On 10/24/25 5:32 AM, Robin Candau wrote:
On 10/24/25 11:21 AM, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
On Fri, 2025-10-24 at 03:46 -0500, David C Rankin wrote:
I still use Gtk2, and if it isn't a burden and isn't failing to build, I would like to see it kept. I use [...] parcellite
Hi,
if it should be possible, please keep gtk2.
I rely on parcellite and a combination of fbpanel and lxpanel. Unfortunately fbpanel depends on gtk 2, too.
FWIW Clipit is a gtk 3 fork of Parcellite, but discontinuned https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/clipit-git . I never tested Clipit.
Asking for a parcellite and fbpanel replacement is probably like asking for a spacefm (although gtk3, not 2, over and done) replacement, hence I don't ask for it.
Unfortunately, the for my taste good applications are gradually disappearing.
Regards, Ralf
Hi,
While we understand your concerns regarding your personal use cases, Arch is (and shall remain) a modern distribution. We have design principles [1] and general technical guidelines in that regards that we'd like to respect here.
For what it's worth, working toward removing gtk2 is something we have been looking for for 5 years at that point [2]. I don't think we're willing to delay things even more now that we are finally close from reaching that goal.
If anything, gtk2 and related packages can still be maintained in the AUR, but the point is we are not willing to put efforts into officially maintaining such deprecated packages anymore.
Please bear with us and thank you for your understanding :)
[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux [2] https://archlinux.org/todo/gtk-2-eol/
Robin, You guys always make good decisions, so I defer to the devs, but like Ralf, I use fluxbox, fbpanel, parcellite and a number of other apps that depend on gtk2. My only question is does it really take much maintenance? Other than a few compiler flag tweaks when compiler defaults change, the gtk2 source isn't changing. Arch has done a good job maintaining gtk2 for as long as it has, and that is much appreciated, bit if it drops to AUR is there one of the devs willing to help out with any questions moving it and the dependent packages to AUR? I ask because toolkits are, well toolkits, fundamental to many packages and if gtk2 drops to AUR and there are no replacements for the dependent packages, that's a significant loss of functionality. Ralf, if it does drop to AUR, I'm willing to put in some time to make sure it builds, along with making sure the packages we both depend on get migrated there. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.