GNOME Enhancements

With GNOME 1.4, the Nautilus file manager officially replaced the GNOME version of GNU Midnight Commander used on previous GNOME releases. Nautilus is designed to operate as a desktop shell that can support numerous components, letting you operate a Web browser within it or decompress files. Originally developed by Eazel, Nautilus is now the official file browser for the GNOME desktop. You can download the Nautilus source from the GNOME CVS depository or from www.ximian.com. You can find out more about Nautilus from the Nautilus user's manual that is part of the GNOME User's Guide at www.gnome.org.

With GNOME 2.0, GNOME has been rewritten to work on the new GTK+ 2.0 graphics library. GNOME 2.0 now supports antialiasing fonts as well as more efficient GUI execution. GNOME 2.0 also includes Pango for International language support, and the Accessibility Toolkit (ATK) that provides easier interaction by those with disabilities.

With GNOME 2.2, the Nautilus file manager has been given more capabilities. It is now more easily integrated into other applications such as File Roller for archives, the image viewer for pictures, and the GNOME media player for audio and video. You can now preview sound and video files within a Nautilus window. Nautilus can also now burn files to CD writers. GNOME 2.2 also features integrated theme management with several default themes now provided. New font support tools let you more easily configure your fonts, enabling you to select and display fonts as they will appear for different components like applications or windows.

Tip

Ximian provides an improved version of GNOME, known as the Ximian Desktop, and is planning to offer a full suite of office applications. You can obtain more information about Ximian from its Web site at www.ximian.com. The Ximian Desktop is an enhancement of GNOME that is fully compatible with all GNOME software. You first need to have GNOME installed on your system, and then you can download and install the Ximian Desktop.