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<chapter id="intro">
  <title>Introduction</title>

  <para>GNOME is a powerful but simple desktop environment with a strong focus
  on usability, accessibility, and internationalization.  GNOME is designed to
  be usable by everybody, regardless of technical expertise, disabilitites, or
  native language.  GNOME makes it easy for people to use their computers.</para>

  <para>GNOME provides a comprehensive developer platform that allow developers
  to create professional software that is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.
  This document provides a high-level overview of the GNOME platform along with
  links to detailed documentation on each part of the platform.</para>

<section id="who-should-read">
  <title>Who Should Read This Document</title>

  <para>You should read this document if you want to create software using the
  GNOME platform.  Developing with the GNOME platform will help you create
  consistent applications that integrate well into the user's desktop.  This
  guide will introduce you to the various components of the platform, so you
  know which libraries can accomplish which tasks.  This guide links to
  additional detailed documentation, so you can explore each component of
  the platform in more depth.</para>

  <para>This guide will also be useful if you are picking a development
  platform for your software project.  It will provide an overview how you
  can use the GNOME platform to build useful software.</para>

  <para>This guide also describes ways of extending the GNOME desktop with
  plugins, panel applets, and other useful tools.  If you want to develop
  additional functionality to plug into the GNOME desktop, you should read
  this guide, particularly <xref linkend="desktop-tech"/>.</para>

  <para>If you have existing software that you want to port to the GNOME
  platform, you should see the online <ulink
  url="http://live.gnome.org/GuideForISVs">Guide For ISVs</ulink> in
  addition to this guide.</para>
</section>

<section id="gnome-family">
  <title>The GNOME Family</title>

  <para>GNOME is a global effort, with many contributors all over the world.
  GNOME is a success because of its contributors and users.  This section
  lists the web sites and conferences where you can learn more about GNOME,
  as well as other organizations that work with GNOME.</para>

  <variablelist>
    <title>Web Sites</title>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://www.gnome.org/">www.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The primary web site for GNOME users.  It contains
      release information, downloads, and documentation.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://library.gnome.org/">library.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The complete source for all GNOME documentation.  It contains
      all of the user and developer documentation produced by GNOME, automatically
      built and updated for each release.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://foundation.gnome.org/">foundation.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The web site for the GNOME Foundation, the not-for-profit
      foundation that oversees the development of GNOME.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://bugzilla.gnome.org/">bugzilla.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The GNOME bug trackers.  Use this site to submit a bug report
      or feature request, or to track the status of a report.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://live.gnome.org/">live.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The GNOME wiki.  Many projects within GNOME now use the
      wiki as their primary web space.  In additional, the wiki is often used
      to sketch out future development.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://developer.gnome.org/">developer.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The old website for developer information.  This once
      contained developer documentation and information about the usability,
      documentation, and translation teams.  The content on this site has
      since been largely superseded by
      <ulink url="http://library.gnome.org/">library.gnome.org</ulink> and
      <ulink url="http://live.gnome.org/">live.gnome.org</ulink>.  There may
      still be some information on this site that is not found elsewhere.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://mail.gnome.org/">mail.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Information on GNOME mailing lists.  This site contains
      full archives of all GNOME mailing lists.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://svn.gnome.org/">svn.gnome.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The GNOME Subversion repository, tracking all GNOME source code
      back to the inception of the project.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>

  <variablelist>
    <title>Mailing Lists</title>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-list">gnome-list</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The primary mailing list for GNOME users.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-devel-list">gnome-devel-list</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Information and questions about development using the
      GNOME platform.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-love">gnome-love</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The first place to go to get involved with GNOME.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-accessibility-list">gnome-accessibility-list</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Information on accessibility in GNOME applications.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list">gnome-doc-list</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Information on writing documentation for GNOME
      applications.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-i18n">gnome-i18n</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Information about internationalization and localization
      of GNOME applications.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink
        url="http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/usability">usability</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Information on usability for GNOME applications.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>

  <variablelist>
    <title>Conferences</title>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://guadec.org/">GUADEC</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The primary conference for GNOME users and developers.
      GUADEC is hosted annually in May or June.  Each year, it is hosted in
      a different European city, making it an excellent excuse to see more
      of Europe.  GUADEC features talks aimed at users, developers, and
      vendors.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>The GNOME Summit</term>
      <listitem><para>The hacker get-together.  The Summit is geared
      primarily at existing GNOME developers, although there is often
      useful information for new developers.  The Summit is hosted
      annually in Boston.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>GNOME.conf.au</term>
      <listitem><para>A casual get-together hosted annually at
      linux.conf.au.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <!-- FIXME: surely there's more -->
  </variablelist>

  <variablelist>
    <title>Other Organizations</title>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/">freedesktop.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The collaborative effort for interoperability and shared
      technology among desktop environments.  Through freedesktop.org, GNOME
      works with projects such as KDE and XFCE to make it easier for application
      developers to provide better experiences for their users.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://www.mozilla.com/">Mozilla</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The free web engine, and a whole lot more.  GNOME maintains
      close ties to the Mozilla development team to provide an overall better
      user interface.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.org</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>The free office suite.  GNOME works with the OpenOffice.org
      development team to help provide a more unified interface when using the
      free office suite on GNOME.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term><ulink url="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</ulink></term>
      <listitem><para>Freedom.  Established in 1985, the Free Software
      Foundation has worked to create a complete free operating systems,
      giving its users the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute their
      software.  As part of the GNU project, GNOME aims to provide a fully
      free desktop environment.</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
</section>

</chapter>
