What's Coming Up For GNOME 3.2?

Last week marked the end of the feature proposal for GNOME 3.2, for the first major update to the GNOME3 desktop. The GNOME 3.2 release schedule has the final release set for the end of September. In this article is a list of some of the features that were brought up for GNOME 3.2.

The list of features discussed for GNOME 3.2 can be found on the GNOME Wiki, but below is a concise listing.

- Accessibility: GNOME 3.0 regressed in terms of accessibility support so this will be a focus of fixing for GNOME 3.2. The GNOME Shell, accessibility themes, and other areas need more love. The GTK+ tool-kit itself may also receive some accessibility work with some of the code coming from the Gail module. An on-screen keyboard for GNOME3 is also likely to return.
- Improve the back-up process for those using GNOME so that backing up their files and data becomes more transparent. This work is inspired by Apple's Time Machine back-ups under Mac OS X.
- ColorD has been added as an external GNOME dependency for the 3.2 release so that color management can be improved and that GNOME applications can take advantage of this color management support for profile changes and color calibration. Simple Scan, GNOME Screenshot, CUPS, GhostScript, and Foomatic are among the software projects already supporting colord.
- A standalone contacts application for the GNOME desktop has been proposed. This application would integrate with Empathy and Evolution for managing contacts while also being able to be used by gnome-user-share and other components.
- Quick file previewing support for the Nautilus file manager, file chooser, and other areas.
- A simple and effective way to find, organize, and remind users about their content and data. This involves GNOME design improvements and special work to the GNOME Shell, Zeitgeist, and Tracker.
- A variety of annoying bug-fixes.
- Human Interface Guideline (HIG) improvements for the GNOME 3.x desktop.
- Integrating support for I-Bus input framework into the shell input menu and control-center region panel.
- A shell-style greeter log-in screen for GDM.
- Make it easier to share data such as calendar information, notes, music, photos, and contacts, or the entire desktop. This involves a lot of work and spanning many GNOME components, including Rygel, Vino, libsocialweb, Evolution, Nautilus, and Empathy/Telepathy.
- Improved support for GNOME on tablets and other touch devices.
- Integrating web applications with the desktop such as Flickr and Facebook, so that photos and other data can be easily shared across these social platforms.
- There's also improvements coming to GTK+ 3.2.

The next GNOME test release (v3.1.2) is coming up in mid-June while GNOME 3.2 will go into beta in late August followed by the official release at the end of September.