GNOME 3, the next evolution of the GNOME desktop environment, has just been released a few minutes ago.

The GNOME developers have just announced today, April 6th, in a press release that the final and stable version of the popular GNOME 3 desktop environment is now available for download.

GNOME 3 is a light desktop environment used in many popular Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, etc.

GNOME 3 comes after five years of hard work and it brings totally redesigned user interface, a lot of hot new features, improved applications, new translations and updated documentation. Let's have a look at some of the most important ones:


· Simply beautiful - GNOME 3 offers an extremely elegant and easy-to-use desktop, thanks to the new GNOME Shell. It also features a new font, a new GTK style, and beautiful animations.

· An overview at a glance - You can easily access all your applications with a single mouse click. Easy keyboard navigation to access your apps is also provided.


· Messaging built-in - Ability to send replays to instant messages straight from the notification dialog.

· Distraction-free computing - With GNOME 3 you are in control all the time, by reducing the interruption and distraction with the new notifications system. The notifications will be automatically and intelligently stored for later reading.


· Everything at your fingertips - You can easily and quickly access everything on your GNOME 3 desktop only with your keyboard. To search for something, all you have to do is press the activities keyboard key (a.k.a. the Windows key)... is as simple as that.

· Redesigned system settings - GNOME 3 features completely redesigned system settings, which makes them easier to use. There is also a new way to browse your settings, and you can easily find the settings you need with the new reorganised categories.

"For GNOME 3, the GNOME Project has started from scratch and created a completely new, modern desktop designed for today's users and technologies." - was stated on the new GNOME 3 website.

But wait, there's more! GNOME 3 also features...

· Side-by-side window tiling, in order to handle multiple windows easy and simple;
· A revamped file manager;
· You can easily organize windows with totally revamped workspaces;
· Smoother and faster desktop experience with many "under the hood" improvements;
· A pleasant experience for every user, on any machine!

Hopefully, the upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Linux distribution will include a fully functional version of the GNOME 3 desktop environment.

Until major operating system will update their desktop environments to GNOME 3, users are able to download the GNOME 3.0 sources right from Softpedia.