Modernizing Desktop Linux Application Development

Over the past 4 years, GNOME has been creating the Builder IDE to radically reduce the difficulty in contributing to the Linux desktop. It has brought a number of new contributors to desktop Linux by simplifying common procedures such as setting up build environments and guiding newcomers; all while supporting a number of programming languages.

To make this possible, the Builder team helped push forward various container technologies such as Flatpak for use as SDKs so that developer teams can develop using identical toolchains and environments. In doing so, much heavy lifting on the platform was required to ensure that features such as debuggers, profilers, and terminals continue to work as expected. In the end, Builder has simplified the process for contributing to GNOME all while preserving the advanced developer features we require. Newcomers can get started contributing to an existing application in the matter of a single click.

This talk will discuss how you can use Builder to contribute to desktop Linux with a new or existing piece of software.

We will also discuss the challenges and complexities newcomers face that we must overcome as a community.