CAMBRIDGE, Mass – October 6, 2005 – The fifth GNOME Summit will be held October 8 through 10th. at the Stata Center, MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The GNOME Summit is an intensive workshop where members of the GNOME project get together to discuss development issues and demonstrate their work. The summit gives developers from around the globe, who work together and communicate with each other via the Internet, a chance to meet face-to-face. The goal of this Summit is to accelerate the development and planning work that will lead to future GNOME innovations and improvements.

“This is one of the two most important events for GNOME developers,” said Timothy Ney, executive director of the GNOME Foundation.

GNOME developers are constantly trying to find ways to improve the environment and make the end user experience better. Last year, the Summit focused on accessibility, quality assurance and usability initiatives were among the many topics covered during the conference.

The focus of this year’s Summit will be GNOME performance testing that is being done, so that the necessary improvements for 2.14 can made quickly and efficiently. Summit participants will be able to share data and information they have on performance in various environments – the standard desktop, thin clients and form devices such as the Nokia 770. Participants would also discuss the state of visuals and aesthetics in GNOME i.e. icons, themes, etc.

Last year, 130 developers attended the summit. The Summit is sponsored by GNOME Foundation with support from the Friends of GNOME. Ney said that this year, more than a 100 developers are expected to participate in the Summit.

GNOME developers meet twice a year, once in Europe at GUADEC and the second time in the United States at the Summit. The next gathering for developers and users will be in GUADEC, which will be held May 27th through May 31st.

About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

Comprised of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. GNOME is a free software desktop and development environment for personal computers, workstations, networked servers and portable Internet devices. Major leading software industry and computer manufacturers support the GNOME development effort, which is led by a worldwide community of volunteers.

The Foundation provides organizational, financial and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. More information on GNOME is available at http://www.gnome.org/.

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