Bug 31602 - Qt6 in Mageia 9 beta
Summary: Qt6 in Mageia 9 beta
Status: RESOLVED INVALID
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: Cauldron
Hardware: All Linux
Priority: Normal enhancement
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Mageia Bug Squad
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: 9beta1
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-02-26 15:11 CET by M H
Modified: 2023-02-26 20:53 CET (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM: multiple packages
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments

Description M H 2023-02-26 15:11:17 CET
Hello everybody. I am testing Mageia 9 beta release. It seems very nice so far. Congratulations to everybody involved in the work on this release!

I have the following suggestion. Lets not use qt6 library for application UI as of yet with the following reasoning:
(1) qt6 adds more bloat into the system
(2) qt5 is definitely more mature, used by most programs, and also officially supported till 2025
(3) qt6 applications look out of place at least in KDE Plasma and this will not change any time soon https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=448450

There are following applications in my system depending on qt6:
- libreoffice
- mkvtoolnix
- avidemux
- transmission

In all these cases it is possible switching to qt5 with build time options. Thank you for considering this suggestion :-)
M H 2023-02-26 15:12:10 CET

CC: (none) => sandrick

M H 2023-02-26 15:12:34 CET

Keywords: (none) => 9beta1

Comment 1 sturmvogel 2023-02-26 15:34:58 CET
sandrick wrote:
(1) qt6 adds more bloat into the system

How do you justify this? Qt6 even removed unused or unmaintained modules. So Qt6 is far more developed and the future as the support for Qt5 ends this year (see next point).

sandrick wrote:
(2) qt5 is definitely more mature, used by most programs, and also officially supported till 2025

Support for Qt5.15 ends 26th May 2023! You only get an extended support until 2025 by buying an license and paying a fee which Mageia isn't doing as far as i know.
https://www.qt.io/blog/qt-5.15-extended-support-for-subscription-license-holders#:~:text=Legacy%20license%20types%20include%20all,is%2026th%20May%202023.

sandrick wrote:
(3) qt6 applications look out of place at least in KDE Plasma and this will not change any time soon https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=448450

It's already an old bug for an ancient Plasma version. The conversion of Plasma to Qt6 is in progress.
Comment 2 M H 2023-02-26 16:33:05 CET
Hello.

(1) qt5 libraries + qt6 libraries make more bloat in my opinion. This is not meant to discuss the quality of improvements in qt6.

(2) I was talking about the codebase, not about the commercial support. Moreover the question of using this or that UI library is more for upstream developers. Here I am discussing *distribution* of software where *upstream supports both* qt5 and qt6.
After all Mageia9 will heavily depend on qt5 for all its lifetime due to the KDE version.

(3) It is not so ancient and it is relevant. This matter will be resolved by the time Plasma6 is released and Plasma6 has no fixed release schedule. So it may be soon, or it may be later :-)

It was not my intention to start any argument about the matter! Just sharing my observation and user experience. If you believe my arguments are false, please feel free to close this report.
Comment 3 sturmvogel 2023-02-26 17:07:39 CET
As of December 2022 we had already over 60 packages in MGA9 which depends on Qt6. So it is very unlikely that our devs will do a leap backwards...as this is fruitless...
Comment 4 Lewis Smith 2023-02-26 19:51:09 CET
Thank you Sandrick for your interest and arguments, but sturmvogel's replies have well answered your points. There is no way that the devs will revert Qt6 applications to Qt5 knowing that it is already on the way out. If Plasma is slow to catch up, so be it.

Please excuse the manner of closing the report.

CC: (none) => lewyssmith
Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => INVALID

Comment 5 M H 2023-02-26 20:53:01 CET
No problem! Thank you for your honesty. I am capable of rebuilding these packages by myself if I chose this road, thus there is no harm for me in this decision.

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