Motif and GTK are being compared, because they're both written in C, and both are under LGPL2.1+. GTK also has a history of its project spawning off of use of Motif.
History of Motif
Motif started off proprietary in 1988 by Open Software Foundation. This foundation was created by Hewlett-Packard and other companies. At one time, it was called "X/Open". It became the Open Group in 1995-1996.
Lesstif is an obsolete implementation of Motif under LGPL formed in 1995 by Hungry Programmers. Lesstif was formed to pressure OpenGroup to release sourcecode under an open source license. In 2000, Open Group released Open Motif based on Motif 2.1.30. OpenMotif was under the Open Group Public License (which is similar to IBM Public License version 1.2): it allowed royalty free distribution and could only be used on opensource operating systems. This wasn't considered open source by most standards. In 2012, Motif switched to LGPL for version 2.3.4. Thus, Lesstif production stopped and Hungry Programmers recommended using Motif by OpenGroup. x11-toolkit/openmotif in ports is actually Motif, and not OpenMotif. This port is misnamed, possibly due to that the location of the source changed in the past due to past license changes, then it being a hassle to fix this.
Integrated Computer Systems (ICS) has had involvement in Motif, such as porting it to different operating systems. ICS also has involvement in QT, by porting Motif applications to QT.
The Open Group & Integrated Computer Systems (ICS) now steward the latest versions of Motif together. The latest version is 2.3.8. Development on Motif has slowed down.
About Motif
Motif has been called, "the native Unix toolkit", as its appearance once defined Unix-like systems. While GTK and QT are more prevalent in Linux, Motif has been prevalent outside of the Linux community with corporations. Motif has had a stronger commercial foothold than QT and GTK, as the companies behind it offer guaranteed services to corporate customers.
While Motif has been described as more difficult to program than QT or GTK, it's easier to upgrade revisions for, as QT and GTK revisions for components have to more constantly be rewritten. It's easier to upgrade code for Motif than with GTK or QT. Motif is more portable, is less intertwined with complex dependencies, and it meshes better with other programs. In comparison to GTK and QT, components of Motif are backward compatible, and Motif is compatible with more software like builders. GTK and QT are incompatible with other software, unlike Motif. Software versions also don't have to be rewritten with Motif as much as they do with GTK or QT, making it easier for upgrading code revisions. Some benefits of Motif are due to Motif using the Xt library from X, which GTK and QT don't. Motif is also described as more complete than GTK and QT. This toolkit was made for ease of adding expansions, which companies may need to add functionality. In contrast, GTK, has caught up to Motif in a few regards, but still doesn't have a market for 3rd party support the way that Motif has.
As of 2001, Motif had better Internationalization support than GTK1. GTK1 needed gettext for partial internationalization support. GTK2 & GTK3 need Pango for internationalization support. The latest QT has good internationalization support.
One complaint about GTK is that its major and minor releases broke API compatibility. GTK3, further went on to attempt to be compatible with Wayland, but with the release of GTK4.0, GTK3 series can drop attempts to be Wayland compatible, thus making GTK3 more reliable with X.
Timeline comparison
History of Motif
Motif started off proprietary in 1988 by Open Software Foundation. This foundation was created by Hewlett-Packard and other companies. At one time, it was called "X/Open". It became the Open Group in 1995-1996.
Lesstif is an obsolete implementation of Motif under LGPL formed in 1995 by Hungry Programmers. Lesstif was formed to pressure OpenGroup to release sourcecode under an open source license. In 2000, Open Group released Open Motif based on Motif 2.1.30. OpenMotif was under the Open Group Public License (which is similar to IBM Public License version 1.2): it allowed royalty free distribution and could only be used on opensource operating systems. This wasn't considered open source by most standards. In 2012, Motif switched to LGPL for version 2.3.4. Thus, Lesstif production stopped and Hungry Programmers recommended using Motif by OpenGroup. x11-toolkit/openmotif in ports is actually Motif, and not OpenMotif. This port is misnamed, possibly due to that the location of the source changed in the past due to past license changes, then it being a hassle to fix this.
Integrated Computer Systems (ICS) has had involvement in Motif, such as porting it to different operating systems. ICS also has involvement in QT, by porting Motif applications to QT.
The Open Group & Integrated Computer Systems (ICS) now steward the latest versions of Motif together. The latest version is 2.3.8. Development on Motif has slowed down.
About Motif
Motif has been called, "the native Unix toolkit", as its appearance once defined Unix-like systems. While GTK and QT are more prevalent in Linux, Motif has been prevalent outside of the Linux community with corporations. Motif has had a stronger commercial foothold than QT and GTK, as the companies behind it offer guaranteed services to corporate customers.
While Motif has been described as more difficult to program than QT or GTK, it's easier to upgrade revisions for, as QT and GTK revisions for components have to more constantly be rewritten. It's easier to upgrade code for Motif than with GTK or QT. Motif is more portable, is less intertwined with complex dependencies, and it meshes better with other programs. In comparison to GTK and QT, components of Motif are backward compatible, and Motif is compatible with more software like builders. GTK and QT are incompatible with other software, unlike Motif. Software versions also don't have to be rewritten with Motif as much as they do with GTK or QT, making it easier for upgrading code revisions. Some benefits of Motif are due to Motif using the Xt library from X, which GTK and QT don't. Motif is also described as more complete than GTK and QT. This toolkit was made for ease of adding expansions, which companies may need to add functionality. In contrast, GTK, has caught up to Motif in a few regards, but still doesn't have a market for 3rd party support the way that Motif has.
As of 2001, Motif had better Internationalization support than GTK1. GTK1 needed gettext for partial internationalization support. GTK2 & GTK3 need Pango for internationalization support. The latest QT has good internationalization support.
- https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/download/book_download.html
- https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/interviews/openmotif/motifopen_0500.html
- http://www.motifdeveloper.com/code.html
- https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/interviews/Motif6B/motif_dialog_0400.html
- https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/interviews/Motif6B/motif_0400.html
- https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/download/book_download.html
- https://www.ist.co.uk/motif/motif_refs.html
- The first release of General Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) was version 0.54 in 1996. This was built off of Motif. Later came 0.6, made from of its own: Gimp Toolkit (GTK) and GIMP Drawing Kit (GDK). Though, GIMP 0.6 was buggy. During this time, its acronym changed to GNU Image Manipulation Program. Version 0.99 was released in 1997, using GTK+.
- GTK1.0 was released in 1998. Before that, it was part of Gimp, or General Image Manipulation Program, later changed to GNU Image Manipulation Program. Later pre-versions were made in GTK. The first public release of Gimp was 0.54 in 1996 which was built off of Motif.
- GTK2.0 released in 2002. Had improved Internationalization, Localization support and Accessibility support. The GTK/Gimp projects have dropped GTK2 support. Hence, GTK2 was later stewarded by CinePaint, which was a fork from GIMP 1.0.4. However, there hasn't been major development of Cinepaint in a few years.
- GTK3.0 released in 2011.
- GTK4.0 released in 2020.
One complaint about GTK is that its major and minor releases broke API compatibility. GTK3, further went on to attempt to be compatible with Wayland, but with the release of GTK4.0, GTK3 series can drop attempts to be Wayland compatible, thus making GTK3 more reliable with X.
Timeline comparison
- Motif (1988), Xaw (≈1984)
- Xaw3d (1992), Lesstif (1995), GTK beta (1996)
- Xaw3D 1.0 was released in 1994.
- GTK1 (1998), Motif, Nextaw (1997)
- GTK1 lacked Internationalization, Locality and Accessibility support, while Motif had these features. GTK1 used gettext in an attempt for these features. Lesstif, the LGPL alternative to Motif, was available since 1995. Nextaw was intended to have a look like Motif.
- GTK2 (2002), OpenMotif (2000), Xaw3dxft (2002)
- GTK2 had Internationalization, Locality and Accessibility support through Pango. OpenMotif can be compared to GTK2, because they both came out at around the same time. Although, OpenMotif's features haven't changed much from Motif except for a version offering a limited public use License. Xaw3dxft is a Xaw implementation based off of Xaw3d with Internationalization support through XFT fonts.
- GTK3 (2011), Motif under LGPL (2012)
- GTK3 also had Internationalization, Locality and Accessibility support through Pango. Around this time, Motif has become under LGPL, which Lesstif voluntarily became defunct.