Port Gnome 3 to Qt

[deepclutch]

Gnome can do with a Forked QT-4.5 purging any dependency factor to do with QT/kde/trolltech/nokia/kdefans .

[xirtus]

wow... some of you kids are on spray paint...

All the fanboys sit down, lets just hold on a second.

Look here's the deal, we really can't waste time arguing over this nonsense... as there isn't a GTK3 and the GTK was invented effectively in order to ripoff QT for reasons that don't matter anymore, I can't see where this can possibly be going, (other than to QT)

Now I'm not looking at this from a debate point of view anymore, I'm just willing logic at this point: Gnome WILL be QT and, at least for the meantime, NOT KDE (cause really, anyone who tells you different is an idiot)

Now this kind of hampering blows my mind, why can't we remember the point of GNU?

There's so much room for varied innovation, but we have to use a metric system... Right now you know the BEOS is making a comeback as Haiku -without the linux kernel? I mean its explicitly because of all the work that went into linux that will now help Haiku thru GNU...

I see why people are freaked out about an end to GNOME, I mean any of you old enough to remember HURD? I seriously still think its going to happen. Hear about Viengoos? I hope to Ahura Mazda it will surpass the monolithic Linux Kernel... thats how romantic I am, that I believe the children are going to wake up and fix multiplexing for their multicores and I'll smile..

...I lost my train of thought...

the point is QT is the new gnome3 kit, and aren't we all glad? From now on, we can work to consolidate our tools in a way that will transcend gnome and kde, transcend ubuntu and linux, transcend gnu and unix, bsd & GPL in general.

Today is a GNU beginning for open-source; and I'm happy to see us figure that out together.

[bruce89]

Look here's the deal, we really can't waste time arguing over this nonsense... as there isn't a GTK3 and the GTK was invented effectively in order to ripoff QT for reasons that don't matter anymore, I can't see where this can possibly be going, (other than to QT)

GTK+ 3.0 is in the planning stages at the moment actually. Also, GTK+ isn't a "ripoff" of Qt, it was created because of the licence issue way back in the past (the QPL).

Now I'm not looking at this from a debate point of view anymore, I'm just willing logic at this point: Gnome WILL be QT and, at least for the meantime, NOT KDE (cause really, anyone who tells you different is an idiot)

This makes no sense at all, what would KDE switch to?

the point is QT is the new gnome3 kit, and aren't we all glad? From now on, we can work to consolidate our tools in a way that will transcend gnome and kde, transcend ubuntu and linux, transcend gnu and unix, bsd & GPL in general.

Where on Earth did you get that information from? No-one of the GNOME have even mentioned switching to Qt (apart from daft Mark, but he's not GNOME).

[DeadSuperHero]

Ah, gotta love the flamebait articles!

Truth be told, if you'd really want to see a version of GNOME using Qt, what's stopping you from forking off GNOME to use the toolkit? Granted, it would have a small developer base at first, and you'd get a FUD storm from both parties. There'd be complications, frustrations, several developers might walk out.

On the other hand, let's look at what this would yield:

-A possible overall improvement to GNOME: GTK, great as it is, can sometimes be really visually ugly. On top of that, I find there to be a lack of integration between apps sometimes, it feels more like a patchwork of frameworks. Not that it's an entirely bad thing, but I'm sure others can understand where I'm going with this.

-A possible improvement to Qt/KDE: Think about it. One of the reasons Qt improved so much in the first place was because KDE was developed with it. Constant demand required Trolltech to improve and share code with the KDE devs, causing everything leading up to KDE 4.x. This has lead to intricate frameworks, wrappers, and what I think to be a really nice desktop overall. However, there remains the problematic state of theming for Qt, and Gnome apps just don't fit into KDE, no matter how many qt-gtk engine patches you use. If, say, Gnome apps such as GIMP or Firefox were fully ported to Qt, they would integrate better with the environment, and some excited devs would already be plugging away to make them fit nicely into the various KDE frameworks.

-Simplified theming in KDE: Gnome has always been easier to theme, and the engines are usually easier to compile nowadays. I have no idea why, but compiling KDE themes across distributions is just flat-out frustrating. However, with some Qt/Gnome devs behind it, they could probably look into a way to compile several high-quality Qt engines and give out a sort of template for users to hack away on. (Sort of like what is done with Murrine, Clearlooks, etc.)

In any case, I'd actually like to see how something like this would play out. Heck, the more choices the better! And if great Gnome apps can integrate into the KDE desktop, and vice versa, why hold back?

[bruce89]

-A possible overall improvement to GNOME: GTK, great as it is, can sometimes be really visually ugly. On top of that, I find there to be a lack of integration between apps sometimes, it feels more like a patchwork of frameworks. Not that it's an entirely bad thing, but I'm sure others can understand where I'm going with this.

Theming in GTK+ is a pain in the lower back, but some people can make quite nice ones.

No toolkit can't make people design insane UIs, so you can end up with some very ugly ones. It surely is also possible to make an ugly Qt program.

GTK+ is only a UI library, so in that way there is a "patchwork". For instance, the text rendering is done by Pango, the graphics by GDK and Cairo, the lower level utility code by GLib and the object system by GObject to name a few.

-A possible improvement to Qt/KDE: Think about it. One of the reasons Qt improved so much in the first place was because KDE was developed with it. Constant demand required Trolltech to improve and share code with the KDE devs, causing everything leading up to KDE 4.x.
[...]
If, say, Gnome apps such as GIMP or Firefox were fully ported to Qt, they would integrate better with the environment, and some excited devs would already be plugging away to make them fit nicely into the various KDE frameworks.

GTK+ is developed by the GNOME people, so GNOME requirements have made GTK+ improve too. Also, GIMP isn't a GNOME program (mind you, how do you define that), and Firefox certainly isn't.

Firefox is gaining a belated Qt port by the way (in the respect that Qt has WebKit now).

[deepclutch]

GIMP isn't a GNOME program

GIMP tool Kit is not a Gnome Toolkit also.

[ZuLuuuuuu]

I can understand most of the opinions but can't understand when people count switching to Qt will make Gnome look better. This is a "taste" thing. Many people use Gnome just because they like its look much better than KDE. And I'm one of them. If every Linux distro look like KDE then I may even give up using Linux, it is that ugly to me.

We are disscussing how Qt switch will improve Gnome. But it is more logical for Qt to switch GTK actually, and no I didn't make mistake by writing Qt instead of KDE. Let me explain it: The GUI part of the Qt is using always the native widget toolkit of the platform it is running on, except Linux where it uses the widget toolkit of its own. The other parts of the Qt is not related with GTK. So Qt may drop its rendering system on Linux and use GTK to render the widgets and the rest of the Qt will remain the same. A change which includes only 1 platform and only 1 part of the toolkit. Easier than modifying a whole desktop environment isn't it? The GTK users would also be happy because the GTK feel won't go anywhere and GTK won't die. This also would make the things easier for Trolltech because they won't have to deal with lower level GUI stuff on Linux anymore...

[fissionmailed]

I have a great idea. First you take the GTK and Qt developers and you don't feed them for a week. Then you give them weapons and let them at it. Who ever wins gets both parties' development money and a trip to the Outback for some nice juicy steaks. Problem solved? I say so.

[techmarks]

I think it would be great to unite the Linux desktop efforts behind one single GUI toolkit.

That said would Gnome on QT go all bloated and sluggish...slow...like KDE?

[jacobw.uk]

Would it really be such a good idea to put (a large part of) the future of the free desktop in a one big Nokia controlled basket?