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The GNOME Project's focus on users and usability continues in GNOME 2.26 with its hundreds of bug fixes and user-requested improvements. The sheer number of enhancements makes it impossible to list every change and improvement made, but these notes aim to highlight some of the more exciting, user-oriented features in this release.

2.1. Comprehensive New Disc Burning

Although previous versions of GNOME already had an easy way to burn CDs and DVDs, as of GNOME 2.26 this has been expanded to a whole application dedicated to disc creation: Brasero.

Brasero delivers new features that were not supported by the CD burner, such as audio CD burning with audio track preview, track splitting, and volume normalization; full multisession support; integrity checks; a cover editor; and support for multiple burning backends.

Figur 2Brasero

People who appreciated the way CD burning used to work will not have to relearn their habits; the existing interfaces are also available. Applications ▸ System Tools ▸ CD/DVD Creator in the menu still brings up a folder you can drag into. CD (ISO) image files can still be burnt directly from the file manager by right-clicking on them.

Brasero allows other GNOME applications to add disc burning capabilities. For example, the Media Player now allows you to burn the home movie you're watching to either (S)VCD or DVD.

2.2. Förenklad fildelning

GNOME 2.26 now includes a plugin for its file manager to enable simple personal file sharing over WebDAV, HTTP and Bluetooth.

Figur 3Utdelning av filer

2.3. Evolution Evolves its Migration from Windows

GNOME's email and groupware suite, Evolution, has gained two important features for helping users who are migrating to GNOME from Microsoft Windows environments.

First is the ability to import Microsoft Outlook Personal Folders (PST files) directly in Evolution. Email, contacts, appointments, tasks and journal entries are supported. Previously, the files had to be imported via a third-party utility, such as Thunderbird on Windows.

Second is support for Microsoft Exchange's MAPI protocol. This is the protocol that Microsoft Outlook uses to communicate with Exchange. Previously, Evolution only supported Exchange's SOAP protocol, which is not available on all Exchange servers. This support significantly improves Evolution's integration with Exchange servers.

2.4. Förbättringar i mediaspelare

GNOME's Media Player continues to be improved with several new features.

Many media player appliances now offer the option to share the stored content via either the UPnP or DLNA protocols. With the new Coherence DLNA/UPnP client, it is possible to browse and play this content from within the GNOME Media Player.

While GNOME's Media Player already has the ability to display subtitles for a movie, this still required you to have the subtitle data available. As of GNOME 2.26, this restriction is gone. Using the new subtitle downloader plugin, the Media Player will automatically find subtitles for you.

2.5. Volume Control Integrated with PulseAudio

PulseAudio is the new audio input/output routing and mixing framework that is being adopted by many free software platforms. It has support for features like per-application volume and dynamic plug-and-play and rerouting of sound devices (e.g. USB soundcards).

GNOME 2.26 can take advantage of these features with its new volume control and new Sound Preferences tool.

Figur 4Volume Control Input Settings

The Sound Preferences tool integrates the choice of sound devices, application volumes, alert volume and alert theme in one place.

For those without PulseAudio, the old (GStreamer) mixer will still be available and has even been augmented with a sound theme tab to match the new interface.

2.6. Support for multiple monitors and projectors

The Display Settings tool now has a better view of which monitors or projectors you have plugged in, and makes it easier than before to set up your monitors in various configurations.

Figur 5Display Settings

The Display Settings tool is also more reliable even with unrobust graphics drivers, as it now presents a confirmation dialog after making changes to your monitor's settings. Your settings will be restored to a known-good configuration even if your machine crashes while changing the monitor's settings.

2.7. Nästan telepatisk kommunikation

The Empathy instant messaging application, which uses the Telepathy communications framework, has taken another step forward with features including file transfer where supported by Telepathy (currently Jabber and link-local XMPP), chat room invite support, sound themes and notifications, and an improved VoIP experience.

Figur 6Videosamtal i Empathy

VoIP using the free Theora and Speex codecs is now possible over Jingle to clients that support them.

Support for sound themes and notification bubble has also been added.

2.8. Location Epiphany

GNOME's web browser, Epiphany, gains an exciting new feature of an improved location bar, similar to the Awesome Bar popularized by Firefox 3.0.

Figur 7Ny adressrad

2.9. Integration med fingeravtrycksläsare

GNOME 2.26 now integrates with the fprintd fingerprint service to allow users to enroll fingerprints for use in authentication.

If a system is configurated for allowing fingerprint authentication, users can enroll their fingerprints via Desktop ▸ Preferences ▸ About Me from the panel menu.

2.10. Men vänta, det finns mer...

As well as big changes, there are also various small additions and tweaks that happen in every GNOME release.

  • The file manager can now to ask PackageKit to install support for a file you wish to open.
  • A keyboard modifier (usually Alt) is now required to drag panels around on the screen (the same keyboard modifier used for dragging windows around by their middles).
  • Password entry widgets will now warn if you have your Caps Lock key enabled.
  • Changing the Input Method type using the context menu on a text entry widget is now per-widget, rather than per-application. (This is separate from setting your default input manager or keyboard layout.)
  • Input methods now work in password entry widgets.
  • The Deskbar now supports OpenSearch plugins.
  • New visual effects, such as the panels sliding in and out at login and logout, and crossfading desktop backgrounds.