At the end of 2020, Qt 6 was released to serve as the next-gen Qt application framework. This new iteration has made it possible to deliver more modern software and KDE has every plan to fully adopt this new release for the entire software stack.
However, KDE still very much relies on Qt 5 for both desktop and applications. With KDE’s goal of migrating to Qt 6, they had to do something to ensure nothing falls by the wayside. To that end, KDE has decided (until Qt 6 adoption is finalized), to maintain a collection of patches for the Qt 5.15 release. These patches will include both security and standard fixes to make sure KDE continues to remain secure and stable.
Aleix Pol, KDE e.V. President said of this, “To transition to great future technologies like Qt 6 we need to have the peace of mind that our current users are catered for. With this patch collection, we gain the flexibility we need to stabilize the status quo. This way we can continue collaborating with Qt and deliver great solutions for our users.”
As for Qt 6, the plan is to have support sometime in 2021.
To find out more about the KDE Qt 5 Patch Collection, read the official initiative[1]. To find out where KDE stands with Qt 6, check out the Phabricator[2].
