On 10/24/25 5:32 AM, Robin Candau wrote:
On 10/24/25 11:21 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
On Fri, 2025-10-24 at 03:46 -0500, David C Rankin wrote:
I still use Gtk2, and if it isn't a burden and isn't failing to build,
I would like to see it kept. I use [...] parcellite
Hi,
if it should be possible, please keep gtk2.
I rely on parcellite and a combination of fbpanel and lxpanel.
Unfortunately fbpanel depends on gtk 2, too.
FWIW Clipit is a gtk 3 fork of Parcellite, but discontinuned
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/clipit-git . I never tested Clipit.
Asking for a parcellite and fbpanel replacement is probably like asking
for a spacefm (although gtk3, not 2, over and done) replacement, hence I
don't ask for it.
Unfortunately, the for my taste good applications are gradually
disappearing.
Regards,
Ralf
Hi,
While we understand your concerns regarding your personal use cases,
Arch is (and shall remain) a modern distribution.
We have design principles [1] and general technical guidelines in that
regards that we'd like to respect here.
For what it's worth, working toward removing gtk2 is something we have
been looking for for 5 years at that point [2]. I don't think we're
willing to delay things even more now that we are finally close from
reaching that goal.
If anything, gtk2 and related packages can still be maintained in the
AUR, but the point is we are not willing to put efforts into officially
maintaining such deprecated packages anymore.
Please bear with us and thank you for your understanding :)
[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux
[2] https://archlinux.org/todo/gtk-2-eol/
Robin,
You guys always make good decisions, so I defer to the devs, but like
Ralf, I use fluxbox, fbpanel, parcellite and a number of other apps that
depend on gtk2. My only question is does it really take much
maintenance? Other than a few compiler flag tweaks when compiler
defaults change, the gtk2 source isn't changing.
Arch has done a good job maintaining gtk2 for as long as it has, and
that is much appreciated, bit if it drops to AUR is there one of the
devs willing to help out with any questions moving it and the dependent
packages to AUR? I ask because toolkits are, well toolkits, fundamental
to many packages and if gtk2 drops to AUR and there are no replacements
for the dependent packages, that's a significant loss of functionality.
Ralf, if it does drop to AUR, I'm willing to put in some time to make
sure it builds, along with making sure the packages we both depend on
get migrated there.
--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
