Switching to Qt/KDE

[kadath]

I've been a staunch user of GTK apps and DEs (started with Gnome, then moved to Xfce, which is what I still use) ever since I started using Linux.

However, over the past 6 months, it's become increasingly obvious to me that the people in control of the Qt toolkit (Trolltech, and now Nokia) have a real roadmap for it, whereas GTK is pretty much still where it was when I started using Linux, with no signs of ever changing. In addition, KDE4 (while still not stable and feature complete at this time) has made some impressive improvements over KDE3. Gnome, however, still looks and acts like something out of 2001, and Xfce's development crawls at a snail's pace.

I hated KDE in the past, but I've recently come to realize that my previous encounters with KDE were on distros which poorly implemented it. Something like KDEmod on Arch makes KDE an impressive desktop.

Has anyone else come to similar conclusions recently?

[maniacmusician]

I haven't really kept up with XFCE development, but I don't think Gnome development has really stalled. They still seem to be doing some new and interesting things.

That being said, I do prefer Qt and KDE myself, for both technical and personal reasons. I'm just much more comfortable with it, and it helps me get stuff done faster -- I also find it way easier to use Qt for a GUI when programming (which I'm not very good at, but Qt is easier to use and provides me with more features and power). I started out with GTK as well. I used XFCE, and then Gnome, and then switched to KDE.

So while I do prefer and support Qt/KDE, I don't think Gnome is going nowhere. I actually have it installed on my laptop (though that might change with the advent of KDE4.2). I've always personally been impressed by the Gnome releases, since they always seemed to have a good mix of new things and old bugfixes. I will agree that GTK is far behind Qt though. I hardly ever hear any news about new features, interoperability with other platforms, or exciting development with it.

[tdrusk]

Personally, I have almost always had more crashes in KDE than in Gnome or XFCE. I really prefer stability over features.

[days_of_ruin]

In before the move.:lolflag:

[LaRoza]

In before the move.

Where are you moving?

QT is a corporate encroachment on the GPL. It is evil.

GTK (GNOME, at least) is being taken over my Microsoft.

Run for your lives!

(I don't care, I use wmii (no toolkit), VLC and Opera (QT), Thunar and gedit (GTK))

[maniacmusician]

QT is a corporate encroachment on the GPL. It is evil.


I counter that Qt is the most intelligent use of the GPL. It says: "Go open-source or cough up tons of money to pay us, so that we can continue developing this awesome open source toolkit."

Basically companies are either supporting the use of Qt (by making their programs open source and using the open source version of Qt) or supporting Qt financially by paying a ton of money for the commercial license.

[tdrusk]

Where are you moving?

QT is a corporate encroachment on the GPL. It is evil.

GTK (GNOME, at least) is being taken over my Microsoft.

Run for your lives!

(I don't care, I use wmii (no toolkit), VLC and Opera (QT), Thunar and gedit (GTK))

Can you please explain how Gnome is being taken over by Microsoft?

[awakatanka]

I hope nokia will do some goodthings with QT i'm not a a fan that they have control of trolltech now, but the futere will tell. I want to see a good qtopia phone



Forum police does it again. put a discussion in to the background. These forums need a defragtool. More and more i dislike this forum and ho its managed these day's

[LaRoza]

I counter that Qt is the most intelligent use of the GPL. It says: "Go open-source or cough up tons of money to pay us, so that we can continue developing this awesome open source toolkit."

Basically companies are either supporting the use of Qt (by making their programs open source and using the open source version of Qt) or supporting Qt financially by paying a ton of money for the commercial license.

My post was the alarmist attitudes of the opponents of both toolkits. I believe neither.

Can you please explain how Gnome is being taken over by Microsoft?

See above.

( http://www.linux.com/feature/21338 )

[maniacmusician]

My post was the alarmist attitudes of the opponents of both toolkits. I believe neither.



See above.

( http://www.linux.com/feature/21338 )
I totally understood your intent with the post (which is why tdrusk's question amused me a bit), but I couldn't resist the opportunity to plug Qt's correct use of the GPL. It just makes me giggle every time I think about how they're funding open source development by funneling money away from corporations who use Qt for proprietary apps.

[LaRoza]

Forum police does it again. put a discussion in to the background. These forums need a defragtool. More and more i dislike this forum and ho its managed these day's

Read the sticky:

It is not our goal in the Ubuntu Forums to eliminate discussions or silence people. In the past, we have closed threads on these topics simply because they have been discussed numerous times, and never with any sort of resolution.

Some feel that the growing number of members of this forum leads to the constant reiteration of the same topics.

Note, someone else knew it was going to be moved.

We don't use ho's here also.

If you disagree with a move, post in the Resolution Center in the Forum Feedback and Help.

[LaRoza]

I totally understood your intent with the post (which is why tdrusk's question amused me a bit), but I couldn't resist the opportunity to plug Qt's correct use of the GPL. It just makes me giggle every time I think about how they're funding open source development by funneling money away from corporations who use Qt for proprietary apps.

I think it is a good policy also.

[tdrusk]

I totally understood your intent with the post (which is why tdrusk's question amused me a bit), but I couldn't resist the opportunity to plug Qt's correct use of the GPL. It just makes me giggle every time I think about how they're funding open source development by funneling money away from corporations who use Qt for proprietary apps.

I didn't mean to say anything funny. I wasn't trying to be sarcastic. I just don't keep up with speculation and such.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I really dont see the advantages of KDE4 at this stage and time. with its ugly black panels, unmanageable plasma themes and current unstability I dont think KDE is anywhere near viable until KDE4.1 comes out... possibly
But there are a few GTK apps I prefer over their QT counterparts:
Synaptic is much better then adept, I really hate adept.
The Gimp is better then Krita, and its more stable most of the time, I had krita crash on me quite a bit

[awakatanka]

I really dont see the advantages of KDE4 at this stage and time. with its ugly black panels, unmanageable plasma themes and current unstability I dont think KDE is anywhere near viable until KDE4.1 comes out... possibly
But there are a few GTK apps I prefer over their QT counterparts:
Synaptic is much better then adept, I really hate adept.
The Gimp is better then Krita, and its more stable most of the time, I had krita crash on me quite a bit

having a a love hate relation with adept. i like the on the fly search, but synaptic is better overall.

Panels you can easy changes with some editing in plasmarc. ATM i don't have much instability with 4.04 ( it still show 4.03, now that bugs me). What i find pity ATM is the lack of apps that use kde4. I like that it slowly grows on you and gets better.

[SunnyRabbiera]

having a a love hate relation with adept. i like the on the fly search, but synaptic is better overall.

Panels you can easy changes with some editing in plasmarc. ATM i don't have much instability with 4.04 ( it still show 4.03, now that bugs me). What i find pity ATM is the lack of apps that use kde4. I like that it slowly grows on you and gets better.

yes but still plasma theming still needs work, I hope 4.1 comes with a GUI to edit it

[LaRoza]

Synaptic is much better then adept, I really hate adept.

I always use the command line. The ultimiate UI.

[awakatanka]

yes but still plasma theming still needs work, I hope 4.1 comes with a GUI to edit it

They backported it in opensuse, and i hoped it was in 4.04 but 4.04 is bugged in hardy, it installs but shows 4.03 so dunno if i really use 4.04 now.

i'm btw happy with amarok2 alpha, finally some other app to test. Hope they will put 4.1 alpha in ibex then i will switch to ibex to test again

[smartboyathome]

Where are you moving?

QT is a corporate encroachment on the GPL. It is evil.

GTK (GNOME, at least) is being taken over my Microsoft.

Run for your lives!

(I don't care, I use wmii (no toolkit), VLC and Opera (QT), Thunar and gedit (GTK))

Quick, port all the programs to ETK! :lolflag:

[LaRoza]

Quick, port all the programs to ETK!

Ncurses at the most.

This is the perfect time to get cozy with the terminal.

[days_of_ruin]

Where are you moving?

QT is a corporate encroachment on the GPL. It is evil.

GTK (GNOME, at least) is being taken over my Microsoft.

Run for your lives!

(I don't care, I use wmii (no toolkit), VLC and Opera (QT), Thunar and gedit (GTK))
I meant in before the thread moved.I could easily tell this was going to
be DE flame war

[LaRoza]

I meant in before the thread moved.I could easily tell this was going to
be DE flame war

I know, I was trying to be naive.

[Erunno]

It's Qt, not QT (which, as a part-time Mac user, I always mistake with QuickTime).

[karellen]

Where are you moving?

QT is a corporate encroachment on the GPL. It is evil.

GTK (GNOME, at least) is being taken over my Microsoft.

Run for your lives!

(I don't care, I use wmii (no toolkit), VLC and Opera (QT), Thunar and gedit (GTK))


I subscribe to this :). I use apps from both KDE and Gnome, though I get the feeling that Qt applications are more feature-rich (K3b vs Brasero, Amarok vs anything else, Ktorrent vs Deluge)

[LaRoza]

I subscribe to this :). I use apps from both KDE and Gnome, though I get the feeling that Qt applications are more feature-rich (K3b vs Brasero, Amarok vs anything else, Ktorrent vs Deluge)

I doubt that has to do with the actual toolkit but DE.

[karellen]

I doubt that has to do with the actual toolkit but DE.

I honestly don't care :)

[LaRoza]

I honestly don't care :)

I meant that the features available was not due to the toolkit (QT/GTK) but the desktop environment. So it is KDE applications that are more feature-rich (at least, when compared to GNOME)


I use apps from both KDE and Gnome, though I get the feeling that Qt applications are more feature-rich (K3b vs Brasero, Amarok vs anything else, Ktorrent vs Deluge)

[karellen]

I meant that the features available was not due to the toolkit (QT/GTK) but the desktop environment. So it is KDE applications that are more feature-rich (at least, when compared to GNOME)

I agree. but again, I'm not a programmer, so the difference between a DE and the toolkit that stands at his roots are not very important to me. but yes, maybe it's just a personal feeling, that applications designed for KDE has more features...

[LaRoza]

I agree. but again, I'm not a programmer, so the difference between a DE and the toolkit that stands at his roots are not very important to me. but yes, maybe it's just a personal feeling, that applications designed for KDE has more features...

I am a programmer so I was seeing it from a different light. (QT and GTK have mostly the same features as far as GUI creation)

[karellen]

I am a programmer so I was seeing it from a different light. (QT and GTK have mostly the same features as far as GUI creation)

btw, nice wiki you have about programming :)

[LaRoza]

btw, nice wiki you have about programming :)

Thanks. I try to make it useful.