“The Free Software Foundation has started shipping the Gnome
desktop environment for Linux, which it claims will enhance the
open source operating system’s (OS) appeal to consumers.
Gnome, which was introduced at the Linux World show in San Jose
this week, provides developers with an advanced toolkit to build
graphical user interfaces (GUI), which are customisable and can be
made to look like Windows 95 and 98 or the Macintosh. It will also
become the standard GUI for Red Hat Linux, the most popular Linux
implementation.
Some 250 programmers have been working on the project for the
last 18 months, most of them in their free time, but it has also
been supported by a number of full time developers on Red Hat
Software’s payroll.”