LXQt is a lightweight Qt-based desktop environment.
With the latest LXQt 1.1.0 update, the desktop experience depends on Qt 5.15, the LTS version of Qt 5 series. The release announcement mentions that they started working on Qt 6.0 port but needed a more stable version.
Let me briefly highlight what’s new with the new release.
LXQt 1.1.0: What’s New?
The 1.1.0 release is a major upgrade that involves several improvements and additions.
The primary work includes refinements to the file manager, updating the theme, panel, and some enhancements to the configuration.
File Manager Supports DBus Interface
When it comes to displaying files inside folders from within non-Qt applications, File Manager now gets the support for DBus interface that should work nicely with apps like Firefox, and Chromium.
Improvements to Compatibility with non-Qt Applications
Not just limited to file manager, but the new component xdg-desktop-portal-lxqt should help improve the behavior of non-Qt apps with the file dialog.
Theme Refinements
The LXQt themes received upgrades that include a new theme (Valendas), and several new wallpapers.
To further let users tweak Qt widget styles, matching Qt palettes have been made available for a better look/feel.
In addition to small enhancements, several fixes have been made to the themes.
Panel Improvements
The LXQt panel also received some subtle changes, like the legacy tray icons being collapsed inside Status Notifier when the System Tray plugin is enabled.
The reset buttons were fixed in configuration dialogs. And, now the desktop names are shown in the context menus of active task buttons.
The panel’s config dialog is split into 3 sections to make things easier to navigate.
Other Improvements
In addition to the visual changes and file manage improvements, you will notice the following:
- Refinements to the power management tray icon.
- New option to LXQt session settings for global screen scaling
- The Default LXQt theme changed to clearlooks, and the default icon theme is now Breeze.
- Improved translations.
- Improvements to the QTerminal.
If you want more details on the changes with the release, you may refer to the official announcement.
Getting LXQt 1.1.0
You will have to wait for your distribution to make the update available for you to install. We did not notice it even with the latest daily build for Lubuntu 22.04.
However, you can experiment with it on Arch Linux using the community testing packages.
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