OStatic

GNOME 2.26 Release Includes Empathy, Telepathy and Epiphany Enhancements

Yesterday, the GNOME Project released the latest version of its desktop, GNOME 2.26. The new release incorporates the usual bug fixes and numerous accessibility and application improvements -- including updates to the GNOME Developer Platform and support for 48 languages.

Some of the notable new desktop features include updates to Evolution. The mail and groupware suite is better able to communicate with Exchange servers, as it adds support for both MAPI and SOAP protocols. The Brasero media burner, the Epiphany browser, the Orca screenreader, Empathy, and the GNOME Media Player have all seen signficant feature enhancements. The utilities for managing multiple desktops, pulse-audio, and fingerprint readers have also been updated.

It's not only a good day for GNOME desktop users -- developers have some new goodies to play with. GTK+ 2.16 is included in this release, offering developers new widget tools, bug fixes, and a toolkit that's a little closer to what we'll be seeing in the upcoming GTK+ 3.0 release. Changes have been made affecting how the Evince and disk burning APIs are accessed, and the Anjunta IDE features a rewritten symbol management engine, and improved integration of version control systems.

There's something impressive in every new software release -- and it's not necessarily the new features or performance improvements. It's the idea that many people spent countless hours working towards a common goal. It's even more awe inspiring with desktop or distribution releases, when a number of smaller projects pull together to produce a complete package. The GNOME Project welcomes everyone interested in lending a hand to join them -- developers are wonderful, but artists, marketeers, translators and those with a general interest in the free desktop field are very appreciated.

• open source
• linux
• GNOME
• Exchange
• release
• evolution
• free desktop
• GTK+
• Empathy
• Epiphany
• Orca

Share Your Comments