In regards to defining GNUstep and Window Maker

[webmaster]

Greetings,

It has come to our attention that GNUstep developers and users may be 
somewhat confused as to the relationship of Window Maker and GNUstep. 
This confusion seems to have resulted in the GNUstep project posting a 
webpage that casts the Window Maker project in a negative light.

The page we're referring to is:

http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/GNUstepIsNotWM

While the statement "official GNUstep window manager" is not accurate, it 
was at one point in time.  Over the last several years, the GNUstep 
project has indicated that it doesn't want to be tied to a window manager, 
and communication and cooperation between the two projects has faltered 
since.  We are guilty of not keeping our website up-to-date on this change 
of events.  However, our intention has never been to cause confusion or 
purposely promote misinformation, and we would like to promptly correct 
the situation.

We would like to propose a mutal exchange of text that can be used to 
define what our projects are, and what, if any, relationship they have to 
one another.  We will update our website to reflect the fact that Window 
Maker includes support for GNUstep applications, but that it is only one 
of several window managers that do so.  It will be made clear that Window 
Maker is not supported or endorsed by the GNUstep project in any way.  In 
addition, we'll put up any text you want to give us that describes the 
GNUstep project.

In exchange, we request that the page given above be modified with the 
following text describing the Window Maker project:

"Window Maker is an X11 window manager that mimics the elegant look and 
feel of the NEXTSTEP[tm] user interface.  It is "aware" of applications 
written for the GNUstep Desktop Environment, allowing for a more seamless 
integration with the desktop.  Window Maker is not a standalone desktop 
environment or coding framework, and is not endorsed or supported by the 
GNUstep project in any way."

As for the Window Maker logo, it is a deviation of the GNUstep logo (a 
version from the logo contest that the GNUstep project rejected), and 
we obtained permission to use it from the GNUstep project and artist a 
long time ago.  This was back when the GNUstep project favored Window 
Maker, and our project was the only window manager that included GNUstep 
support.  If the GNUstep project would like us to change our logo to 
avoid confusion, we will be happy to so, given a reasonable amount of 
time.  I suspect it would take us several months before we could come up 
with a new logo of our own.

For the record, we would like to point out that our project and website 
has done nothing but help to promote the GNUstep project over the years. 
There was a time when Window Maker was the only window manager that 
included GNUstep support, and the GNUstep project used to/still does share 
some Window Maker libraries (such as libwraster/wrlib).  We would have 
hoped this good will would have resulted in the GNUstep project privately 
contacting us to discuss any issues, prior to painting our project as the 
"bad guys".

At any rate, we hope this further expresses our willingness to work with 
the GNUstep project, and our desire to provide accurate information.

-phillip

Webmaster and Sysadmin for *windowmaker.org