metacity; new icon theme. Based on GTK+ 2.10 with new print
   dialog.

Future developments

   There are many sub-projects under the umbrella of the GNOME project,
   and not all of them are currently included in GNOME releases. Some are
   considered purely experimental concepts, or for testing ideas that will
   one day migrate into stable GNOME applications; others are code that is
   being polished for direct inclusion. Some examples include:
     * GNOME Storage — database filing system for GNOME. Compare with the
       now-defunct WinFS storage system.
     * Project Topaz — ideas for GNOME version 3.0.
     * Project Soylent — making "people" and their interactions
       first-class objects within the GNOME framework.
     * Project Ridley — to consolidate several small undermaintained
       libraries into GTK+, such as libgnome and libgnomeprint.
     * The use of the Mozilla project's XUL on the GNOME desktop.

   There had been considerable discussion about including software written
   in C# or Java in GNOME. With GNOME 2.16, Gtk# (the C# bindings for GTK+
   and GNOME) and Mono have been added to the list of dependencies, and a
   C# application, Tomboy, has also been included in that release.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
