The developers behind the GNOME project have gathered in the Netherlands this week for the annual GUADEC conference. During a meeting that took place at the event, the GNOME release team made the difficult decision to delay the launch of GNOME 3, the next major version of the popular open source desktop environment.

The new version has been deemed unready for mass consumption and will need another round of refinements before it can achieve the level of maturity and robustness that is expected by the software's users. Although the news will likely disappoint some enthusiasts, it is consistent with the GNOME development community's conservative approach to release management and strong emphasis on predictability.

GNOME consists of open source applications and development frameworks that form a complete desktop computing stack. It provides a number of the core components that make up the default user experience in many mainstream Linux distributions, including Ubuntu and Fedora. GNOME is developed on a time-based six-month release cycle, which means that there are two incremental releases every year.

Original GNOME 3 release schedule

The predictability of the consistent release cycle is one of the major factors that has driven GNOME adoption among commercial desktop Linux distributors, but the incremental development model has largely precluded radical changes. The idea of a major 3.0 update had been discussed for quite some time, but did not initially attract much support from key decision makers.

Some GNOME developers, however, feared that the project's reduction in forward momentum was leading to a decline in innovation and a state of "decadence." These concerns prompted a renewal of interest in overhauling the GNOME user experience, a movement that culminated in 2008 with the formation of a GNOME 3 roadmap and development plan.

GNOME 3 was originally intended to launch in March of 2010, but the developers prepared for the possibility that it would not be ready in time. They decided to move forward with their plans to release a new major version, but with the understanding that they would release a normal incremental update instead if 3.0 wasn't sufficiently mature.

That is exactly what happened when the release team assessed the suitability of 3.0 in preparation for the March release. They decided to push it up another cycle and aim for a September launch. This week at GUADEC, they have once again concluded that version 3 is not yet ready. We will see another standard incremental update in September and the GNOME 3 release will be pushed back another cycle, with the aim of getting it out the door in March 2011.

A sensible release management strategy

The continued delays are not particularly troubling and a lot of progress has been made on the new GNOME 3.0 technologies over the past six months. The GNOME Shell, a new desktop user interface that is built with JavaScript and the Clutter framework, has seen an especially rapid pace of evolution and many improvements during the current development cycle. A lot of the transitional work that is taking place under the hood, such as the shift from the legacy GConf configuration system to the modern GSettings framework, is also proceeding faster than some observers anticipated.

Many Linux enthusiasts likely remember the problems that plagued the competing KDE desktop environment when its fourth major version was released in 2008. KDE 4 was launched prematurely in a partially completed state because its developers hoped that users would help identify weaknesses and accelerate the completion of the software. The plan backfired, partly because mixed messages from KDE's developers broadly distorted the expectations of the software's users.

It seems clear that the GNOME developers are carefully working to avoid falling into the same trap. They aren't going to release GNOME 3 until it's mature enough for practical day-to-day use. All things considered, the GNOME release management strategy looks sound and well-reasoned. The ongoing incremental releases have allowed the existing GNOME environment to move forward during the protracted period of development for version 3.0, ensuring that regular users won't suffer any ill effects from the delays.

"GNOME is driven by its goals to provide a quality free software desktop, and we feel that our users and downstream community are better served by holding the GNOME 3.0 release until March 2011," GNOME's release team said in an official statement. "This gives adequate time not only for feature development, but user feedback and testing."

First impressions are very important in software. When introducing a completely new user interface, it's important to make sure that it has the highest possible level of fit and finish right out of the starting gate. If users have a bad first experience, they might simply never accept the changes. As such, it's unsurprising that the GNOME developers are being cautious about the completeness of GNOME 3.

Although it's not ready for official release, users who want to get an early look at some of the key features of GNOME 3 can still choose to install the software themselves. I've been using the GNOME Shell package archive from Launchpad to periodically test the new user interface on Ubuntu, for example. We will be taking a closer look at the software and report on some of the new features in the coming months as the developers prepare for the official release.