151

How are the packages vim-gtk and vim-gnome different from each other? I've tried both and the resulting Gvim feels the same (to me). If there is no difference, why are both packages maintained?

Owais Lone
  • 7,312
  • 7
  • 32
  • 37
  • 2
    This question has been expanded here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/281886/what-is-the-difference-between-the-different-vim-packages-available-in-ubuntu to include `vim-athena`, `vim-nox` etc – jmetz Dec 11 '14 at 12:03

1 Answers1

115

Both packages provide the same application, but compiled with different dependencies (e.g. vim-gnome depends on libgnome2). Vim-gtk is important only to people who use Kubuntu (or some lightweight desktop environment) and don't want to install GNOME libraries. If you use the standard Ubuntu desktop, the dependencies are already present, and you can safely use vim-gnome. I agree that it could be confusing.

waldyrious
  • 2,189
  • 2
  • 21
  • 36
Adam Byrtek
  • 9,741
  • 2
  • 31
  • 27
  • 13
    So then, what is the difference between libgnome and libgtk? – HRJ Aug 20 '11 at 06:46
  • 16
    libgnome2 is dropped from GNOME3. So what will the difference be in gtk3 world of things? – Dima Dec 17 '11 at 00:53
  • Seems like vim-gnome still has libgnome2-0 as a dependency, while both vim-gnome and vim-gtk depend on libgtk2.0-0. – Victor Feb 18 '13 at 23:49
  • 10
    So, what benefits does libgnome bring to vim now?? The added dependency will not be there for no reason?! – Robert Siemer Sep 05 '16 at 11:19
  • See [GNOME Libraries Overview](http://www.academictutorials.com/gnome/gnome-introduction.asp) – Hans Ginzel Sep 24 '20 at 03:58
  • Are there any speed benefits to a particular GUI package? For example, in opening large (say, 2GB) csv files, does one particular vim win over another? That'd be super-nice to know. – Adrian Keister Feb 08 '22 at 16:55