Gnome 2.10 hits beta

The Gnome Project last week released the first public beta of its next open-source desktop application.

The 2.10 version of the popular graphical interfaces for Linux -- which is included with most commercial distributions of the OS -- is still on schedule for a 9 March release, although according to Gnome's own roadmap, this beta arrived more than a week late.

The beta of 2.10 includes a new help system browser dubbed Yelp that's based on Mozilla's Geko rendering engine, enhancements to the Evolution groupware client bundled with the desktop, a revamped interface for handling network connections, new applets, and various multimedia improvements and additions