As an end user I'd like to voice a couple of frustrations with the existing desktops. Some of these arguments have been stated before but I hope they will guide you guys in the future. Ok, so gnome version 2.x We had this really nice lightweight GUI framework called GTK 2.x, you made a desktop app, it ran nicely, it felt good to use with a mouse etc. GTK 3.x added the ability for all applications to also render as html over a webpage. This wasn't a bad thing (brilliant feature.) so now GTK 3.x what went wrong?
At the same time Ubuntu started trying to push unity on people, Gnome 3 suddenly tried to slap a tablet interface on top of Gnome and ship it as the default. What this did was make a lot of power users, who use mouse/keyboard suddenly get slapped in the face with a UI completely not designed for them. Microsoft has charged into this problem with Metro, and it's been a complete disaster. Apple has avoided this fate because IOS and Mac OS have very different UI Paradigms (in general, but as Apple makes osx more IOS-like they'll start pissing everyone off.)
I strongly urge anyone looking to make GNUstep jump onto development bandwagons to carefully consider what they end up making. Web browser based applications do have a place, but they shouldn't be replacing desktop applications. Where I see them making headway is places where a desktop application is too heavy (eg not on real desktops such as chrome laptops etc) and where people can't afford to buy the full software. (Why buy one office license for $99 when 5 licenses of office live subscription are $99.)
I think Desktop applications are always going to reign supreme for speed and data security so they shouldn't just be abandoned for the shiny internet. That said, I live in Australia, good internet access is hard to come by here, many places would just laugh at a chromebook or thin client setup as it's just not practical to get that kind of bandwidth to the machine. Also, your web based app is only as stable as your internet connection. If your net goes down which ADSL/ADSL2 is known to frequently do, dropouts, bad connections etc, it causes lots of problems with web based apps. Many connection lines are still crap quality (I used to work at an ISP so I've seen this firsthand in many places). This is why machines with builtin storage and local apps will always be needed.
Now, as to gnustep application development.
With the gworkspace application, I basically want something that falls around explorer.exe and finder.app maybe a hybrid of both. File management has always been a pain and I don't know if there really is a best practice for it. Finder is really good at hiding the filesystem tree from the user, whereas explorer shoves it in your face. Maybe a nice hybrid of the two, I don't usually access folders above /home/me but I like having easy access to them when I need it. I'm mostly a command line junkie, but I know when people want to use my gnustep desktop for tasks it freaks them out how things are laid out. (mainly because I run things from CLI).
I'd like to get GSMPlayer patched to the point I had gnome-mplayer at when I was coding on it (I added more aspect ratios, subtitles, languages, and TV Tuner support) After my modifications were made, developer interest shot up in that project (by 5x) and it's now a very popular video player application.
gnustep-terminal, I want to see tabbed terminals supported. Just like in gnome and osx you don't have to use tabs but at least they're an option. The best way to do this is OSX's style where the tab row only appears after you spawn a second tab. I tried to refactor the code for this myself but I didn't understand the code well enough to do it. Just because someone doesn't use a feature, doesn't mean it shouldn't be present.
I really like the idea of defaults write as a way of reconfiguring gnustep for power users, utilising it for apple/windows/next style changes, and maybe eventually a Tablet/Desktop style change. We could make an installer gui that just sets a couple of options at first install, as simple yes/no questions that people can choose to pick which desktop style they want (are you on a Desktop/Laptop, or Touch screen device?, Do you want Apple, Windows, Next?). This would put gnustep in the same league as KDE, but ahead of KDE in that apple style apps aren't just looking like OSX ones, but their menu systems etc are the same as OSX ones. That's something no other Desktop system can do. I think the battle for Desktop OSes is finally going to become a hot war after a long cold war with Microsoft in charge. Right now they're stumbling badly, and noone is happy with the result, Apple and Google are locked in a fight over mobile/apps and the desktop OS is stagnating. Games are finally coming to Linux, but just as it makes Linux a viable platform, gnome is stuffing up their UI. KDE hasn't been able to make much headway other than eating into gnome's marketshare. There is a real chance for GNUstep to pickup developers here.