I'm trying to wrap my head around the differences between GTK and Qt when it comes to desktop environments and applications. For example, I know that GNOME and XFCE primarily use GTK, while KDE uses Qt. But what does that actually mean for users? If I were to install Firefox, which I believe uses GTK, on a KDE system, would there be any impact?
2 Answers
GTK and Qt are both toolkits that developers use to create graphical user interfaces (GUIs). They provide necessary components like buttons and sliders, which means developers can focus on making their apps functional rather than designing every little detail. You can run Qt applications in GNOME or XFCE and GTK apps in KDE. The main difference lies in how they handle themes, affecting how everything visually appears on your screen.
For a regular user, installing a GTK app like Firefox on a Qt-based system like KDE won’t generally affect functionality. It’s mostly about visual consistency. While Firefox might not entirely match the KDE aesthetic, it will still work perfectly fine. So no tech-freakouts needed!
Cheers
ok cool, thanks