App Devs Ask Linux Distros to “Stop Theming Our Apps”

guest · May 24, 2019

App Devs Ask Linux Distros to “Stop Theming Our Apps”
A group of independent Linux app developers have written an open letter to ask wider GNOME community to ask: “stop theming our apps”
May 24, 2019
https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/05/open-letter-stop-gtk-theming-distros

By publicising the issues they feel stem from the practice of “theming” it’s hoped that distros and developers might work together to create a “healthier GNOME third party app ecosystem”.
So what’s the actual rub here?
GNOME Themes Are Illusionary, Anyway
It’s been mentioned before (by those far more qualified than I) that, technically, the GNOME desktop doesn’t have a theming framework; the look and feel of the platform is simply not designed to be hot-swappable.

In fact GTK themes as we think of them don’t really exist; there is no GTK theme API, just hacks and stylesheets.

“We are tired of having to do extra work for setups we never intended to support,” the letter states.
One only needs to try and use Incognito mode in GNOME Web (aka Epiphany) on Pop OS to appreciate just how easy it is for supposedly ‘innocuous theming’ to break the fundamental functionality of an app.
Click to expand...

Open letter: Please don’t theme our apps

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