GNOME 3.0's first beta makes an appearance

The first beta version of GNOME 3.0 has been announced and is now available as source code to download. It carries the version number 2.91.90 Development Release. The developers have been working to stabilise the desktop environment and so recently development has focussed on the elimination of errors and on further localisation work. The developers are looking for widespread testing, but do remind potential users that this is a snapshot of development code saying "Although it is buildable and usable, it is primarily intended for testing and hacking purposes".

The last of the user interface changes in the GNOME Shell have been incorporated, with the disappearance of minimise and maximise buttons in title bars, new workspace handling and support for policy kit authentication.

Details of changes are in the release notes for the core and supporting applications. Instructions on how to download and build the beta are in the announcement. The next milestone in GNOME 3.0's release schedule will be a second beta on the 9th of March, followed by a release candidate on the 23rd of March. GNOME 3.0.0 final is expected on the 6th of April.

See also:

• GNOME 3 approaches completion, a report from The H
• The path to GNOME 3.0, a 2009 feature from The H

(djwm)