GNOME Desktop 2.4 Beta 1: "Jelme"

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

GNOME Desktop 2.4 Beta 1: "Jelme"
=================================

The GNOME Desktop 2.4 Beta 1: "Jelme", is available for immediate download
on ftp.gnome.org and mirrors:

  http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/desktop/2.3/2.3.6/sources/

  tar.gz:   120M total
  tar.bz2:  90M total


Dear Faithful GNOME Users
-------------------------

You may remember the raucous excitement and pure joy of previous GNOME beta
releases; wild claims of "ready for human consumption" and "won't crash...
much". You may remember sheer delight at the opportunity to try new versions
of GNOME without a high probability of turning your desktop inside out,
trashing your old settings or spending hours working why your fonts didn't
work. Ahh, days of yore.

Due to the huge success of our time-based release and 'always buildable,
testable and usable from CVS' policies, this GNOME beta does not fulfill the
'dangerous fruit' attraction of past beta releases. In fact, the 2.3 series
has been a thoroughly stable and comfortable working environment for hackers
and dedicated testers throughout its development.

You may well ask, "Hey, if this beta release isn't going to kill my hard
disk, why should I care?" Sayamindu Dasgupta asked a similar question, and
this is what he found out:

  http://www.ilug-cal.org/GNOME_2_4.html

GNOME 2.4 will be our most exciting release to date, with incredible new
software, cool new features throughout the desktop, great language support,
slick performance improvements, and the breath of fresh air you've come to
expect from the desktop that "just works".

Please enjoy this beta, and help us find and straighten out the remaining
few kinks for our final GNOME 2.4.0 release in early September. For more
info, please see our 2.3 start page:

  http://www.gnome.org/start/2.3/

Thanks,

- The GNOME Release Team

-- 
linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia         http://lca2004.linux.org.au/
 
         "Stick to your guns and get it right." - Havoc Pennington