Here are 2 files for "About" and "Why GNOME?" The "About" page I
haven't changed much; I'm thinking, though, that it should get a similar
style to the "Why?" Page (or that the Why? page should get a similar
treatment to the About page-- haven't gotten that far in the revisions
yet-- just want to get the content down first).
Next up: "Getting involved."
Now, as to that page: Now that I think of it, I agree with Jeff that we
should have the getting involved page discuss development, at least in
part.
I figure we'll have five or six points to make, although I'm not sure
about the order. I'm also not sure about phrasing-- particularly, I
don't want to imply that the non-programming contributions are less
valued, etc.
* Programmers can learn how to help out at d.g.o--
individual projects;
contact maintainers,
join lists.
* The easiest way to help is give feedback.
Easy bug form
Bug Buddy
* Translators, we need your help too
Teams list
Link to page on how it works
* Creative and slightly less technical contributions
Art team
Web team
Docs team
Foundation, conf. organizing, and evangelism volunteering
* For discussion and news, visit lists.gnome.org or gnomedesktop.org
OK, I think that's about it for the year (!). I'm going to be back on
the 2nd of January; I'll try and get these two pages, and a "Getting
Involved" page, into commitable shape by the following monday 1/5/04.
As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts,
Happy new year, etc.
Aaron (verbal)
Title: What is GNOME?
The GNOME Project is an effort to create a complete, free and easy-to-use desktop environment for users, and a powerful application development framework for software developers. You can learn more about how GNOME can work for you in our Why Choose GNOME? page.
GNOME is Free Software and part of the GNU project, dedicated to giving users and developers the ultimate level of control over their desktops, their software, and their data. Find out more about the GNU project and Free Software at gnu.org.
GNOME understands that usability is about creating software that is easy for everyone to use, not about piling on features. GNOME's community of professional and volunteer usability experts have created Free Software's first and only Human Interface Guidelines, and all core GNOME software is adopting these principles. Find out more about GNOME and usability at the GNOME Usability Project.
Free Software is about enabling software freedom for everyone, including users and developers with disabilities. GNOME's Accessibility framework is the result of several years of effort, and makes GNOME the most accessible desktop for any Unix platform. Find out more at the GNOME Accessibility Project.
GNOME is used, developed and documented in dozens of languages, and we strive to ensure that every piece of GNOME software can be translated into all languages. Find out more at the GNOME Translation Project.
GNOME strives to be an organized community, with a foundation of several hundred members, usability, accessibility, and QA teams, and an elected board. GNOME releases are defined by the GNOME Release Team and are scheduled to occur every six months.
Beyond the worldwide GNOME Community, GNOME is supported by the leading companies in Linux and Unix, including HP, Mandrake, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun. Find out more at foundation.gnome.org.
Perhaps more than anything else, GNOME is a worldwide community of volunteers who hack, translate, design, QA, and generally have fun together. Find out more at GNOME Developer's site.
Title: Why Choose GNOME?GNOME is the ideal choice for almost any purpose:
GNOME is the desktop of choice for industry leaders like IBM, HP, and Sun. Governments in places as diverse as Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the US, Extremadura, Spain, and Beijing, China, have selected GNOME for their desktops. With a large number of users, and a wide range of vendors, you can be assured of availability and support for a long time to come.GNOME is easy to use and easy to learn: the usability project team makes sure of it. GNOME has all the software you need every day: games, browser, email, office suite, and more. GNOME has excellent Windows file compatibility, so you can work with files that Windows users send you.
Your business wants to cut costs and improve reliability, and GNOME is the obvious choice: GNOME is easy to use and easy to support, so you can cut down on IT costs. And of course GNOME is free software, so you don't have to pay licensing fees or spend money keeping track of licenses. In addition, the generous GNOME library licensing terms mean that you can develop software royalty-free, even if you choose not to release the source.
GNOME is available in your language. Many large software companies do not produce translations for smaller languages, but GNOME makes it easy for dozens of languages, including Hebrew, Arabic, Swedish, and Basque, not to mention more common languages like Spanish and Chinese.
If you have limited mobility or vision, then you'll be glad to hear that GNOME is serious about accessible software. GNOME meets accessibility requirements for many governments worldwide, including the US Department of Defense.
GNOME gives developers the greatest licensing flexibility and the greatest variety of programming languages. In addition, can even use Gtk+ on Windows as well as Unix and Linux systems.
Most GNOME libraries are available under the terms of the LGPL, which means you can develop GNOME software free of charge, no matter what license you use for your finished product. And because the GNOME object system is easy to bind to other languages, you can choose from a dozen popular development languages like Java, C#, Python, Perl, and of course plain old C and C++.
Administrators choose GNOME because easy to use means easy to support, and because remote system administration cuts down on time spent pacing hallways and waiting in elevators. The GNOME System Administrations Guide has more information on how to manage a GNOME desktop deployment.