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The problem at that time was that Qt wasn't free nor open sourc software (you could see the code but could not redistribute modifications). Both GTK and Gnome were started as truly free alternatives to Qt and KDE. If only Qt had implemented a dual licensed model like they do now, the history of Linux's DEs would be very different.

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The fact that Qt is C++ also played a role.

I have always sided with C++ in the usual C vs C++ wars, since I know the language (1993).

My first Linux distribution was Slackware 2.0 back in 1995, before GNOME or KDE existed and many used twm as their window manager.

Having been part of the gtkmm mailing list for a while, mainly due to my dislike on those days of Qt using moc, I can tell there were quite some heated discussions in the usual C vs C++ style.

So C guys would side with GTK, C++ with Qt and not many in the GTK world cared about us in gtkmm.

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