Gnome 2.0 Released!

[Saqib Shaikh]

The subject says it all - just have to wait for Gnopernicus now.

OTTAWA, Canada--June 26, 2002--The GNOME Foundation today released version
2.0 of the GNOME Desktop and Developer Platform at the Ottawa Linux
Symposium.
With the inclusion of GNOME 2.0 by leading Linux and Unix vendors later this
year, users of GNOME can look forward to an improved user environment for
existing GNOME applications, including a faster and more powerful Nautilus
file manager, features that are better organized and usability-tested,
dozens
of useful utilities, applications and even games. Users and administrators
will also see a new, simplified configuration system. Developers can look
forward
to more efficient application development with stronger integration of GNOME
APIs and the advantages of GNOME's component-based architecture.

"The GNOME 2.0 project is the culmination of a major effort which had the
dual objectives of dramatically improving developer productivity and
significantly
enhancing the GNOME user experience," said Miguel de Icaza, president of the
GNOME Foundation and CTO and co-founder of Ximian, Inc. "The result is an
elegant, new multi-platform desktop environment for individual, corporate
and government users worldwide."

GNOME is supported on a variety of platforms, including GNU/Linux (more
commonly referred to as Linux), Solaris Operating Environment, HP-UX, Unix,
BSD
and Apple's Darwin. The enhanced user interface moves from a traditional X
Window System interface to one that is easy to use and familiar to users of
other environments. The user interface also boasts powerful features such as
high-quality smooth text rendering and first class internationalization
support,
including support for bi-directional text.

"Developing on the GNOME platform will take a leap forward with the release
of 2.0," said Havoc Pennington, GNOME Foundation board chair and technical
lead
for desktop engineering at Red Hat, Inc. "The industrial-strength GTK+ 2.0
toolkit, combined with add-on tools such as Glade, Python and our CORBA
implementation
make GNOME the natural choice for developers on a variety of platforms.
GNOME's component-based architecture makes it possible for developers to use
already
existing tools, libraries and features, cutting development time
significantly."

GNOME 2.0 has a host of advanced accessibility features for users with
disabilities and a built-in accessibility framework for developers to meet
Section
508 requirements. Developers of GNOME 2.0 have devoted thousands of
man-hours to ensuring that GNOME will be accessible to everyone, including
people with
disabilities. More features and enhanced accessibility capabilities will be
added later this year.

GNOME 2.0 boasts some significant advances for developers, including an
enhanced GTK Toolkit, new libraries and widgets, as well as the unparalleled
advantages
of GNOME's component-based architecture. GNOME's libraries are available for
use in any application, without fees, under the terms of the GNU Lesser
General
Public License.

GNOME 2.0 is the first of the GNOME 2.x series. Future releases will bring
more features to the core desktop, while adding GNOME 2 native versions of
popular
applications such as Evolution, Galeon, Mozilla and Gnumeric.

Availability

Developers and users wishing to install the GNOME 2.0 Desktop and Developer
Platform may freely download the software at www.gnome.org. The software
includes
the GNOME 2.0 desktop interface, file manager, menus and utilities, as well
as the complete set of development tools and libraries.

GNOME 2.0 versions of popular applications will be available later this
year. GNOME 2.0 will be available later this year on the Solaris Operating
Environment,
HP-UX, and Red Hat Linux, as well as being distributed by Ximian and other
Linux distributions as part of their offerings.