The future of Feren OS theming for GTK
Edit (26/10/2021): If you want a GNOME Point-of-View about the themes situation, mainly around LibAdwaita’s effects on the whole situation, check out this video by The Linux Experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pdx_MwcMtnM
Edit (6/8/2022): Now the dust has settled some more, I decided to update this post a bunch, to add in some updates, and whatnot. I decided to also shorten the post a bit, and remove some parts that made this post seem a lot more angry than it was intended to be. It has also become apparent since this post that a lot of developers using GTK+ are happy with the introduction of LibAdwaita, and honestly power to them. This never was an attack on any developers using LibAdwaita, and to be honest if it gives developers peace of mind… then it’s likely for the best it is this way. At least, for me, the writer of this, this announcement means a weight is now lifted off my shoulders… until the next theme redesign, when it will be temporarily back on my shoulders, very likely. Either way, the actual intended post is below:
There is no future for the Feren OS GTK+ theme beyond GTK+ 3
I’ve been tossing this idea around for a while now, and honestly with the GTK+ stylesheet situation just getting worse and worse now I can confidently make this decision: Feren OS’s GTK theme will NOT be developed for GTK+ 4 and beyond.
There, honestly, just is no future for it, nor is there future for any theme really outside of Adwaita if GTK+ keeps going the direction it is going nowadays.
For example, LibAdwaita currently forces Adwaita to be applied in GTK+ 4, irregardless of your theme preference. If that isn’t enough of a reason, there is, while not being discussed yet, the potential for GTK+ 5 to just not have themes at all.
Why bother at this point? It’s just going to be an inconsistent mess of GTK+ 4 being themed and GTK+ 4 NOT being themed, and the theme might even potentially be cut off anyway by GNOME in GTK+ 5 altogether.
It’s better if Feren OS just smoothly transitions its GTK theme out with GTK+ 4, entirely, than not at this point.
So, what will happen come GTK+ 4+?
Simple, Adwaita will be used. Originally I wanted to at least let it follow the highlight colour of your applied colour scheme (or soon accent colour), but… given the current situation with LibAdwaita forcing Adwaita, a system-wide theme, I’m not sure if even that is feasible anymore now.
Update: Maybe there’s still some hope left for accent colouring setting.
How will GTK+ 4+ applications appear in Store?
An idea I’ve had for Store is checking applications for their integration with the desktop’s style, for their integration with accessibility, their integration with the Desktop in general, and more.
Obviously, this change will mean they’ll fail on the first of those checks due to having or enforcing Adwaita (and therefore not being integrated with the desktop’s style), and therefore they will display a banner mentioning that GTK+ 4+ applications won’t respect their current theme (as it’s only fair for users to know).
Will GTK+ 4+ applications stick out like a sore thumb on my Desktop?
The short answer is likely going to be yes. Unfortunately, LibAdwaita is going for an extremely flat style right now for its widgets, in contrast to the current Adwaita style you’ve come to know in GTK+ 3 (of whom Feren OS’s theme is actually based off), and this therefore means that they will stick out like a sore thumb most of the time, if not all of the time, in Feren OS.
Conclusion
At this point, if this is what you want, GNOME, then so be it — we’ll just let you do what you are doing, while us distribution developers can be honest and just point at you when users ask why their applications look unthemed and out of place.
The ball’s in your court, GNOME.
