Big changes are coming to the Budgie desktop in 2026 as the project transitions from the decade-old Budgie 10 series to a new, modular architecture under Budgie 11.
With yesterday’s release of Budgie 10.10, the tenth feature series, the Budgie project is concluding active feature development on the 10.x line and moving it into maintenance mode. This final release of Budgie 10 also ships a Wayland-only experience to serve users while the team focuses on the next generation of the desktop.
The centerpiece of the upcoming change is Budgie 11, which the project has confirmed will be developed using Qt6 and Kirigami, a UI framework developed by KDE for building adaptive, responsive applications. Unlike previous toolkit experiments, including past work with Qt5, GTK3, GTK4 plans, and EFL, the Budgie team confirmed that it now has functional Qt6 code in production as part of Budgie Desktop Services.
This component currently handles Wayland output management and persistent configuration in Budgie 10.10 and will expand in the upcoming Budgie 11 to include additional tools such as the Budgie Display Configurator.
According to devs, the shift to Qt6 is part of a broader architectural rework aimed at breaking Budgie into more modular components. The new design is intended to support greater customization by distributions and users, enable new form factors and device types, and provide clearer interfaces for services such as notifications, display handling, and idle management.
A key aspect of the Budgie 11 strategy is a revised versioning and ABI stability plan. The major version number will be tied to the Qt major release, starting with Qt6 for Budgie 11, with feature and patch numbers reflecting semi-annual enhancements and routine fixes.
The Budgie team has also identified several pain points from the Budgie 10 series that informed the design goals for Budgie 11. For example, in Budgie 10, the core desktop components were tightly coupled, with panels and services managed by a combination of budgie-panel and budgie-daemon processes.
Moreover, plugin support relied heavily on libpeas, which created packaging and discoverability challenges for third-party extensions. Session and service management was also fragmented, with custom code that did not fully leverage systemd user services, an area targeted for improvement.
In contrast, Budgie 11 will be structured around two primary layers: Budgie Core and Budgie Desktop. Budgie Core will provide foundational libraries and service management across device types, exposing functionality over interfaces such as DBus. Budgie Desktop will serve as the graphical environment for desktops, laptops, and similar systems, built on this core to deliver a consistent, extensible user experience.
Finally, the project envisions Budgie Desktop supporting adaptable workflows, including advanced multitasking, multi-window arrangements, and distinct operating modes, while remaining approachable for newcomers. At the same time, extensibility remains a priority, with plans for flexible component swapping, theming, and more centralized extension discovery and distribution.
For more information, see the official announcement, where you will also find what the developers have accomplished in the past 2025.
