Re: GNUstep on Hackernews

[Liam Proven]

On Tue, 14 Dec 2021 at 15:27, Riccardo Mottola
<riccardo.mottola@libero.it> wrote:

> It is a high burden to maintain, there was one official, one
> not-official... I agree that it is useful, but I consider having ready
> working packages of quality of much higher impact.

When I post about or write about GNUstep, people are generally amazed
it still exists.

There are only about 0.1% as many programmers as users. Millions of
people use Linux as their desktop OS now.

> That distribution
> would be just a show-case, but then the majority of people would still
> want to use GNUstep things in their current OS.

I disagree, but I have said so before with little impact.

>  Maybe one day our impact
> will be so great that GSUbuntu will spread, but I doubt.
> Also, the strength of GNUstep is its portability, so the target OS shoud
> be too.

This is true, but if it's a visible, usable environment on Linux then
that will be a reason to help make sure it's one on other free xNixes
as well, no?

> I wonder if Richard Stonehouse still reads us? His ready VM images was
> excellent! What more convenient than trying in a virtual machine before
> deciding to install?

It was a good start, yes.

I think a mainstream, current distro installable on bare metal for
end-users *not programmers* is key, though.

> They evaluated us and discarded GNUstep on what basis? I had no
> interaction with any of them nor did i see things on the mailing list.

Me neither. I am in touch with the guy; I will ask.

> I
> doubt someone without prior knowledge can grasp GS  all by onself
> without help. So you think "our loss", but I'd say also "their loss".

That's the nature of FOSS.

> Now they have a mesh of python stuff, simplified and different App
> bunles... but at the end where are the "apps" for HelloSystem?

The programmer is the man who devised AppImage. I think he has more
than a bit of a clue in that direction.

> We have few, but it is possible to make a full, consistent environment
> of GNUstep. Several attempts have proven that!

I am not doubting it.

> A bad evaluation of GNUstep was done years ago.. then GNOME was created
> and now we know the monstrum that came out which reinvented fromt eh
> toolkit to distributed objects and now has a lot of disgruntled users.

Agreed.


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