# LXQt

LXQt is a free and open source lightweight desktop environment. It was formed from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects.
Like its GTK predecessor LXDE, LXQt does not ship or develop its own window manager, instead LXQt lets the user decide which (supported) window manager they want to use. Linux distributions commonly default LXQt to Openbox, Xfwm4, or KWin.

## History

Dissatisfied with GTK 3, LXDE maintainer Hong Jen Yee experimented with Qt in early 2013 and released the first version of a Qt-based PCMan File Manager on 26 March 2013. He clarified, though, that this means no departure from GTK in LXDE, saying "The GTK and Qt versions will coexist". He later ported LXDE's xrandr front-end to Qt.
On 3 July 2013 Hong Jen Yee announced a Qt port of the full LXDE suite, and on 21 July 2013, Razor-qt and LXDE announced that they had decided to merge the two projects. This merge meant that the GTK and the Qt versions coexisted in the short term, but eventually development of the GTK version significantly slowed and most efforts were focused on the Qt port. The merge of LXDE-Qt and Razor-qt was renamed LXQt, and the first release, version 0.7.0, was made available on 7 May 2014.
With the 0.13 release on 21 May 2018 the LXQt project formally split from LXDE with the move to a separate GitHub organization.

## Software components

LXQt consists of many modular components, some of them depending on Qt and KDE Frameworks 5.
| Name | Dependencies (besides Qt) | Comments |
| QTerminal | | Use the command line, composed for and now part of LXQt |
| LXImage-Qt | | Image viewer |
| lxqt-menu-data | | Files required for freedesktop.org desktop menus |
| lxqt-about | | About dialog |
| lxqt-admin | | System administration tool |
| lxqt-archiver | | File archiver |
| lxqt-common | | Common files (graphics files, themes, desktop entry files ...) |
| lxqt-config | KScreen | System settings center |
| lxqt-globalkeys | | Daemon and library for global keyboard shortcuts registration |
| lxqt-notificationd | | Notification daemon |
| lxqt-openssh-askpass | | openssh password prompt |
| lxqt-panel | Solid | Desktop panel (taskbar) |
| lxqt-policykit | | Polkit authentication agent |
| lxqt-powermanagement | Solid | Power management daemon |
| lxqt-qtplugin | | Qt platform integration plugin (all Qt-based programs can adopt settings of LXQt) |
| lxqt-runner | | Application launcher |
| lxqt-session | | session manager |
| lxqt-sudo | | GUI frontend for sudo/su |
| menu-cache | | |
| ObConf-Qt | | Openbox configuration tool written in Qt |
| pavucontrol-qt | PulseAudio | Volume manager for PulseAudio |
| compton-conf | | GUI configuration tool for Compton X composite manager (metacity ⇒ xcompmgr ⇒ dcompmgr ⇒ Compton) |
| PCManFM-Qt | | File manager, Qt port of PCManFM |
| qt-gtk-engine | | Theming GTK 3 programs with Qt styles |
| ScreenGrab | | Screenshot program |

## Adoption

| Operating System | Officially Supported | Notes |
| Arch Linux | Yes | Offered as a desktop in archinstall. Also other Arch Linux based Linux distributions. |
| Artix Linux | Yes | A LXQt ISO is available. |
| Debian | Yes | Also other Debian-based Linux distributions. |
| Fedora Linux | Yes | Available as a Fedora Spin. |
| Lubuntu | Yes | Official Ubuntu flavor with LXQt by default. |
| Manjaro | Yes | |
| openSUSE | | GeckoLinux offers a LXQt ISO. |

## Version history

LXQt releases :
| Version | Date | Key features |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.7 | 7 May 2014 |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.8 | 13 Nov 2014 | bringing full Qt 5 compatibility |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.9 | 8 Feb 2015 | Featuring heavy internal cleanups and refactorings. Compatibility with Qt 4 was dropped, requiring Qt 5 & KDE Frameworks 5. Qt 5.3 is now the minimum required version. |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.10 | 2 Nov 2015 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.11 | 24 Sep 2016 | To address concerns that LXQt being Qt-based might cause heavy memory usage, this release was benchmarked, revealing that LXQt used slightly less memory than Xfce, and that the "memory usage of LXQt is quite similar to the original LXDE (gtk2) while many new features are added". |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.12 | 21 May 2017 | minimum Qt version 5.6.1 |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.13 | 21 May 2018 | All packages are ready for Qt 5.11 |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.14 | 25 Jan 2019 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.15 | 24 Apr 2020 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.16 | 4 Nov 2020 | Three new themes; Clearlooks, Leech and Kvantum. |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 0.17 | 15 Apr 2021 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0.0 | 5 Nov 2021 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1.0 | 15 Apr 2022 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 1.2.0 | 5 Nov 2022 | |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 1.3.0 | 15 Apr 2023 | |
| Old version, yet still maintained: 1.4.0 | 5 Nov 2023 | Last Version based on Qt 5.15 |
| Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0.0 | 15 Apr 2024 | First version based on Qt 6.6 |
| Current stable version: 2.1.0 | 5 Nov 2024 | Optional experimental Wayland session added |
| Legend:Old versionOld version, still maintainedLatest versionLatest preview versionFuture release |||