Lubuntu 24.04 LTS
As a low-end user, what all might I need to do for a safe and easy transition from Qt5 to Qt6?
Not wanting to “rush into” Qt6 but wanting to be ready for Qt6 to become the default.
Did you note the transition from Qt4 to Qt5 a few years ago?
I noticed only one program in the 19.10 release that I actually used [but not in a while] that didn’t make it to 20.04, as it was no longer maintained [upstream] thus didn’t advance beyond Qt4. That app wasn’t critical to me anyway, as apps that tend to be unmaintained & use old toolkits tend to look dated anyway [not matching the rest of your desktop], and most users tend to move on anyway [to alternatives that look more modern and look better on their modern desktops]
I’ve note noted any apps that I use regularly that will disappear, but in truth I’ve not looked much either.
At this stage I’d not worry though, the development process still has a way to go, but do you use any of the apps mentioned on that page?
I tend to see myself as a user too, and am not worried.
If you want to explore and have a spare machine (or use a VM), you could install resolute (26.04) and explore, but until Qt5 is removed, you may not notice much easily.
I had a rough “transitioning from Windows” time beginning with 14.04.
I didn’t fully come to *buntu until 20.04 and toughed it out into 22.04.
I never experienced the qt transitions.
If I did experience, I was probably still too “new” to actually understand it.
Never experiencing something can be interesting.
I’d guesstimate that 95% of users won’t notice any difference.
Of the 5% that are left, a couple (fraction of 1%) will notice and question if they’ll notice anything (like you’re doing), but the majority of the 5% will use some unusual specific software that uses the older toolkit…
eg. I recall loads of support questions (loads meaning maybe 50!) relating to old Cisco software that was packaged for Qt4… eg.
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1240085/looking-for-qt-at-spi-for-ubuntu-20-04
That may not be an ideal link to show (it was the first on search using keywrods “ubuntu cisco qt4”) as an example; but before long someone actually created a PPA that solved that issue (allowed easy install of required libraries in 20.04 & later releases)
In that example it was a 3rd party tool (Cisco Packet Tracer) which was often used by students at university (I gather; I’ve never used it myself). Cisco may have packaged up a newer version that didn’t use the older [Qt4] library anyway as questions disappeared…
The one app I mentioned in my initial post (“I noticed only one program in the 19.10 release*”) was a favorite of mine back in maybe ~14.04 days, but I’d pretty much stopped using it anyway, so didn’t really miss it.
Might it effect GUI/CLI alike or is it like “ok thats not a qt package so that needs to…” scenario.
Is it ok to try a set of qt4 packages here on the qt5 to get a feel for what it might be like in terms of ease-of-use, etc?
Or are there better ways?
GTK 2 reached its end of life in December 2020 and is still supported by Ubuntu.
Qt4 reached end of life at the end of April 2024.
Qt5 reached end of life at May 2025.
Just for the records.
Based on the info about GTK 2 still being supported.
Is Qt5 still supported at least until Qt6 is released?
Here you have some info about Qt5 and Qt6 timelines:
https://www.qt.io/blog/qt-5.15-extended-support-for-subscription-license-holders
