Gnome 3.0 Released

The popular Linux desktop environment Gnome has now progressed to the 3.0 milestone. The developers claim this is a more modernized and streamlined version and will come with the same Gnome applications available in the previous release. This comes six months after version 2.32, sticking with the developers release cycle. It has not yet been fully integrated with distributions but beta releases are available from Fedora and OpenSUSE.

The Gnome 3.0 Desktop

Version 3.0 introduces a brand new desktop. Aesthetics seem to be revamped for the modernized look they're aiming for. There's also an activities overview, a new notification system, integrated messaging, window grouping, desktop search and more.

Applications have been spruced up too. Gnome 3.0 includes improvements to the web browser, file browser, text editor and more on top. This isn't so much of draw if you use your own choice of applications but some of them can prove very useful.

Unfortunately Gnome will no longer be a great feature in Ubuntu as Canonical pursue their own environment called Unity. Ubuntu is one of the most popular distributions available so this is bad news for Gnome. However Gnome is still the desktop of choice for a lot of other distributions so they're sure to do well. The next release has already been scheduled for September/October 2011 and this will include yet more new features and improvements.