I think it's a fair statement that installing GNUstep packages in Debian provides a decent experience. Certainly one of the better options packaging wise. It is not the same as ticking a GNUstep box in the Debian installer, or grabbing a Debian Live ISO and having it done for you. I suspect that a NextSpace ISO would add more value and be far more interesting to more people that than that.
Joseph Maloney Sent with Proton Mail secure email. On Friday, July 11th, 2025 at 4:40 AM, Riccardo Mottola <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Lars, > > > [email protected] wrote: > > > https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxsucks/comments/1i8d1yw/gnustep_is_supposed_to_be_great_but_i_cant_get_it/ > > > > I don’t want to spread negative vibes, but please let that sink in. We > > are doing great work, but we don’t communicate it the right way. > > > sorry, but you should have learned that this kind of emails does spread > negative vibes. And you are also wrong stirring up the pot intentionally > calling this "presentation to the world & communication". > I will auto-mute myself on this thread, but you are a long time > participant in this community, so I value your inputs. But you should > also know how discussions react and evolve. Facts are important, FUD is > less. > > You get a discussion out of "linuxsucks" with additional pointers to "I > hate linux". Just to give the objectiveness where you get the comments > from to stir up the pot. > > This guy has an issue and just posts a rant on the internet. So what? do > you know how many rants are on the internet? He essentially has an issue > with getting "something" of GNUstep not working on Arch linux. The rest > is then a typical bunch of negative comments you can read for every > topic, be it class interface of iOS 26 to the new Firefox release, it is > IT. It is bashing frustration. > > There are bazillion of linux distributions. We can't support them all or > offer tutorials for them all. > > Does GNUstep work? for sure. On a curated linux distribution like Debian > installing a GNUstep app like GNUMail or ProjectCenter will just work: > packages are there, maintained and reasonably up-to-date (or in testing > very up-to-date even!). > > But let me do some quick fact checking. > > 1) were there posts on the mailing lists about Arch? not that I know of. > Were there issues reported on github for Arch? not that I remember, but > my memory is fragile. I see nothing at a first glance on the tracker. > 2) what issue does the user have? what does "can't get to work" ? Does a > specific app not work? does it fail to install from packages? does core > not build from source? we don't know! > That is not much... > > let me do some other homework. > > Does Arch linux offer GNUstep packages? how up-to-date are they? > https://archlinux.org/packages/?q=gnustep > > Interesting. Only base. No Gui. > Typical apps (GNUMail, GWorkspace, SystemPreferences, Gorm...) aren't > present either. > > Then I found this: > https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/gnustep-gui > > It tells us two things: > - they use gcc-libs and gcc-objc: a very well proven configuration which > works since years on a broad spectrum of > - the reverse dependencies show us a whole load of packages (44) so > apparently they are prepared to offer a lot of GNUstep! GNUmail, Cenon & > PikoPixel. Gorm! Apparently they miss ProjectCenter and InnerSpace. At > least for the latter, I don't see a blocker, but a pity. Still... a lot. > This also means it must be some kind of "temporary" problem and that > gnustep worked in the past. > > apparently they had an issue building libs-gui but also the maintainer > says on 20 May that the problem is solved. > Now I don't know why my first query about packages does not find them. > Not expert enough about Arch. > > As a summary, the frustration of the user appears to come from an Arch > packaging issue which is in resolution, but I am unsure. In the past, we > were contacted. "I have contacted the gnustep team and they are working > on a fix to add support for flite..." > > We were not reached out to help in the resolution, maybe it is internal > of Arch, given the comment "@simona this isn't a problem with 0.32 since > it's up to date with the removal of GSLock in gnustep-base." > > > If you want to solve any specific issue, you can contact me in the > language you prefer. If you have a direct contact with an Arch user or > package maintainer, we can help him smooth out things. If you want to > work on Arch support, write a guide, I will follow you. > If you want just to stir up things in a generic way because of some > "linux sucks" ranting, I will not follow you. > > Regards, > Riccardo
