Gnome and Gtk+ Moving Towards Version 3.0

Jul 12, 2008

The developers of the Gnome desktop environment have denied the necessity of Gnome version 3.0, but now things are happening. Initial plans for a 3.0 release were revealed at the Gnome developer conference, Guadec, along with details of Gtk+ 3.0.

Just a few months ago the status quo was that development work on Gnome 2.x would continue, and that there was no need for Gnome 3.0, but now things have changed. At the Gnome developer conference, Guadec, which is currently taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, Gtk+ developer Kristian Rietveld revealed plans for a 3.0 release of the GUI toolkit. Disclosed goals include bug fixes and the removal of obsolete code sections. Visuals, such as alpha transparency and graphical effects follow on the roadmap. The Gnome project announced version 3.0 of the desktop environment after this talk.

But some time will pass before Gnome 3.0 and Gtk+ 3.0 see the light of day: the developers anticipate a release date in about 12 months from now. The new version will be downwardly compatible for the most part. Despite this, some incompatibility is likely after changes to the Gtk+ library APIs and ABIs. For more details of the Gtk+-3.0 plans, check out a mail posted by Rietveld on the Gnome developer mailing list.

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