No more gtk? (was - Re: Gtk3 for Xfce 4.12?)

[Andrzej]

On 03/05/12 15:30, Auke Kok wrote:
>
> 1) stay on gtk2. Xfce4 doesn't go anywhere, all interesting apps move to
> gtk3 or Qt, or the web. We lose developers, and users, to gnome3+.

How is it different from using completely different toolkit?

> 2) go to gtk3. We're now even less of a distinctive desktop since we
> build on gtk3. The fight for reduction of footprint in gtk and gnome
> libraries is lost. Xfce4 becomes a "shell" on gnome3.

Isn't that contradictory with 1)? Yes, Xfce is just another "desktop 
shell", and I have no problems with it, as long as it is a good shell. 
The fact that we can piggy-back on work Gnome3 people do is *good* for us.

Having said so, there will be less reusable components and frameworks 
once they become more Gnome Shell oriented. So we may end up differing 
from Gnome 3 *more* than we want.

> 3) ... break with Gtk. Choose a non-gtk toolkit and core library set
> that isn't pushed by a group of folks that we disagree with in regard.

There is only one such toolkit out there - Qt. Even I (yes, I prefer Qt 
to Gtk) wouldn't argue that it is worth switching to it at this point.

As for EFL, sorry, as much as I like its technical it won't cut it. Once 
it becomes as widespread and robust as Gtk or Qt - why not.

Another thing is the time needed for an almost complete rewrite. This 
would take years, by which time Xfce would be dead. Just look at 
Enlightement, once one of the most popular WMs.

Andrzej