A Debian support team responsible for GNOME packages plans not to include GTK2 tools in the Debian 14 distribution, which is expected to be released in the summer of 2027. The GTK project developers stopped maintaining GTK2 more than five years ago, and maintaining the abandoned GTK2 in the main repository has become problematic. Distributions that have already ceased to ship GTK2 include Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16, openSUSE 16, and Arch Linux. Debian is suggested to follow their example.
Among significant projects tied to GTK2, GIMP remained until recently, but starting with GIMP 3.0, this graphics editor has been ported to GTK3. GTK is also used in the popular audio editing software Ardour, but this project does not rely on external libraries and supports its own fork of GTK2—YTK.
The most serious issue blocking the removal of GTK2 is that GTK2 continues to be used in the graphical installer of Debian. The Debian repository also has about 150 packages related by dependencies to GTK2, and if GTK2 support is discontinued, these packages will have to be removed, as most are not actively developed and their porting to GTK3 is unlikely.
Many of these packages have active users who do not intend to switch to other software. There are also developers advocating for the continued support of GTK2 in Debian, considering the reasons for its removal unfounded. For example, the mention that GTK3 was released 15 years ago is meaningless as GTK3 does not replace GTK2, just as GTK4 does not replace GTK3.
Doubts are also cast on arguments such as the lack of HiDPI and Wayland support in GTK2, as it is neither needed nor has it disturbed users. Comparisons to Arch Linux, where GTK2 is excluded from the main repository but is available in unofficial ones, are deemed inappropriate. During discussions, a question was also raised about why GTK2 is considered worse than GCC 3.3, which was supplied for more than 20 years, up until Debian 12, with 16 years dedicated solely to providing libstdc++5 for outdated executables.
Supporters of the removal of GTK2 cite the inability to ensure the security of the package as a reason, while opponents counter that the security of GTK2 in Debian has hardly concerned anyone until now, and the last issue marked as a vulnerability dates back to 2015.
Jelenleg folyik a GTK2-re épülő alkalmazások támogatási lehetőségeinek megvitatása a disztribúcióban. Az egyik javaslat szerint a GTK2-t és a rá épülő alkalmazásokat egy külön, nem hivatalos tárolóba kellene helyezni. Az ötletek között szerepel egy olyan réteg létrehozása is, amely az API GTK2-t GTK3-ra fordítja, valamint a GTK2 Ardour projekt ágon történő szállításának folytatása. Javasolták azt is, hogy ne távolítsák el azonnal a csomagokat, hanem helyezzék őket „árva” állapotba, remélve, hogy találkozik valaki, aki folytatni kívánja a karbantartásukat.
A legnépszerűbb GTK2-re épülő csomagok közül:
- afterstep
- amsynth
- doublecmd (Double Commander)
- fpc
- geg
- gkrellm
- gmpc
- gnome-paint
- gkrellm
- grpn
- hexchat
- ibus
- lazarus
- mplayer
- navit
- openjdk-8
- pidgin
- rlvm
- sane-frontends
- sawfish
- scim
- seqtools
- soundmodem
- sylpheed
- tenace
- tickr
- tilem
- uim
- usermode
- xlog
- xournal
- xsane
- xzgv
- z88
Forrás: opennet.ru
