GNOME Summary for May 13 - May 19 2001

[Steve George <s rascal org>]

This is the GNOME Summary for  May 13 - May 19, 2001.

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  Table of Contents
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 1)  Eazel Ends
 2)  GNOME 2.0 release plan announced
 3)  Minutes of the GNOME Board meeting 15 May 2001 by Daniel Veillard
 4)  Getting Help
 5)  Life after Eazel
 6)  Project of the week
 7)  Hacking Activity
 8)  New and Updated Software

==============================================================

 1)  Eazel Ends

--------------------------------------------------------------

Bart Decrem announced that Eazel had been unable to get continuing funding so
would be shutting down shortly.  This is clearly a very disappointing event
for both the Eazel people and the whole GNOME community.

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2001-May/msg00209.html

A number of the Eazel hackers have stepped up to continue hacking on their
modules and supply expertise for others to continue.  The number of active
developers will clearly reduce so if you've wanted to get involved with a core
part of GNOME here is a good opportunity. For more information on the various
modules see the thread:

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2001-May/msg00204.html

==============================================================

 2)  GNOME 2.0 release plan announced

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Sander announced the release plan for GNOME 2.0.  The aim is to have the new
release out by the end of year.  Given that all core components have to be
ported to the new framework in that period this is a fast-moving calender.

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-2-0-list/2001-May/msg00019.html

==============================================================

 3)  Minutes of the GNOME Board meeting 15 May 2001 by Daniel Veillard

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The work continues on the GNOME Foundation.  The main focus of the meeting was
the upcoming GNOME 2.0 development phase.  Areas of interest cover getting a
tinderbox up and running and how the tree will be stabilised. 

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2001-May/msg00001.html

==============================================================

 4)  Getting Help

--------------------------------------------------------------

Many people run into the same gotchas and problems in GNOME: these issues
frequently come up on bugzilla or in the support channels.  So to get a
head-start on many of the common problems see this FAQ by Mark Gordon of
Ximian:

http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/support/2001-April/001008.html

==============================================================

 5)  Life after Eazel

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Andrew Leonard considers the shutdown of Eazel in a broader context.  He
worries that the dot.com implosion means fewer Free Software hackers working
fulltime on pushing forward.  While noting the successes of the last few years
he doubts that the gap can be closed with proprietary systems in tighter
times.  

http://salon.com/tech/col/leon/2001/05/16/eazel_gone/index1.html

==============================================================

 6)  Project of the week

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One of the hardest parts of working on Free Software is starting: taking that
first step to working on a project.  The Gnome Love project was organised to
answer this by supplying a forum for new hackers to get advice in and items to
begin work on.  Miguel emailed to say that the idea is to: 

	"match people interested in improving Gnome, our applications, our desktop
and our libraries with people who can guide them through this process and can
hold their hands: we are basically trying to create a Gnome Hacking School."

To find out more join the mailing list at gnome-love-request gnome org, put
`subscribe' in the subject.

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 7)  Hacking Activity

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Thanks the Paul Warren for these lists.

Most active modules                
 108 evolution                   
  77 galeon                     
  72 ximian-setup-tools       
  48 gnumeric                
  46 gdm2               
  31 mc               
  28 gtkhtml         
  28 gimp           
  27 soup          
  26 gtk+         
  25 web-devel-2 
  22 nautilus   
  22 gnome-db  
  20 gal      
  19 ORBit2  
  18 gnome-vfs     
  16 gnome-core  
  15 glib     
  15 gail    
  14 dia  

 [99 active modules omitted] 


Most active developers
  56 jirka
  38 minmax
  29 proskin
  28 martin
  27 maubury
  27 michael
  27 fejj
  27 jody
  25 kmaraas
  25 owen
  25 chema
  23 hansp
  22 veillard
  21 danw
  20 rodrigo
  20 ettore
  19 rodo
  18 yaneti
  18 padraigo
  17 mitch

 [120 active developers omitted]


==============================================================

 8)  New and Updated Software

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Software updated this week

gbonds - Savings bond inventory application.
Gtkdial - Graphical frontend to the wvdial intelligent PPP dialer.
gramps - A genealogy program.
B4Step - Window Manager with innovative window banner management.
Flink Mailchecking applet - support multiple mail accounts and theming.
Sodipodi - Vector drawing program.
Pan - Multi-threaded Usenet newsreader.
Pygmy - A GNOME mail client written in Python.
gnuvd - Dutch dictionary using the Van Dale(tm) online service.
Quick Record - New! Applet for quickly recording audio.
ggv - Postscript and PDF document viewer.
gbuilder - C/C++ IDE.
rubrica - Addressbook application.
Moleskine - Source code editor in pygnome.
linphone - Web-phone for talking to another person over any IP network.
gnome-vfs - Virtual file system access library.
gnome-chess - graphical chess application.
Gnome-- - is a powerful C++ binding for the GNOME libraries.
XFce - Light-weight GNOME compliant desktop.
Gabber - Open Source instant messaging Jabber client.
Etherape - Graphical network monitor.
uf-view - cartoon viewer for User Friendly and others.
RadioDJ - Radio device controller.


===========================================================================

Eazel closing is a set-back: they added to the GNOME community more than just
their code.  They showed the way a commercial company can collaborate openly
in the Free Software process.  Eazel enlivened the vision of Free Software on
the desktop - consider how far we've come already.  Their legacy is the firm
foundation that the community can build on.  GNOME is the sum of every persons
contribution, past and present - everyone can make a difference, check-out
developer.gnome.org for how you can get involved.

For a positive perspective see Havocs post:

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers-readonly/2001-May/msg00215.html

Thanks,

Steve