Release Notes GNOME 2.18 (Draft)

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GNOME 2.18 (simply beautiful)

GNOME 2.18 is out, on time as usual. The top class free desktop for the masses looks and feels better than ever. This is another progressive release in our road to perfection, it integrates another load of improvements done in the visual design and the performance of the desktop components and the growing collection of integrated applications. The web browser and the themeable window manager are two good examples to check.

Personal security is now fully integrated to the desktop, allowing digitally signed communications, encryption of emails and local files, and a user friendly management of personal keys. Internationalization records progress in all directions, with support for vertical text layout and a full Arabic localization matching the quality standards. The official release incorporates essential tools for developers, which hopefully will contribute to get more and better software for the GNOME users.

What's more important, for the first time we ship online games, chess with a 3D look and endless Sudoku entertainment.

The GNOME desktop is distributed through free and commercial operating systems including Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, OpenSolaris, RedHat, SLED and Ubuntu. GNOME is also present inside XO (the One Laptop Per Child device) and an increasing collection of mobile devices. Users can already get their hands on GNOME 2.18 trying our official live demos or the testing versions released by some distributions. Check the Get Footware page and give it a try.

In more detail

Everyone

• Tomboy, the note-taking applet, helps you to keep better track of your most important notes by pinning them, making sure they will always easier to find.
• Using Tomboy to create lists is now as simple as adding a * or a -.
• Never loose track of your work and pick up where you left off by finding the recently opened files or just search for new distractions with the new Deskbar applet.
• Find out where all your disk space is going with the new ring chart view in GNOME's Disk Usage Analyzer.
• Save battery power with GNOME Power Manager's control over your processor.
• Whether you have two monitors or not, the GNOME Document Viewer now supports opening multiple instances of a document at the same time
• Use the new history feature to navigate your documents like a web page.
• Hand out better printed slide notes and keep your audience engaged with Evince's new presentation mode.
• Digitally sign or authenticate your documents using Seahorse, the new front-end to GNU Privacy Guard.
• Use Seahorse to manage the security of your desktop and your OpenPGP and SSH keys.

Developers

• Create applications faster using the new Glade graphical interface builder.
• Display all your reference documentation using the new integrated help system.
• Improved bug reporting ensures that GNOME just keeps getting better

Fun

• Encode your audio in more formats including OGG, MP3 or even AAC!
• Turn up the volume on your music and movies with the new and improved volume control that now supports advanced soundcards including the Audigy 2.
• Take a break and try our two new games: Chess with glChess, where you can play either against a friend, or try to master the computer opponent or try yourself in solving a Sudoku with GNOME Sudoku, the Japanese crossword puzzle.
• Challenge a friend to an online game of Nibbles, Iango or Four-in-a-Row.

Share your desktop

• Connect to your desktop from anywhere in the world.
• If you rotate your photos in the camera, they stay that way when you view them with the Eye of GNOME Image Viewer
• Show your friends how you customized your desktop from the login screen to the appearance of your favorite GNOME applications.

Universal Access

• Added support for vertical text layouts in Chinese and Japanese.
• Added New text-to-speech drivers including Loqeundo, Cepstral Swift, and eSpeak
• Improved support for Orca
• Improved support for Chinese using the IBMTTS engine.
• Improved support for Gnome Magnifier
• Added Thai dictionary to GNOME Dictionary
• Improved results display in GNOME Dictionary

About GNOME

We produce free software that makes computers friendly, useful and fun. We provide a graphical environment that is easy to use, a set of integrated programs and tools to develop and maintain your own applications.

GNOME is available in dozens of languages. It is compatible with multiple operating systems. It works on home computers, laptops, mobile devices, supercomputers and small embedded appliances. You can find GNOME across the world in homes, schools, offices... and probably also in your neighborhood.

GNOME has won a reputation for its simplicity and ease of use. We love software that just works: logical, clean, intuitive and full of sense. Attention to detail is always appreciated: we polish interfaces as well as internal processes, in a constant search for beauty and integration.

The coordination of this large project relies on the GNOME Foundation, an open organization formed by volunteers, professionals and companies.

Learn more about GNOME's best assets at www.gnome.org