Re: elementary OS

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

from time to time this mailing list gets attacked with emails of hate.

On 02/09/14 20:41, James Jordan wrote:
> GNUstep is not an OS, it is not even a desktop!  GNUstep is a nearly 
> useless framework that NO-ONE uses for productive work on a day-to-day 
> basis.  The developers dedicate their time to developing new back-ends 
> (what is it now 5 or 6, none of which actually work well), and chasing 
> esoteric OS X capabilities which invariably break the few, very few, 
> GNUstep applications that almost work.  Look through the archives; 
> time and again the "developers" admit that they DO NOT use GNUstep for 
> anything except possibly developing GNUstep. 
Well, yes, some people just continue developing new stuff without 
finishing the previous. It itches. But well, developers feel the need of 
make new stuff. That's actually a "problem" of most projects.
Some projects manage still to complete and work to get a more complete 
and clean product.

But I am running GS apps as I write right now. I do run GS apps 
everyday. Not just at home, but in the enterprise GS app prove useful 
and uniqie in duties. So, just because you haven't heard of certain apps 
and they aren't in your favourite distribution or packaged after you 
likings, it doesn't mean that they don't get used.
Sure, sadly, there are people writing loud here on the list, without 
actually using apps (or working on them).

> A new look for the website is NOT going to make any difference! 
>  GNUstep is dead and has been for a very long time.  Who is going to 
> load a massive set of libraries that do not even conform to modern 
> filesystem standards, try to figure out how to source an environment, 
> locate some applications  pretending to be folders in 
> /opt/GNUstep/system/applications (or wherever they are located)  just 
> to play with a couple of programs that halfway work.
Personally, I want my apps to be bundles to be in
/Local/Applications
/System/Applications

that's just better and more advanced than anything GNOME, KDE or 
ElementaryOS can offer. Oh, perhaps the Mac offers this, as NeXTStep and 
OpenStep did before? Go figure!
I dare to think different than "filesystem standards", esle why have 
just another implementation.... of a standard?

> Riccardo, Phillipe you guys have worked hard to make GNUstep actually 
> usable!  You both should find a project where your talents and hard 
> work can be appreciated, a project that has a user base bigger than ZERO.
I take that as a compliment. However, I feel this project as my home, 
why should I change?
1) I want to write in one of the languages I like most and in which I 
write I have written applications in the past 12 years
2) I want to use a clean API which I have learned to appreciate
3) I want to work on recreating, extending and improving an Destkop (nee 
Workspace) that I admire a lot.

What would be the alternatives? Not working in GTK, which is now in its 
third incarnation, gtk3, most terrible than ever... it ruines even 
Emacs! C++? Or those script-interpreted languages?

I would see only a more radical alternative, a parallel project like 
EtoileOS or even a fork.
But would that increase my user base?

I, in any case, can share a bit of your frustration! Don't you think O 
ever felt frustrated when I discovered nobody uses my app and that I 
find the bugs myself?
Or that there are limitations and bugs in GS since years, which hamper 
my own written apps?

Try to use SWK+Vespucci on Mac and then on GS.
Try to print with Graphos or Laternamagica on Mac and then on GS.
Try to implement themes they way you want
Try to manage languages with PC...
Try to ....

But still, my faith is not broken :) Most of this can be solved and 
improved. It is just hard to do it all by myself.

Soon I will be able to write this mail fro GNUMail again! I'm confident!

> Goodbye GNUstep, you could have been great.
Long live GNUstep!

Riccardo

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GNUstep maintainer and Application developer