Hi Riccardo
One problem is that the GNUstep project has nearly nothing to show to end
users (except screenshots and descriptions). As a consequence a lot of people
doesn't understand the project. They want to do a quick try but they can't.
(in France we have the great http://linuxfr.org website where such questions
often comes.)
As I've always wanted to work on a light desktop using GNUstep, I propose to
work on this :
Even if the project is not about building a desktop, a lots of components are
already present. My idea is to write a short how-to that can be polished along
the time. It should answer to such basic questions that are evident for the
team but not for the others :
- which Window Manager can I choose ? which one for that task ?
- how should I configure GWorkspace ?
- where can I find themes ?
- can I take some Etoilé components ?
etc.
Hi Xavier, here are my 2 cents
GWorkspace is my day to day desktop.
- I use Windowmaker only because it can handle GNUstep miniwindows, but I’ve
disabled its dock and clip and use GWorkspace dock instead. Not perfect, but it
works.
- in its autostart file, i’ve put compton (compositing manager),
gnome-settings-deamon (for gtk theming but I need to disable the mouse cursor
handling in gconf first, else the cursor would disappear), GWorkspace and
AClock.
- In SystemPreferences, GNUstep is set to use the cairo backend and the Rik
theme, and also to have a mac menubar and to hide dot files.
- I would have liked to use EtoileMenuServer to have a persistant global
menubar with a session manager and a logout widget but it can’t compile it
correctly. Instead i’ve written a small topbar which is only visible when non
GNUstep apps have the focus.
- I’ve configured GWorkspace to show desktop and dock
- The most important part is to install in …/Applications app-wrappers to be
able to launch non GNUstep apps in GWorkspace. You must set up correctly the
filetype associations too in GWorkspace. There are some app wrappers in the
GWorkspace source repo at https://github.com/gnustep/apps-gworkspace. And I’ve
written some in my RikIcons repo at
https://github.com/BertrandDekoninck/RikIcons/tree/master/AppWrappers. My
wrappers will fit better with Rik.theme because they use Faenza icons for apps
and the file-type icons I’ve designed for Rik mimicking the mac ones. This way,
you will use the non-GNUstep apps of your choice to open files (there are not
so much usable GNUstep apps…) and the global look will be coherent.
With these settings, I’ve got a very usable mac-like desktop.
Cheers, Bertrand
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