Platform Development • Re: Future of GTK2 and Pale Moon

We've actually long hoped users would port themes over to GTK3 and improve the look/feel now that the toolkit isn't changing as rapidly as it was early on (it's become the new stable release since GTK4 came out, and MATE actually looks half-decent with GTK3 because they are deliberately trying to mimic GNOME 2), but really the reason GTK2 has lasted as long as it has... is because most users just don't want GTK3, theme authors seem unwilling or unable to fix their themes for GTK3 environments, and thus GTK2 has remained primary because it's what users keep choosing rather than because we as developers would rather they use it. This is actually one of the reason why I have been a little anxious about users picking Linux over Windows lately. Because deep down, I know the Linux version is not in the best state for modern Linux, and it means more users relying on the version of our code that we'd rather they didn't, especially if they get advised by other longtime Linux users on the board to "get the GTK2 version" because it's the "good version" that works better with themes, and thus reinforcing the whole problem of themes not getting updated to work with GTK3.

Just like with the non-AVX versions of Pale Moon, you (as in "you developers") could push users that want GTK2 and NPAPI over to community offerings, and eventually remove the official GTK2 offerings. Just make sure the community builders have the support they need to keep building GTK2 versions, for a reasonably foreseeable future. That would seem like one option. Probably not popular initially, but if there's little other choice then users would have to adjust.

The way the Downloads page is organized right at this moment, it appears as though the GTK2 version is preferable as it is the first version listed over GTK3. A simple change would be to list GTK3 first, and to put a paranthetical note after GTK2 saying something like, "(GTK2 is no longer recommended, as the libraries are unmaintained and this version may ultimately need to be deprecated)". A simple reorganization of the Downloads page like that would probably flip a lot of users over to the GTK3 version.

Regarding themes, I'm not a theme user, but I downloaded several from the Pale Moon Themes page and they all seemed to install and work on my GTK3 version. If there are some that don't work, they could be put into a separate section, noting that they are for people running the "unrecommended GTK2 version of Pale Moon with its unmaintained GTK2 libraries that may ultimately need to be deprecated" - something like that.