{"slug": "gtk", "name": "GTK", "category": "dev-libs", "category_name": "Libraries and frameworks", "description": "", "recommenders": 2, "commenters": 4, "warners": 1, "score": 0.353, "rising": 2.0, "first": "2026-01-02", "latest": "2026-10-05", "why": "I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 0, "compare": 2, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0], "listed": false, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["GTK", "GTK4", "GTK 3", "GTK 4", "GTK3"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 798409297, "item_id": 49900581, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49900581", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Using ruby-gtk2 and ruby-gtk3 was much nicer.", "excerpt": "I tried to get into tk via ruby-tk. I ended up really disliking tk. Using ruby-gtk2 and ruby-gtk3 was much nicer. (Sadly, gtk4 sucks, so that's the end of the story there.) I kind of want a universal toolkit that works everywhere and is also good. Right now I use ... well, either the web (that's ok, though I hate how I can not easily open local files and so forth, without having to use node), or swing via jruby-swing", "context": "Ruby developer", "use_case": "Ruby GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "Tk", "story": "Tcl/Tk 9.1"}, {"id": 797237345, "item_id": 49827334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827334", "by": "TonyStr", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app", "excerpt": ">I very much miss the days of consistent UX This is why I love GNOME. The community is doing a great job with creating GTK4 native applications. I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app, because they usually do enough. It's very satisfying to be able to use the same shortcuts in most applications.", "context": "", "use_case": "native apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 799502992, "item_id": 49968937, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968937", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GTK4 is a GNOMEy-toolkit", "excerpt": "Are people still using gtk? I started to learn it back then via ruby-gtk2. It was not the best experience but I learned several key things pertaining to widgets and the UI. Then came gtk3; it was in some ways worse than GTK2, but it also brought a few improvements such as the partial CSS support. I always miss that when I use e. g. wxwidget. Then came GTK4 though and things changed. Tons of old things broke or no lon", "context": "long-time GTK user", "use_case": "GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making a GTK application in Haskell, part 1"}, {"id": 798409298, "item_id": 49900581, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49900581", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Sadly, gtk4 sucks", "excerpt": "I tried to get into tk via ruby-tk. I ended up really disliking tk. Using ruby-gtk2 and ruby-gtk3 was much nicer. (Sadly, gtk4 sucks, so that's the end of the story there.) I kind of want a universal toolkit that works everywhere and is also good. Right now I use ... well, either the web (that's ok, though I hate how I can not easily open local files and so forth, without having to use node), or swing via jruby-swing", "context": "Ruby developer", "use_case": "Ruby GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tcl/Tk 9.1"}, {"id": 743433825, "item_id": 46464614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464614", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GTK ... this thing keeps on getting worse and worse with every new release.", "excerpt": "I have been using Linux since almost 23 years now. I don't praise it as flawless in any way, but compared to Microsoft it is a much more efficient operating system. Top 500 supercomputers also running Linux kind of hint that Linux is very good. Despite this, Linux as ecosystem has numerous problems. The \"wayland is the future\" annoys me a lot. The wayland protocol was released in 2008. Now it is almost 20 years. I do", "context": "Linux user for 23 years", "use_case": "GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}], "who": [{"by": "shevy-java", "context": "Ruby developer", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49900581", "date": "2026-09-29"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["gui toolkit", "ruby gui toolkit", "memory usage comparison", "native apps", "native gui toolkit"], "compared": [{"slug": "qt", "name": "Qt", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tk", "name": "Tk", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "kde", "name": "KDE", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gnome", "name": "GNOME", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wxwidgets", "name": "wxWidgets", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49896712", "title": "Tcl/Tk 9.1", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49499867", "title": "Haiku R1/beta6 has been released", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49965308", "title": "Making a GTK application in Haskell, part 1", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49820065", "title": "A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46753708", "title": "Web-based image editor modeled after Deluxe Paint", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46457770", "title": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"warn": 1, "compare": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {"compare": 1}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {"warn": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 799502992, "item_id": 49968937, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49968937", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-10-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GTK4 is a GNOMEy-toolkit", "excerpt": "Are people still using gtk? 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I kind of want a universal toolkit that works everywhere and is also good. Right now I use ... well, either the web (that's ok, though I hate how I can not easily open local files and so forth, without having to use node), or swing via jruby-swing", "context": "Ruby developer", "use_case": "Ruby GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "Tk", "story": "Tcl/Tk 9.1"}, {"id": 798409298, "item_id": 49900581, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49900581", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-09-29", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Sadly, gtk4 sucks", "excerpt": "I tried to get into tk via ruby-tk. I ended up really disliking tk. Using ruby-gtk2 and ruby-gtk3 was much nicer. (Sadly, gtk4 sucks, so that's the end of the story there.) I kind of want a universal toolkit that works everywhere and is also good. Right now I use ... well, either the web (that's ok, though I hate how I can not easily open local files and so forth, without having to use node), or swing via jruby-swing", "context": "Ruby developer", "use_case": "Ruby GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "", "story": "Tcl/Tk 9.1"}, {"id": 797237345, "item_id": 49827334, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49827334", "by": "TonyStr", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app", "excerpt": ">I very much miss the days of consistent UX This is why I love GNOME. The community is doing a great job with creating GTK4 native applications. I'll often pick a GTK app over a more featured app, because they usually do enough. It's very satisfying to be able to use the same shortcuts in most applications.", "context": "", "use_case": "native apps", "switched_from": "", "story": "A brief history of Windows scroll bar shortcuts"}, {"id": 792132946, "item_id": 49508309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508309", "by": "gen2brain", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "compare", "quote": "the GTK4 driver uses 40M; GTK3 and Qt6 ~15", "excerpt": "I am working on the IUP fork (UI toolkit) , with many new drivers/backends and features, and, of course, I added Haiku because it looks and performs so well, it works differently from what I used to see, making it even more interesting. The result: the absolute king in memory usage was the Win32 driver, like 4M for Hello World; in Haiku, that is 3M! For comparison, the GTK4 driver uses 40M; GTK3 and Qt6 ~15. WinUI is", "context": "", "use_case": "memory usage comparison", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku R1/beta6 has been released"}, {"id": 792132947, "item_id": 49508309, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508309", "by": "gen2brain", "date": "2026-08-31", "stance": "compare", "quote": "GTK3 and Qt6 ~15", "excerpt": "I am working on the IUP fork (UI toolkit) , with many new drivers/backends and features, and, of course, I added Haiku because it looks and performs so well, it works differently from what I used to see, making it even more interesting. The result: the absolute king in memory usage was the Win32 driver, like 4M for Hello World; in Haiku, that is 3M! For comparison, the GTK4 driver uses 40M; GTK3 and Qt6 ~15. WinUI is", "context": "", "use_case": "memory usage comparison", "switched_from": "", "story": "Haiku R1/beta6 has been released"}, {"id": 748260818, "item_id": 46766301, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46766301", "by": "Shorel", "date": "2026-01-26", "stance": "compare", "quote": "GTK looks so-so except on Linux", "excerpt": "At this point I wish that there was some native alternative to the Web-based everything. wxWidgets is oldschool, QT has license issues, GTK looks so-so except on Linux, TCL/TK looks ugly everywhere. In the modern world we need some GPU accelerated GUI library. Something like the one used in SublimeText. But with BSD or MIT license of course. That would be much more interesting for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "native GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "", "story": "Web-based image editor modeled after Deluxe Paint"}, {"id": 743433825, "item_id": 46464614, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464614", "by": "shevy-java", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GTK ... this thing keeps on getting worse and worse with every new release.", "excerpt": "I have been using Linux since almost 23 years now. I don't praise it as flawless in any way, but compared to Microsoft it is a much more efficient operating system. Top 500 supercomputers also running Linux kind of hint that Linux is very good. Despite this, Linux as ecosystem has numerous problems. The \"wayland is the future\" annoys me a lot. The wayland protocol was released in 2008. Now it is almost 20 years. I do", "context": "Linux user for 23 years", "use_case": "GUI toolkit", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux is good now; to feel like you actually own your PC, put Linux on it"}]}