Chapter 6: What's this Gnome Thing?

What does Gnome mean?
Gnome is an acronym for GNU Network Object Model Environment,
But you didn't really want to know that....

So What is Gnome then?
Here's what the Gnome Foundation say about GNOME at the GNOME Website:
GNOME is a [free] Unix and Linux desktop suite and development platform.
Gnome started life in August 1997, and was brought to life, as most things Linux, through lots of contributors via newsgroups. Both KDE and Gnome have developed into wonderfully mature GUIs in this short period of time.
Tux says: Gnome is pronounced Guh-nome (no silent G)



Ubuntu 5.10 ships with GNOME 2.12 as it's default desktop interface


Gnome in 1999, using GTK+ Version 1

What are the strong points about Gnome?


It is a fully featured Graphical User Interface, which includes a Window Manager Gnome provides a very straightforward interface, which is powerful, yet straightforward. What it may lack in features compared to KDE, it makes up for in usability. The file manager for Gnome, Nautilus (which although still buggy is incredibly feature packed and is really cool!) Gnome is highly customizable and themeable. Unlike KDE, if you wish, you may change te default Window Manager, so that GNOME handles windows in a way you prefer. Typical Window managers could be Fvwm, Enlightenment, OpenBox amongst others. It has thousands of open source applications, games and utilities available.

Gnome 2.6 Today: With GTK+ 2




See an alternative to the GNOME Desktop in the next chapter..