tec
| home | site map | about context | lang >>> español |
>>> context weblog
 
  technology > software > operating system > linux
august 15, 2000 |
creation of the gnome foundation

 
::
LinuxWorld Expo showed the push of the open source operating system beyond Internet servers (where Linux had a market share of 24 percent, in 1999) to the desktop (where Linux had a 4 percent market share of operating systems).

The GNOME project announced the creation of the GNOME Foundation. The GNOME project is an open-source graphical user interface (GUI). GNOME is part of the GNU project, an effort to build a completely free Unix-like operating system better known as *GNU/Linux or Linux*

Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation said: "16 years ago, we began developing the GNU operating system, a replacement for the Unix operating system that would be entirely Free Software (free as in freedom). We aimed to give GNU the full scope of Unix, including compilers, editors, email software, even games. But beyond that, we hoped someday to give a GNU graphical interface like the Macintosh. Our third attempt at that, the one that succeeded, is GNOME, started in 1997 by Miguel de Icaza. GNOME, like all of GNU, is a project of the Free Software Movement, which has been working since 1984 to give software users the freedom to redistribute and change software."

Industry leaders agreed to make GNOME the unifying desktop for the Linux and Unix. Coordinating their efforts will be the Gnome Foundation. Modeled after the Apache Foundation, the group will be governed by a board of directors elected by volunteer Gnome programmers. Representatives of Compaq, Eazel, Free Software Foundation, Gnumatic, Helix Code, Henzai, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Object Management Group, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, TurboLinux and VA Linux will sit on an advisory board. The foundation will help set the project's technical direction and promote adoption of Gnome on Linux and Unix desktops.

A single, predominant graphical face would make it possible for a Linux application suite. Gnome project also provides a framework for next-generation Internet-access appliances. Companies developing such devices are flocking to Linux because the open-source platform allows anyone to tinker with the operating system to fit individual needs and frees them from paying costly licensing fees. That helps keep the price of new devices at consumer-acceptable levels.
imgG N O M E project logo
 
source::
The GNOME and Linux Communities and Industry Leaders Join To Create The Gnome Foundation
<http://www.gnome.org/pr-foundation.html>

:: image
GNOME project logo
 
  | home | site map | about context | lang > español |

context weblog >>> http://www.straddle3.net/context