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.
