Last November, after 8 years of development, the LXQt v1.0. It's still strange that software spends so much time without reaching v1.0, but it's not that strange either; a software like GParted cost him 15 years. But that usually means one thing: that the software in question has taken huge steps forward. That happened with this light graphic environment at the end of 2021, and from now on it only has to improve. During the weekend threw LXQt 1.1.0, which is another major update.
The project highlights, for example, that in LXQt 1.1.0 the file manager has been improved, which now supports the DBus interface, or tweaks to the user interface, more specifically that the themes have been improved. The News list is important, and you have the most outstanding in the following summary.
Highlights of LXQt 1.1.0
As general improvements highlights:
- LXQt 1.1.0 depends on Qt 5.15, the latest LTS version of Qt5. (The port to Qt6 was started, but a stable version of KF6 was needed).
- LXQt's file manager now supports the file manager's DBus interface, which is used by some applications (such as Firefox and Chromium) that call the default file manager to display files within folders or perform other tasks. In addition, the “Recent Files” option is added to the File menu. As usual, bugs are fixed and features are improved.
- The new xdg-desktop-portal-lxqt component is added to LXQt, as a backend implementation for xdg-desktop-portal. When installed, some non-Qt applications, such as Firefox, can be configured to use the LXQt file dialog.
- LXQt themes have been improved. A new theme and several wallpapers have been added. Also, matching Qt palettes are added for a fairly consistent look with Qt widget styles like Fusion.
- They can be found and applied in LXQt Appearance Configuration → Widget Style → Qt Palette.
- The functionality of bookmarks in QTerminal has been greatly improved and several (old) issues in dropdown mode have been fixed.
- In LXQt Panel, legacy tray icons are now displayed inside the Status Notifier when the System Tray plugin is activated. This eliminates the problem the legacy System Tray had with auto-hiding panes.
- Tray icons with the charge percentage inside them are added to LXQt Power Manager.
- A simple option is added to the LXQt Session Configuration for global screen scaling.
- The translations have received many updates.
- And other changes that can be found in the LXQt component changelogs
Among the novelties
There are news for everything, such as in LibFM-Qt / PCManFM-Qt, where org.freedesktop.FileManager1 has been implemented so that it can be used in applications such as Firefox and Chromium, that in the LXQt Panel the old icons are shown inside the status notifier when activated system tray plugin, and other improvements to QTerminal, power manager, LXQt Session, LXImage Qt, LXQt Configuration, LibQtXdg, LXQt Archiver, ScreenGrab or desktop notifications UI polished .
About when will the new version be available in the different Linux distributions, the first to implement it will be those that use the Rolling Release development model, such as those based on Arch Linux. Lubuntu, one of the biggest distros to use LXQt, is using v0.17.1 in the latest Daily Build, and it is unlikely that they will include LXQt 1.1.0 in Jammy Jellyfish because it will be released this Thursday.
For those who are interested in install it on your own, binaries and source code are available at this link. However, it is recommended to wait for the Linux distribution to add the new packages. As we have explained, Arch Linux will arrive soon, while the rest will have to have a little more patience.