GTK2 Software

[laki]

http://www.lakiweb.net/article/gtk2-software.html

I have compiled a list of GTK2 programs (with some GTK3 ones that maintain some backwards compatibility). Feel free to let me know of programs that use GTK2 so that I can add them to the list!

I have also been creating/forking programs:

GTK2 programs

Let me know if there are any programs you want me to make/fork or if you can help me with them.

[lostuser]

slop

[laki]

I like GUI programs though. Can be very useful

[tocariimaa]

I thought like that too, but then I realized that for a lot of things I would rather have a clicky-click GUI. I guess that the whole "FOSS GUI" incompatible toolkits disaster (GTK?, Qt?, FLTK?) gave everyone a PTSD.

[unbelivable]

Pretty extensive, good job.
All that I can think of more is gbdfed (github link), an obscure gui editor for the .bdf bitmap font format

Since there's a not-gtk-but-still-useful section I suggest:
xfe (file manager based on FOX toolkit)
dillo (web browser, fltk)

[digdeeper]

Missing Terminal emulators. I like Terminator the most. Lilyterm is also fine, but much less featured.
Parcellite clipboard manager.
Old versions of GParted surprisingly fill the need. There might be some bugs or important additional features in the newer ones, I haven't checked.
After testing I prefer Viewnior as the image viewer. Mirage has an annoying "bug" where enlarging PNGs applies some filter and it can't be disabled (in a way that works, at least for me in Slack).
gcolor2 color picker (tiny and seemingly irrelevant but very useful for making website themes, unironically).
gtkman man page reader. Makes searching easier at least, than the terminal.
Old versions of hardinfo.
gftp is bugged but works well enough for me to use it regularly.
old versions of meld.
Zenmap 7.9.2 was still gtk2 funnily enough. Pretty recent.
xsane - seems they all use gtk2? Never used it though.

Anyway that's enough for now I guess.

[anonymous_]

If you learn how to live in your shell you dont have to worry about gtk, qt, or any other toolkits

This.
Go the Suckless or Suckless adjacent route:
DWM or DWL
st or foot
Maybe eventually something not based on wlroots in the cas of DWL.
Eliminate the dependency altogether.

[12ax7]

Bless hex editor (binaries available in AUR and Debian, probably other package managers as well)

[Theundercoverman_]

Pretty extensive and well thought-out but none of the GTK2 browsers are viable anymore which is sad.

GTK2 has been succeeded for a long time now. GTK3 is at least passable compared to the unusable GTK4. I wish they hadn't phased out GTK3 or some other desktop environment like Cinnamon, MATE, or Xfce forked GTK3 to restore some of GTK2's features while also being compatible with GTK4 apps if that's even possible. I miss the days of desktop customization, screensavers, and those startup sounds that used to play on old Windows versions (Windows used to suck less, but only because technology wasn't advanced enough for Microsoft to do as much shit like mandatory online accounts and cloud and AI integration).

[laki]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions, I have added them all but am yet to link them to their website. In the long run, I plan to explain how to install the specific software, link them to their websites, and document them properly.

I hope someone tries out my 88x31 button maker, I made these cool buttons with it
Still has some work to be done but it works well so far.

palemoon.png (8.8 KiB) Viewed 23173 times

lakiweb-small.gif (139.64 KiB) Viewed 23173 times

88x31-maker.gif (1.9 KiB) Viewed 23173 times

Other GTK2 software I made is available on the Git section of my website:
http://www.lakiweb.net/cgit/

[brocashelm]

I was able to successfully return much of the GTK3 software to GTK2 on Devuan Daedalus (based on Debian Bookworm, which is now oldstable). Using Apt pinning, I got Xfce back to 4.12 (or 4.10 for components like the terminal, which went GTK3 right after this release) without breaking a sweat. Thunar (which is GTK2) kept as a compatibility layer for the Xfce DE, since SpaceFM is way better in every way. Compiled YAD against GTK2, which opens up even more possibilities that way. I use a Genmon script to get my weather reports (since the official one's API broke last year or so, and distros stopped patching it for anything older than 4.16).

A lot of older GNOME utilities got the same treatment, particularly Meld, EasyTAG, and GParted. Very, very few GTK3 software remain, but that's because they are too important to toss out if I couldn't get a working GTK2, Qt4, or Qt5 version in place (the latter two which I use for the GTK2 styling nonetheless). Synaptic, Atril, Engrampa, GSmartControl, Claws Mail, FileZilla, Geany, Galculator, StarDict, Atril, Gnumeric, etc. all back to GTK2. I got non-CSD GTK3 versions of Simple Scan and Dconf Editor installed. Timeshift is usually very helpful for restoring a backup in case I borked the system.

[digdeeper]

I was able to successfully return much of the GTK3 software to GTK2 on Devuan Daedalus (based on Debian Bookworm, which is now oldstable). Using Apt pinning, I got Xfce back to 4.12 (or 4.10 for components like the terminal, which went GTK3 right after this release) without breaking a sweat. Thunar (which is GTK2) kept as a compatibility layer for the Xfce DE, since SpaceFM is way better in every way. Compiled YAD against GTK2, which opens up even more possibilities that way. I use a Genmon script to get my weather reports (since the official one's API broke last year or so, and distros stopped patching it for anything older than 4.16).

A lot of older GNOME utilities got the same treatment, particularly Meld, EasyTAG, and GParted. Very, very few GTK3 software remain, but that's because they are too important to toss out if I couldn't get a working GTK2, Qt4, or Qt5 version in place (the latter two which I use for the GTK2 styling nonetheless). Synaptic, Atril, Engrampa, GSmartControl, Claws Mail, FileZilla, Geany, Galculator, StarDict, Atril, Gnumeric, etc. all back to GTK2. I got non-CSD GTK3 versions of Simple Scan and Dconf Editor installed. Timeshift is usually very helpful for restoring a backup in case I borked the system.

Nice. Kind of unrelated, but I do use the qt5 trick too. Yet, I find the software very slow and resource demanding. Still, it contains essentials like qbittorrent, so I can't give it up.

[brocashelm]

It can be, if you are using it in a non-Qt environment such as Xfce or perhaps even TDE (which uses TQt3).

As it stands, we can either cope with GTK2 through continuing off from the likes of STLWRT or at least make sure we never see GTK4 by keeping GTK3 alive through CTK.

I tried asking at the Salix forums if I could get GTK2 and ConsoleKit2 stuff back in 15.0, and one of the main guys directly stated that GTK3 and Elogind are pretty much baked into the distro (as Slackware has made it "the standard") -- you'd have to recompile literally everything to get the results you want, and even then that would lead to some catastrophic events along the way. Best I could do with that was work around removing PulseAudio for a pure ALSA experience in place of a dummied Apulse, compile a SlackBuild of ConsoleKit2, disable Elogind from the D-Bus system services (so it won't run on startup), and install both Seatd and Nologind for the extra support.

I don't think I'm going to do a major version upgrade for the foreseeable future. Too much bullshit along the way. Even the "newest" kernel I'm using is 6.1, which works without any noticeable issues. I really hate this idea of updating packages just for the sake of novelty.

[mia]

Laki could add the Lazarus IDE

[laki]

Added Lazarus IDE and started writing about GTK forks such as STLWRT or CTK, and making homepages for my software. Also making a guide to using GTK2 and creating your own themes. I think the main missing thing when it comes to GTK2 is knowledge, for example it seems quite difficult to install XFCE 4.12, as there isn't really a proper guide on it (maybe im not looking hard enough). I was emailed to join the Devuan Users forum which has a great thread https://devuanusers.com/thread-the-snap ... -thread--9, and obviously Brocas Helm is here too. I'm happy that there is a somewhat coordinated effort going on to keep GTK2 alive.

PS, does anyone have a guide on how to make the Qt GTK styling thing work?

[brocashelm]

Hey, Laki. We have a few threads on GTK2 already.

https://devuanusers.com/thread-switchin ... m-gtk3--12
https://devuanusers.com/thread-building ... t-gtk2--46
https://devuanusers.com/thread-building ... n-gtk2--47

For the Qt5 styling to use GTK2 instead, I just add this line to my ~/.xinitrc (or use either ~/.profile or /etc/environment if you use the DM greeter meme in $Current_Year ) and make sure the package qt5-gtk2-platformtheme is installed before logging out and back in:

Code: Select all

QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2

This is how I start my X11 session, every single time:

Code: Select all

NO_AT_BRIDGE=1 QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=gtk2 GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0 exec startxfce4 --with-ck-launch