Lighweight GNOME
Portable, flexible, low memory consumption and super fast GNOME for the next generation
People please feel free to comment where appropriate however try to remember to sign your name against your changes.
Thoughts on This New Approach
It's good to observe GNOME growing day by day, there are good but also bad issues with current GNOME. One of the reason that some people don't choose to deploy GNOME on their PC due to the high memory and heavy library dependancy of GNOME. So I am proposing a new approach for a lightweight GNOME. Comments and editting are great welcomed. Support can make difference.
Architecture
There are changes, deprecations that could make GNOME desktop faster and more flexible.
GTK+
Will be unchanged. Based on GTK+ and GLib libraries. Merge back useful functions that appears in libgnome or other lib.
GNOME Desktop
Please update your opinions on implementing GNOME.
OlavVitters: I thought that more and more GNOME specific libraries are merged back into Gtk+. Libraries also share the memory they use. I'm not trying to be negative to this, but I rather see current apps/libraries optimized and memory use investigated than a "throw away current apps". Do see some value in a lightweight distro-like 'package' of apps, but nothing more than that.
Component Model
I am not quite experienced with this part. So if you are good at this part, please edit this part for me. Thanks.
Bonobo: To be deprecated?
DOM: unsure
Orbit: To be deprecated too?
What about other GNOME libraries such as libgnomeprint/libgnomeprintui? Will those functions be merged back to gtk+ soon?
Found GtkPrint WIKI: http://live.gnome.org/ProjectRidley/GnomePrintDialog.
Try to break and don't depend GNOME lib as much as possible.
Core Component
The Core Components of GNOME are closer to what is traditionally thought of as GNOME. They include the Panel, the Control Center, and the Desktop.
Control Center: Is it neccessary to keep gnome-control-center?
Panel: The menu structure is alright but the applets should be revisisted. I reckon we just should include Clock, Workspace Switcher, Task Lister, Audio Mixer only. I don't know why GNOME still include geyes, what is it there for?
Desktop Icon: Refer to freedesktop.org Tango project.
File Manager: Replace Nautilus with other light File Manager such as Thunar (of Project XFCE) or modify of Thunar to be free from libxfce?
Sesssion Manager: Remain intact.
Display Manager: Is GDM the absolute choice?
File System: unsure
Window Management: Metacity, Sawfish, etc. Need discussion.
Additional Widget
Please edit
GNOME Misc
I think a simple and easy-to-use Paint program to replace GIMP. So far, I found none apps can do things as simple and easy as MS Paint. (GPaint sucks, Xpaint is not GTK+ app).
Bounty: 250$AUD for a new GNOME Paint program that do EXACTLY or better than MS Paint. Greatly welcome anyone who be able to reinovate GPaint.
Apps Propsal
Try not to base on GNOME libraries OlavVitters: Why call it Gnome then? I'd assume LightweightGtk+Apps.
Thunar - for File Manager
Leafpad - for Text Editor (hack on to use Gtk+ printing dialog - remove dependency on libgnomeprint)
ePDFView - for PDF/PS/Doc Viewer (no dependency on GNOME lib) BUT
Evince - in the future Evince might be free from libgnome.
Free libgnome modified version of EyeOfGnome - image viewer
Modular GNOME Games - the script to build separate games are already in the source, waiting for distro package it in a way that let users choose the games they like, not to be forced to install everything. For lightweight purpose, I propose to only include AisleRot, Minesweeper, GLines, GTeris.
JohnPeterson: Windows has a nice option to select which packages you want to install and also a subselection on which individual applications to install. This works well for the games situation you describe. Then leave it up to the distribution creators to select which they think will market best.
OlavVitters: I am sure that when the (new?) gtk+ printing dialog is finished apps will use that. ePDFView - for PDF/PS/Doc viewer (no dependency on GNOME lib)