----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Korn" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "section 508 discussion list" <[log in to unmask]>;
<[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 8:58 PM
Subject: Fw: Gnome 2.0 Released!
Greetings,
Thank you David and Saqib for forwarding the announcement of the GNOME
2.0
Desktop and Developer Platform release to these two lists. This release
is a
very important milestone for accessibility. For the first time, an open
source graphical desktop has an open source accessibility architecture
built
into it - from the ground up. As the release says, many programmers
have
together put in many thousands of hours working on accessibility: on
keyboard
accessibility, the development of the accessibility architecture, and
the
implementation of that accessibility architecture on the user interface
components and applications that make up the GNOME 2.0 Desktop.
But it is important to note that this is a "Developer Platform release"
of
the GNOME 2.0 desktop - released yesterday from the GNOME community.
Commercial vendors such as Sun then take the community release and put
it
through its paces - testing and debugging it, working with the community
to
polish the tremendous work they have done and then deliver a supported
commercial release to their customers. If you are experienced with
the Netscape/Mozilla product/project, this will be very familiar ground
(and
in fact, Netscape has just made their first preview release of Netscape
Communicator 7 available, based on the community-release Mozilla 1.0).
It is probably best to view this major milestone from the GNOME
community as
the starting point for testing, debugging, and polishing of GNOME,
especially
for accessibility which is a large and new addition. We need to make
sure
that keyboard accessibility truly works everywhere, as intended. We
need to
exercize the accessibility architecture and implementation, and ensure
that the architecture is implemented appropriately across the GNOME
desktop
GNOME applications.
As commercial vendors like Sun move closer to releasing their polished
editions of the GNOME 2 desktop for their customers, there will be a
series
of "micro releases" - GNOME 2.0.1, 2.0.2, etc., in which this work will
be
incorporated into the community releases of GNOME 2. As potential
members of
this community, I would encourage all of you to look at this GNOME 2.0
release as the starting point for you to join in on the testing and
polishing
effort, so that we may all enjoy a rich, high quality, accessible
graphical
desktop environment!
Regards,
Peter Korn
Sun Accessibility team
----------------------------------
David Poehlman wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Saqib Shaikh" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, June 27, 2002 8:20 AM
> Subject: Gnome 2.0 Released!
>
> 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.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> [log in to unmask]
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
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