GNOME 3 and panel applets

[Josselin Mouette]

[Bcc: all maintainers of GNOME applets]

Hi,

as it was already mentioned for other reasons, GNOME 3 is just around
the corner, and there are some big changes ahead. DO NOT PANIC: the
current desktop with gnome-panel and metacity will remain as an
alternative. Anyone wanting to troll about how gnome-shell sucks is
invited to do so elsewhere, since the topic here is gnome-panel.

The panel remains, but it will be a GTK3 / D-Bus panel. In its current
state, it doesn’t support the good old GTK2 / bonobo applets, of which
we have a lot in the archive. Upstream confirmed they don’t have time to
support them for 3.0 unless someone steps up to do the job. 

If you develop, maintain or use one of those packages, and you don’t
want it to disappear, your options are now:

     1. Prepare to disable gnome-panel support (that’s for packages
        which already have other options, such as using the notification
        area). 
     2. If meaningful (it depends on the applet), switch to another
        technology such as libappindicator or the notification area. 
     3. Port your applet to GTK3 and the new D-Bus API. The bindings for
        Python and C# will probably not work either, so you might have
        to start with them. 
     4. Step up and do the work to add support for bonobo applets in the
        panel.

Option 4 is the only way to keep all applets with low maintenance in
Debian. It should be possible by developing a gateway D-Bus service that
loads a bonobo applet in a process separate from the panel and proxies
signals through it. If you are interested, please get in touch with
upstream. If no one is interested, a large portion of the following list
is going to leave the archive. 


David Villa Alises <David.Villa at uclm.es>
   ows

Sebastien Bacher <seb128 at debian.org>
   lock-keys-applet
   mboxcheck-applet
   netspeed

Vincent Bernat <bernat at debian.org>
   xnee

Michael Biebl <biebl at debian.org>
   tracker
   vinagre (U)

Laurent Bigonville <bigon at debian.org>
   gnome-mag (U)

Salvatore Bonaccorso <salvatore.bonaccorso at gmail.com>
   giplet

Joachim Breitner <nomeata at debian.org>
   link-monitor-applet

Tzafrir Cohen <tzafrir at debian.org>
   hdate-applet (U)

LI Daobing <lidaobing at debian.org>
   lunar-applet

Debian GNOME Maintainers <pkg-gnome-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org>
   deskbar-applet
   gnome-mag (U)
   gnome-main-menu (U)
   gnome-netstatus (U)
   gnome-utils
   hamster-applet (U)
   mousetweaks (U)
   netspeed (U)
   ontv (U)
   seahorse-plugins (U)
   tsclient
   vinagre (U)

Debian Hebrew Packaging Team <debian-hebrew-package at lists.alioth.debian.org>
   hdate-applet
   hspell-gui

Debian Xfce Maintainers <pkg-xfce-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
   xfce4-xfapplet-plugin

Barry deFreese <bddebian at comcast.net>
   xnee (U)

Sebastian Dröge <slomo at debian.org>
   deskbar-applet (U)
   gnome-mag (U)
   gnome-netstatus (U)
   gnome-utils (U)
   hamster-applet (U)
   mousetweaks (U)
   ontv (U)
   seahorse-plugins (U)
   service-discovery-applet
   vinagre (U)

Diego Fernández Durán <diego at goedi.net>
   quick-lounge-applet

Baruch Even <baruch at debian.org>
   hdate-applet (U)
   hspell-gui (U)

Luca Falavigna <dktrkranz at debian.org>
   remmina-gnome

Anthony Fok <foka at debian.org>
   lunar-applet (U)

Pedro Fragoso <ember at ubuntu.com>
   hamster-applet

Filippo Giunchedi <filippo at esaurito.net>
   sensors-applet (U)

Rudy Godoy <rudy at kernel-panik.org>
   xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (U)

Gustavo Iñiguez Goya <ga at kutxa.homeunix.org>
   gnome-inm-forecast

Fabian Greffrath <fabian at debian-unofficial.org>
   glunarclock (U)

Debian QA Group <packages at qa.debian.org>
   ddccontrol
   gnome-pilot

Jeremy Guitton <debotux at free.fr>
   ontv

Guido Günther <agx at sigxcpu.org>
   window-picker-applet

Jerry Haltom <wasabi at larvalstage.net>
   gnome-netstatus

Clement 'nodens' Hermann <clement.hermann at free.fr>
   tsclient (U)

Raphaël Hertzog <hertzog at debian.org>
   indicator-applet (U)

Simon Huggins <huggie at earth.li>
   xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (U)

Lior Kaplan <kaplan at debian.org>
   hdate-applet (U)
   hspell-gui (U)

Philipp Kern <pkern at debian.org>
   timer-applet

Julian Andres Klode <jak at debian.org>
   gnome-main-menu

Kilian Krause <kilian at debian.org>
   tsclient (U)

Mario Lang <mlang at debian.org>
   gnome-mag (U)

John Lightsey <lightsey at debian.org>
   apt-watch

Martin Loschwitz <madkiss at debian.org>
   xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (U)

Francois Marier <francois at debian.org>
   verbiste
   workrave

Fladischer Michael <FladischerMichael at fladi.at>
   panflute

Robert Millan <rmh.debian at aybabtu.com>
   gnote

Loic Minier <lool at dooz.org>
   computertemp (U)
   gnome-mag (U)
   gnome-netstatus (U)
   gnome-utils (U)
   netspeed (U)
   service-discovery-applet (U)
   tsclient (U)

Emilio Pozuelo Monfort <pochu at debian.org>
   deskbar-applet (U)
   gnome-main-menu (U)
   gnome-utils (U)
   hamster-applet (U)
   mousetweaks (U)
   ontv (U)
   seahorse-plugins
   vinagre

Sam Morris <sam at robots.org.uk>
   sensors-applet

Josselin Mouette <joss at debian.org>
   deskbar-applet (U)
   gnome-mag (U)
   gnome-netstatus (U)
   gnome-utils (U)
   hamster-applet (U)
   mousetweaks
   netspeed (U)
   seahorse-plugins (U)
   tsclient (U)
   vinagre (U)

Jose M. Moya <josem at debian.org>
   gai
   shermans-aquarium

Francesco Namuri <francesco at namuri.it>
   drapes

Kiwamu Okabe <kiwamu at debian.or.jp>
   uim

Barak A. Pearlmutter <bap at debian.org>
   gnome-randr-applet

Adriaan Peeters <apeeters at lashout.net>
   computertemp

Yves-Alexis Perez <corsac at corsac.net>
   xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (U)

Frederic Peters <fpeters at debian.org>
   gnome-blog

Ari Pollak <ari at debian.org>
   hardware-monitor

Siegfried-Angel Gevatter Pujals <rainct at ubuntu.com>
   webboard

Python Applications Packaging Team <python-apps-team at lists.alioth.debian.org>
   panflute (U)

Alexander Reichle-Schmehl <tolimar at debian.org>
   xpenguins-applet

Rogerio Reis <rvr at debian.org>
   gspot

Emanuele Rocca <ema at debian.org>
   xfce4-xfapplet-plugin (U)

Daniel Ruoso <daniel at ruoso.com>
   gnome-mag

Changwoo Ryu <cwryu at debian.org>
   imhangul-status-applet

Shachar Shemesh <shachar at debian.org>
   hdate-applet (U)
   hspell-gui (U)

Gustavo Noronha Silva <kov at debian.org>
   gnome-utils (U)

Adam Sjøgren <asjo at koldfront.dk>
   bubblemon

Soeren Sonnenburg <sonne at debian.org>
   cpufire-applet

Christine Spang <christine at debian.org>
   glunarclock

Andrew Starr-Bochicchio <a.starr.b at gmail.com>
   file-browser-applet
   indicator-applet (U)

Roland Stigge <stigge at antcom.de>
   gnubiff

TANIGUCHI Takaki <takaki at debian.org>
   g2ipmsg

The Ayatana Packagers <pkg-ayatana-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org>
   indicator-applet

Davide Truffa <davide at catoblepa.org>
   glipper

Bastian Venthur <venthur at debian.org>
   byzanz

Stefan Völkel <stefan at bc-bd.org>
   revelation

Ian Wienand <ianw at debian.org>
   teatime

Deng Xiyue <manphiz-guest at users.alioth.debian.org>
   gnome-netstatus (U)

Cheers,
-- 
 .''`.
: :' :     “You would need to ask a lawyer if you don't know
`. `'       that a handshake of course makes a valid contract.”
  `-        --  J???rg Schilling