Budgie 11: Jump to Qt6, modular architecture and 2026 roadmap

Key points:
  • Budgie 11 abandons GTK to be based on Qt6 and KDE Frameworks.
  • New modular architecture divided into "Budgie Core" and "Budgie Desktop".
  • Adaptability to new formats: mobiles, tablets and virtual reality.
  • The Budgie 10.x series enters maintenance after completing the migration to Wayland.
  • Migrating development from GitHub to a custom Forgejo instance.
David Y. NaranjoUpdated on

4 minutes

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The organization recently Buddies of Budgie announced by posting its annual report defining the roadmap for the future of the project. And that's because following the release of Budgie 10.10, Having finally consolidated the migration to Wayland, the team has declared that the 10.x branch is officially entering maintenance mode. From now on, all efforts are focused on the Budgie 11. an ambitious rewrite that promises to change the technological foundations of the environment.

The most significant revelation for 2026 is the toolkit change, as the developers have finally decided that Budgie 11 will be the version that finally abandons GTK and will be the first of the environment to be built on Qt6 and the KDE Frameworks support libraries.

The publication mentions that, unlike previous migration attempts, This decision is based on code that is already running in production.. The "Budgie Desktop Services", who are currently managing the Wayland exit in version 10.10They are already written in Qt6Furthermore, the migration has been successfully tested in the Budgie Display Configurator application, which uses the Kirigami interface framework.

Modular Architecture: Budgie Beyond the PC

As such, it is mentioned that the The goal of Budgie 11 is not just to change tools, but rather redefine the architecture to be adaptable to multiple form factors. The system It will be divided into two clearly differentiated layers:

  • Budgie Core (The Platform): Contains the device-agnostic base libraries. It is responsible for power management, locale configuration, data input, and component lifecycle management.
  • Budgie Desktop (The Presentation): This is the graphical interface layer built on top of the Core. It manages the layout of windows, panels, and visual interaction.

This separation pThis will allow Budgie to run not only on PCs and laptops, but also on tablets, televisions, virtual reality devices and smartphones, maintaining a common core but changing the presentation layer according to the device.

Budgie 10.10: Wayland's Maturity

The year2025 was crucial for refining the current experienceBudgie 10.10 marks the culmination of two years of work to make the desktop a viable option under Wayland. Key improvements include:

  • Labwc Bridge: A two-way synchronization that allows Budgie Control Center settings to be automatically reflected in the labwc compositor, eliminating manual configuration.
  • Energy Management and Lockout: The old budgie-screensaver has been removed in favor of a modern suite consisting of swayidle, gtklock, and wlopm.
  • Screenshots: They rewrote the functionality using native Wayland tools like grim and slurp.
  • Applet Rewriting: The task list and other subprograms have been ported to eliminate dependencies on X11, using libraries such as libxfce4windowing.

New infrastructure and communication

The project is also maturing in its internal management. Due to dissatisfaction with the direction of GitHub (specifically because of the intrusion of AI and Copilot), The development of Budgie 11 has been moved to a self-hosted instance of Forgejo.

To validate the code, They have implemented their own CI/CD pipeline using Woodpecker, with dedicated compilers for ARM64 architectures and plans for RISC-V.

Finally, to improve transparency, Joshua Strobl has announced the "Chirps" initiative: brief and frequent updates on the official website to keep the community informed about daily developments, complementing the long and sporadic reports.

Budgie 11 Release Strategy

To ensure stability in long-term releases (LTS), Budgie 11 will adopt an XYZ versioning scheme:

  • X (Major): Linked to the major version of Qt (e.g., Budgie 11 will be Qt6, Budgie 12 will be Qt7).
  • And (Feature): Semi-annual releases with possible improvements to the ABI (Application Binary Interface), maintained for about 2 years.
  • Z (Patch): Minor bug fixes.

With this roadmap, Buddies of Budgie closes a ten-year chapter and opens a new one focused on modularity, platform independence, and a renewed technological foundation with Qt.

Finally, if you are interested in knowing more about it, you can consult the details in the following link