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why isn't the configuration to make KDE apps look native present in the default setup ?

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3 Answers 3

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Mark has answered this question here: http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/568


And is trying to fix it:


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The reason for this kind of thing is the desktop environment. When developers make an environment, they want it to look just right for them. This means that applications would be programmed differently for different environments. Currently, most of the apps are made for either gnome, or KDE. The gnome ones default to one theme, the KDE ones default to another. If the program does not recognize that it is in a different environment, or the different environment does not adapt to the program, there will be design flaws. With Gnome, all applications default to either the Redmond theme or the Raleigh theme. In KDE, it will fall back to whatever it can find. If the program has dependencies in it that involve the Plasma Workspace, then it will probably incorporate the Oxygen widget theme. Otherwise, it will look much like you just installed Wine and are running a simple windowed app from there.

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@Alaukik: while he may have worded it in a way that possibly you did not understand, he is actually mostly correct :P! –  RolandiXor Apr 17 '11 at 23:27

As far as I know (and understand), this happens because KDE apps are by default designed to be installed in a Kubuntu environment. For this reason, they are of course packaged to use a QT (thus KDE) theme by default, as opposed to the QT-GTK+ theme.

Maybe in the future, the application will be able to detect which environment it is running on at the time and automatically choose a theme to suit.

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