Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situated where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Canton of Geneva; the municipality has a population of 201,818, the canton has 499,480 residents. In 2014, the compact agglomération du Grand Genève had 946,000 inhabitants in 212 communities in both Switzerland and France. Within Swiss territory, the commuter area named "Métropole lémanique" contains a population of 1.26 million. This area is spread east from Geneva towards the Riviera area and north-east towards Yverdon-les-Bains, in the neighbouring canton of Vaud. Geneva is a global city, a financial centre, a worldwide centre for diplomacy due to the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many agencies of the United Nations and the Red Cross. Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world, it is where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which chiefly concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war.

In 2017, Geneva was ranked as the world's fifteenth most important financial centre for competitiveness by the Global Financial Centres Index, fifth in Europe behind London, Zürich and Luxembourg. In 2019 Geneva was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer together with Zürich and Basel; the city has been referred to as the world's most compact metropolis and the "Peace Capital". In 2017, Geneva was ranked as the seventh most expensive city in the world. Geneva was ranked first by gross earnings, second expensive, third in earnings purchasing power gross hourly pay in a global cities ranking by UBS in 2018; the city was mentioned in Latin texts, by Caesar, with the spelling Genava from the Celtic *genawa- from the stem *genu-, in the sense of a bending river or estuary, an etymology shared with the Italian port city of Genoa. The medieval county of Geneva in Middle Latin was known as pagus major Genevensis or Comitatus Genevensis. After 1400 it became the Genevois province of Savoy.

Geneva was an Allobrogian border town, fortified against the Helvetii tribe, when the Romans took it in 121 BC. It became Christian under the Late Roman Empire, acquired its first bishop in the 5th century, having been connected to the Bishopric of Vienne in the 4th. In the Middle Ages, Geneva was ruled by a count under the Holy Roman Empire until the late 14th century, when it was granted a charter giving it a high degree of self-governance. Around this time, the House of Savoy came to at least nominally dominate the city. In the 15th century, an oligarchic republican government emerged with the creation of the Grand Council. In the first half of the 16th century, the Protestant Reformation reached the city, causing religious strife, during which Savoy rule was thrown off and Geneva allied itself with the Swiss Confederacy. In 1541, with Protestantism on the rise, John Calvin, the Protestant Reformer and proponent of Calvinism, became the spiritual leader of the city and established the Republic of Geneva.

By the 18th century, Geneva had come under the influence of Catholic France, which cultivated the city as its own. France tended to be at odds with the ordinary townsfolk, which inspired the failed Geneva Revolution of 1782, an attempt to win representation in the government for men of modest means. In 1798, revolutionary France under the Directory annexed Geneva. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, on 1 June 1814, Geneva was admitted to the Swiss Confederation. In 1907, the separation of Church and State was adopted. Geneva flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the seat of many international organizations. Geneva is located at 46°12' North, 6°09' East, at the south-western end of Lake Geneva, where the Rhône flows out, it is surrounded by three mountain chains, each belonging to the Jura: the Jura main range lies north-westward, the Vuache southward, the Salève south-eastward. The city covers an area of 15.93 km2, while the area of the canton is 282 km2, including the two small exclaves of Céligny in Vaud.

The part of the lake, attached to Geneva has an area of 38 km2 and is sometimes referred to as petit lac. The canton has only a 4.5-kilometre-long border with the rest of Switzerland. Of 107.5 km of border, 103 are shared with France, the Département de l'Ain to the north and west and the Département de la Haute-Savoie to the south and east. Of the land in the city, 0.24 km2, or 1.5%, is used for agricultural purposes, while 0.5 km2, or 3.1%, is forested. The rest of the land, 14.63 km2, or 91.8%, is built up, 0.49 km2, or 3.1%, is either rivers or lakes and 0.02 km2, or 0.1%, is wasteland. Of the built up area, industrial buildings made up 3.4%, housing and buildings made up 46.2% and transportation infrastructure 25.8%, while parks, green belts and sports fields made up 15.7%. Of the agricultural land, 0.3% is used for growing crops. Of the water in the municipality, 0.2 % is composed of lakes and 2.9 % streams. The altitude of Geneva is 373.6 metres and corresponds to the altitude of the largest of the Pierres du Niton, two large rocks emerging from the lake which date from the last ice age.

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The Kahlenbergerdorf Parish Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the suburb of Kahlenbergerdorf in the 19th district of Vienna, Döbling. It is dedicated to Saint George. A church is recorded in Kahlenbergerdorf in 1168; the church was destroyed in 1529 by the Turks but it was rebuilt. Renovation work took place in 1633 and 1771; the parish church is based on a simple late Romanesque/early Gothic building, given a Baroque appearance during the last renovation. The southern spire was given a Baroque roof; the church’s white rib vault was erected on the remains of the medieval church, destroyed by the Turks. The central element of the church is the Baroque altar with a depiction of Saint Andrew, he is flanked by statues of Saint Florian. There is a depiction of Saint George from 1827. To the right of the altar, there is a late Gothic altar to Mary, erected in 1760; the depiction of the Madonna in the centre of the church dates from the early 16th century. There is a large, Baroque crucifix on the southern wall, part of an altar.

The altar was removed in the 19th century. Further noteworthy elements of the church are a Gothic Baptismal font made of red marble, an alms box decorated with rosettes, a stoup; the organ was made by Franz Ullmann in 1849. Klusacek, Christine. Vom Gürtel zu den Weinbergen. Wien 1988 Schwarz, Godehard: Döbling. Zehn historische Spaziergänge durch Wiens 19. Bezirk. Wien 2004 Pfarre Kahlenbergerdorf Die Pfarre auf www.kahlenbergerdorf.at

Object Desktop is an online software subscription service created by Stardock for OS/2 and relaunched for Windows in 1997. Object Desktop includes most graphical user interface customization and productivity products offered by Stardock, including WindowBlinds, DesktopX, Tweak7, IconPackager and ObjectBar. Object Desktop — entitled The Workplace Toolset/2 — was developed over three years by Brad Wardell and Kurt Westerfeld subsequent to Stardock's OS/2 Essentials, a pre-registered set of OS/2 shareware. Object Desktop 1.0 was followed by 1.5 and Professional versions following in short order. By 1997 the OS/2 ISV market was flagging, many customers were switching to Windows NT 4. 1997 OS/2 revenues were 33% of those in 1996, they fell to 25% of 1996 levels in 1998. This led to their decision to switch to Windows in mid-1997. Stardock remained an OS/2 ISV until February 2001, when they stopped selling Object Desktop for OS/2. OS/2 versions were sold as initial versions and upgrades, costing more than Windows versions due to lower volume of sales.

The initial release of Object Desktop was both praised for its functionality and criticised for performance and compatibility issues. Object Desktop 1.5 was released on 2 May 1996, fixing many problems, adding the following components: Users of 1.0 could upgrade for $37. Object Desktop Professional was aimed at professional users of OS/2, it was released on 24 August 1996, priced at $179. In addition to the features of OD 1.5, the package included: Object Desktop 2.0 was an update to all released components, an integration of the Professional features into the main package. It was priced at $99.95. An upgrade to 2.02 was released at the start of 2000, but it was made clear that it would be the last release. When it became clear that OS/2 would not remain a viable platform, Stardock decided to move to Windows; this required rewriting old components and writing new ones to replace those which were not appropriate for Windows. This would take time, but Stardock needed money to sustain development.

To cope with this cashflow problem, Object Desktop users who had switched from OS/2 to Windows were asked to purchase Windows subscriptions in advance of the actual software, on the understanding that their subscription period would only begin when the software was reasonably complete. This program was called the Early Experience Program. Due to significant goodwill built up over the previous years, many signed up, Stardock survived; the new Object Desktop package was related to the OS/2 versions, with old favourites like Object Edit, Control Center and Task/Tab Launchpad being ported over. However, as the userbase expanded from its traditional core of technical users into the wider Windows market, newer components shifted to focus on customizing the graphical user interface; the flagship component of Object Desktop became WindowBlinds. Impulse is the main interface for registering and updating components, it is equivalent to a package manager. Users pay an initial fee for one year of access to download updates.

They may download new components added during their subscription period. Updates are not guaranteed. After expiry, users can not download any software. Renewals add a year of access from the date of renewal, not the expiry date; the initial subscription fee for the Windows version of Object Desktop has been $49.95, while a year's renewal or an upgrade from a standalone component has been $34.95. Object Desktop 2008 introduced two tiers, with the lower tier at $49.95 and the higher tier at $69.95, but the latter was eliminated in 2010. Object Desktop works on a component model; these components are available to all Object Desktop subscribers as of February 2010: These components may remain available for some legacy subscribers, but are not offered to new users: These components have been withdrawn from service or did not make it past the beta stages: These components were not brought forth to the Windows version of Object Desktop: An occasional complaint with the subscription model is that a subscriber's favourite component has not been updated or may be left in beta for a long time.

On the other hand, popular components such as WindowBlinds tend to be updated, with beta releases every week or two, release versions with new features every few months, major version changes every year or so. Some non-Object Desktop users have said the beta issue creates a double standard and forces people to upgrade to Object Desktop in order to get the latest features, while Stardock says that the policy is due to too many standalone users expecting beta versions to have the same reliability as release versions, the increased ease of releasing a build on Impulse over a separate installation package. Object Desktop, a history Stardock's OS/2 history 10 years of Stardock/Stardock's 10-year Anniversary Object Desktop website