Introducing GNUstep: The forgotten Free Software desktop

During the recent collapse in popularity of GNOME, the Free Software community’s most popular graphical desktop environment, it’s hard to understand why more users didn’t turn to the GNU System’s other desktop, GNUstep — or is it?

Although GNUstep implements most of the functionality of a desktop with native apps — like Workspace Manager and Preferences — or by including apps built outside the project — like its window manager, WindowMaker, GNUstep is not a desktop. Its a framework. For most, the distinction is nebulous. It’s developers tell us, GNUstep is: