Hi Ethan, Glad to hear the site under GitHub is only a temporary parking spot. Having everything under the gnustep.org umbrella certainly reinforces the brand (for lack of a better term).
I agree the website mockups are dated but for the purposes of the document I was thinking more evolution rather than revolution, my preference being the latter, but I don’t know what the community appetite is for that kind of approach. I’m hoping we’ll figure that out as a result of discussions launched by the document. I also agree with having a standard font, colour palette and design guide - results from our efforts should be more professional and will keep everything consistent. Lastly regarding a new modern theme, I agree with that comment as well. I would even go so far as to make a modern gnustep look and feel the default, but also retaining the classic look as an option. Having said that, the look and feel is somewhat dictated by the desktop environment a user might be running under. Personally I am using WindowMaker + GNUstep apps + other stuff but does everyone use that? Taking that into consideration, what are the implications for consistency of look and feel? I think some thoughts and discussions will be needed in this space. Best regards, Steven > On May 6, 2025, at 12:03 PM, Ethan C <[email protected]> wrote: > > gnustep.github.io is planned to be moved to gnustep.org or to > developer.gnustep.org once it is more complete. > > The website mockups you shared look pretty good, and I like it, but it looks > kind of dated (it screams early 2010s to me, which might not be the > impression we want to give). > > For the font, I think we should move to a free-software font. The fonts that > look good on both marketing materials and are legible on UI that I know of: > > * Inter - looks a lot like SF Pro, used by lots of React websites > > * Noto Sans - looks kind of like Segoe UI, used by KDE > > * Cantarell - used by GNOME > > * Source Sans > > * Fira Sans > > * Ubuntu - used by Ubuntu > > Of course, we could choose not to have a preferred UI font, but I believe it > is better to use a font that looks good on marketing materials and is the > same as the UI, so that UI screenshots can look nice in marketing materials. > Of the ones above, Noto Sans and Inter are probably the most neutral-looking > ones. > > Also, I feel like we should make a GNUstep theme which looks more modern > (although GNUstep is quite themable most of the themes still look kind of > dated, even Rik and Nesedah). We should make it integrate well with the > visual identity, and I think it should have proportions that are similar to > macOS (to prevent layout issues when porting macOS apps) but have a distinct > look. However, it might not be feasible to adopt a very distinct look, as we > would need to design a good one that is also usable. In that case, we might > want to go with adapting an existing GNU/Linux theme (libadwaita, late Gtk3 > era Adwaita, current Breeze, or one of the more popular third-party ones like > Numix). > > On 5/6/25 06:56, Steven wrote: >> Hello GNUsteppers! >> >> I’m following up on the initial email sent on the email list, of people >> expressing their interest in working on promoting the GNUstep project. Since >> I have a long train commute to the office, this has given me time to >> organize some thoughts into a document that I am sharing here today. >> >> Please note the intent is to have something in hand to continue the >> discussion and perhaps organize some individual efforts to accomplish >> things. Take everything with a grain of salt, it certainly is not a plan but >> I hope it is the first step towards one (if everyone feels there is a need >> for a one)! >> >> In a nutshell, I think there is a case to be made for a refresh of the >> gnustep.org website, in look and feel as well as content organization. I >> believe there’s an even stronger case to move all developer related content >> under a new developer.gnustep.org <http://developer.gnustep.org/> section, >> if not for anything else but to simply be consistent with what seems to have >> emerged as a defacto standard in the industry. This effort is all to provide >> the base for any new PR campaign(s) the community wishes to pursue (some >> suggestions in the document). >> >> I understand there is an effort being made to produce a new site >> (gnustep.github.io) and I believe this is probably due to the same >> conclusions I came up with after surveying the gnustep landscape, but imho >> moving away from the gnustep.org site would not be beneficial. >> >> Please feel free to share your thoughts on the mailing list. >> >> Cheers >> Steven L. >> >> >> >> >> >>> On Mar 14, 2025, at 9:19 PM, Steven <[email protected]> >>> <mailto:[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Hi Everyone, >>> >>> I’ve been reading through the gnustep-discuss thread "GNUstep Public >>> Relations" and this is something I would like to help with if there’s a >>> need. I’m wondering if there’s a published plan or a set of goals the >>> project is working towards and interested parties could take on the task? >>> >>> I’ve been following GNUstep off and on for a long time and I’m just >>> re-familiarizing myself with everything. I just gave the >>> gnustep-web-install-dev script a try as per the instructions on gnustep.org >>> but unfortunately it didn’t work. After displaying the ascii art I got: >>> >>> >>> IMPORTANT! >>> You must update your .ssh directory so it contains your github ssh key >>> Begin setup for linux >>> bash: line 45: ./setup-linux: Permission denied >>> ======== Create gnustep build directories ======== >>> Cloning into 'tools-scripts'... >>> The authenticity of host 'github.com (140.82.112.4)' can't be established. >>> ED25519 key fingerprint is >>> SHA256:+DiY3wvvV6TuJJhbpZisF/zLDA0zPMSvHdkr4UvCOqU. >>> This key is not known by any other names >>> Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes >>> Warning: Permanently added 'github.com' (ED25519) to the list of known >>> hosts. >>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>: Permission denied (publickey). >>> fatal: Could not read from remote repository. >>> ... >>> >>> After this I tried out the slightly different script/instruction shown on >>> gnustep.github.io site (gnustep-web-install) >>> This one worked a bit better for me: >>> >>> Begin setup for linux >>> ./setup-linux: line 7: /etc/lsb-release: No such file or directory >>> sudo command is already present. >>> Checking if root password is not set, please set it... >>> Adding steven to sudoers... >>> Please enter the root user's password. >>> Password: su: Authentication token manipulation error >>> ======== Create gnustep build directories ======== >>> Cloning into 'tools-scripts’… >>> >>> That error show shown in setup-linux line 7 is because I am running >>> Slackware, which does not have /etc/lsb-release but it does have >>> /etc/os-release >>> Having said that I would like to work on a “install-dependencies-slackware” >>> script and maybe fix up the gnustep-web-install script to cater for >>> Slackware also. >>> >>> I don’t know how to go about contributing changes or documentation or >>> anything else like that, is there a process? >>> Do changes get reviewed by someone? >>> >>> The other issue I did have with the gnustep-web-install script is the post >>> installation failed: >>> >>> ... >>> GNUmakefile:31: Unable to obtain GNUSTEP_MAKEFILES setting from >>> gnustep-config! >>> … >>> >>> Once I manually fixed up my path, the post-install-linux script runs, but >>> it fails because it can’t link Gorm with libdispatch. Taking a closer look >>> I see that it is built as part of gnustep-web-install but is installed in >>> /usr/GNUstep/System/Library/Libraries/libdispatch.so >>> <http://libdispatch.so/> which is not in ld’s path. I created /etc/ld.so >>> <http://ld.so/>.conf.d/gnustep.conf containing the path, ran ldconfig and >>> the post install linking completed. >>> >>> So the good news is there’s only a few things to fix and Slackware could be >>> listed as a GNUstep target system! >>> >>> My other observation I have is, right at the start of the script is says >>> it’s adding my user to sudoers (it’s already a sudoer) but also prompts for >>> the root password, is that necessary? >>> >>> >>> Cheers >>> Steven >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>
