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Elisa Updates

Moosy, an OpenSUSE blog, has a short post up today on Elisa, mentioning that the 0.3 release will be a complete rewrite, and now includes Tango icons.

I look forward to the upcoming release. As I’ve mentioned before, Foresight has the latest Elisa release already in it’s repos, so hopefully we can get an updated version when it’s released. I was this close (holds fingers apart) to trying to reinstall MythTV this morning on my HTPC, but I couldn’t find a surge protector as I’m out of outlets at my home theater. (That should tell me something, shouldn’t it?)

Moosy links to the following Youtube showing off the new icons:

GNOME Documentation – Irony 101

Now that I have a few newsletters under my belt for Foresight Linux and completed the Getting Started user guide on the wiki, my next two big projects for Foresight are porting the Getting Started guide from the wiki to Docbook for inclusion in Yelp on a default Foresight installation, and getting some screencasts recorded and posted to the Foresight wiki.

With newsletter #3 out the door, and an hour or two on my hands, I decided to jump in and start learning some basics of Yelp, Docbook and contributing to GNOME documentation. I started off keeping track of some interesting links I was coming across in Tomboy, and as my frustrations grew, it became a live journal of my research in to contributing to GNOME documentation. What follows is the unedited thoughts that ran through my brain for just over an hour as I looked for content on where to start on this journey.

The good thing I’ve learned in this process is what needs to be updated to make it easier for folks who want to help out GNOME and it’s documentation. Docs are one of the easiest areas for a new volunteer to get involved with, and now that I’ve complained publicly about my experiences, I’ve added it to my to-do list to try and make this better. (But it’s down on my to-do list after Foresight documentation in Yelp and screencasts. And maybe the new Foresight website, we’ll see).

Without further adieu, here are my notes:

**

GNOME Documentation**

Documenting my learnings on contributing to YELP

15:45 – Start looking on the GNOME wiki and Google

http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject

(last update in October 2006)

http://live.gnome.org/ProjectMallard (next generation GNOME docs tool in development)

15:55 join IRC (#docs on GIMPnet)

Continue to use the Wiki and Google:

http://live.gnome.org/DeveloperGuides (could be a gold mine, lots of links)

http://live.gnome.org/IdealDeveloperDocumentation (A wishlist of perfect documentation, last updated last August)

http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gdp/handbook/gdp-handbook/index.html (last update 2003, this had to be the bible for doc developers once upon a time)

http://www.ibiblio.org/oswg/oswg-nightly/oswg/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/DocBook-Intro/docbook-intro/ (Linked from the GDP handbook above, it’s from 1999!)

16:05: Edit the GNOME wiki with a broken link to the non-existent style guide:

http://live.gnome.org/DeveloperGuides

16:10 Ask for help in IRC (no response, but I’m patient)

16:15 Find new links that look helpful:

http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/Contributing

http://live.gnome.org/DocumentationProject/Contributing/SubmittingPatches

16:18 Complain in #foresight about the irony in that getting started with the GNOME documentation team isn’t really documented

16:24 Realize the link above on SubmittingPatches is also horribly outdated as GNOME has moved to subversion

Make mental note that I should be probably updating the GNOME documentation personally with these learnings. Add to to-do list in Tomboy

16:29 Thilo agrees with me in IRC, and reinforces an opinion I have too:

thilopfennig: pcutler_: yeah

thilopfennig: thats true

even simple links are broken

and nobody cares really

That last sentence bothers me, as I had the same thought. Perception is reality.

16:31 Pull up the GNOME SVN wiki page and prepare to checkout some help files to browse through as a base:

http://live.gnome.org/SubversionFAQ

16:36 first 2 projects svn co doesn’t work, try with epiphany, but it pulls the whole source, and not the help files. keep reading through LGO. Quite frustrated.

16:43 Pull down Gedit files. Realize that I was pulling the help files correctly with SVN, but still can’t find english versions. Mistakenly ask for help in IRC, when I did do it right.

16:46 Remind self it’s a holiday weekend in US on a Sunday afternoon, of course no one is going to respond.

16:48 Open Gedit, and start browsing through source files. In the Help directory, the “C” subdirectory has “gedit.xml” – I found the file! Why is it in the C directory if it’s American English? Who thinks of these things? All the other files I pulled down were correct as well.

16:55 Finish scrolling through gedit.xml after opening the files in Yelp for comparison. Docbook looks fairly sane, if just overly, well, there’s a lot to it, but it’s fairly logical. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work porting the userguide from the wiki to Docbook will be, but it’s doable.

16:56 Walk away. Remind self to blog this.

GNOME 3.0?

The concept of GNOME 3.0 (aka Project Topaz) has been thrown around over the last year or two, with no clear definition or direction of the next big step in the development of GNOME.

Last year, Luis Villa blogged a few ideas that could become the future of GNOME, around an internet enabled OS, tied to an infrastructure similar to Apple’s .mac. I’ve had similar thoughts floating through my brain since then, but yesterday Havoc Pennington of Red Hat & Mugshot verbalized almost exactly what I’ve been thinking about in a way I’ve never been to articulate.

Havoc references Dave Neary’s recent interview that GNOME as a platform is becoming different things to different people, with Nokia’s implementation of Maemo on the 770 a prime example. I think Dave’s exactly right, and this strategy and direction for GNOME is a good thing.

What’s interesting to me is the future of the home user, and Havoc’s musings touches on that. GNOME could be an embedded platform or an enterprise solution, but to me it seems as most innovation is being done around the home computing user. Web services such as Flickr, del.icio.us, Gmail, last.fm and other social networking sites started, and still are, geared first and foremost towards the home user. Havoc’s thoughts on the target user are right on. Starting with the early adopter, the technoloy enthusiasts and influencers, and tying those people, and their stuff together, is the future.

The rumor has always been that this is what Google is doing – through Gmail archiving your email, Calendar, Google Docs – they will host your content and tie it paid search to make money. Gtalk’s contacts is a poor start, but Google Doc’s collaboration tools are a good example of tying your content to your communities.

Internet enabled is a key, but I don’t think Google has to win in this space. Giving you access to your community and your content can be done through the operating system, though Luis Villa’s thoughts from last year on a GNOME-centric .Mac type service are where this could get really interesting.

I don’t think there is a question that we are reaching a tipping point in the way operating systems are built and used – even Microsoft has alluded to Vista being the last of their operating systems being built and released in the current manner. Apple is the master of the incremental operating system, and while innovative, is still too closed source to win in this space. It will take a community to build the future, as it is about the people and how and where they use their stuff, and it is this community – the open source community, that has the best chance to innovate and create this future. And I can’t wait for the future.

Epiphany & Foresight

Epiphany is the default web browser for GNOME, and now as of Foresight 1.1, Foresight Linux.

What is Epiphany? Epiphany is the browser for the GNOME desktop, with it’s goal to be simple and easy to use. Powered by the Gecko engine, like Firefox, Epiphany offers extensions, customizable user interface, and smart bookmarks.

Luis Villa recently published a link of things, in his opinion, Epiphany did superior to Firefox. (No, I’m not trying to start a flamewar, just food for thought on why you might want to try Epiphany!)

Over at Thilo’s blog, he covers why we’ve made the switch at Foresight Linux and some benefits of using Epiphany. He also is asking the community what they would like to see in Epiphany on Foresight, from plugins and extensions, and what’s included in the default Epiphany install on Foresight.

Try Epiphany today – I was pleasantly surprised by it.

Simply Beautiful: GNOME 2.18 and Foresight 1.1 Released

GNOME 2.18 has been released! Congratulations to all the developers and contributors in getting this out the door, on time as usual.

GNOME 2.18 contains a number of bug fixes, updates to your favorite programs such as Tomboy and Evince, and even two new games!

If you want to check out GNOME 2.18, all the Live Media has been updated to the latest release as well, learn more here on the GNOME wiki if you’d like to download a VMWare image or LiveCD.

With the new GNOME 2.18 release, Foresight has also released an update to 1.1. We’ll have the website updated and announcement out tomorrow, but if you want a sneak peak, get it here (2 CDs, DVD) and install the first Linux distribution to have GNOME 2.18 available, and other goodies too like Banshee 0.12.0 or F-Spot.

GNOME 2.18 – T minus 1 Day

We are now one day away from the GNOME 2.18 release! If you didn’t download and test GNOME 2.18 yet (as I mentioned in yesterday’s post), Phoronix has posted some GNOME 2.18 screenshots from the GNOME / Foresight 2.18 LiveCD for your viewing pleasure.

Take a look at some screenshots, and get ready for the release.

In related GNOME news, the newly revamped GNOME website won’t be ready for 2.18 – but give us a month and we’ll have it ready for GNOME 2.18.1.

T minus 2 Days

GNOME 2.18 is 2 days from release – have you taken it for a test drive yet? Thanks to Ken Vandine and Foresight Linux, there is now more than just one way to take GNOME 2.18 for a spin. VMWare images, QEMU / Parallels, name your virtualization way and there’s probably an image, in addition to a LiveCD.

Visit the downloads page and pick your way to test out GNOME. Links will be updated once 2.18 goes final. Take some LiveCDs to your next LUG meeting or installfest, and show off GNOME 2.18 powered by Foresight.

Simply Beautiful.

New GNOME Journal, March 4th 2007

A new edition of the GNOME Journal is out now. Articles include a newcomer’s look at using the GTK+ toolkit; an overview of the Tango Project interview two of it’s most high profile contributors; and a look a company based on open source software, Fluendo.

There is also a letter from the editor, Jim Hodapp, inviting all of us who use GNOME to contribute articles.

I think I’ll start planning a contribution myself. With this month’s release of GNOME 2.18, the timing couldn’t be better.