my wishlist would be BBEdit. One thing which could catapult GNUStep to heaven is a compatibility layer to emulate dylibs. Think of a native mac app moved to linux trying to load macos dylibs and ending up getting feed with gnustep instead. Kind of like Wine works.
How difficult this could be I'm not sure but I think it would be worth to study it. > On 26 Sep 2025, at 12:49, Riccardo Mottola <riccardo.mott...@libero.it> wrote: > > Hi, > > Ethan C wrote: >> >> I've always thought that it would be good to try to port macOS applications >> to GNUstep, for a few reasons: >> >> * It shows that GNUstep is complete enough to port real applications >> * It helps show us in which areas we are weak or strong at >> * It could potentially get us new users, especially for users who >> are migrating from macOS to GNU/Linux or who use multiple >> operating systems regularly >> > > Apps are always good, since they are a testbed. Ported apps have the addition > benefit of "showcasing" and "reference testing" plus interoperability. > I do use GNUMail also on Mac even if I don't "need" it on the MacOS as much > as on GNUstep. Or play the same game like GShisen. > > Or, as a humble comparison, I find it useful to open a drawing done in > Graphos on the mac. Especially because printing and PDF generating works > correctly only there! > >> The current wishlist on the wiki does not really have many good ideas for >> existing applications to port, so I looked for some high-quality Objective-C >> + AppKit applications that might be interesting (see the wishlist below). >> I'd like to hear your thoughts. >> > > That wishlist is user contributed, didn't remember it - it doesn't even > contain the "classical" wishes we had for twenty years. It expresses more the > sum of individual user needs, quite interesting in any case. On Mac (or > windows) you want to complement existing commercial apps, distinguishing > somehow. On GNUstep (and generally Linux) we lack them, so there are primary > needs. > > There are a couple of "closed source" apps we always wanted to have. The old > Office suite! > Certain old and news terminals. > > Personally I'd loved to have the Stone Design tools. Of OpenStep heritage > they worked really well and I did offset prints with it for years. I > contacted the author but there was no interest. Even if old, they would be > amazing and also a very good "test" - since I assume it is quite "classic" in > coding. He has also other amazing apps, but probably does more farming > nowadays. > > Except editors I can think of few open source Mac apps I feel the need for. > > I would think that a GNUstep native version of GIMP and Inkscape (or > equivalent) would help a lot. > Sure PRICE and Graphos are my children and are nice, but the from-scratch > approach has it limits. > > Compatibility with existing formats is important. For GIMP there would be > Seashore you cited, for Inkscape (or other XML vector editor) things are > harder. > > >> So far, I think that iTerm2 would probably be one of the most complex things >> to do, but it would probably be quite popular. TextMate was formerly >> extremely popular, but is not as popular anymore as the v2 rewrite took much >> longer than expected. SubEthaEdit is quite innovative, but was quickly >> overtaken in popularity by TextMate. >> > > For Editors, I use nowadays VIM and Emacs everywhere. > Emacs cano do GNUstep but it is always hit and miss, having it stable working > an dintegrated would be amazing. > GVim has an "old" and "new" Mac support, either one would be itneresting for > GNUstep and have it native. > > > > Riccardo > > >
