Have you had a look at https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace ?
In Make Apps for Linuxtrunkmaster
nextspace
Objective-C2018–2026
trunkmaster / nextspace
nextspace
NeXTSTEP-like desktop environment for Linux
24Distinct people
55Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
2.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
NeXTSTEP-like desktop environment for Linux
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I've always liked NeXTSTEP's distinctive user interface. I wish we had a version that ran on modern hardware, similar to what https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace is trying…
felixding used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- onflapp/gs-desktop · linked in 3 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 7:02:26 AM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year55 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2018-08-02 21:58:08 UTC to 2026-10-26 04:24:26 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 1 | 6 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 16 | 1 | 15 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 0 | 8 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 0 | 5 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 13, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
NEXTSPACE
NEXTSPACE is a desktop environment that brings a NeXTSTEP look and feel to Linux. I try to keep the user experience as close as possible to the original NeXT OS. It is developed according to the "OpenStep User Interface Guidelines".
An explanation of the NeXTSTEP / NextStep naming convention is discussed in further detail here.
I want to create a fast, elegant, reliable, and easy to use desktop environment with maximum attention to user experience (usability) and visual maturity. I would like it to become a platform where applications will be running with a taste of NeXT's OS. Core applications such as Login, Workspace, and Preferences are the base for future application development and examples of visual style and application integration methods.
NEXTSPACE is not just a set of applications tightly integrated to each other. It is a core OS with frameworks, mouse cursors, fonts, colors, animations, and everything I think will help users to be effective and happy.
Brief introduction to core NEXTSPACE applications contains some details and screenshots.
Why?
I like the look, feel, and design principles of NeXTSTEP.
I believe it will become an interesting environment for developers and comfortable (fast, easy to use, feature-rich) for users.
Unlike other 'real' and 'serious' projects, I have not yet defined a target audience for NEXTSPACE. I intentionally left aside modern UI design trends (fancy animations, shadows, gray blurry lines, flat controls, acid colors, transparency). I like the accurate, clear, grayish, and "boring" UI that helps, not hinder, to get my job done.
Not planned
Porting to other Linux distributions and operating systems. For now, I want a fast, accurate, and stable version for RedHat-based Linux distributions. Currently these are Fedora, CentOS Stream 9, Rocky Linux 9 and Alma Linux 9. However, NEXTSPACE was designed to be portable and thus this point may be changed in future.
GNOME, KDE, macOS rival in terms of visual effects, modern design principles, look and feel.
Implementing a macOS-like desktop paradigm. There is another good place for this -- see Étoilé.
Installing
There are several methods of NEXTSPACE installation:
Get release builds here. At the time of writing there are RPM builds for CentOS 7, 8 and Fedora31. As of CentOS 7 EOL in 2024, no more CentOS builds will be created in the future. RPM packages will built for latest release of Fedora. Optionally may be created builds for stable Debian release and packed as a tarball.
Make own build of packages. Installation is based off CentOS 7's minimal install, you can find full directions in the installation guide.
Install it from source with help of build scripts (tested on Debian, Ubuntu LTS and Fedora). Please follow build instructions if you've choose this way.
For developers
For those who are eager to know "How it's done?" can find information on development tasks, goals, solutions, implementation details, and build instructions on the Wiki.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
5 sourcesThe GNUstep Desktop Environment (GSDE) from OnFlapp:
https://onflapp.github.io/gs-desktop/index.html
This is a modern setup for Debian 9, 10 & 11.
(Not 12 yet AFAIK.)
It inherits a little bit of code from the earlier NEXTSPACE desktop, which was based on CentOS Linux:
https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace
NEXTSPACE is Ukrainian and development has been on hold since Russia invaded the author's country.
In Distribution Release: Window Maker Live 0.96There's also the NEXTSPACE fork for a more complete implementation: https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace
In I Still Use Windows 95 (2008)I'd love to run GNUStep on my Linux machine simply because The NeXT heritage brings with it the only sane keyboard shortcut / keybinding system on the Linux desktop. Before I go on a tangent, let me link to NEXTSPACE [1] which is a CentOS based GNUStep OS. Sadly, since the author is from the Ukraine, all development has halted since last February :( I hope he is ok.
Now the keybinding tangent: If you're not rolling VIM keybindings in the whole desktop (which is tricky for non-modal interfaces and alienating a large amount of users), the next best ergonomic keybinding scheme is the Emacs / Gnu Readline system [2]. It allows moving the cursor without having to move hands around (e.g. going to the arrow keys, coming back to the alphabetical keys). It is one of the base tenets of unix systems. Every terminal supports it. Yet, the whole bunch
Read the rest
of Linux Desktop systems completely ignored these keybindings and copypastaed the Windows concept instead, coming up with a weird chimera of readline in some places, and half-windows, half-self-invented in others.
Gnome used to have an Emacs compatibility mode that was somehow off by default and had to be enabled in a tweak. It was removed with GTK 4 however. If you want to do that in KDE, you have to run a weird python daemon, and half the apps constantly stop working because they key codes are being messed with.
MacOS on the other hand, supports these keybindings in every input dialog, it is a pleasure to use. Even more so, to have the same keybindings in every app and not having to learn new ones on a per-app basis.
Of course, running weird python key code daemons runs into the other problem that macOS & Gnustep solved in a much nicer way: By copying the shortcut system from Windows and patching it on top of Readline, many shortcuts have double entries. Printing is CTRL-P, but so is readline "Previous Line". macOS and Gnustep solve this by having a separate key for app actions: Command (or Hyper or Alt). So print is Command+P. Everywhere. Previous line is CTRL-P. This is always my go-to Linux joke where "Copy" is "CTRl-C" everywhere, except in the Terminal, where it's CTRL-SHIFT-C because yeah, CTRL-C has another meaning. Talk about a sane shortcut system if apps have to use different ones per shortcut because the amalgamation of Windows Shortcuts + Readline is a match made in hell.
[1]: https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Readline
In case you want to have a NeXT-like experience on Linux, I’ve had good fun with NEXTSPACE:
- https://github.com/trunkmaster/nextspace
Alas, the developer is Ukrainian, and hasn’t committed anything in a long while. But maybe someone could help out?
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