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linuxuser-interfaceprogramming-languages

What language are most Linux GUI applications written in?

I apologize if this is off topic. Please close if it is.

I want to get in to a bit of Linux application development. What programming language are the majority of GUI apps made in?

Solution

  • It usually largely depends on the DE (desktop environment) you are focusing on; each usually has one GUI toolkit that it's using the most.

    For instance, GNOME mostly uses GTK+; and since GTK+ is written in C, many Linux GTK+ GUI apps use that, but there are also bindings to other languages, like Python, which I've also seen used often. And there are bindings for other languages too.

    On the other hand you have KDE, which is mostly based on Qt; and, since Qt is written in C++, most apps using Qt are also written in C++.

    However, honestly the choice of language doesn't matter much; it's more the toolkit that matters. I'd pick the one your DE uses, and then choose one of the languages it supports.