LXQt is a free, open source, lightweight, and user-friendly desktop environment built using the Qt libraries. It consists of many small individual components like a panel program, session manager, hotkey daemon and a few more. LXQt was formed as a merger between the LXDE and Razor-Qt desktop environments. Here’s the project’s website.
Often LXQt has been seen as the fastest desktop today, beating KDE Plasma, GNOME, and Xfce in terms of performance, responsiveness, and storage footprint. It is used by operating systems that aren’t looking for a lot of customization or productivity options, but instead are focused on performance.
Just under seven months after the earlier version, the LXQt development team have released LXQt 1.0.0. That said, let’s quickly take a look at what’s new.
What’s New in LXQt 1.0.0
LXQt 1.0.0 now depends on Qt 5.15, which was released in May 2020. Qt 5.15 is a LTS (Long Term Support) release, which means it’s supported for three years but only for commercial license holders. Qt 5.15 End-of-Life is scheduled for May 26th, 2023.
For open source users, however, the Qt LTS are same as regular releases. They only receives patch releases during the first 6 months until the next feature release is out. The good news is that the KDE Project maintains a patch collection to support Qt 5.15 LTS for open source users.
Several functionalities are added to LXQt’s file manager, like handling of emblems, new options in LXQt file dialog, and an option to make desktop items sticky by default.
In addition, you can now recursively customize folders. Improvements for smooth scrolling with mouse wheel have also been added. And let’s not forget to mention the added options to LXQt file dialog for showing hidden files and disabling smooth scrolling in list and compact modes.
The LXQt Panel is now even more customizable. There is a new plugin called “Custom Command”, which does what its name says. It is a flexible plugin that can be used in various ways.
The new “Do Not Disturb” mode in LXQt 1.0.0 is definitely a useful addition to the desktop environment. This mode has been in many desktop environments for a long time. When activating the mode, we will not see any notification windows and the sounds will be muted. Of course, we will not lose any notifications, but they will go directly to the history.
Other LXQt 1.0.0 Highlights
Apart from bug fixes and workarounds, the other changes that stand out in this new version are:
- LXImage Qt – Options for hiding/showing main toolbar and/or menubar, using Trash, changing Thumbnail dimensions, and changing the position of thumbnails dock.
- QTerminal – Names of dragged and dropped files are quoted. Added an option for keeping drop-down window open.
- Appearance – Two new LXQt themes are added and problems in the existing themes are fixed.
Source downloads and more details on the LXQt 1.0.0 changes over on the project’s GitHub.
