GTK vs QT Applications – Key Differences Explained

gtkqt

Many packages are available in both GTK and QT versions.

  • What's the difference between them?
  • Is there any difference in
    performance or working method?

Best Answer

In general, the difference from a user perspective should be purely cosmetic. Qt and GTK set themes independently (via, e.g., qtconfig or gtk-chtheme) but this is harmonized by some desktop environments.

GNU/Linux tends to be more GTK oriented than Qt in the sense that the former is more commonly used, so you may want to prefer it when given the choice; an exception would be under KDE, which uses Qt for its own applications -- although none of these factors is very important.

A more significant issue would be in contexts with very limited RAM (as in, < 1/4 GB); in this case you would probably want the system to use exclusively GTK or Qt, but not both. On most modern desktops with gigabytes of memory, however, this is not a concern -- using both extensively might cost you an extra (wild guess) 50-100 MB.

Note that there are also different versions of both GTK (2 and 3) and Qt (3 and 4) still widely used but not backward compatible (so a Qt 3 application cannot use Qt 4 libraries). However, both versions may exist on a system at the same time and the most serious consequence of this would be the potential for confusion and a bit more memory bloat.

Related Question