Gnome is Celebrating it’s 20th Birthday
More than 33 releases since the first release of Gnome.
Gnome was started by Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena Quintero on August 15, 1997. The primary goal of the project was to create a fully open source alternative of KDE, which was based on Qt widget toolkit that used a non-free licence back then.
Since its initial release in 1999, there have been 33 stable releases of GNOME till date. While Linux caters to power users, developers and sysadmins who prefer CLI, Gnome focuses on ease of use. No wonder Ubuntu, a distribution that targeted PC users picked Gnome as the default desktop environment.
Gnome has made some significant progress in the Linux desktop space with the 3.x family. They have built a distro agnostic software center that allows users of any distro to not only install and update applications, but also update the distribution itself.
Gnome also brought the capability of accessing Google Drive from within Linux desktops, a feature that’s not officially supported by Google.
No wonder that even the creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds runs Gnome as his favorite desktop.
Gnome used to be the default desktop environment for Ubuntu, before Canonical introduced its own Unity shell. As a result of that decision, Gnome lost millions of users. But recently, Canonical decided to pull out of desktop space and focus on enterprise. They ditched Unity and went back to Gnome. That means Gnome will return to millions of Ubuntu desktop users.
Happy 20th Birthday, Gnome.
Issue 237/2020
Buy this issue as a PDF
News
-
Google’s Nearby Sharing Could Work with Linux
Google’s answer to Apple’s AirDrop feature is rumored to work with the Linux desktop.
-
System76 Launches Ryzen-Powered Laptop
The new System76 Serval WS includes a powerful AMD Ryzen CPU.
-
Linux Mint Drops Snap
Linux Mint has officially dropped their support for Canonical’s snap packages.
-
Lenovo Upping Their Linux Support
Lenovo is now offering full certification and Linux preinstalled hardware.
-
LPI Launches FOSSlife Website
Linux Professional Institute launches FOSSlife, a website for the FOSS community.
-
Tuxedo Computers Joins the Ryzen Bandwagon
Tuxedo Computers has released the Tuxedo Boot BA15 with an AMD Ryzen 3500 CPU.
-
Linux Apps on Windows Is Coming
Linux GUI apps will be coming to Windows Subsystem for Linux.
-
Linux Usage Is on the Rise
According to NetMarketShare, Linux saw a significant bump in usage during April.
-
Lenovo is Jumping on the Linux Laptop Bandwagon
PC and laptop maker Lenovo is set to release ThinkPad laptops pre-installed with Fedora Linux.
-
A New Linux Laptop Is in the Making
Manjaro Linux and TUXEDO computers have joined forces to develop the InfinityBook Manjaro.