GNOME
GNOME, which stands for GNU Network Object Model Environment, is a graphical user interface and desktop environment based on the GTK+ toolkit. It was originally developed for GNU/Linux systems, but is available on other UNIX type systems. In particular, Sun Microsystems has chosen it to replace CDE as the standard desktop for Solaris. The GNOME project aims to make GNU-based and other UNIX systems easier to use for non-technical users.
The project started due to free software licensing problems with Trolltech's C++ toolkit, Qt, the underlying toolkit for KDE (a slightly older, comparable desktop environment) during KDE's early history. After the licensing issues had been resolved, the GNOME desktop still proved to have many merits of its own (such as compatibility with more programming languages and software licenses), and thus continued to be used and developed by many people.
Popular applications that run natively under the GNOME desktop include the GIMP, the Nautilus file manager, Gnumeric, AbiWord, GnuCash, the Galeon web browser, Ximian Evolution, the Pan newsreader, dia and Gabber. These and other tools are collectively sometimes known as GNOME Office.
GNOME is an official graphical user interface of the GNU Project. GNUstep is another.
Architecture
Several vital technology pieces make up the advanced infrastructure of GNOME:
- GTK+ - Widget toolkit.
- Pango - Layout and rendering of internationalized text.
- ATK - Accessibility toolkit.
- Orbit - a CORBA ORB for software components.
- Bonobo - a compound document technology.
- GNOME VFS - a virtual filesystem.
- GConf - for storing application settings
See also
External links
