One major factor in whether you should use Motif, Qt, or GTK will be your programming experience: if you are already familiar with one, that will make your ArcObjects experience easier. In addition, each has both benefits and disadvantages.
Pros
Motif
|
GTK
|
Qt
|
"traditional" Unix look-and-feel
|
multi-platform availability
|
multi-platform availability
|
well supported and documented
|
widely used for newer projects
|
widely used for newer projects
|
pre-installed on Solaris
|
easier to program
|
easier to program
|
long-established industry standard
|
standard part of most Linux distributions
|
standard part of most Linux distributions
|
free licenses available
|
active development
|
active development
|
|
flexible L-GPL license
|
|
Cons
Motif
|
GTK
|
Qt
|
not very easy to program
|
non-centralized support
|
less flexible and/or costly licensing
|
little active development
|
documentation is lacking
|
|
Unix-only availability
|
no mature gui-builder
|
|
dated design
|
|
|
no mature gui-builder
|
|
|