The GNOME Foundation has appointed Steven Deobald as its new Executive Director, filling the position left open by 168彩票:Holly Million’s resignation last year.

The GNOME Foundation has faced numerous challenges of late, including 168彩票:funding issues, the mysterious and controversial ban of a key member and contributor, and the appointment of Millionജ as the previous Executive Director. The foundation needs a 🀅steady hand and solid leadership at the moment, and its clearly hoped that Deobald will provide that.

Interestingly, while Deobald comes from a strong tech and open source background, he he’s a newcomer to the GNOME project itself.

It is precisely that community — that global network of friends — that has me so excited to work with the GNOME Foundation. The word “e꧅xcited” really doesn’t do it justice. I have been involved in many free software, open design, and open docs efforts over the years. But none of those have the gargantuan history, community, and installed base of GNOME. It is a privilege to serve GNOME, and I’m grateful. That gratitude is the entire reason I’m here and I’d like to take the rest of this post to explain where that feeling comes from — and what I hope to do with it.

It’s likely being a newcomer to GNOME could help Deobald bring a new perspective to the foundation.

Deobald says that transparency will be a big p𝔉art of his mission at the foundation, as well as returning it to its roots.

Of course, 🧸transparency isn’t a switch we can just turn oﷺn. It’s a constant effort we apply to our own processes. It’s iterative. It’s work. But it can also be fun! Knowing that everyone else is trying their hardest can be the most energizing motivation, and I’m excited to help.

Beyond tra🧸nsparency, I hope we can re-establish the GNOME Foundat𒅌ion’s … well, foundations. The Foundation exists to support GNOME, to support design and development, to support contributors.

A big part of this is financial stability. Ultimately, the Fꦏoundation should support new growth. But to begin with, we need bedroc💛k.

One word to describe these intentions is resilience: across finances, people, documentation, a♍nd processes. Let’s build an environment that lasts another 27 years.

GNOME remains the most popula💦r desktop environment on Linux—although KDE Plasma has been closing the gap—making steady, responsible stewardship of the organization an important factor in its future success.