Announcement 2.0.0
DRAFT: This page collects drafts for the potential announcement of the 2.0.0 release. What kind of message should that be? Simply something similar to Announcement 1.9.6, or rather some "news-text" similar to https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-February/008357.html ?
For a start, I've copied the 1.8 "press notes" from https://lists.gnucash.org/pipermail/gnucash-devel/2003-February/008357.html:
Draft press notes, copied from 1.8.0
May xx, 2006 (The INTERNET) The GnuCash Development Team http://www.gnucash.org proudly announces the release of GnuCash 2.0, the GNU personal finance manager.
(FIXME: This is only copied from the 1.8 announcement. We need something completely different now for sure.) GnuCash features a full account hierarchy manager, a checkbook-like register GUI to enter transactions, and an exhaustive set of reports to visualize the state of your finances. New features in this release include (FIXME: describe new set of features) scheduled transactions, small business features, OFX import and HBCI (the German online banking system) support. The user interface is designed to be simple and easy to use, but it is backed with double-entry accounting principles to ensure balanced books.
(FIXME: This is only copied from the 1.8 announcement. We need something completely different now for sure.) "You don't need Windows any longer. GnuCash comes with all finance manager features I need, and in Germany I even can manage all my online banking tasks through GnuCash, " says Christian Stimming of the developer team. "Even better: In GnuCash I have the first HBCI software that can really be checked for potential back doors, since its GPL license gives me true access to the source code."
With respect to OFX import, GnuCash is the first free software application to support the Open Financial Exchange protocol that many banks and financial services are moving to use. The development of OFX and HBCI support has also resulted in an improved transaction matching and completion system during transaction import.
In Small Business Accounting, GnuCash now can be used for Customer and Vendor tracking, Invoicing and Bill Payment, and using different Tax and Billing Terms in a small business.
(FIXME: This is only copied from the 1.8 announcement. We need something completely different now for sure.) An account heirarchy creation druid helps new users get started. Existing financial data from e.g. Quicken or MS Money can easily be imported by the QIF importer. Brand new help documentation, in conjunction with a Tutorial and Concepts guide, has been written which focuses on how to do tasks that gives the new user background information on using GnuCash.
GnuCash is available for free under the GNU General Public License (GPL) from the GnuCash server http://www.gnucash.org and its mirrors. Thanks go to all the translators, testers, and bug reporters who made this release possible.
Downloading and Compiling GnuCash
The source packages for GnuCash are available for free download at http://www.gnucash.org/pub/gnucash . GnuCash 1.8 requires the Gnome 2.??? platform, guile, slib, and g-wrap. If you are upgrading from GnuCash 1.8, (FIXME: describe requirements here) The detailed requirements can be found at http://www.gnucash.org/en/required.phtml.
