Features/Gnome2.28

= GNOME 2.28 =

Summary
Re-base to GNOME 2.28.

Owner

 * Desktop SIG
 * Email: fedora-desktop-list@redhat.com

Current status

 * Targeted release:  Fedora 12
 * Last updated: 24-09-2009
 * Percentage of completion: 100%

GNOME 2.28.0 is in rawhide. The default IM client has been switched to Empathy. Epiphany is using webkit now. The Pango harfbuzz rewrite has landed. The GTK+ client-side windows code has landed. libgnomeprint22 has been dropped from the desktop spin. gnome-vfs2 dependencies have been pruned.

The schedule for Gnome 2.28 looks as follows:

Detailed Description
The main point of this feature is to ensure that Fedora ships the current version of the Gnome desktop.

Benefit to Fedora
Stay in sync with upstream.

Scope
Outstanding issues:
 * Keep Gnome packages updated. For a list of affected packages, see http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointTwentyseven/Platform and http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointTwentyseven/Desktop
 * Make sure new enough versions of external dependencies are in Fedora. For a list of external dependencies, see http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointTwentyseven/ExternalDependencies
 * Resync image with new default apps, e.g. Features/Empathy
 * Make sure new modules and new external dependencies of Gnome 2.28 are packaged
 * Follow major upstream changes, e.g. epiphany is switching from gecko to webkit as the rendering engine
 * Investigate if we can drop some of the removed modules. At least we should make sure they don't sneak onto a space-constrained live image. Candidates for this are libgnomeprint22, libgnomeprintui22, libgnomeui, gnome-vfs2, gnome-mime-data

How To Test

 * Open System → About GNOME. Verify that it says "Version: 2.28"


 * Verify that important desktop components work as well as they always have:
 * the panel
 * nautilus
 * metacity

Hints about testing basic desktop functionality can be found at Desktop/Testing.

This section will be updated as it becomes more clear what the major test-worthy new features in Gnome 2.28 are. To get some idea what people plan to work on for 2.28, see http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap and http://live.gnome.org/RoadMap/Modules (but no guarantees that anything on those pages will actually appear in 2.28...)

User Experience
Largely unchanged.

Dependencies
Depends on upstream Gnome, see the Gnome 2.28 schedule

Contingency Plan
Ship the Gnome 2.26 packages that are in F11. Alternatively, if Gnome 2.28 does not happen in time for Fedora 12, ship a prerelease like 2.27.92 (we've done that before)

Documentation

 * See the Gnome 2.28 release notes.

Release Notes
Fedora 12 includes the latest version of the Gnome desktop. It includes the client-side windows rewrite of GTK+, which offers new possibilities for eye-candy and integration with clutter. Some GTK+ applications may have problems with the client-side windows code. Eclipse and acroread are known to be in this category. In such cases, you can try setting the GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS environment variable, which tells GTK+ to fall back to old ways of doing things.

For more information about what is new in Gnome, see the Gnome 2.28 release notes.

Comments and Discussion

 * See Talk:Features/GNOME2.28