GNOME

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This article is about the desktop environment. For other uses, see Gnome (disambiguation).


GNOME (/(ɡ)noʊm/)[1][2] is a desktop environment for Unix-like[3] operating systems, composed entirely of free and open-source software.

GNOME was originally an acronym for GNU Network Object Model Environment, but the acronym was dropped because it no longer reflected the vision of the GNOME project.[4]

GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project, part of the GNU Project.[5] The GNOME Project is composed of both volunteers and paid contributors, the largest corporate contributor being Red Hat.[6][7] It is an international project that aims to develop software frameworks for the development of software, to program end-user applications based on these frameworks, and to coordinate efforts for internationalization and localization and accessibility of that software.

GNOME is the default desktop environment on many major Linux distributions including Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE Linux Enterprise (exclusively), Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Scientific Linux, SteamOS, Tails, Kali Linux, Antergos and Endless OS; it is also default on Solaris, a Unix operating system.

GNOME is available in two different sessions, one is based on GNOME Panel and Metacity (Window Manager), this is the default session provided by SUSE Linux Enterprise, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Scientific Linux and Solaris due to its stability and Desktop-friendly user experience, it is called GNOME Flashback or GNOME Classic, another one is based on GNOME Shell and Mutter (Window Manager), this session has a Mobile-friendly UI and UX and uses more RAM and CPU due to use of JavaScript for GNOME Shell and its extensions.

Design

Human Interface Guidelines

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Since GNOME 2, productivity has been a key focus for GNOME. To this end, the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) were created. All GNOME programs share a coherent style of graphical user interface (GUI) but are not limited to the employment of the same GUI widgets. Rather, the design of the GNOME GUI is guided by concepts described in the GNOME HIG, itself relying on insights from cognitive ergonomics.[8] Following the HIG, developers can create high-quality, consistent, and usable GUI programs, as it addresses everything from GUI design to recommended pixel-based layout of widgets.

During the GNOME 2 rewrite, many settings deemed of little value to the majority of users were removed. Havoc Pennington summarized the usability work in his 2002 essay "Free Software UI", emphasizing the idea that all preferences have a cost, and it is better to make software behave correctly by default than to add a UI preference to get the desired behavior:

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Accessibility

GNOME aims to make and keep the desktop environment physically and cognitively ergonomic for people with disabilities. The GNOME HIG tries to take this into account as far as possible but specific issues are solved by special software.

GNOME addresses computer accessibility issues by using the Accessibility Toolkit (ATK) application programming interface, which allows enhancing user experience by using special input methods and speech synthesis and speech recognition software. Particular utilities are registered with ATK using Assistive Technology Service Provider Interface (AT-SPI), and become globally used throughout the desktop. Several assistive technology providers, including Orca screen reader and Dasher input method, were developed specifically for use with GNOME.

Internationalization and Localization

The internationalization and localization of GNOME software relies on locales.

GNOME Shell

Template:Overlay GNOME Shell is the official user interface of the GNOME desktop environment. It features a top bar holding (from left to right) an Activities button, an application menu, a clock and an integrated system status menu.[9][10] The application menu displays the name of the application in focus and provides access to functions such as accessing the application's preferences, closing the application, or creating a new application window. The status menu holds various system status indicators, shortcuts to system settings, and session actions including logging out, switching users, locking the screen, and suspending the computer.

Clicking on the Activities button, moving the mouse to the top-left hot corner or pressing the Super key brings up the Overview.[11] The Overview gives users an overview of current activities and provides a way to switch between windows and workspaces and to launch applications. The Dash on the left houses shortcuts to favorite applications and open windows and an application picker button to show a list of all installed applications.[9] A search bar appears at the top and a workspace list for switching between workspaces is on the right. Notifications appear from the bottom of the screen.[12]

GNOME Classic

File:GNOME 3 classic mode.png
GNOME 3 Classic Mode

Beginning with GNOME 3.8, GNOME provides a Classic Mode using GNOME Panel for users who prefer a traditional desktop experience similar to GNOME 2.[13]

Wayland

Template:Main article GNOME runs on Wayland and the X Window System.[14] Wayland support was introduced in GNOME 3.10[10] and deemed “for the majority of users […] a usable day to day experience” by 3.20[15], at which point Wayland became the default user session.[16] GNOME 3.24 will extend Wayland compatibility to NVidia drivers.[17] With GNOME 3.30, it is possible to run GNOME without X.Org Server, only using Wayland.

systemd

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In May 2011 Lennart Poettering proposed systemd as a GNOME dependency.[18] As systemd is available only on Linux, the proposal led to a discussion of possibly dropping support for other platforms in future GNOME releases. Since GNOME 3.2 multiseat support has been only available on systems using systemd.[19] In November 2012 the GNOME release team concluded that systemd can be relied upon for non-basic functionality.[20]

Applications

Core Applications

Template:Main article There are a large number of GTK+ and Clutter-based programs written by various authors. Since the release of GNOME 3.0, The GNOME Project concentrates on developing a set of programs that accounts for the GNOME Core Applications.[21] The commonalities of the GNOME Core Applications are the adherence to the current GNOME HUD guidelines as well as the tight integration with underlying GNOME layers like e.g. GVfs and also with one another e.g. GOA (gnome-online-accounts)[22] settings and GNOME Files with Google Drive[23][24] and GNOME Photos with Google Photos. Some programs are simply renamed existing programs with a revamped user interface, while others have been written from scratch.

Games

Template:Main article GNOME Games have the look and feel of the GNOME Core Applications and are released simultaneously with GNOME. All have been rewritten conforming to the current GNOME Human Interface Guidelines.

Development tools

Programmers have written software to provide development tools consistent with the GNOME desktop and to facilitate the development of GNOME software:

GNOME Builder is the new integrated development environment, Anjuta is the older one. Glade Interface Designer software constructs graphical interfaces using the graphical control elements in GTK+. Devhelp is an API browser, Accerciser an accessibility explorer.

There are several debugging tools, including Nemiver, GtkInspector[25][26] and Alleyoop, have also been provided to facilitate development of GNOME software.

Integration options for third-party development tools (e.g. NoFlo) also exist.[27]

The libsoup library enables access HTTP servers from Gnome applications.[28]

BuildStream is a flexible and extensible framework for the modelling of build and CI pipelines in a declarative YAML format, written in Python.[29] It's mascot is a Beaver, 'cause beavers build things in a stream.

Development

GNOME is developed by The GNOME Project and provides the GNOME Desktop Environment, a graphical user interface and a set of core applications, and the GNOME Development Platform, a framework for building applications that integrate with the desktop.[30]

As with most free software projects, GNOME development is loosely managed. Discussion chiefly occurs on a number of public mailing lists.[31] GNOME developers and users gather at an annual GUADEC meeting to discuss the current state and the future direction of GNOME.[32] GNOME incorporates standards and programs from freedesktop.org to better interoperate with other desktops.

GNOME is mainly written in C, C++, Vala, Python and JavaScript.[33] A number of language bindings are available.

Release cycle

Each of the component software products in 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 an approximately six-month schedule, alongside its underlying libraries such as GTK+ and GLib. Some experimental projects are excluded from these releases.

GNOME version numbers follow the scheme v.xx.yy. Here, v is a major version, which can include large changes such as ABI breakage; these have no regular schedule and occur in response to requirements for large-scale changes. xx is a minor version, released on the above schedule of approximately every 6 months, in which the 1- or 2-digit number's parity indicates the type of release: if xx is even (e.g. 3.20) the release is considered stable, whereas if xx is odd it represents a current development snapshot (e.g. 3.21) that will eventually evolve into the next stable release. yy indicates a point release, e.g. 3.20.6; these are made on a frequency of weeks in order to fix issues, add non-breaking enhancements, etc.

GNOME releases are made to the main FTP server in the form of source code with configure scripts, which are compiled by operating system vendors and integrated with the rest of their systems before distribution. Most vendors use only stable and tested versions of GNOME, and provide it in the form of easily installed, pre-compiled packages. The source code of every stable and development version of GNOME is stored in the GNOME git source code repository. Interested users can always obtain a snapshot of the _master_ development branch or any other branch/tag and build a cutting-edge version for their own use.

A number of build-scripts (such as JHBuild or formerly GARNOME) are available to help automate the process of compiling the source code.

Template:Anchor Development platform

The GLib data structures and utilities library, GObject object and type system and GTK+ widget toolkit comprise the central part of GNOME development platform. This foundation is further extended with D-Bus IPC framework, Cairo 2D vector-based drawing library, Clutter accelerated graphics library, Pango international text rendering library, PulseAudio low-level audio API, GStreamer multimedia framework, and several specialized libraries including NetworkManager, PackageKit, Telepathy (instant messaging) and WebKit.[34]

  • GNOME Display Manager (GDM), which manages user sessions, X and Wayland alike.
  • Tracker automatically searches the specified directories for files and keeps an index of them to provide fast search; heavily integrated into GNOME Shell and GNOME Files
  • GVfs, an abstraction layer framework for file systems augmenting GIO; well integrated into GNOME Files and GNOME Disks
  • dconf a backend for GSettings
  • Mutter, the Wayland compositor and X Window Manager
  • Linux color management, udev, etc.
  • Evolution Data Server, responsible for managing mail, calendar, address book, tasks and memo information
  • Meson is replacing GNU Build System (autotools) as build automation tools of choice
  • BuildStream a distribution agnostic build and integration tool

The GNOME desktop environment does not consist solely of the graphical control element library GTK+ and the core applications that make use of it. There are quite a few additional software packages that make up the GNOME desktop environment, such as the above.

History

File:GNOME-escritorio-1.x.png
GNOME 1, 1999.

Template:See also GNOME was started on August 15[35] 1997 by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena[36] as a free software project to develop a desktop environment and applications for it.[37] It was founded in part because K Desktop Environment, which was growing in popularity, relied on the Qt widget toolkit which used a proprietary software license until version 2.0 (June 1999).[38][39] In place of Qt, the GTK+ toolkit was chosen as the base of GNOME. GTK+ uses the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a free software license that allows software linking to it to use a much wider set of licenses, including proprietary software licenses.[40] GNOME itself is licensed under the LGPL for its libraries, and the GNU General Public License (GPL) for its applications.[41]

The name "GNOME" was initially an acronym of GNU Network Object Model Environment, referring to the original intention of creating a distributed object framework similar to Microsoft's OLE,[42] but the acronym was eventually dropped because it no longer reflected the vision of the GNOME project.[4]

The California startup Eazel developed the Nautilus file manager from 1999 to 2001. De Icaza and Nat Friedman founded Helix Code (later Ximian) in 1999 in Massachusetts; this company developed GNOME's infrastructure and applications, and in 2003 was purchased by Novell.

Template:Anchor During the transition to GNOME 2 around the year 2001 and shortly thereafter there were brief talks about creating a GNOME Office suite.[43][44] On September 15, 2003 GNOME-Office 1.0, consisting of AbiWord 2.0, GNOME-DB 1.0 and Gnumeric 1.2.0 was released.[45][46][47] Although some release planning for GNOME Office 1.2 was happening on gnome-office mailing list,[48][49][50] and Gnumeric 1.4 was announced as a part of it,[51] the 1.2 release of the suite itself never materialized. Template:As of GNOME wiki only mentions "GNOME/Gtk applications that are useful in an office environment".[52]

GNOME 2

File:Gnome-screenshot-full.jpg
GNOME 2.0, June 2002.

GNOME 2 was very similar to a conventional desktop interface, featuring a simple desktop in which users could interact with virtual objects, such as windows, icons, and files. GNOME 2 started out with Sawfish, but later switched to Metacity as its default window manager. The handling of windows, applications, and files in GNOME 2 is similar to that of contemporary desktop operating systems. In the default configuration of GNOME 2, the desktop has a launcher menu for quick access to installed programs and file locations; open windows may be accessed by a taskbar 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. However, these features can be moved to almost any position or orientation the user desires, replaced with other functions or removed altogether.

As of 2009, GNOME 2 was the default desktop for OpenSolaris.[53]

GNOME 3

File:GNOME Shell - Applications menu (v3.22).png
GNOME Shell offers a new paradigm for launching applications and organizing open windows and virtual desktops, a paradigm which is more mobile-friendly in contrast to GNOME-panel that provides a desktop-friendly paradigm.

GNOME 1 & 2 followed the traditional desktop metaphor. GNOME 3, released in 2011, changed this with GNOME Shell, a more abstract metaphor where switching between different tasks and virtual desktops takes place in a separate area called Overview. Also, since Mutter replaced Metacity as the default window manager, the minimize and maximize buttons no longer appear by default, and the title bar, menu bar and tool bar combinated in one horizontal bar called "header bar" via Client-Side Decoration mechanism. Adwaita replaced Clearlooks as the default theme.[54] Many GNOME Core Applications also went through redesigns to provide a more consistent user experience.

File:GThumb v3.4--Edit mode.png
By using Client-Side Decoration (CSD) and modern principles of designing User Interface (UI), GNOME provide an efficient, easy-to-use, and high quality User Experience (UX) on both desktop and tablet systems.

These major changes initially evoked widespread criticism. The MATE desktop environment was forked from the GNOME 2 codebase with the intent of retaining the traditional GNOME 2 interface while keeping it compatible with modern Linux technology, such as GTK+ 3. The Linux Mint team addressed the issue in another way by developing the "Mint GNOME Shell Extensions" that ran on top of GNOME 3 and allowed it to be used via the traditional desktop metaphor. This eventually led to the creation of the Cinnamon user interface, which was forked from the GNOME 3 codebase.

In 2005, on the official GNOME developmental mailing lists, Linus Torvalds encouraged users to switch to KDE 3 rather than use GNOME.[55][56] In 2009, he tried GNOME again[57] but, dissatisfied with his perceived loss of productivity, he switched to Xfce, making another harsh post against GNOME.[58] In 2013, he went back to GNOME 3 stating that it "has been getting less painful" and "things are better than a year ago".[59][60]

As of 2015, critical reception has been much more positive.[61] For example, Debian, a Linux distribution that had historically used GNOME 2, switched to Xfce when GNOME 3 was released but readopted GNOME 3 in time for the release of Debian 8 "Jessie".[61][62]

GNOME Shell is the default interface for Ubuntu since version 17.10, replacing Unity.[63][64]

Gallery

GNOME 3 has modern approach in User Interface Design and naming applications:

Releases

See also

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References

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External links

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Template:GNOME Template:Desktop environments and window managers for X11 and Wayland Template:GNU

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