Interest in GTK2 Builds?

Unread post by **Basilisk-Dev** » 2023-07-31, 18:40

I've had a recent increase in people contacting me asking for GTK2 builds of Basilisk. Due to this I figured I'd ask here if there is interest in GTK2 builds. If one or two people are asking for it I can't justify it, but if it's something multiple people want than I can justify the additional time to compile GTK2 builds.

wmlive · Unread post by **wmlive** » 2023-08-01, 09:54

In fact, gtk2 as a toolkit is deprecated and not maintained anymore.
Maintainers of software still using it are usually urgently encouraged to switch to gtk3 or newer for their projects.

But this is only the one-sided developers perspective.
End users of gtk2-based software have a different view of the situation.

Personally, i consider software written in gtk2 to be generally much more user friendly, as this toolkit has reached a usabilty maturity still not reached by its successors gtk3/4.

Example: Clickable buttons in gtk3/4 user interfaces never let you know which of the buttons is the default one when relying only on keyboard navigation. To be sure to not activate the wrong button due to the lack of visual feedback one has to rely either on a mouse pointer or guessing. This is one of the most obvious shortcomings of gtk3/4-based applications and not user friendly at all. For this reason alone i still prefer installing and using gtk2-based software when still available.

The fact that palemoon is still offered as a gtk2-based download is a decisive factor for me to use it.

Unread post by **Night Wing** » 2023-08-01, 17:47

@ wmlive

I noticed the same thing you mentioned in your post above. Even though I don't use Basilisk, I started out with GTK2 in linux Pale Moon and then went to GTK3. I had some things which annoyed me with GTK3, I went back to using GTK2 builds for linux Pale Moon.

I understand GTK2 is old, but I will keep using it "until it goes the way of the dinosaurs".

biopsin · Unread post by **biopsin** » 2023-08-02, 06:54

Agree with > wmlive < and as long as Gimp wont rush the release of v3 with gtk3 I see no point switching away gtk2.
Also I build gtk3 on my other pc with this patchset from [https://github.com/lah7/gtk3-classic]

Unread post by **Basilisk-Dev** » 2023-08-02, 15:41

wmlive wrote: ↑
2023-08-01, 09:54
Personally, i consider software written in gtk2 to be generally much more user friendly, as this toolkit has reached a usabilty maturity still not reached by its successors gtk3/4.

I agree with this, which is one reason I decided to ask the community what they think. When given the choice I too prefer GTK2 over GTK3.

Off-topic:
It's nice to see someone else who uses WindowMaker here. I've been using it for so long it feels strange to use any other desktop environments or window managers.

wmlive · Unread post by **wmlive** » 2023-08-09, 20:43

Basilisk-Dev wrote: ↑
2023-08-02, 15:41

Off-topic:
It's nice to see someone else who uses WindowMaker here. I've been using it for so long it feels strange to use any other desktop environments or window managers.

Off-topic:
Same here, i just can't get used to anything else after all those years since i started using it. After a few months of work i've finally uploaded a new version of Window Maker Live to sourceforge. Have a look if interested: sourceforge.net/projects/wmlive/files/wmlive-bookworm_0.95.9. Of course, it uses Pale Moon as its main web browser. Still need to update all the related web content for it, though.

Unread post by **Basilisk-Dev** » 2023-08-12, 20:29

wmlive wrote: ↑
2023-08-09, 20:43

Off-topic:
After a few months of work i've finally uploaded a new version of Window Maker Live to sourceforge. Have a look if interested: sourceforge.net/projects/wmlive/files/wmlive-bookworm_0.95.9. Of course, it uses Pale Moon as its main web browser. Still need to update all the related web content for it, though.

Off-topic:
I'm not personally interested in anything based on Debian or anything that uses apt-get (I've had bad experiences with both), but this is a very interesting project, I was familiar with wmlive so I saw your username and wasn't sure if you were a user of wmlive or a developer.

artenaki · Unread post by **artenaki** » 2023-08-14, 03:42

GTK3 is slower on my computers. I think due to poor development and use of OpenGL. Especially if you are saving to a folder that contains many files (>1000)

Unread post by **Basilisk-Dev** » 2023-08-16, 15:04

There is enough interest here that I think I will introduce GTK2 Linux builds in the future. It will likely be not in the next release, but rather in the following release after that. Thanks to everyone who voted and took part in the discussion.

Unread post by **Basilisk-Dev** » 2023-09-15, 15:58

As of today we are officially offering GTK2 release builds. http://archive.basilisk-browser.org/202 ... tk2.tar.xz

fatboy · Unread post by **fatboy** » 2023-09-19, 13:44

Thank You for this. I have one silly question.

I had the GTK3 tarball extracted in a folder and extracted the GTK2 build in the same folder and am pretty sure it wrote over the GTK3 "basilisk" folder? How can I check that I am now running the GTK2 build of Basilisk?

Unread post by **Basilisk-Dev** » 2023-09-20, 14:21

fatboy wrote: ↑
2023-09-19, 13:44
How can I check that I am now running the GTK2 build of Basilisk?

Browse to about:buildconfig.

Under "Configure Options" look for "--enable-default-toolkit=cairo-gtk#" where # is your GTK version.

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