GNOME

: ''This article is about the GNOME desktop environment. For other uses of the term, see Gnome (disambiguation).'' GNOME (for GNU Network Object Model Environment) is a open source/free software computer desktop environment for Unix and Unix-like operating systems. It is the official desktop of the GNU. == Origin == The GNOME project was started in August 1997 by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena to provide an alternative to KDE. KDE is a free software desktop environment that relies on the Qt toolkit widget toolkit — a piece of software written by Trolltech that did not use a free software license. Members of the GNU project became concerned about the use of such a toolkit for building a free software desktop and applications and launched two projects: "Harmony", to create a replacement for the Qt libraries, and the GNOME project to create a new desktop without Qt and built entirely on top of free software. In September 2000, after GNOME had become useable and was gaining popularity, Trolltech made the linux version of the Qt libraries available under both the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) and the Q Public License, removing most of the objections that had fuelled years of licensing debates. However, the licensing of Qt is still controversial for many people because the use of the GPL for a library imposes restrictions on the licensing of code linker to it, such as the KDE framework and any applications written for it. [[Image:Bn-Screen_desktop.jpg|thumb|right|300px|GNOME desktop using the Bengali language]] In place of the Qt toolkit, the GIMP 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 any license. 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. The GNOME desktop is written in the C programming language. A number of language bindings are available, allowing GNOME applications to be written in a variety of languages, such as C Plus Plus, Java programming language, Ruby programming language, C Sharp, Python programming language, Perl and many others. == Aims == According to the GNOME website, : ''"The GNOME project provides two things: The GNOME desktop environment, an intuitive and attractive desktop for end-users, and the GNOME development platform, an extensive framework for building applications that integrate into the rest of the desktop."''[http://www.gnome.org/about/] The GNOME desktop puts heavy emphasis on simplicity, usability and making things "just work". As a consequence of this, two things are given prominence in GNOME development: * Computer accessibility — designing and building a desktop and applications that can be used by everyone, regardless of technical skill or physical disability * Internationalization and localization — ensuring that the desktop and applications are available in many languages == Organisation == Like most free software the GNOME project is loosely organised. Discussion regarding development occurs on a number of mailing lists that are open to anyone. 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. The foundation, while not directly involved in technical decisions, does coordinate releases and decide which projects will be part of GNOME. According to the foundation's website, the qualifications for membership are, :''"Per the GNOME Foundation's charter, any contributor to GNOME is eligible for membership. Although it is difficult to specify a precise definition, a contributor generally must have contributed to a non-trivial improvement of the GNOME Project. Contributions may be code, documentation, translations, maintenance of project-wide resources, or other non-trivial activities which benefit the GNOME Project."''[http://foundation.gnome.org/membership/] The membership of the foundation elects a board of directors every November, and candidates for the positions must be members themselves. == Platforms == Although originally a GNU/Linux desktop, GNOME now runs on most Unix-like systems (Berkeley Software Distribution variants, AIX operating system, IRIX, HP-UX), and in particular it has been adopted by Sun Microsystems as the standard desktop for its Solaris Operating Environment platform, replacing the ageing Common Desktop Environment. Sun Microsystems has also released a business desktop under the name Java Desktop System — a SUSE Linux system base with a GNOME desktop. There is also a port of GNOME to Cygwin, allowing it to run on Microsoft Windows. GNOME is also available in a number of LiveCD Linux distributions, such as Gnoppix, Morphix and Ubuntu Linux. A LiveCD allows a computer to booting directly from a compact disc (CD) without removal or changes to a pre-existing operating system, such as Microsoft Windows. == Architecture == The GNOME desktop is built from a large number of different projects. A few of the major ones are listed below: * Accessibility Toolkit — an Computer accessibility toolkit. * Bonobo (computing) — a compound document technology. * GObject — an object oriented framework for the C programming language * GConf — for storing application settings. * GNOME VFS — a virtual file system. * GNOME Keyring — a security system. * GNOME Print — for printing documents from GNOME applications. * GStreamer — a multimedia framework for GNOME applications. * GTK — a widget toolkit. * Cairo (graphics) — a sophisticated 2D graphics library. * Human Interface Guidelines — research and documentation done by Sun Microsystems on building easy-to-use GNOME applications. * LibXML — an XML library designed for GNOME. * Orbit (software) — a CORBA Object request broker for software componentry. * Pango — a library for layout and rendering of Internationalization and localization text. * Metacity — a X window manager. ==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 testing grounds for concepts that will one day migrate into stable GNOME applications, others are code that is being polished for direct inclusion. Some examples include: *GNOME Storage *D-BUS Although GNOME applications can be written in many programming languages, the GNOME desktop itself and the applications that are part of a GNOME release are currently written purely in C. There is considerable discussion over the inclusion of applications written in other, higher level, languages such as C#, Python and Java. Although each of these languages is already used to develop GNOME applications, their use in core GNOME applications would force the inclusion of the respective language's virtual machine with every GNOME installation. This would increase the minimum specification of machine able to run the latest GNOME desktop. ==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 organisation, 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 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. == Major GNOME Applications == See List of GNOME applications for a more complete list. Major applications based on GNOME include the following: * AbiWord — a word processor. * Epiphany (web browser) — a web browser. Epiphany replaced Galeon as the default browser starting with GNOME 2.4. * Novell Evolution — for contacts/time management and e-mail. * Gaim — an instant messenger. * gedit — a text editor. * GIMP — an advanced bitmap graphics editor. * Gnumeric — a spreadsheet. * GnomeMeeting — for telephony and voice over IP. * Inkscape — a vector graphics drawing application. * Nautilus file manager — a file manager. * Rhythmbox — a music-management application similar to iTunes. * Totem (media player) — a media player. == Versions == ===Stable versions=== Each of the parts making up the GNOME project (see GNOME#Architecture) 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 Development stage#Stable/Unstable. Unstable releases for testers and developers are not listed, nor are bugfix releases for individual modules. {| border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3" |- !style="background: #efefef"|Version !style="background: #efefef"|Date !style="background: #efefef"|Information |- !align="center"| |August 1997 |GNOME development announced |- !align="center"|1.0 |March 1999 |First major GNOME release |- !align="center"|1.0.53 |October 1999 |"October" |- !align="center"|1.2 |May 2000 |"Bongo" |- !align="center"|1.4 |April 2001 |"Tranquility" |- !align="center"|2.0 |June 2002 |Major upgrade based on GTK2. Introduction of the Human Interface Guidelines |- !align="center"|2.2 |February 2003 |Multimedia and file manager improvements |- !align="center"|2.4 |September 2003 |Epiphany (web browser), accessibility support |- !align="center"|2.6 |March 2004 |Switch to a spatial file manager, new file dialog |- !align="center"|2.8 |September 2004 |Improved removable device support, adds Novell Evolution |- !align="center"|2.10 |March 2005 |General optimizations, new applets (drive mounter and trashcan), adds Totem_Media_Player and Sound_Juicer |} ===CVS version=== Most operating system installations include only stable and tested versions of the GNOME desktop. Developers interested in testing, fixing bugs or adding new features use the latest Concurrent Versions System version of GNOME (note: development code is not recommended for general use as such as it contains many untested modifications and experimental changes). The process of downloading the source code, compiling and installing the entire GNOME desktop manually is a laborious and time-consuming process, and a number of build-Scripting programming languages (such as "jhbuild") are used to automate it. == See also == * GnomeFiles - a software repository * Linux Documentation Project * Wikibooks:Using GNOME — a wikibook == External links == === Official sites === * [http://www.gnome.org/ Official GNOME website] * [http://www.gnome.org/learn/ Learn how to use GNOME] * [http://foundation.gnome.org The GNOME Foundation] * [http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gdp/ The GNOME Documentation Project] * [http://live.gnome.org/ Wiki for GNOME developers] * [http://gnomesupport.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page Official GNOME Wiki for users] * [http://planet.gnome.org/ Blogs of the GNOME developers] ===GNOME versions=== * Release announcements for versions [http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/1999-October/msg00020.html 1.0.53], [http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2000-May/msg00062.html 1.2], [http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2001-April/msg00005.html 1.4], [http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2005-March/msg00049.html 2.10] * Start pages for versions [http://www.gnome.org/start/2.0/ 2.0], [http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2/ 2.2], [http://www.gnome.org/start/2.4/ 2.4], [http://www.gnome.org/start/2.6/ 2.6], [http://www.gnome.org/start/2.8/ 2.8], [http://www.gnome.org/start/2.10/ 2.10] === Third-party sites === * [http://www.gnomefiles.com GnomeFiles — GNOME/GTK+ Software Repository] * [http://www.gnome-look.org/ GNOME-Look.org Artwork for GNOME] * [http://www.gnomedesktop.org/ A GNOME news site] * [http://www.gnomejournal.org/ GNOME Journal] — an online magazine devoted to the GNOME Desktop * [http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/gnome-history.html The Story of the GNOME project] written by Miguel de Icaza Desktop environments GNU project software GNOME X Window System simple:GNOME

GNOME

== Non-NPOV w/r/t KDE? == KDE bashing? I'll see if anyone posts comments on it first, but I don't really see the need for the large paragraph which basically seems to insult KDE. If there were a whole bunch of contraversies regarding the licenceing of KDE, surely they should live on the KDE page? I'd perfer to just shorten this to a sentance saying GNOME was started as KDE was based on QT, which at the time was not under the GPL. --User:Mrjeff :The license issue is very controversial -- it took quite a few revisions to arrive at the current one. It explains that there was once a serious problem with the licensing of Qt... most of which was fixed with the dual licensing, but for many people there are still issues to do with the full GPL being used. Quite where you see an insult is a bit of a mystery. Removing it, or leaving out that there are still issues, is not an option as far as I'm concerned. --User:Motor 00:08, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC) :: I should also add that it is on the GNOME page because it was the main reason the GNOME project was started and the main reason why the desktop schism still exists. --User:Motor 00:12, 31 Aug 2004 (UTC) :::What were these "alleged violations" of the GPL? Was there "considerable disagreement" of licencing it under the GPL, at least any more than there is considerable disagreement about almost every program's licence including the kernel, GNOME, gcc, apache, php, etc. I've heard complaints about GNOME being under the LGPL (people who think it should be BSDed). Again, I think that this should just be reduced to "controversy", and the actual problems moved to the KDE page. I feel that the wording was written by a pro-GNOME person, and is written in an anti-KDE way. --User:Mrjeff 15:51, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC) ::::Originally, the QT license was was most certainly unacceptable, and several pieces of software were ported to KDE effectively violating the GPL, this was before it was dual-licensed... this is all documented. [http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-09-05-001-21-OP-LF-KE] As stated in the article, most licensing issues were sorted out when Qt was dual licensed, but this is still controversial for some people (and companies). As for whether it was written by a Pro-GNOME person, I take offense at that -- since I wrote it. I originally wrote "mostly resolved" in respect of the license issues (you can check this in the history) because I didn't want to get involved in license fights and arguing with KDE supporters, but some people seemed determined to remove even the "mostly" and airbrush the issue completely. So, I felt it appropriate to address the issue in more detail -- hence I expanded it to include the resolution and continuing issues with the full GPL. I'm still unsure what's anti-KDE about a statement regarding the origins of QT (which are well-documented), and the full GPL issue, and it most certainly does belong in a section covering the origins of GNOME since it is the single biggest reason for its existence and the main reason which keeps the desktops apart. --User:Motor 19:22, 20 Sep 2004 (UTC) ==GNOME vs KDE== Personally, while we're on the Gnome vs kde thing, could we also include maybe a discussion of their technical merits? --User:marudubshinki 01:59, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC) :We weren't "on the GNOME vs KDE thing". The last thing this article needs is a GNOME vs KDE discussion of technical merits -- not only would such a thing be trollbait, it would add nothing and really has no place. --User:Motor 09:22, 2005 Apr 17 (UTC) ::Detailing how the two main desktops stack up 'adds nothing'?? Are you serious? Discussing the merits of the twain- as long as it is NPOV- is definitely something that should be included. And just because it is trollbait, I suppose that means it should be shunned and removed- hey, while we're at it, lets take down the Adolf Hitler article as well! --User:Marudubshinki 16:04, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC) :::It adds up to nothing that this wikipedia article can use. ''"Discussing the merits of the twain- as long as it is NPOV- is definitely something that should be included."'' No it's not. I'll repeat myself (see KDE talk) if you want to write a review/comparison of the two desktops... do it somewhere else. This is an article about GNOME, it's not a review, it's not a "please do/don't use GNOME" article, and it's not a howto (and obviously the same applies to the KDE article). As for the "trollbait"... if you want to take it out of context, fine, but what I said was: "add nothing to the article and be trollbait". So let's forget about your spurious Hitler reference, and besides I can't find any "Hitler vs Stalin, who was the biggest mass murdering dictator" section on his wikipedia article. Controversy is fine if it adds something. Controversy just for the sake of it is a pointless waste of time. And BTW: you've approached this from the beginning as a confrontation between GNOME/KDE using words like "biggest competitor" (but actually if you want to be exact GNOME's biggest competitor is Windows). It's not and, again as I said before, this isn't slashdot it's wikipedia. There are lots of desktops for Unix-like systems. KDE is only mentioned in this article in respect to the origins of GNOME. Some people have started pages such as Comparison of email clients, but you'll notice that those compare *many* clients and limit themselves to describing specific functionality in a table (virtually impossible with huge projects such as KDE and GNOME). Addition: I should also add that if you get the idea of creating a page just to compare KDE and GNOME I will put it up for speedy deletion. if you want to create a page comparing the various desktop environments in the same style as Comparison of web browsers or Comparison of Linux distributions, that's up to you. --User:Motor 18:01, 2005 Apr 17 (UTC) ::::Merely being of too narrow a focus (in your opinion) is not a criterion for speedy deletion. --User:Deh 19:57, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC) :::::No, but being a blatant trolling attempt is -- and that's what someone creating such an article would be doing. In addition: Are you also going to accept the hundreds of combinations of pointless GNOME/KDE/XFCE/xxx vs desktop-of-choice articles too? How about the app categories and distros that currently have one "comparison of" article. Why not break those out too: Evolution vs Kmail, KMail vs Sylpheed, Sylpheed vs Mutt... or how about Galeon vs Firefox, Galeon vs Internet Explorer, Galeon vs KMelon... or maybe Red Hat verus Gentoo, Gentoo versus Debian... and so on. All with their own separate pointless articles. So yes, I'll put such an article up for speedy deletion, and if that's rejected put it up for a vote. --User:Motor 20:37, 2005 Apr 17 (UTC) ::::::Some of those aren't bad ideas; but given that Gnome and kde are in basically the same ecological niche (ie kde isn't competing with fluxbox; gnome isn't competing with Icewm.) a comparison is valid, just as a page comparing the three competitors for 'general-purpose OS' with Mac, Linux and Windows is a valid article. Some of your suggestions are flawed- Galeon doesn't have anywhere near enough marketshare to be really competing with anyone. That article would be more properly IE vs Firefox (and maybe opera as well). Ditto for those distros: are they in the same niche? Is Red hat trying to win over Gentoo's users and vice versa? Are they designed to fulfill the same needs? Is it an invalid comparison, a comparison of Red Hat vs Gentoo, like SuSe vs Damn Small Linux vs Linux From Scratch would be? I'd say yes, and I think most voters would agree. (Just a side note: I don't think a Hitler vs Stalin article would be too controversial- last I heard Stalin had beat Hitler by several millions, and that's a pretty objective metric anyways, unlike most controversies.) If anyone else should like to weigh in on whether such a section would be *useful* and *informative*, I'd appreciate it. --User:Marudubshinki 21:09, 17 Apr 2005 (UTC) ::::::: Who mentioned comparing window managers and desktop environments? No-one suggested comparing icewm or fluxbox. You'll notice that I specifically use the words "desktop environments". KDE and GNOME are in the same ecological niche as Windows, Mac OSX, XFCE, GNUStep etc etc... but so what? An article just to compare KDE and GNOME is not valid and a waste of time. Galeon was merely an example -- and who are you to say that it has too small a "marketshare"? Compared to what? Compared to Windows, both KDE and GNOME are mere blips. As I pointed out before, looking at your posts here and in the KDE talk you are approaching this as some kind of battle between KDE and GNOME ''"I mean, that's one of the major disputes these days isn't it?"'', which makes me extremely suspicious of your motives. And again, your initial justification was that KDE was GNOME's "biggest competitor", and it is not... Windows is. When I listed the potential "X vs Y" articles it wasn't to set up an opportunity to nitpick, it was to demonstrate that there is a ridiculous number of combinations of pointless articles that are already covered in "Comparison of X". As I said, if you want to start a Comparison of desktop environments article in which you have a table of features marking out the difference between GNOME/KDE/XFCE/GNUSTEP/Windows/Mac, go for it (but even that's a waste of time, IMO). But if you add a comparison to KDE section to this article I'll revert it, and if you start a "comparison of KDE and GNOME" article I'll put it up for deletion, or probably move it to a more general Comparison of desktop environments. Again, you started this in the KDE talk page by claiming that you wanted help "making a decision about using KDE or GNOME". You're in the wrong place for that. Find a site that does reviews or has Q&A forums where you can ask for opinions. --User:Motor 21:49, 2005 Apr 17 (UTC) ==Article improvements== There are many things that (unlike a GNOME vs KDE section) this article really could use: *Some new screenshots! *~~More details on how freedesktop relates to GNOME.~~ --User:Motor 22:19, 2005 May 4 (UTC) *~~More on the role of the GNOME foundation -- it's not a technical decision board, for example.~~ --User:Motor 13:52, 2005 Apr 21 (UTC) *Some mentions of prominent GNOME developers perhaps. *The relationship between GNOME and GTK. How some development code was created in GNOME and eventually got pushed down into GTK, for example. *How GNOME is developed. An explanation of the GNOME development releases... ~~a mention of things like jhbuild~~. More on language bindings -- does GNOME still have a language bindings release which coordinates the bindings for all the different bindings? I remember reading that GNOME did two releases "development platform" and "GNOME desktop"... true?... still? The release process: how code gets frozen upwards from GTK. *A section on developing software that uses the GNOME facilities. *There are technical documents on the GNOME developer site covering the architecture of GNOME (dependencies and such). Lots of material could be incorporated into a technical section. *A future development section (DBUS; the discussions of moving some kind of virtual machine into GNOME; how things like cairo will affect GNOME; and far-off things like GNOME Storage). There's a GNOME developer wiki full of discussions of where GNOME will go in 3.0... how it will make other users top level objects on the desktop turning GNOME into a more social interface... etc. --User:Motor 09:19, 2005 Apr 18 (UTC) ===New Screenshots=== *There actually already exists some newer screenshots of GNOME on wikipedia: :Debian : :Fedora Core: : : :Gnoppix : :Java Desktop System : :Morphix : :Red Hat Enterprise Linux : :Solaris 10 : :Ubuntu 5.04: : :Maybe it would be a good idea to use some of these existing screenshots, as it would also be a good and natural way to link to some distributions that ship GNOME. Any suggestions on which screenshots to include? - User:Kesla 00:29, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC) ::Essentially, the thinking behind the two (badly out of date screenshots) was: One screenshot should be clean (no fancy fonts or splashy desktop wallpaper), simple, attractive and have certain apps open... browser, images, and maybe a word processor/spreadsheet)... all arranged in a reasonably attractive fashion. The second screenshot would demonstrate the internationalisation stuff. The current ones came from the official GNOME site, sometime around 2.2 (I think... it was quite a while back). I wouldn't go overboard on the number of screenshots myself... two is enough. As for linking to distributions -- it'd be better to stick with distro neutral screenshots and leave the, for example, fedora screenshot on the fedora page. On suggestion: It might be worth a look on [http://art.gnome.org art.gnome.org] or even asking on their forums for candidates shots to demonstrate the internationalisation and general features. User:Motor 01:11, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC) == Gnome popularity == Quoting from GNOME desktop: "...and many users of GNU/Linux systems favor the GNOME desktop" Is this neutral? or true? --Anonymous :Quite true. However, if, instead of using "many" the word was "a majority", that would be rather more difficult to support seeing that KDE also has a large following, and many people use KDE exclusively (or parts of both GNOME and KDE at the same time). --:Robert Merkel == Eye candy == Has anyone got a really good screenshot for this article? One with nice looking fonts (not weird cursive ones), a good desktop wallpaper and some great looking apps running -- something clean and business-like, but attractive. The one I got the GNOME site is ok, but I'm sure there are better. --User:Motor 12:23, 14 Sep 2003 (UTC) :Hmmm... apparently not. So, does anyone have views on the 2.6 [http://fgo-temp.acc.umu.se/pub/GNOME/teams/marketing/en/2004/two-six-screenshots/html/ screenshots]? Are any of those an improvement on the current English language one? --User:Motor 23:11, 31 Mar 2004 (UTC) ::It does need a new screenshot, but in the meantime, how about we at least label the existing screenshot with the date and/or version? The latest version of Gnome is 2.8, and that looks to me like 2.2 or so. The date says Friday 31 January -- the last 31-Jan on a Friday was 31 January 2003, or over 18 months ago. Gnome is currently doing releases every 6 months, so this is quite a bit out of date. ::It's not horrible to have a screenshot of an older version of Gnome, but we should say it's an older version, so people don't get the wrong idea. --Anonymous :::Agreed. If anyone reading can find a couple of good screen shots (one English, clean and attractive looking; and one in an obviously foreign language one) that'd be great. --User:Motor 10:32, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Xscreensaver's Gnome-ness == Removed Xscreensaver because it isn't part of the architecture. It's an application... and not a GNOME one. --User:Motor 11:15, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC) :I disagree. The [http://www.gnome.org/learn/admin-guide/latest/ch06.html manual] says: "The screensaver application for the GNOME Desktop is XScreenSaver". If by "not a GNOME one" you mean it wasn't written by or for Gnome, then we should take GStreamer out, too -- it was designed to be a general-purpose multimedia framework, and the 'G' does *not* stand for Gnome, IIRC. (I would be OK with moving it to the "applications" section. I think it's more Architecture than Applications, but I think it's more important that it gets credit.) --Anonymous ::I think you're blurring the line (and I admit it already is pretty blurry) between apps and archicture too much. XScreensaver isn't even nominally a GNOME app (as far as I'm aware) -- it's just one that's thrown in there to do a job some people think is needed. GStreamer isn't an app it's a set of libraries that provide media services to the desktop. Adding XScreensaver (even to the apps sections) seems a bit like adding emacs to me. --User:Motor 10:32, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) As a follow-up: Does Metacity belong in the arch section? I suppose it serves an essential purpose. --User:Motor 11:22, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC) :Sure, why not? It's one of the things upon which Gnome is built. (It runs its own process, but GConf does, too. Neither is an "application", to people using Gnome.) ::While we're at it, how about adding Mozilla/Gecko to the Architecture list, since Epiphany (the default browser) uses it? And maybe even freedesktop.org? --Anonymous :::I agree. Do you want to do it? BTW: you might want to sign in an get a username if you're going to be editing. It'll also let you sign and date your talk posts by using four tilde (~) characters in a row. Cheers. --User:Motor 10:32, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC) == Split == Should the split in Gnome be mentioned? I saw something about it on slashdot. --User_Talk:Watsonladd :The new project is goneME. --Anonymous ::It was mentioned... but the project went nowhere and is dead as far as I'm aware. So I removed it. --User:Motor 00:12, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC) == HIG == :"Since version 2.0 (since 2002) GNOME development and design follows a Human-Interface-Guidline (HIG), which is actively supported by Sun Microsystems. The release cycle for major updates takes about 6 months. GNOME tries to satisfy users who expect an intuitive interface and also demand flexibilty." I've put the introduction of the HIG info into the version table rather than the article text. The six month cycle is already mentioned under Versions, and the last sentence seems a bit redundant. --User:Motor 16:15, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC) ==Spelling - copied from my (Motor) talk page== Oh, and incidentally, the Wikipedia guidelines for American vs British English say to use whichever is either most predominant in Wikipedia, or what applies best to the article or what the article is written in, in order of ascending priority. Wikipedia is largely in American English, Gnome is an American project, and reading through the article, the only thing that I can find that is British English and not American, is precisely the word we are quarrelling over. So I think I can safely say it should be 'organization', not 'organisation'. But I don't want a revert war, so I'm gonna drop it until I hear from you. 'Course, we could always go to arbitration... --User:Marudubshinki 15:44, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC) :First of all... I notice you have now modified your original bold and incorrect assertion that "American English" is the standard on Wikipedia. Second... GNOME is not largely an American project, that is simply incorrect. It is an international project. The fact that a number of contributors are American does not to justify unnecessary spelling edits. Third, I wrote most of the article, and I can assure that it is "British" English with a few exceptions where other people written something and I didn't "correct" it (naturally), or where I simply preferred the "American" spelling when writing it. Fourth, when I edit I try to fit in with the style of a pre-existing article. I would also revert the edits of anyone who started converting an "American" spelling article into a "British" spelling one while adding nothing of substance. I do not edit the writing of others to fit my style or spelling, and I have no intention of allowing you to start changing the spelling of an article just to suit your personal preferences -- and I think you'll find that any arbitration will agree with me on this since it is the only workable policy in articles that are not *definitely* British or American or anything else. Certainly considering that your contributions to the article are minimal. Addition: In fact, a quick check of the page history shows no contributions whatsoever -- apart from the spelling revert and its snide edit summary (along with a worse violation of wikipedia guidelines on the KDE article). Your only contributions (to the GNOME/KDE articles) appear to be posting to the talk pages of both the KDE and GNOME articles attempting to get some kind of GNOME vs KDE thing going, for whatever reason. However, arbitration is not something I've had to do before, so it might be interesting. I won't initiate it though, because as I said, it's a waste of someone's time and energy (esp. in a case like this). Still, if you absolutely insist on forcing the issue in the face of all common sense and considering your behaviour so far... go ahead. :On the other hand, if you decide you would rather do something constructive to the GNOME article, I made a few suggestions on the talk page. I would welcome the help, since (as I said) I wrote most of the article and have felt for a long time that it needs more detail and more voices in order to become a better article. You can see evidence of this in the talk page. --User:Motor 16:56, 2005 Apr 20 (UTC) ==Future developments== I've included a first draft of a future developments section. I originally wrote a bit about some of the options for high-level languages... and then removed it because it's a very complex issue and I wasn't sure it was all that relevant, plus it's extremely difficult to avoid bias without long digressions into subjects that have nothing to do with GNOME. I'll include an early version here. It was originally meant to follow on from: "This would increase the minimum specification of machine able to run the latest GNOME desktop." :''In addition there are intellectual property issues surrounding C# and Java. Using C# would require the inclusion of Mono — a controversial project which, although it uses a free software license, is viewed with suspicion by some in the free softare community because of its origins as a reimplementation of Microsoft's .NET languages and frameworks. The use of Java has similar concerns. Python, while it is free software, lacks the industry support of either C# and Java.'' Suggestions welcome. --User:Motor 17:01, 2005 May 7 (UTC) :A question: I understand the bit about IP and licensing issues, but why exactly does using a higher level language create such technical problems? I mean, Gnome will still be compiled into bytecode for most distributions and users, (save source-based distros like Gentoo) and I think Gnome programs adhere to standards for intercommunication so that wouldn't be a problem... As far as I can tell, switching to a higher language simply means more system requirements for rolling your own Gnome, which for, I do not hesitate to say, the vast majority of users is irrelevant. So does it merit so much space? --User:Marudubshinki 22:51, 8 May 2005 (UTC) ::Using either Python, C# or Java for GNOME applications needs a virtual machine to be present on the end-users computer (and the class libraries)... which is fine if you choose to run a GNOME app written in one of those languages and install the stuff yourself. The discussion is really over whether GNOME should "bless" one virtual machine (and its associated libraries) as official, install it with GNOME and use it within the desktop itself. That really would increase the minimum requirements for a machine to run the base GNOME desktop (mem, CPU and disk space). As for how much space... the possiblity of moving to using an HLL within GNOME is a big discussion point at the moment and will have a large impact on GNOME in future. So IMO it does deserve to be in the future development section. --User:Motor 01:35, 2005 May 9 (UTC) :::Hmm. I still fail to understand: aren't most programs provided compiled (with of course, source in addition to comply with the GPL; it is fairly rare I need to fire up GCC and Make for a new program- or so my experience goes. YMMV.)? I didn't think one needed an interpreter or virtual machine for compiled byte-code. --User:Marudubshinki 01:43, 9 May 2005 (UTC) ::::Take Java for example: You can sit at a workstation running Linux on an athlon-based PC and "compile" a Java ".jar" file that will then run on a Solaris workstation with a SPARC microprocessor. It works (at least in theory) because when you "compile" your Java app, you convert the source code into a bytecode for an imaginary computer architecture called a JVM, rather than actual instructions for the specific microprocessor you are running (and a set of class libraries to cover up the differences between platforms). See Just-in-time compilation for a description of the process. Essentially, the code isn't converted into actual specific instructions for the microprocessor in your computer until you run it by starting a JVM and pointing it at the .jar file. So an end-user is actually compiling the bytecode into a program that runs on their machine... they just don't see that step. The whole interpreter/compilation thing gets a little more complicated when you bring in gcj... but essentially, to run Java apps you need a JVM. ::::The process is basically the same for C# (and any Microsoft .Net language) and Python. It gets still more complicated when you realise that the language isn't necessarily restricted to one VM. For example IKVM can convert Java bytecode to .Net code, which is then run on the Mono VM. See also IronPython or Jython. --User:Motor 09:09, 2005 May 9 (UTC) :::::Ah- I understand now. --User:Marudubshinki 19:59, 9 May 2005 (UTC) ==Free/Non-free== I'm not too happy about just throwing around words like free and non-free. It's too confusing for casual readers (something anyone who ever mentions free software to others will know all about). Has anyone got a more descriptive and less confusing way of putting it? One more thing was it just members of the GNU project who got the ideas for Harmony/GNOME? User:Motor 20:14, 2005 May 14 (UTC)

GNOME

GNOME is a computer desktop environment for Unix and UNIX-like operating systems. It is the official desktop of the GNU. This category contains articles related to GNOME. GNU project software Desktop environments

Gnome

: ''This article is about the mythical creatures. For alternate meanings see Gnome (disambiguation).'' A gnome is a myth creature characterized by small stature and living underground. According to Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the elemental spirits of the classical element of earth. He wrote that they move as easily through the earth as humans walk upon the ground. The sun's rays turn them into stone. In other traditions, they are simply small, mischievous Sprite (fantasy)s or goblins. Some sources say they spend the day as a toad instead of as inanimate stone. Often featured in Germanic fairy tales, including those by the Brothers Grimm, the gnome is usually a creature living deep underground and guarding buried treasure, resembling a small gnarled old man (accordingly Swiss banking are sometimes disparagingly referred to as the Gnomes of Zurich). Gnomes feature in the legends of many of central, northern and eastern European lands under differing names: a ''kaukis'' is a Prussia gnome, and ''barbegazi'' are gnome-like creatures with big feet from the traditions of France and Switzerland. In Iceland, gnomes (''v�ttir'') are so respected that roads are re-routed around areas thought to be inhabited by them. Further east, ''tengu'' are sometimes referred to as winged gnomes. Individual gnomes are not very often detailed or featured as characters in stories, but in Germanic folklore, Rubezahl, lord over the underworld, was sometimes referred to as a mountain gnome. Also, according to some traditions, the gnome king is called Gob. Rudolf Steiner, and other theosophists before him, lectured at length about gnomes, and especially their supportive role in the development of plant life (and biodynamic agriculture). Rupert Sheldrake has written a good deal about morphogenic fields, which Terry Pratchett used in his depictions of gnomes to explain their existence. The word "gnome" is said to derive from the New Latin ''gnomus'' and ultimately from the Greek language gnosis, meaning knowledge. According to myth, gnomes hoarded secret knowledge just as they hoarded treasure. ==Garden gnomes== The first ''garden gnomes'' were introduced to the United Kingdom in 1847 by Sir Charles Isham, when he brought 21 terracotta figures back from a trip to Germany and placed them around the gardens of his home, Lamport Hall in Northamptonshire. Only one of the original batch of gnomes survives: ''Lampy'' as he is known, is on display at Lamport Hall, and is insured for one million Pound Sterling. Garden gnomes have become a popular lawn ornament in many gardens, although they are not loved by all. They can be the target of pranks: people have been known to "return to the wild" these garden gnomes, most notably France ''"Front de Liberation des Nains de Jardins"'' and Italy's ''"MALAG"'' (Garden Gnome Liberation Front). Some kidnapped garden gnomes have been sent on trips around the world, being passed from person to person and photographed at different famous landmarks, with the photos being returned to the owner; this practice is featured in the 2001 French film, ''Am�lie''. Non-conventional gnome statues have also been made, such as a indecent exposure gnome in a raincoat, or a gnome couple having sexual intercourse. A sub-culture exists among those who collect garden gnomes. This phenomenon is frequently lampooned in popular culture. ==Gnomes in literature== *The Nome King (spelled without the silent "G") and his gnome subjects nearly transformed Dorothy Gale and her friends into bric-a-brac in ''Ozma of Oz'', the third book in Frank Baum's ''Wizard of Oz'' series. The character appeared several times in later books in the series. *''The Gnome Mobile'' was a Disney movie. *J. R. R. Tolkien used the english word ''gnomes'' in his early work "The Book of Lost Tales" for a fictional people later called High Elf. He dropped the term in his published works, since he found the gnomes of folklore to be so unlike his High Elves as to confuse his readers. *Gnomes (Discworld) feature in Terry Pratchett ''Discworld'' novels, where they are also called goblins. The Nac Mac Feegle are sometimes considered an ethnic subgroup of gnomes. *Terry Pratchett has also written a trilogy called ''The Bromeliad'' in which a race of "nomes" explore the world beyond their home, and keep discovering it's bigger than they thought. *The Shannara novels by Terry Brooks include the savage Spider Gnomes and the kindly Healer Gnomes. *Gnomes are featured in many books set in various ''Dungeons & Dragons'' worlds (wherein their primary deity is Garl Glittergold), most notably the mechanically minded Tinker Gnomes of the ''Dragonlance'' setting, and the 'Forgotten Folk' of the ''Forgotten Realms'' setting that includes the overground Rock Gnomes, Forest Gnomes, and evil spriggans, as well as the svirfneblin (Deep Gnomes) of the Underdark. *In David Brin's novel ''Earth'', a major nuclear war is described in which many nations attack Switzerland in an effort to reclaim money from the "gnomes" (bankers), money that has been illegally smuggled out of ailing developing nations and hidden in numbered Swiss bank accounts. *The British children's comic ''The Beano'' featured a character called Gordon Gnome, who was a garden gnome living next to a pond. An animated series is under production for the BBC which will air in 2005. [http://www.toonhound.com/july2002.htm#gnome] *''Gnomes'' and ''Secrets of the Gnomes'' by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet are illustrated guidebooks to the fictional creatures, and resulted in a spin-off animated series ''David the Gnome'' *In some computer games, including Everquest, Horizons: Empire of Istaria, and World of Warcraft, Gnomes are a short race of humanoids closely related to Dwarves, and are exceptionally adept at tinkering and mechanics. Oftentimes this results in they and their allies having technologies not normally in fantasy settings, such as firearms or robot-like beings. *Dave Duncan has gnomes in his ''A Handful of Men'' tetralogy, where they are depicted as filth-eating tunnel-grubbers, somewhat like Dragonlance's gully dwarves. ==See also== * Dwarf * Kallikantzaroi * Leprechaun * Sprite (fantasy) * Tomte * Troll * Vetter Legendary creatures Dungeons & Dragons creatures Forgotten Realms races

Gnome

How do Gnomes differ from Dwarfs?

See other meanings of words starting from letter:

G

GA | GB | GC | GD | GE | GF | GH | GI | GJ | GK | GL | GM | GN | GO | GP | GR | GS | GT | GU | GW | GX | GY | GZ |

Words begining with Gnome:

GNOME
GNOME
GNOME
Gnome
Gnome
GNOME-DB
Gnome-Rhone
GNOME-stub
GNOME.jpeg
GnomeBaker
Gnomedex
GnomeFiles
Gnomefish
GnomeMeeting
Gnomemeeting
Gnomeregan
Gnomes
GnomeSword
Gnomes_(Discworld)
Gnomes_of_Zurich
Gnome_(disambiguation)
Gnome_(Warcraft)
Gnome_Basic
Gnome_Basic
GNOME_desktop
GNOME_desktop
Gnome_desktop
GNOME_Display_Manager
Gnome_Engine_Company
Gnome_et_Rh�ne
Gnome_et_Rh�ne
GNOME_Foundation
GNOME_Hispano
Gnome_Monosoupape
Gnome_Monosoupape
Gn�me_Monosoupape
GNOME_Office
GNOME_Office
GNOME_office
Gnome_Office
Gnome_office
Gnome_office
Gnome_sort
Gnome_Speech
GNOME_Storage
GNOME_stubs
GNOME_System_Tools
Gnome_System_Tools
GNOME_VFS
GNOME_Virtual_File_System