Liquidshell
Version: GIT Web: https://github.com/KDE/liquidshell
We believe whatever graphical library an application is based on, it ought to run smoothly in any desktop environment you choose. Modern desktops, such as Gnome, KDE Plasma, Mate and Cinnamon, are all able to make GTKand Qt-based apps look native.
However, this particular HotPick is something more desktop-specific, because it tries to supersede the ‘plasmashell’ process with a more lightweight alternative. Liquidshell is an alternative desktop shell that’s designed to work with the typical KDE desktop (it’s officially hosted by the KDE project, as you may have guessed from the Github page address).
Plasmashell isn’t particularly resource-hungry, yet Liquidshell is even sleeker in operation, mainly because it has a simpler design and doesn’t use Qt’s declarative QtQuick language.
Liquidshell is a simple shell built from classic QtWidgets controls, including the bottom panel that features a System tray, clocks, the launcher menu, the set of virtual desktops and other convenient elements. It starts almost instantly and feels very easy to use.
Although you’ll need a collection of various KDE Frameworks 5 development parts to build Liquidshell from source, the main obstacle is how to run it. This time you don’t have a separate ‘session’ entry in your greeter. Instead, you’ll need to add Liquidshell to your auto-start list and then shadowban the normal Plasmashell process. To do so, place the file with the following two lines as another auto-start item: [Desktop Entry] Hidden=true The next time you log in, Liquidshell should be running on top of Plasmashell, and you can even kill it entirely ( killall plasmashell ). The new shell has links to your default applications, and also a System tray that lists devices and active programs. We had a great time with Liquidshell. The whole experience was like a more solid KDE session, or even a featurepacked LxQt release from the future!
“Liquidshell is a simple shell built from classic QtWidgets controls”