GNOME 1.4 Released - Desktop Environment Boasts Power, Stability, Polish and Integration.Business/Technology Editors COPENHAGEN, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 2, 2001 Latest GNOME gnome (nōm), in folklore, tiny subterranean creature associated with mines and quarries. Usually represented as misshapen, frequently as hunchbacked, gnomes are said to be guardians of hidden treasures. release offers something for everyone - from enhanced end-user capabilities to powerful development tools In a move that will take free software (also referred to as open source software) to a new level, the GNOME Foundation The GNOME Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, coordinating the efforts in the GNOME project. The GNOME Foundation announced the release of GNOME 1.4. The release offers a stable, powerful and tightly integrated platform that features the most extensive documentation to date, making the help features very user-friendly. GNOME 1.4 includes Nautilus nautilus, in zoology nautilus, cephalopod mollusk belonging to the sole surviving genus (Nautilus) of a subclass that flourished 200 million years ago, known as the nautiloids. , the new graphical shell for GNOME that features advanced file and Internet browsing capabilities. Developers will find a set of new and updated tools, making GNOME the ideal programming platform. "GNOME 1.4 has a wealth of new features, from an updated Sawfish sawfish: see ray. sawfish Any of about six species (genus Pristis, family Pristidae) of sharklike ray. Sawfishes have a long head, long body, and a long, toothed, bladelike snout. The largest attain lengths of 23 ft (7 m) or more. window manager to enhanced support and interoperability with other desktop environments." said Havoc Pennington Robert Sanford Havoc Pennington is currently a Red Hat Desktop manager/engineer, but his fame in the free software community is largely due to his work on GNOME, Metacity, GConf, D-BUS, and more. Before his Red Hat position he was one of the main developers of Debian GNU/Linux. , GNOME Foundation board chair. "This release represents a major leap forward in the GNOME desktop environment. Users will instantly see an improvement in the usability and power of components like Nautilus. Developers will enjoy the strategic advantages of improvements to the component architecture and streamlined tools for greater internationalization and localization "Internationalization" redirects here. This term may also refer to the establishment of an independent free city. In computing, Internationalization and localization are means of adapting computer software for non-native environments, especially other nations and cultures. of GNOME-based programs." New or enhanced features of the GNOME 1.4 desktop environment include: - Nautilus - a new file manager and desktop environment that allows users to easily manage their files, browse the web and access web-based services through a sophisticated, customizable interface. For example, GNOME users can select any word in a text document and do a Google search on that term or look up the word in an online dictionary. - Better support and interoperability with KDE and legacy X applications - New Application Launch Feedback lets the user know when a program is in the process of being loaded. - Sawfish window manager is now a standard part of GNOME. All aspects of the user interface are customizable through Sawfish, including complete configuration of the look and feel of the desktop. - Easier to use and more intuitive help browser and help system, boasting extensive documentation covering all aspects of GNOME operations. - GNOME Fifth Toe, a broad collection of applications that run on GNOME. - Medusa, the new GNOME searching/indexing package. Medusa is a content and file indexing system that performs quick searches of a user's hard drive. "The goal of GNOME was to create a program that could be used by anyone." Miguel de Icaza Miguel de Icaza (born c. 1972) is a Mexican free software programmer, best known for starting the GNOME and Mono projects. Miguel de Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) but never received a degree. , president of the GNOME Foundation said. "GNOME 1.4 reaches that goal and more. The hundreds of volunteers and paid programmers who have worked on the project have created a program that is powerful, both for the user and the developer." GNOME 1.4 will also include a number of enhancements for developers, including: - GNOME-VFS - The GNOME Virtual File System provides an abstraction to common file system operations like reading, writing and copying files, listing directories and so on. GNOME-VFS is extensible and usable from any application on the GNOME desktop. - Updated Bonobo bonobo, smaller of two species of chimpanzee, genus Pan. Whereas the common chimpanzee, P. troglodytes, lives in forests across most of equatorial Africa, the bonobo, P. Component Model - 1.4 will include developments in the interfaces that provide standard component programming and program interoperability in Linux and Unix. - Xml-i18n-tools - a set of tools for better internationalization and localization of GNOME. Xml-i18n-tools contain some utility scripts for internationalizing various kinds of XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. files. In addition, it has a merging feature, which will be extended to handle desktop and MIME files in the future. - GConf, a sophisticated system for storing configuration information. It provides a notification service so applications can be notified when a configuration setting changes. changes. Gconf also allows for pluggable storage backends (text files, databases, etc.) and gives administrators control over default and mandatory settings. - Enhanced Language Bindings - facilitating the use of GNOME from a number of programming languages. Language bindings included with GNOME 1.4 for Gtk+ include C, C++, Objective C, Ada, Perl, Python Python, in Greek mythology Python, in Greek mythology, a huge serpent. In some myths the infant Apollo slew Python at the oracle of Gaea in Delphi; in others Apollo killed the serpent in order to claim the oracle for himself. , Guile, TOM, Eiffel, Dylan, JavaScript, Pike, Pascal and Haskell. Many of these languages also have support for GNOME widgets available. - Enhanced GNOME Display Manager GDM (the GNOME Display Manager) provides an alternate display manager for the X Window System. The X Window System by default uses the XDM display manager. However, resolving XDM configuration issues typically involves editing a configuration file. - A re-implementation of the well-known xdm (X Display Manager) program that features X authentication (1) Verifying the integrity of a transmitted message. See message integrity, e-mail authentication and MAC. (2) Verifying the identity of a user logging into a network. , default and per-display initialization in·i·tial·ize tr.v. in·i·tial·ized, in·i·tial·iz·ing, in·i·tial·iz·es Computer Science 1. To set (a starting value of a variable). 2. To prepare (a computer or a printer) for use; boot. 3. scripts, pre and post-session scripts, pluggable authentication modules and TCP wrappers for access control. "Since the GNOME project is a free software project, we were able to incorporate advances from some of the most talented programmers in the world," said Maciej Stachowiak, head of the 1.4 Release Team. "Hundreds of people from every part of the world contributed to this release. The result is a mature, stable, powerful and fun-to-use desktop, with the promise of a host of new killer applications Killer Application Killer application or "killer app" is a buzzword that describes a software application that surpasses all of its competitors. Notes: The term is sometimes used to describe a type of software. , due to the programming enhancements." GNOME is a free software project that is developing a complete, easy to use desktop for GNU/Linux (more commonly known as Linux), BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) The software distribution facility of the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) of the University of California at Berkeley. and a variety of other Unix and Unix-like operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. . The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. More than 500 computer developers, including over 100 full-time, paid developers, contribute their time and effort to the project. About the GNOME Foundation Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. GNOME is an entirely free user environment for desktops, networked servers and portable Internet devices. The modern architecture and design of GNOME includes a technically advanced application development platform and a powerful end-user desktop environment. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers. More information on GNOME is available at www.gnome.org. |
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