The Everyone Environment

Welcome! In classic new-blog tradition, I felt it was a good idea to explain the title given to this little corner of blogs.gnome.org — and provide fair warning as to what sort of thoughts I’ll post here.

GNOME is the Computer

I’ve spent a lot of time lately answering the question “what is GNOME?” This question usually comes from my friends outside the tech industry. They work on film sets and fishing boats. They work in law firms, book stores, and hospitals. I don’t usually have a whiteboard handy to explain what GNOME is, so I’ve found myself approaching the question like this:

Me: Have you heard of “Linux”?

Them: Yes.

Me: Okay, so. When you open your laptop and the thing you see is Windows? And when you unlock your phone and the thing you see is iOS? When you use a Linux computer, the thing you see is GNOME.

I’m committing multiple sins with this oversimplification but if any of my friends are willing to let me elaborate, I do. That rarely happens. To these folks, and to me, GNOME is the computer. It’s the human part. The UI. The UX. The part you touch.

An Environment for Everyone

For those few friends who do permit me to elaborate, I’ll spend a moment explaining free desktops. But if they’re willing to put up with me, I’ll turn the conversation back to GNOME.

After spending over two decades in the software industry, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for simple, opinionated, well-designed software. After a bicycle crash and three botched surgeries in 2014, I’ve also developed a deep appreciation for accessible software.

The word “accessibility” contains a lot of nuance. Our industry tends to associate that word with an icon of a little human, arms outstretched. Of course it’s important for software to reach folks like me, who need to use computers in specific ways. But “accessibility” goes much farther than that.

The root of accessibility is access:

• Does the computer speak your language?
• Does the computer understand your culture?
• Can you afford it?
• Can you share it?
• Can you fix it yourself?
• Is it really yours?

Unlike most desktop software these days, GNOME can answer “yes” to all these questions.

GNOME is Infrastructure

Not only does accessible computing for everyone already exist, it is everywhere. I’ve seen GNOME in schools, wood shops, trading firms, government offices, universities, and every software company in my 20-year career.

Infrastructure — whether libraries, parks, roads, or sewers — is a drab topic compared to “computing for everyone”. But it is no less important. Really, it is the other side of that coin and I’ll have a lot more to say on this topic.

This blog will live at the intersection of these three topics: GNOME’s identity, mission, and reach.