GNUstep's Direction... Hopefully: GNUSTEP

[thisguyisi]

Hello All,

I've been interested in GNUstep since I first stumbled upon it about a 
year ago. I learned how to use the web on a NeXTcube, and thought 
OPENSTEP was a lofty and worthwhile goal for the software industry. Very 
happy to see the concept and goals of OPENSTEP continued in a libre form 
of the OpenStep Specification as implemented by GNUste_The_API. I'd 
really like to see the development take off, or at least grow, perhaps 
with the successful development of LinuxSTEP or similar into 
GNUSTEP_The_Operating_System/Environment.

I am curious. Is there a GNUstep Steering Committe or similar? (Please 
don't flame about how committees destroy software, I was just searching 
for the most easily understood term). From my lurking in the mailing 
lists, I am unable to discern if there is a group planning the direction 
of the GNUstep Project, though that is implied by its being a GNU 
Project, and Adam Fedor is listed as the Project Administrator.

I know there are a few parts to any OpenStep-Compliant systems equation: 
the API, the frameworks, the libraries, and GUI. GNUstep appears to be 
moving toward a fully integrated environment hosted on any OS that can 
support it, as was OPENSTEP.

From looking at the two other main libre software integrated 
environments, GNOME and KDE, they seem to have a validity due to the 
appearance of a standardization of the environment through accountable 
code maintainers and steering to keep a focused future direction. 
Someone who doesn't dig into the GNUstep world wouldn't get this 
impression of the project or environment.

Mainly... this is due to inaccessablity. The libre software that people 
consider concrete have individuals that interface the public, and 
control the direction of the project. This is what lends a sense of 
accountability, confidence, dependability, future, justification, 
quality, reliability, supportability, usability, and viability to open 
sourced libre software. The perception is felt by contributors, 
developers, users, and those that would support or make use of the 
software for reasons _other_ than the virture, elegance, challenge, or 
beauty of it. You could say the general public, including third-party 
and commercial software developers, operating systems integrators, and 
commercial operating systems venors.

If I happen to have insulted any GNUstep supporters/users/developers 
with these comments, I apologize, for my intent is to point out that the 
project seems nebulous and insubstantial in comparison to Apache, 
Mozilla, PERL,  GNOME, KDE, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X (not a libre 
project, but the closest currently developed and descendent 
OpenStep-Compliant implementation, and the most visible topic of direct 
comparison by many), for example. Properly collaboration between a 
steering group and the designers both inside of the group and outside, 
can be very benificial if they avoid stifling the growth of a project. 
The best example is in the Hollywood Film Industry. Films have what are 
called Continuity Experts. Too often they are not expert, and too often 
they miss the things that directors and editors toss in that destroy the 
illusion of "truth" or "reality" toward a film's possibility of being 
taken seriously as something that could take place off the screen and in 
the "real" world. NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP had wonderful continuity. This 
seems to be kept up in Mac OS X, and everybody knows that the 
pre-OpenStep-Compliant Mac OSes were pinnacles of design continuity.

A structured software project lends toward the perception that the code 
will remain viable and maintainable past the 
interest/lifetime/hard-drive-crash/brilliance/vision of the original 
architechts. So we have ASCII. Unicode. C. Smalltalk. Lisp. Objective-C. 
UNIX. X-Windows. Linux. GNU/Linux. The BSDs. Mach. NeXTSTEP. OPENSTEP. 
Mac OS X. What about GNUstep???

Not only would I _LOVE_ to replace Microsoft Windows (Windows 2000 
Professional, in the case of the workstation I write this to you on via 
Mozilla Mail) with a GNUstep implementation running on a _Reliable_ OS, 
I'd love to see the win32 backend and implementation of the environment 
flourish. I'd like to see a GNUSTEP environment whereby I could do 
anything critical, like eMail, web browsing, document creation, 
multimedia, etc. utilizing the beautiful(well, I am fascinated with the 
NeXTSTEP GUI, it is like beautiful warm clay that reminds me of the 
sheets of clay Cuneiform was developed and used with, but this is a 
tangent  =8-D ), user-friendly, cross-platform GNUstep applications. 
This would prevent marketshare and (user-brainshare) from any 
justification that development of GNUstep oriented software is a waste 
or will not have a broad enough marketshare.

Now, JAVA is supposed to provide this software universality. It had the 
roots to do it (Read: derivative of OPENSTEP), and it does, for what it 
is used for, which is internet-oriented cross-platform software. 
However, it primarily is used for internet-oriented software. The 
desktop-oriented software (i.e. something _other_ than a JAVA applet in 
a website transaction/interaction) for example, Limewire (if you like 
it, great. I didn't) was horrible to my perception, it seemed very 
kludgy, and with JAVA, there is no adherence to ANY generalized UI 
Guidelines, so I never know WHAT to expect from an interface for a JAVA 
app. OPENSTEP didn't have this problem. Neither does GNUstep. The 
applications I have seen display that the designers have done an 
excellent job of sticking to the OpenStep Spec UI Guidelines. *Big Pat 
On The Back To All*

For GNUstep to continue OpenSteps vision of Universality, it must be 
made to be universally accessable.

What was the benefit to the UNIX user when NextStep was introduced, then 
extended as OpenStep? The benefit to John and Jane Doe Computer Users? 
They didn't _need_ to know how to use anything but a mouse and a 
keyboard because the GUI didn't impose any of the 
software/driver/firmware/BIOS/architechture/hardware mechanics or 
internals upon them. Basically, aside from the power of Rapid 
Application Development and arguably the best Development Environment 
yet devised, it made NeXTstations and NeXTcubes very powerful appliance 
tools. It made powerful computational engines, and stable, reliable, 
well-designed Operating Systems accessable to Everybody Who Didn't 
Design It. Understanding HTML, HTML parsers, the JPEG 
spec/implementation/file-format, how GIFs were static or animated image 
formats, how the HTML engine actually rendered web pages didn't apply to 
me when I was learning how to use the web on that 'Cube. The 'Cube was a 
tool which provided an interface in the form of a web browser with which 
I could access universally available information from anywhere on the 
planet. Sorry, had to go with the Universality theme to prove a point.

For me, GNUstep remains inaccessable. :-( 

The Windows Installer is a good step in the right direction. Just as a 
Mac OS X Installer, or an installer for any other operating system that 
can host GNUstep.

I understand that GNUstep is still under development, and is an 
"incomplete Work-In-Progress." So is Mozilla. They release milestones 
that anyone on the supported platforms can install and use, _without 
knowing or even understanding_ how the parts fit together to work.

Installing GNUstep follows a certain order and pattern, irregardless of 
the individual OS that will be hosting it, correct?

It would be extremely useful to have installers for all supported OS 
hosts for GNUstep milestones. Why? I'm not approaching this from a 
standpoint of laziness. I know a good deal more about computers and 
software than my family and extended family do. I have no clue, even 
from the manuals, how to install, from source, or package, non-Microsoft 
Windows software. Haven't been able to figure it out, and haven't found 
anything that has been able to spell it out in a way I am capable of 
absorbing. If I can't figure it out, how's my 
Mom/Dad/Siblings/Grandparent supposed to?

Please don't send me a "RTFM" flame. Or that "If personABC is incapable 
of understanding softwareXYZ, then they shouldn't be using it". That 
flies in the face of OpenStep's intent, and would make me wonder why you 
are wasting your time developing something this good ONLY for the (not 
my own words, just heard it from John and Jane Doe user MILLIONS of 
times) "Geek Elite(TM)". OpenSteps intent was Universality, and they did 
intend for Grandma to use the system. In fact, the OpenStep derivative 
that is Mac OS X is used by Many a Grandma who isn't even afraid of it. 
What's to become of GNUstep?

I'll be damned disappointed if it becomes a failed, by-the-wayside, 
half-baked, Computer Geek/Hacker attempt/exercise/clone to model 
"TrueRealSoftware(TM)" just for the sake of flexing their brains and 
giving their wrists carpal tunnel syndrome.

Myself, my Mom, my Dad, my Sister, my Aunts (including Aunt Genea, who 
has Down's Syndrome, and isn't a Computer Science Major), Uncles, 
Cousins, Friends, Coworkers, Bosses, Strangers, Microsoft Windows users, 
"OperatingSystemFillInTheBlank" users are also in the scope of GNUstep's 
target audience, aren't we?

Now, I've done my part. I've been convinced by my experience with 
NeXTSTEP & OPENSTEP to buy into GNUstep's promise and I've gotten 
interested. I'd love for it to encapsulate my Windows 2000 Pro machine, 
I'd love to be able to install any and all of the following: 
GNUSTEP/GNU/Linux,  GNUSTEP/(GNU?)/FreeBSD, or GNUSTEP/(GNU?)/Darwin, or 
GNUSTEP/(((GNU?)CygWin?)MinGW?)/M$ Windows, or GNUSTEP/(GNU?)/Mac OS 
X/Darwin system.

Milestone releases with installers and facilities such as "Mozilla with 
Talkback (to send errors to the developers/bugfixers)" for GNUstep would 
only help grow the user base (by me, a coun't of 3 computers, in the 
LEAST) and provide GNUstep Core and Application developers with quality 
control data and a means to improve and expand GNUstep's 
message/vision/implementation for software out into "TheRealWorld(TM)."

The current installation files (such as the Installation Guide) don't 
even stick fingers up my nose to drag me, step by tedious step, how to 
set-up facilities for obtaining, and setting up, _all_ of the necessary 
items for a fully fleshed out GNUstep implementation capable of 
supporting _all_ of the GNUstep applications currently available.

It sucks to be this interested in something, "SeeTheLight", and be 
unable to "touch" it, except by way of the SimplyGNUstep demo CD (which 
by the way is That project's concern technically)  which is being 
redeveloped from scratch, for one, and for another didn't give me the 
option of  saving work to my hdd (a la KNOPPIX), and be incapable of 
evangalising it to others (especially those less computer-literate than 
I) without being a hypocrite.

I'm a strong proponent of imagination, but I, for one, prefer GNUstep to 
become a dream fleshed out as a miracle, rather than a fantasy which 
evaporates as a mirage.

Questions, Comments, Rotten Produce?

-thisguyisi