Qtcurve - KDE The most customizable Desktop in the Universe?

Brainstorm
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Bonjour!

For many many years KDE has
been described by many as the most customizable desktop on Linux. I’ve been using KDE for 20+years exclusively.

For almost all of these years an aqua-esque theme option has been available. I think I started using Liquid, then baghira, finally qtcurvre. With the introduction of Plasma 6 and or Wayland, qtcurve seems relegated to the back burner.

I’ve been able to build and use it somewhat successfully thanks to a cat who added some plasma 6 bits back in May 2024. But I can’t figure out how to use the config dialog that used to be available in the application style dialog of KDE settings. I’ve tried numerous workarounds like renaming my config to breeze.qtcurve, and putting it in the use/local or usr share directory and or the qtcurve hidden home config directory.

There is kvantum which while nice just isn’t the same, it relies on svg graphics for it’s themes while qtcurve does not.

Qtcurve is unmatched in it’s customization ability. There are so many options and variables that one can create nearly any theme one wants. Even a boring flat breeze type theme lol.

My thinking is this: With the resources at hand why doesn’t KDE focus a bit of energy on updating qtcurve for plasma 6? Right now there are about 4 or 5 “application styles” available in KDE vs the innumerable selection in gtk3/4 (not to mention 2).

What can I do to get qtcurve fixed and ready for prime-time? Where do I post? Who’s palms would I grease? Hahahaha.

I just think it’s important to have such things available as they’ve been an unofficial part of KDE for years. For now, I’ve installed kubuntu since the LTS is still using plasma 5. This option will be gone in the future.

Any help or direction will be much appreciated as I’d like to get back to plasma 6 in all it’s glory stat.

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Hi - sounds like a tool and visual style that you’re really invested in! It could be the perfect opportunity for getting directly involved: Get Involved/development - KDE Community Wiki

KDE is almost entirely a volunteer community, with support from a non-profit organization that does a lot with a little, financially - so things tend to get built as folks who are capable and motivated join the community and start building them, in the true spirit of free and open-source software. If you know of folks with the same preferences as you, and who are interested in developing software in that arena, that could be a chance to bring more folks into the community too :slight_smile:

2 Likes
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Thanks, Yeah looks like it’s time to try to get involved. Keyword try. Sadly I haven’t contributed anything since helping setup dual mice via js2mouse and Xfree86 config a very long time ago.

Yeah I truly love KDE, plasma, and the Linux ecosystem in general.

I only said what I did about resources after seeing what KDE brought in for Dec. But I understand that’s only a drop in the bucket compared to what’s needed.

Thanks for the reply!

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Modern apps are based on Kirigami or MauiKit, which use Qt Quick Controls Style. Use Kirigami/MauiKit/QQC2.

Upgrade your mind.

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Creators and artists, please make Qt Quick Controls Style for Kirigami and MauiKit, if this is not against your religion.

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KDE Community, please implement UI to change Qt Quick Controls Style.

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Solved: Somewhat. I still can’t get the qtcurve settings window to appear but have found a workaround finally. hehe.

In your home folder under ./config/qtcurve create and name your file stylerc. So… /home/user/.config/qtcurve/stylerc Although not ideal it allows for the customization of the individual settings.