Ubuntu Finds New Love With Qt

[BlackStar]

They work on Qt? On compiz?

commit links, or it didn't happen!

Canonical hired SmSpillaz back in October (linky). He is one of the main developers of Compiz.

According to this very article, Canonical "is driving the development of dconf bindings for Qt". Confirmed on Mark's blog: they have contracted with Ryan Lortie to contribute to Qt.

A quick search confirms that they are also funding or driving a number of other interesting projects.

[pingufunkybeat]

I don't know how GTK+ works in Windows, but Qt GUI elements don't only look like Win32 GUI elements, they are Win32 GUI elements, just abstracted behind another API. And when running in Gnome, Qt GUI elements don't only look like GTK+ GUI elements, they are GTK+ GUI elements, abstracted behind another API. There is a big difference (or rather a lot of minor differences).

Are you sure? Cause I don't think so.

First of all, Qt draws itself on Linux. There is a hack where you can use GTK to paint Qt elements, and it was recently integrated into mainline Qt to help GNOME users. If you are not running a GNOME environment, Qt draws itself natively, which is faster and more stable.

On MacOSX, Qt fakes the native look and feel by drawing it itself. Java programs do something similar.

I'm not 100% about Qt on Windows, but Microsoft ITSELF uses more than two different toolkits on windows (or rather very different versions of the same toolkit, with slightly different look and feel), and Java fakes the look and feel too (badly), so this is a moot point.

For example, a Qt application don't need a cross-toolkit theme too look at home in Windows or GNOME, any Win32/GTK+ theme will work, because they theme the Win32/GTK+ GUI elements you actually see on the monitor.

This was a separate project which was merged into Qt 4.5.

http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2008/09/05/qgtkstyle-now-part-of-qt/

Essentially, it's a hack for GNOME users, and not the way Qt is supposed to work

You can do the same thing for GTK apps.

[pingufunkybeat]

Apparently there is, in portage main (oxygen-gtk). Assuming I read everything correctly and understand that you're after an Oxygen GTK+ theme.

Yes, thank you both. I run KDE, but also need some GTK apps regularly, so this is exactly what I am looking for.

[RealNC]

Well, I suppose Gnome can only win from this. After all, it means that when running Gnome, most apps will look and work OK, since Gtk apps do well in Gnome (naturally) and Qt apps also. But not the other way around.

Smells a bit like a Microsoft policy or something :P Turn your lack of features into an advantage.

[Jonno]

If you install a cross-toolkit theme, such as BlueCurve, Galaxy or (now) Oxygen, you have that exact same thing under Linux.

I don't know how GTK+ works in Windows, but Qt GUI elements don't only look like Win32 GUI elements, they are Win32 GUI elements, just abstracted behind another API. And when running in Gnome, Qt GUI elements don't only look like GTK+ GUI elements, they are GTK+ GUI elements, abstracted behind another API. There is a big difference (or rather a lot of minor differences).

For example, a Qt application don't need a cross-toolkit theme too look at home in Windows or GNOME, any Win32/GTK+ theme will work, because they theme the Win32/GTK+ GUI elements you actually see on the monitor.

That being said, a cross-toolkit theme is way better than two different themes on the same desktop, so Oxygen-Gtk is better than nothing.

That looks very promising. However the only thing which really annoys me when using GTK apps in KDE is the file dialog window. I think the KDE file dialog is way superior to the one in Gnome/GTK - but that's just my opinion. I guess this theme does not replace the file dialog window of GTK, does it?

No it doesn't. This is one of those minor differences I mentioned above. Though personally I find the GTK+ print dialogue even worse...

BTW, you can get the GTK+ file and print dialogues in Qt applications, by selecting the GTK+ backend for Qt (the default when running in GNOME)...

[RealNC]

PLEASE tell me that there is a Gentoo ebuild for this!

As mirv mentioned, version 1.0.1 is currently in portage. The KDE overlay also has a live ebuild, which is what I'm using (there's some very nice last-minute features after the 1.0.1 release.)

Package name is "x11-themes/oxygen-gtk". You will probably also want to install "kde-misc/kcm_gtk" which gives you a "Gtk Styles & Fonts" button in System Settings ("Lost and Found" section), from which you can select "oxygen-gtk" for Gtk apps.

[mirv]

PLEASE tell me that there is a Gentoo ebuild for this!

Apparently there is, in portage main (oxygen-gtk). Assuming I read everything correctly and understand that you're after an Oxygen GTK+ theme.

[pingufunkybeat]

No, not really. A couple of people complained that Canonical is not contributing to the Linux kernel as much as Red Hat but w/e. As far as I'm concerned, their work on accessibility, design/usability, compiz and qt is more important to the Linux community as a whole.

They work on Qt? On compiz?

commit links, or it didn't happen!

[pingufunkybeat]

There's been some progress recently. Oxygen has been semi-officially been ported to Gtk. Not a half-assed wannabe port. A *real* port:

PLEASE tell me that there is a Gentoo ebuild for this!

[pingufunkybeat]

This is not GTK+ apps rendering using Qt, but just another case of one Qt-theme and one GTK+-theme looking consistent with each other, similarly to the existing qtcurve (though admittedly looking a lot better than qtcurve).

This is EXACTLY how it works on Windows and Mac.

They both use different toolkits. The only difference is that both Windows and Mac have a defined standard theme, which all toolkits obey.

If you install a cross-toolkit theme, such as BlueCurve, Galaxy or (now) Oxygen, you have that exact same thing under Linux.