Re: GNUstep Live on OSnews

[Bertrand Dekoninck]

> 
> 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