LXQt is a lightweight desktop environment built using the Qt toolkit. It provides a user-friendly and modern desktop experience while maintaining low resource usage.
Likewise, as the KDE Plasma project gears up to unveil version 6.0 at the month’s end, marking a significant step towards a fully Qt6-based desktop environment, the LXQt developers are also keenly focused on this direction. Here’s what it’s all about.
Porting to Qt6: A Leap Towards Modernization
The transition to Qt6 is a key focus for the LXQt team, with a developer preview already showcasing the progress in adapting the LXQt components to the new library.
Priority has porting all components to the Qt6 libraries and there will be no Qt5-based version of LXQt anymore.
While the enhancements brought by Qt6 may not be immediately visible to users, the underlying improvements in processing speed and development efficiency are significant milestones for the project.
In light of this, the forthcoming LXQt 2.0 release, scheduled for April, heralds the end of LXQt’s compatibility with Qt5, signaling a complete shift to the more efficient and robust Qt6 libraries.
This transition is expected to bring about many improvements, including better performance and a more streamlined development process for the LXQt components.
One of the most exciting features of LXQt 2.0 is the introduction of the “Fancy Menu,” a new default application menu.
It is designed to enhance user interaction by including sections for “All Applications,” favorites, and an improved search function, making it easier for users to navigate and access their apps more efficiently.
LXQt 2.0 Wayland Support
Adopting Wayland is another crucial aspect of LXQt’s development, aimed at providing users with a more modern and secure display server protocol.
The LXQt team is actively working on integrating Wayland-specific code into components such as the panel, desktop, runner, shortkeys, and notification daemon. While many LXQt components are fully functional on Wayland, some are in partial development, and others are yet to be supported.
Despite these significant changes, LXQt remains committed to its philosophy of modularity, ensuring that users can continue to customize their desktop environment to suit their preferences.
This includes support for a variety of compositors, both stacking and tiled, with labwc, a Wayland window-stacking compositos, currently providing the most satisfying results.
Please refer to the official announcement to explore in-depth updates on the progress made and the remaining steps for transitioning to Qt6 and Wayland by the LXQt devs.
