The GNUstep Sanctuary

Window Maker and GNUstep: the NeXT lineage as a living free-software environment rather than an archaeology project. Black title bars, tiles and dockapps, Objective-C where Objective-C belongs — with modern package management underneath, because the whole sanctuary is declared in Guix and tangled from DotCortex like everything else.

The direction of travel (ruled 2026-07-02) is NEXTSPACE — the project that assembles the GNUstep pieces into something that actually feels like OpenStep rather than a parts bin. Window Maker proves the grammar; NEXTSPACE completes the sentence. And the icon layer is non-negotiable: the original NeXTSTEP isometric icons, the ones that taught a generation what depth on a screen could mean.

This sanctuary earns its keep as the pathfinder: once it proves the pattern, the real artefacts arrive as historical enclaves — NeXTSTEP 3.3 and OPENSTEP 4.2, the actual operating systems on virtual hardware. The sanctuary is where the NeXT grammar gets lived in daily; the enclaves are where the originals get preserved. Screenshots when it breathes.