Qt in Xandros’ Past, Present, and Future

Xandros’ Qt Past

• Xandros has a continuous history of Qt utilization, going back to our founding in 2001.

• Most of its original employees have been already using Qt in their previous projects with other employers.

• Our Qt use actually goes back to 1998 – the Corel Linux project Xandros acquired was based on KDE/Qt.

• We started with Qt 1.3, with subsequent migrations to Qt 1.42, Qt 2.0, Qt 3.0 and now Qt 4.5.

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Xandros’ Qt Past, cont.

Why Qt?

• One of the very best toolkits available for Linux

• Strong UI orientation

• Rich user friendly widget set

• Reusable code

• Cross-platform ability to build Windows applications from Linux source

Xandros’ Qt Past, cont.

Developers Love Qt:

• Most Xandros developers found Qt more powerful than Gtk for UI development.

• Qt was easily picked up by new hires and coops. With tools like Qt Designer, they could start fixing UI bugs almost immediately.

Xandros’ Qt Present

We use Qt to build standalone (non-KDE) desktop applications:

• Developers are already familiar with Qt programming.

• Consolidating on one toolkit saves time and streamlines development.

Xandros’ Qt Present, cont.

Long list of projects utilizing Qt:

• Linux desktops and servers

• Custom Debian solution for the ASUS Eee PC which helped to launch the netbook revolution!

• Presto instant-on utility for Windows desktops and laptops

• Custom OEM solutions for Intel Atom and ARM-based netbooks

Xandros’ Qt Present, cont.

The Power of Qt:

• Qt helps us to target users with a compelling, easy-to-use device experience, regardless of the operating system under the hood.

• Qt Webkit technology enabled us create our Presto application store, tightly integrated with our CNR website, in a matter of days instead of weeks.

Xandros’ Qt Future

• Qt will let us to take advantage of the latest Linux technologies like D-Bus.

• Qt will enable us to rapidly create light and efficient user-friendly apps for netbooks and other new mobile devices.

• With Qt4 we can include just the modules we need for a given application and task, such as QtCore, QtGui, and QtDBus.

Xandros’ Qt Future, cont.

Is there still room for improvement?:

• Bring Nokia/Qt up to par with Clutter Toolkit so Qt developers can create next generation 2D/3D applications.

• Avoid unnecessary API changes in Qt (the transition from Qt3 to Qt4 painful).

• Methods were simply renamed, with no changes in functionality.

• Conversely, other core classes (such as QString) changed functionality without changing the method name, forcing us to re-debug applications already released!

Qt in Xandros’ Past, Present, and Future

Qt is vital to Xandros’ Past, Present, & Future ...

Qt in Xandros’ Past, Present, and Future

Keep up the great work!!!