Accordingly, over the coming months the project will focus on a new framework for applications, a software development kit (SDK), better testing, a well-defined core UX, and enhanced hardware compatibility, Day said.

March 2014 is when the OS is expected to arrive, according to a from the developer conference.

'A Touch-Compatible GNOME 3'

Hardware compatibility, in fact, was a key topic that arose at the recent conference, where developers Xan López and Juan José Sánchez recounted some of the key challenges facing GNOME in their presentation.

Among those challenges were a "lack of direction and vision," a "brain drain/losing users," and the project's current "focus on the traditional desktop."