Running Linux, Third Edition

Appendix B. The GNOME Project

by Miguel de Icaza, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, UNAM; Nat Friedman, International GNOME Support; Federico Mena, Red Hat Software; and Elliot Lee, Red Hat Software

What Is GNOME?

Unix has never been considered an extremely user-friendly operating system. Because it was originally designed by programmers for programmers, the primary interface has long been the command line. Although this is a very powerful interface, it has a very steep learning curve, especially for people who are not acquainted with computers.^[55]

Then, the appearance of the X Window System brought forth a proliferation of GUI toolkits. The result was twofold: Unix programmers suddenly had the ability to create easy-to-use human-friendly software interfaces. But the market was fragmented; programmers were divided into many camps, each using a different GUI toolkit. This fragmentation delayed the development and deployment of a standard graphical interface and powerful graphical applications.

And fragmentation in the Unix world has had other consequences as well; while Unix developers tried to unify their splintered marketplace, the Unix technology and core design—originated in the 1970s—began to stagnate. Meanwhile, other operating systems were keeping up with technological progress in areas which Unix had long ignored.

The user interface is an important component of today’s desktop systems, but a full desktop system and its applications need a lot more to provide all the needed ...