GPE 2.7 released

It took a little bit longer than expected, but now all important bits are in place: GPE 2.7 is finished.

This is the first release of a new - more strictly defined - type. Currently we maintain roadmap and release information in the wiki page at http://www.handhelds.org/moin/moin.cgi/GPERoadmap.

It's not intended to have a competely fixed roadmap there, but it should orient itself on the current and future requirements. We spent many hours in this release and the result is a large number of application and library improvements and bugfixes, as well as improved documentation.

So what do we have now:

• The new star among our applications: gpe-mini-browser.
• New GUI screenshot tool: gpe-screenshot
• Online help browser application: gpe-helpviewer
• OpenSync based synchronisation plugin (included in OpenSync).
• New applications ported to work with GPE: Gaim, GkDial
• A new library to handle contacts data, completing the PIM data abstraction layer.
• Improved import and export of PIM data using latest libmimedir.
• Many scalability improvements to make applications look better on various display sizes: gpe-contacts, gpe-sketchbook, gpe-timesheet, gpe-what, gpe-bluetooth, gpe-conf, gpe-mininet and others
• Some core applications now support the Maemo platform: gpe-todo, gpe-contacts, gpe-calendar and gpe-mini-browser
• Extended application functionality: gpe-calendar, gpe-conf, gpe-sketchbook, gpe-filemanager
• A basic roadmap document.
  * Useful, though still incomplete, documentation: Library reference, development manual and user documentation.

• Broken applications start to become useful again. (gpe-timesheet, gpe-today)
• Many parts of GPE make use of autoconf/automake now.
• 974 CVS checkins since March 2005.
• A large number of fixed bugs... no i do not want to list all affected parts here :-)

What's next?

In a complex project like GPE there is always a lot of work to do. The most important things for 2.8 (from roadmap and mind) might be:

• Include a stable working audio player.
• Device status and configuration management framework.
• Online help support for all basic applications.
• A backup tool.
• Finish developer and user documentation.
• Improve support for various different devices and simplify adaption to these.
• Make synchronizing easier.
• Update the GPE website.

The GPE 2.8 release is planned for june 2006.

Have a good time and enjoy GPE!