Lubuntu was my introduction to linux, and it was very discouraging. Not knowing much of anything, I gravitated towards ubuntu, and I found out that there was a lightweight version, Lubuntu. I had a really weak laptop at the time, an acer aspire one from 2008, and I was distraught, Lubuntu was too heavy, and was unusable in my opinion. Eventually I learned you could remove packages, remove services that you didn't need, and eventually I learned that ubuntu 18.04 had a minimal iso, at which point I left lubuntu for good. If I had to start with the minimal iso from the beginning it would have been a much slower introduction to linux, but at least I would have been able to use my laptop. Honestly, my complaint is with Lubuntu's branding, and the parroting of opinions which reinforced the idea that Lubuntu should somehow be considered "lightweight". If we compare Lubuntu as if it were a regular ubuntu distribution, I would not have to give it so low a score. It should be said though, if I had a device strong enough to overcome Lubuntu's weight, I would have a system strong enough to not need a lightweight distribution in the first place. Therefore it is my opinion that Lubuntu is useless. I gave it 3/10 though, not 1/10, because ultimately at least it is a functional distribution.
Im not a Linux power user, but I know enough to get me in trouble. Thank God for Linux forums!. The reason I'm returning to Linux is because Microshit is killing Win10 and Win11 is a cluster fuck. No more Microcrap for me!
Ive been using Lubuntu for many many years. While I have jumped ship a few time I always seem to come back to Lubuntu. Why? Because it just works... Right out of the box. No printer issues, regular security updates and its nice to my third party VPN. CON: Lubuntu is not the light weight distro that it once was.Now comes with a plethora of preloaded software. After install I spend a lot of time in Synaptic PM giving the repository an enema to flush out the constipation!
Lubuntu 24.04 LTS is a Linux distribution light enough to be used on older computers (814 MB RAM consumed with no active applications). LXQt 1.4.0 is stable and easily usable: it still uses x11, but Wayland support is planned for April 2025. Almost all the essential software is already installed (including 'redshift'). The only application that disappointed me was ‘qps’, which I promptly replaced with ‘lxtask’. Lubuntu is a distribution based on the Qt libraries - but unlike other desktop environments - it is fairly light, it is stable, it is intuitive, it is ergonomic, and it is easy to install and configure. Rating 10/10.
This is supposed to be a low-resource-focused distro, however it hasn't been able to boot in live mode, not even in safe mode. On my 17-year-old Dell laptop, a cursor keeps blinking in the top left corner and after several minutes nothing happens at all. I remember that in 2020, this worked without problems. So I think they have removed support for older hardware, since this has happened to me in many other distros. However, Zorin, Mx linux and Manjaro do work and boot, even after being installed.
They should have come up with a new name for this distro, since LXQT and LXDE are not close in terms of what kind of PCs they're best installed on. LXQT is equivalent to XFCE in terms of how lightweight the distribution is, both for CPU usage and memory. I'd put it in the "Welterweight" category not really lightweight. If a PC is too slow for Windows 10, then it will probably be too slow for Lubuntu/LXQT too. If not now, then maybe in the near future. A mid-range PC sold in the last 8 years will probably do fine with Lubuntu-LXQT. If your PC has the resources, then LXQT's search function is a plus, similar to with XFCE. I bounce between LXDE, LXQT, XFCE, and Cinnamon, depending on what the PC can handle. They are all a lot better for my purposes than Gnome 3, KDE and the rest. They use way too much memory and CPU and differ too much from what I've come to expect in a desktop after many years of using Windows. LXQT is what a desktop is supposed to be in my view, in stark contrast to the tablet-like GUI of Ubuntu's primary desktop. I'm not one of those who ever bought into the "Mobile is The Future of Computing" theory.
Lubuntu LTS has always been and remains a very solid distro in Linux's .deb world, especially for those used to using ppa repos. It seems anytime I try going back to Debian or a RHEL clone, I'm eventually looking for something in an Ubuntu ppa. If you are brand new to Linux, and have a relatively new PC that can handle it, then I'd suggest using either the Cinnamon version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop instead of this, since its configuration settings are a little easier to navigate. If you just want an older PC to not run slowly, then I'd try Lubuntu and add the LXDE meta package afterwards, so you can switch into LXDE at login, in case LXQT ends up being too slow.
It was a smooth easy install via a Rufus USB from one of my MS Windows PCs. It looks way better than I was expecting for a "lite" distro, and it feels faster than any other Linux distro I've ever tried on my 15 year old ex-Macbook 13, which is quite few. I swapped out Rhythmbox for the Syanara music player. I have a less old, and more powerful 15" Dell XPS that Dell and MS have abandoned so I plan to install Lubuntu on there soon. Congratulations and thanks to the devs who have hit the sweet spot for me.
Using Lubuntu from version 18.04 and it has been stable always. Sure change to Lxqt was big one but devs have overcome it and its the best Ubuntu Distro now if you want distro that is stable, fast and that does not comes in your way. I installed Lubuntu 24,04 on My PC with i3 processor, 8GB Ram and it just flies. I can't be more happy than that. I feel at home after a lot of distrohoping. Try it once and you won't regret. Its also best if you loved WindowsXP and WIndows 7. You get same interface and speed. Thanks to the devs
The blue looks nice. The layout looks good. I like the fact that it has Libreoffice on it, as well as the other default apps that don't work, or don't work properly, like Gnumeric and that Abiword.
I had the wifi working when I first used it. But then it stopped working as soon as I closed and reopened it.
I already have one computer for non-internet purposes. That was by choice. Without the internet, the platform is not worth anything.
If I remember rightly, this has been the lubuntu issue for years. Funny that hey. It's a shame. The layout is great. But as mentioned, without the internet, it is a great paperweight when I open the window to let the breeze in in this paperless society we supposedly live in. The operating system is just as useful as a paperweight in a paperless office.
Excellent distro. Went in very smoothly, via CD and live usb (i.e. mkusb), on all of my systems 10 years or older (but, with various upgrades in HW) - a real hodgepodge of technology; a desktop and several laptops. Lubuntu didn't complain, everything works and we all look so good! Only significant issue for me is that muon isn't included this time and it is still better than synaptic (imo- even though it's frozen). It was brought forward by someone and it's alive on my systems, but, for how long I wonder.. no big deal though.
I used Lubuntu for a few years from 2016-2022 on 3 computers I do not have anymore.
It served me well on an old solid Dell Laptop and an HP Desktop.
It worked less efficiently with a cheaply built HP laptop with a lousy processor.
Lately I have been using Ubuntu Mate on my daily driver, a Dell Vostro with 8G RAM.
And I like it.
I just bought a 2011 General Dynamics GD8000 Military Grade laptop.
I wanted to try Lubuntu first.
It did not recognize WiFi out of the box.
Instead of trying to figure out how to get WiFi to work, I decided to just try Xubuntu
to see if the issue was the laptop itself, or was it Lubuntu´s ability to recognize WiFi
on this solidly built military grade GD8000.
Xubuntu recognized WiFi right away, and I so I installed Xubuntu instead.
Even if Xubuntu beat out Lubuntu on this particular laptop, I gave it 7 rating anyways.
Mainly this is due to my past use of Lubuntu, and knowing that it is the interplay
between the distribution and the laptop and not just one or the other.
I made the switch from Win8.1 a year ago as it had reached EoL and my laptop (Intel i7 @ 3GHz, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD, bought in 2015) was struggling to get anything done (would start in about 10 minutes or more, and I'm not exaggerating). No regrets after changing the OS; just the minor inconvenience of having to install 'bcmwl' to get the Wi-Fi card working, but that's it.
Also installed Lubuntu on a 2007 laptop (Intel 2 Duo @ 2.27GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD) that was having a hard time with Win10. The poor thing rose from the dead like it had been having a nap, and the Wi-Fi card was ready to work from the get-go.
Another Win8 desktop (AMD @ 4GHz, 8GB RAM, ~400GB HDD) had reached EoL but it definitely could stay alive and kicking for long... And will, as I have replaced Win8 with Lubuntu and it simply flies.
Lubuntu is exactly what I was looking for: a lighweight, simple and easy-to-use Linux distribution with which I could give older computers a new life.
Quick to open and light. Compared to Linux Mint Xfce, the lightness of the old machine is noticeable when browsing the Internet, for example. Until now, I have been satisfied with the lxqt desktop, even though it is not that familiar yet. In the past, Lubuntu lxde has been used on the desktop, which I was quite satisfied with. Many have claimed that the current Lubuntu is no longer light, but I think it works well even on older machines. And as for the software, you can of course download it if you need to. Some operating systems have too many programs ready that you may not even need.
I prefer lightweight Linux distos like Lubuntu. Of the 100 listed on Distrowatch I usually start with the most popular. I tested about 10 on a 2010 Macbook-Air all OK but to dual-boot a new Lenovo model: IdeaPad 1 14AMN7 next to Widows-11 took the testing of several more distros till one worked out-of-the-box with the Realtek wifi hardware. Some failed to boot from the USB. Ubuntu found the wifi but then had a Firefox/Chrome display problem, then I tried lubuntu-22.04.3-desktop-amd64 an off-shoot of Ubuntu and it looks good on wifi and Firefox, has a simple desktop and useful software pre-installed. Fedora 39 was the only other distro so far tested OK on the Lenovo but I’m not so familiar with its software manager.
I have now tried several Linux distros with my old laptop (Dell Latitude E4300) and Oracle Virtualbox. Lubuntu has the best performance and stability, especially with the laptop. I'm delighted with Lubuntu because everything works 'out-of-the-box'. Super easy and user-friendly. And yet I have a lot of possibilities to make my tune-ups and configs. Seems that Lubuntu takes the max. performance out of my old laptop. I want to thank the Lubuntu community for their great! The other Ubuntu-based distros that are next to recommend are Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Kali Linux. Linux Mint was a disappointment due to huge number of bugs and problems.
Lubuntu is the best choice in my laptop with 4GB RAM. For office use, playing light games, browsing the web, watching videos or listening to music, the system is perfect. Installation was intuitive and simply quick. The LXQt environment is not as configurable as KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, XFCE or Gnome, but this is where I see its strength. I don't need to change the appearance of icons, desktop effects or window behavior every day. I want to devote myself fully to my activities, and Lubuntu allows me to do that perfectly. Thanks to all the people involved in the creation and development of Lubuntu.
I found it better than other popular Linux Distro.
I recommend other people, You must test this one time, you will love it.
I am Windows user and i was using Windows when Windows XP came. Windows XP and Windows 7 were best Operating Systems. But i starting hate with Windows from Windows 8, 8.1 and now Windows 10, 11 are full with bloatware. They removed start menu. And no Windows 10 and 11 seems less stable.
I tested Linux OS. I am new in Linux world. I tested Linux Mint, MX Linux, Manjaro. Ubuntu Mate. But i found Lubuntu more stable, light weight and according to my taste.
I want to thanks Lubuntu developers for this wonderful operating system.
It's simply the best for me. I understand that it is absolutely not mainstream, and it's shame...
There's nothing useless, no all that redundant menus and options. I moved form windows 10... you know menus and menus and options and here and there, and one more window, and one more link... but you really cannot tune things as you like...
I was shocked by Lubuntu/LXQt simplicity. First reaction: there are no options! Second one: but I can do everything with this several that there are! Third: why all that redundance???
It's light. It doesn't do anything that I don't need. But it does everything I need!
Having tried several different distros in the past few days, all of which proved to be so fragile that they self-destructed, I thought I'd give Lubuntu a spin, and I'm glad that I did.
I'd tried LXQt before, with Porteus, and it seemed OK.
Now it's more mature, and the Lubuntu iteration is nothing less than fairly excellent. It is clean, fast, stable, and has a very informative, interactive user interface.
Much as I love LXDE for its configurability, etc., it's dated. LXQt is just as configurable, but it's modern both in looks and feel. I think that the Lubuntu development team made the right decision in dropping LXDE in favor of LXQt.
Which brings me to another point. Too many distros are trying to be 'all things for everyone', offering a multitude of DE options, rather than focusing on one and doing it very well.
Switching desktop environments involves a lot of work under the hood, especially in ~/.config and /etc. I know this from bitter experience.
I want stability and consistency, and Lubuntu LXQt offers this, as did Lubuntu LXDE. I don't have to spend days on configuration, only for the system to break, because I've somehow breached a parameter.
There is also the aspect that it is community developed, rather than a personal project that can often seem like an ego trip.
I distrust those particular flavors (re. William Gibson's book 'Distrust That Particular Flavor'). They are often very fragile, and tend to be suddenly abandoned.
I think its fair to consider LXQt as 'KDE Lite', and I am tempted to try Kubuntu, even though it is very specialized and 'niche' as a a complete DE. I'll probably stick with Lubuntu, because of the greater flexibility.
PROS:
Lubuntu is very stable. Why can't Debian do this?
Lubuntu installs in about 5 minutes.
Lubuntu does not enforce swap on installation, giving the option of 'no swap/swap to file'. There really is no need for swap on modern X86-64 machines that can handle more RAM than most users will ever need.
The Muon package manager is far superior to Synaptic, which is so dated it's becoming clunky. Even broken packages are resolved as easily as closing and relaunching Muon.
Lubuntu is simply a very pleasant experience.
CONS:
There is no minimal install option, which means having to remove LibreOffice if you don't want it, although that's easy enough with Muon.
There's no OEM install option, which would be good for passing on or selling old machines.
Calamares installer doesn't recognize certain keyboards when it comes to setting a passphrase for an encrypted install, e.g. '# vs £'.
But these are no big deals, just ideas for the future.
I would recommend Lubuntu to people who want a light, fast and responsive DE.
I have it installed on three different systems, and runs perfectly fine even on the oldest of them all. The dual core system I have normally throttles while idle on w10. It really is one of the least resource hungry distros
LXQt is quite consistent, and allows for sufficient customization. You can really consider this version a 'modern' distribution. I guess the only "downside" I see is the selection of certain apps, but just install the ones you prefer.
It's the first distrbution of linux I'm willing to keep as my daily driver and recommend to others. I can finally say I'll stop distro hopping.
Top distro.
Just like Xubuntu, it just works great.
Tried after reading this week's distrowatch review.
Lubuntu is now using other tech but ligh as it was.
Tried it on a very old 10 year pentium Toshiba laptop.
Installation took a while but usb 2.0 etc etc, no ssd, old disk, etc, it's normal.
Installed it on dual boot but after reinstalled using all disk. Worked great recognizing all.
Was the best install i did in some time. New installer is cute, easy and works.
I use kubuntu and xubuntu for daily tasks but i found lubuntu to be top on my older and forgotten hardware.
I was using OpenBSD on it and i will later, for now Lubuntu is a good experience.
Congratulations
It works as well as could be expected. I've grown to like LXQt and Lubuntu puts it together in an efficient and effective manner. There's not much more to say about it.
I do miss the original LXDE, but LXQt grows on you and has many of the same features. The version is a bit old in 22.04, but it's fine. If you want the newer version, you'll have to wait. I do not believe they'll be backporting it to 22.04, unfortunately.
As far as distros go, Lubuntu is still lightweight - even though it's not specifically designed to be lightweight. I know of people running Lubuntu on some pretty old computers.
Light and very user friendly for new users.
Look good without all those visual effects without looking like dated software. I tested all official Ubuntu flavors for weeks before choosing one, and I chose Lubuntu because of the perfect relationship between visuals, usability and speed.
Can't think about any cons, seriously. I am a new Linux user and feel very comfortable using it.
It is definitely a step up compared to the old LXDE based Lubuntu. It's heavier compared to LXDE of course, but still lighter than XFCE and so on.
For my very old machines I still use version 18.04 though. But anything newer than 2015 Lubuntu 22.04 is the way to go.
Lubuntu is no longer the light distro in the club, but it's still very efficient with resource usage and overall responsiveness.
I use Lubuntu in my two external hard drives in case my main system is rendered unusable for whatever reason, let me tell you LXQT is very fast on HDDs running at slow speeds and overall the system is stable and upgrades work well, please enable LXQT backports for a better experience.
The other main reason to choose Lubuntu and LXQT is the use of the QT toolkit, in case you prefer it over GTK and want system consistency if your apps are all QT based.
By default lubuntu uses minimum ram of around 350mb without using any compositor. Compositor for transparency uses little more ram around 550mb in total but desktop environment feels much modern than the older one. One of the most practical and minimal desktop environment for all ranges of pc from old to the latest one. It is smooth, fast, and reliable. With minimal customization we can enhance its look and feel much to kubuntu style taskbar or what ever we want.
Only downside I see is lxqt 0.17.0 version instead of 1.1.0 by default. We have to add extra ppa to get upto date with lxqt 1.1.0 version.
I came back to see if Lubuntu was better than last time I tried it.
LXQT is a mess . Horrible confusion with bloated software all over. Where is LXDE . Was so perfect.
Why did you ruined this distro. It had it all.
I found a replacement at Ubuntu Mate. It's nice and I can even choose a lighter version at the installer.
Lubuntu was light and great, with the right software. It was clean. Great for beginners to get into linux.
Either coming from Windows or MacOS.
I don't understand why Lubuntu gave up LXDE. I don't get it.
My opinion continues to be the same. I don't recommend this distro. It's heavy and has so much bloated software . So annoying. If I could give less than 1, like a rating of ZERO, I would, but I can't.
It troubles me that those who try a distribution then give it low ratings do not take into account the hardware they are attempting to run it on. This distribution ran fine in virtualbox and bare metal, in fact it was better than fine in terms of overall performance. When installed bare metal I did experience a peculiar issue whereby three USB 3.1 type A ports would not always be recognised at boot time, yet the two USB-C ports worked as expected, but I do not see this as a reason to give a lower rating because a) i'm sure I could have remedied this with a little investigation and b) if this was indeed a serious issue with Lubuntu then their forum would be awash with cheesed-off users, but it is not. So overall I quite liked it. I say "quite" because my personal preference is MX Linux and has been for a long time, but I could be just as productive with Lubuntu if pushed.
If you own a machine that's say 7 years old or less, has 4Gb ram or more then you will probably appreciate Lubuntu even if you finally choose another distro. But, if you're intending to run any modern distribution on machines more than 7 years old then expect to find your experiences to be less than stellar. As I said at the outset, it troubles me to see one or two very low ratings given to distributions by users attempting to run them on machines that are as much as ten or more years old. (one user was not happy on a 15 year old Phenom II !!)
I am Lubuntu fan who wants to stay with this distro. Using it on a 64 GB RAM machine based on Intel i7 at 3.9 GHz. Nice LXDE desktop, easy to operate. Very flexible, thank to Ubuntu repositories. Works even with demanding tasks like Antenna Analysis or PCB board design and prototyping including 3D modelling. Some problems with USB ports and udev. An USB port randomly disappears (Arduino with CH341 is here), restart needed to refresh. USB keyboard and mouse stays without any issue. Otherwise great distro.
I have been pleasantly surprised with Lubuntu 22.04. I have installed it on an Intel Celeron (2015) with 4gb ram and the machine flies, powers up with about 430mg of ram. The previous version of Lubuntu was heavy even for this computer, but now Lubuntu flies, especially if instead of firefox we use chromium. Lxqt is not a very modern desktop, but it can be customized and left to your liking. It is really worth this new version of Lubuntu, which had abandoned the old PCs a bit, but now has become friends with them again.
I was a windows user since 1998 till 2021 Feb. I had a hang of using linux though so switch over was not a worry.
AMD A6 - 2.5GHz
RAM - 8GB
I have a pretty good configuration from stand point of general users. I have these windows pretty much open all the time on my laptop
1. Android Studio - Application Development
2. VS Code - NodeJS development
3. MongoDB
4. Word and Excel
5. Web Browser (outlook, aws console, and few other tabs)
6. GIMP 2.10
All of this works fine only because I have Lubuntu 20.04 LTS
Go for it. worth every penny you have invested in your hardware.
There is literally nothing that is making me go back to windows environment. The one and only one reason why I need windows is for performing digital signatures on govt documents using DSC. Unfortunately only for this activity I need windows. This i am saying after dumping windows for more than 13 months and have run a full cycle of business using this laptop.
I am running Lubuntu on an a 2012 HP Pavilion g6 with an AMD A4 Vision and 3 gig of ram. The laptop was originally low end, and was given to me used. The graphics worked great, but it was first running Windows 9 and then 10, both of which I hated, so the only way for me to tolerate using it for my daily driver was to move to a Linux solution. I chose Lubuntu based on brand recognition, as well as having a very positive prior experience with Lubuntu back in 2010-11.
I installed it almost 2 years ago, and the only reason I have not moved to Lite or Mate, is because I have several hours of prep work to do prior to making the switch, and I always seem to have higher priorities.
The system works, so I am not complaining about that. I am able to get my work done, etc, but I will switch in the next few months, because I am just not happy with it. I have Linux Lite running on an old high end Dell, with terrible graphics, but it runs great. I have Ubuntu running on a used Panasonic Tough Book, and it is awesome.
Bottom line is that I have been using Linux since 2009, and it seems to me that an identical distro works differently based on the differences between inner workings of the computer - and this is obvious from the spec standpoint for sure, but I am more thinking about it as an internal components viewpoint, and so I may wait for the new Lubuntu LTS release, which is coming up soon, before I make my final decision, but if it does not improve, I am going to put the blame on the incompatibility of the Lubuntu system with this particular HP laptop.
Lubuntu is really good again. When they first dumped LXDE for LXQT, the ram and cpu usage were only slightly less than a full blown kde desktop or xfce desktop,(maybe 35 to 45 mb less). So I thought what's the point of Lubuntu now.
However, after trying 21.10, it seems like memory usage is way down around 160 to 190 mb less than kde or xfce. I was installing LXDE onto Xubuntu for a while, but seems like no point of doing that anymore, since I'd really only be saving 20-25 mb doing that...makes more sense now to just to use Lubuntu. Lubuntu also nicely has a search function in the menu.
I only wish a 32 bit version was available but that's a Canonical decision, not the Lubuntu team.
I guess you can always use 18.04 for a bit longer.
The 18.04 version was awesome!!!, but when I change to 20.04 the problems appears. Many many problems, and today with the last upgrade, I cant use the browsers. When I start one and a couple of minutes navigating the computer freeze.
I dont know what happend but It doesn't seems like a stable version. :/
Lubuntu has gotten heavier in weight over the years, and slower too. Gone are the days with LXDE having only lightweight applications installed by default in this distro and now only heavyweight applications are used, and surprisingly, no lightweight applications are in the repositories, you have to add in other repositories to get lightweight applications. It’s sad that Lubuntu is this misleading. I do not recommend using this distro is you need something lightweight and/or for older computers.
Simple yet elegant and light operating system from ubuntu flavours
I have used lubuntu 18.04 lts, it was perfect in many terms and coming to new 20.04 things have changed drastically with implementation of qt environment. lubuntu team still needs to improve overall look and feel of OS. It is better than antiX because it doesn't comes with lot of apps but with essential or needed applications.
After installing lubuntu, few tweaks must be done to avoid headache in future. Overall good ubuntu flavour for older hardware which i use.
I think Lubuntu looks good now and everything works quite well, but its reason to exist has changed from being a lightweight Ubuntu flavour to being the best distro with LXQt and for many users that used Lubuntu bofore the change, the shift in direction has been a disappointment. There are other, more mature middleweight desktops like MATE and XFCE and LXQt has failed to get much traction as many see it as a lighter but still not very light, version of KDE Plasma.
LXDE is still maintained (contary to popular belief) and there was recently a new version of LXterminal. For users that loved the old Lubuntu, Debian + LXDE is now the natural option, or maybe something like Antix that is even lighter than Lubuntu ever were.
For those who love LXQt, Lubuntu is a good option, but I doubt there are that many of those users. I continued to use Lubuntu for a while after the transition and even contributed some bug reports, feature requests and translations, but I never felt that excited about LXQt and a few years ago, I moved to Arch, first with LXQt, then LXDE and then with tiling WMs (for even less resources spent on things that do not matter and even more left for the programs I run). I still think Lubuntu is a good Ubuntu flavour if you want a middleweight desktop and like Qt-based stuff and the design and the default apps are good choices. It just isn't for me anymore.
Hearing that this was meant for lower end computers, I put it on a 4GB Intel I3 based laptop (circa 2015).
It didn't work out so well. Often times with just Firefox and a few tabs open, kswapd0 kicks in and effectively stops the computer for 1-5 minutes. Being a laptop, the fan kicks in on high. Eventually the laptop recovers, and some browser tabs had crashed, needing reloading.
I found the UI to be sufficient but kludgy in a few areas. For example, when on power, I didn't want the computer to go to sleep. Going into the screen saver settings, I unset the sleep activity there. But it still went to sleep. There's also a setting in Power Management one has to set.
Essentially, this would have been usable, but fails the Parent Test, meaning, could your parent use it and not get frustrated.
Eventually this might come into something if Canonical and the community can come together and make a decent UI for all.
The image was eventually formatted and replaced with Manjaro XFCE.
I was an avid and happy Lubuntu user during years, and used it on all class of computers, not only for his "Lightness", i simply loved how LXDE worked, without any distracting effect. It was fast, solid and really nice in his simplicity.
Now...well, i really dont like how Lubuntu works with LXQT, i know that all the people behind the distro it´s working hard to give a good distro for the user, but it barely works like his past versions.
We can undertand that LXDE was old, etc, but now you have a Lubuntu distro that seems to wear an incomplete and cheap version of Plasma, not so comfortable to work with it, and really odd. Seems an incomplete desktop, and maybe is normal, because LXQT needs a lot more of work during his development in the future, to try to compete with other more mature or advanced desktops.
Maybe someone can fork LXDE and try to give it more life, but for Lubuntu, we have to wait a bit more to see it shine again and for LXQT to have more personality.
Longtime user of the 'Buntus. I first started using Lubuntu back in the LXDE days. The first thing I have to say is that I do a lot of restoring old computers for people, and all the 'Buntus get a minus three on their rating automatically from me because of dropping 32 bit support. A lot of people that can't afford computers get old refurbished 32 bit computers and in 3rd world countries they are still far more common than 64 bit computers, so hard scold on all the 'Buntus for that move. I also have to say that LXQT (they ditched LXDE) does not work as well as LXDE did, in my experience. The whole purpose in Lubuntu and Xubuntu was to provide lightweight environments for older computers. Now with the ditching of both 32 bit support and LXDE, Lubuntu is not that OS for old computers it once was. It is definitely light on its feet compared to the giant sauropods of the Linux world, KDE Plasma and Gnome, but for a mid to light weight 64 bit system, I would say Xfce (Xubuntu in the 'Buntu family) is probably better. You may be able to squeak by with a little less memory on LXQT than Xfce, but not by much. Plus, I have had more bugs in LXQT. If you really need a lightweight distro, I would go for broke and skip out on Lubuntu and head for Q4OS. It uses the outdated looking, but extremely lightweight Trinity Desktop Environment (forked from KDE 3 - back when KDE was not a memory gorging behemoth), and Q4OS is based squarely in Debian ('Buntus are Debian based to an extent, but there is major reworking). Being based squarely in Debian means that for those in need of 32 bit support, Q4OS has that.
So my tally:
Minus 3 for not having 32 bit support and excluding those that still have to/need to use those computers.
Minus for the switch to LXQT, which (in my experience) is not as sprightly as LXDE.
Minus for the primitive look without making up for it in resource gain.
Minus for the bugs in LXQT compared to both LXDE and Xfce.
I am currently using an old 32 bit Samsung Netbook with 2GB RAM, 160 GB HDD (partitioned) and an Atom processor so I'm very limited what Linux OS to use now that it no longer uses Windows 7. Apart from a number of Android Motorola smartphones and Samsung tablets, this old netbook is my main go to machine at present, for scanning, printing, photo-editing/cropping (Fotoxx and Gimp), e-mails, web-browsing and shopping, spreadsheets and written documents, etc. and I find that LUBUNTU 18.04 LTS works excellently in this little machine. Granted it struggles with high-end BBC I-player streaming of TV shows,etc., so I generally use a Samsung tablet for that, but YouTube videos are fine to watch. As the internal architecture for my Samsung Netbook is only 32 bit, it will not be able to run 64 bit LUBUNTU 20.04 LTS onwards as the 32 bit (i386 software) is being terminated by Canonical (Ubuntu) after April 2023. This frustratingly I find a shame as my netbook (albeit old) still works and should not be thrown away yet awhile (well not until it has had a major hardware failure anyway, hopefully it might continue for another 10 years). Disappointed with the Linux Community with their lack of response and interest into what happens to old machines that still work after April 2023, particularly as Linux Users used to always pride themselves in supporting older hardware that Microsoft seemed to abandon. This was one of the many reasons why I, and I'm sure many others, left the Microsoft Windows systems over 10 years ago. LUBUNTU 18.04 LTS should be ideal for users wanting to put some life back into an older 32 bit Computer / Laptop / Netbook - but don't expect miracles, it's never gonna be a Ferrari....
lubuntu 20.04 so far is the best linux distro for my intel core i3 witn 4Gb ram laptop. other distro such as ubuntu 20.04 make laptop's fan spin hard and then bring sudden off because of thermal heat. i give 10 because of openbox, no matter how weird the screen is , it really make my day especially when i am in a hurry. salut.
Lubuntu is running on an old Toshiba laptop, with increased ram to 8gb. Where new Linux Mint and Ubuntu stopped working after upgrading. Lubuntu 18 seems to have it flying again.
As a long term Lubuntu user, I have always admired how Lubuntu used to beat almost all other distros when it comes to speed, leight-weightness and other key indicators. But the change from version 18.04 to 20.04 has not been great. Since the update my computer's memory usage more than doubled and CPU usage rose. Also, the total amount of background tasks rose 20-30 percent. I compared fresh installed Lubuntu 20.04 and fresh installed Manjaro LXDE and Manjaro won clearly. However, Manjaro still cant beat Lubuntu 18.04 in these key areas (total amount of tasks, cpu and memory usage in fresh state). Hopefully Lubuntu dev team backtracks a little bit and redirects this back to its roots: Simple, lightweight, no bloatware, FOSS, etc...
Never been a fan on ubuntus but this is the best flavor they offer. Besides lxqt being minimal and really lightweight this is the best implementation of it in any of the distros i've tried. The overall default settings are very good and the installed programs are mostly well selected. However they could do without a couple of them like the game and instead offer the Gdebi which is a must have.
Very good distribution. The switch to LXQT is positive in my opinion. The interface is more pleasant and benefits from the integration of QT software while being lightweight. Installed on an Asus Zenbook UX333 everything is recognized out of box.
For those who do not know, we can obviously reduce the number of desktop by going to Openbox settings then Desktops.
All good, long life to Lubuntu!
After a bumpy start with the LXQT desktop, the distro has much improved since. The most annoying problem now is, I think on many machines, that the pavucontrol-qt disables panel volume contol so that it hasn't got any effect on apps ( like vls, browsers). To address the issue I had to remove 'pavucontrol-qt', install 'pavucontrol' and replace the former for the latter as default in the audio settings. After a restart volume control in the panel works.
One other issue that is slightly annoying is that it seems impossible to change the number of desktops in the desktop switcher, There are 4 desktops and that's that. ( Most users don't know how to change the app in the file and it would be nice to include this option in settings).
Apart from that... so far so good, an enormous improvement, ladies and gentlemen of the team,
Good work.
Adam J.
I began using Lubuntu in 2016 with 16.04 LTS. It was great as a dual boot with Windows 7, then Windows 10. I installed 20.04 LTS when it became available, but I finally gave up and uninstalled it in February 2021. It was too slow, like Windows 10, on my machine.
Call it bloated or full-featured, but it is no longer designed for older machines like mine: 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 64-bit CPU. There are other distributions that work well, however, like antiX and MX Linux.
12.04 was the better version of Ubuntu. I just ran it in VirtualBox in a "nostalgia mood".
I guess if it is possible to take Devuan Beowulf and install artwork packages from this release, in order to get a lean and mean system.
Latest lubuntu version is bloated and too close to other desktop environments in terms of resource usage.
Lubuntu was my introduction to linux, and it was very discouraging. Not knowing much of anything, I gravitated towards ubuntu, and I found out that there was a lightweight version, Lubuntu. I had a really weak laptop at the time, an acer aspire one from 2008, and I was distraught, Lubuntu was too heavy, and was unusable in my opinion. Eventually I learned you could remove packages, remove services that you didn't need, and eventually I learned that ubuntu 18.04 had a minimal iso, at which point I left lubuntu for good. If I had to start with the minimal iso from the beginning it would have been a much slower introduction to linux, but at least I would have been able to use my laptop. Honestly, my complaint is with Lubuntu's branding, and the parroting of opinions which reinforced the idea that Lubuntu should somehow be considered "lightweight". If we compare Lubuntu as if it were a regular ubuntu distribution, I would not have to give it so low a score. It should be said though, if I had a device strong enough to overcome Lubuntu's weight, I would have a system strong enough to not need a lightweight distribution in the first place. Therefore it is my opinion that Lubuntu is useless. I gave it 3/10 though, not 1/10, because ultimately at least it is a functional distribution.
Im not a Linux power user, but I know enough to get me in trouble. Thank God for Linux forums!. The reason I'm returning to Linux is because Microshit is killing Win10 and Win11 is a cluster fuck. No more Microcrap for me!
Ive been using Lubuntu for many many years. While I have jumped ship a few time I always seem to come back to Lubuntu. Why? Because it just works... Right out of the box. No printer issues, regular security updates and its nice to my third party VPN. CON: Lubuntu is not the light weight distro that it once was.Now comes with a plethora of preloaded software. After install I spend a lot of time in Synaptic PM giving the repository an enema to flush out the constipation!
Lubuntu 24.04 LTS is a Linux distribution light enough to be used on older computers (814 MB RAM consumed with no active applications). LXQt 1.4.0 is stable and easily usable: it still uses x11, but Wayland support is planned for April 2025. Almost all the essential software is already installed (including 'redshift'). The only application that disappointed me was ‘qps’, which I promptly replaced with ‘lxtask’. Lubuntu is a distribution based on the Qt libraries - but unlike other desktop environments - it is fairly light, it is stable, it is intuitive, it is ergonomic, and it is easy to install and configure. Rating 10/10.
This is supposed to be a low-resource-focused distro, however it hasn't been able to boot in live mode, not even in safe mode. On my 17-year-old Dell laptop, a cursor keeps blinking in the top left corner and after several minutes nothing happens at all. I remember that in 2020, this worked without problems. So I think they have removed support for older hardware, since this has happened to me in many other distros. However, Zorin, Mx linux and Manjaro do work and boot, even after being installed.
They should have come up with a new name for this distro, since LXQT and LXDE are not close in terms of what kind of PCs they're best installed on. LXQT is equivalent to XFCE in terms of how lightweight the distribution is, both for CPU usage and memory. I'd put it in the "Welterweight" category not really lightweight. If a PC is too slow for Windows 10, then it will probably be too slow for Lubuntu/LXQT too. If not now, then maybe in the near future. A mid-range PC sold in the last 8 years will probably do fine with Lubuntu-LXQT. If your PC has the resources, then LXQT's search function is a plus, similar to with XFCE. I bounce between LXDE, LXQT, XFCE, and Cinnamon, depending on what the PC can handle. They are all a lot better for my purposes than Gnome 3, KDE and the rest. They use way too much memory and CPU and differ too much from what I've come to expect in a desktop after many years of using Windows. LXQT is what a desktop is supposed to be in my view, in stark contrast to the tablet-like GUI of Ubuntu's primary desktop. I'm not one of those who ever bought into the "Mobile is The Future of Computing" theory.
Lubuntu LTS has always been and remains a very solid distro in Linux's .deb world, especially for those used to using ppa repos. It seems anytime I try going back to Debian or a RHEL clone, I'm eventually looking for something in an Ubuntu ppa. If you are brand new to Linux, and have a relatively new PC that can handle it, then I'd suggest using either the Cinnamon version of Ubuntu or Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop instead of this, since its configuration settings are a little easier to navigate. If you just want an older PC to not run slowly, then I'd try Lubuntu and add the LXDE meta package afterwards, so you can switch into LXDE at login, in case LXQT ends up being too slow.
It was a smooth easy install via a Rufus USB from one of my MS Windows PCs. It looks way better than I was expecting for a "lite" distro, and it feels faster than any other Linux distro I've ever tried on my 15 year old ex-Macbook 13, which is quite few. I swapped out Rhythmbox for the Syanara music player. I have a less old, and more powerful 15" Dell XPS that Dell and MS have abandoned so I plan to install Lubuntu on there soon. Congratulations and thanks to the devs who have hit the sweet spot for me.
Using Lubuntu from version 18.04 and it has been stable always. Sure change to Lxqt was big one but devs have overcome it and its the best Ubuntu Distro now if you want distro that is stable, fast and that does not comes in your way. I installed Lubuntu 24,04 on My PC with i3 processor, 8GB Ram and it just flies. I can't be more happy than that. I feel at home after a lot of distrohoping. Try it once and you won't regret. Its also best if you loved WindowsXP and WIndows 7. You get same interface and speed. Thanks to the devs
The blue looks nice. The layout looks good. I like the fact that it has Libreoffice on it, as well as the other default apps that don't work, or don't work properly, like Gnumeric and that Abiword.
I had the wifi working when I first used it. But then it stopped working as soon as I closed and reopened it.
I already have one computer for non-internet purposes. That was by choice. Without the internet, the platform is not worth anything.
If I remember rightly, this has been the lubuntu issue for years. Funny that hey. It's a shame. The layout is great. But as mentioned, without the internet, it is a great paperweight when I open the window to let the breeze in in this paperless society we supposedly live in. The operating system is just as useful as a paperweight in a paperless office.
Excellent distro. Went in very smoothly, via CD and live usb (i.e. mkusb), on all of my systems 10 years or older (but, with various upgrades in HW) - a real hodgepodge of technology; a desktop and several laptops. Lubuntu didn't complain, everything works and we all look so good! Only significant issue for me is that muon isn't included this time and it is still better than synaptic (imo- even though it's frozen). It was brought forward by someone and it's alive on my systems, but, for how long I wonder.. no big deal though.
I used Lubuntu for a few years from 2016-2022 on 3 computers I do not have anymore.
It served me well on an old solid Dell Laptop and an HP Desktop.
It worked less efficiently with a cheaply built HP laptop with a lousy processor.
Lately I have been using Ubuntu Mate on my daily driver, a Dell Vostro with 8G RAM.
And I like it.
I just bought a 2011 General Dynamics GD8000 Military Grade laptop.
I wanted to try Lubuntu first.
It did not recognize WiFi out of the box.
Instead of trying to figure out how to get WiFi to work, I decided to just try Xubuntu
to see if the issue was the laptop itself, or was it Lubuntu´s ability to recognize WiFi
on this solidly built military grade GD8000.
Xubuntu recognized WiFi right away, and I so I installed Xubuntu instead.
Even if Xubuntu beat out Lubuntu on this particular laptop, I gave it 7 rating anyways.
Mainly this is due to my past use of Lubuntu, and knowing that it is the interplay
between the distribution and the laptop and not just one or the other.
I made the switch from Win8.1 a year ago as it had reached EoL and my laptop (Intel i7 @ 3GHz, 6GB RAM, 1TB HDD, bought in 2015) was struggling to get anything done (would start in about 10 minutes or more, and I'm not exaggerating). No regrets after changing the OS; just the minor inconvenience of having to install 'bcmwl' to get the Wi-Fi card working, but that's it.
Also installed Lubuntu on a 2007 laptop (Intel 2 Duo @ 2.27GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD) that was having a hard time with Win10. The poor thing rose from the dead like it had been having a nap, and the Wi-Fi card was ready to work from the get-go.
Another Win8 desktop (AMD @ 4GHz, 8GB RAM, ~400GB HDD) had reached EoL but it definitely could stay alive and kicking for long... And will, as I have replaced Win8 with Lubuntu and it simply flies.
Lubuntu is exactly what I was looking for: a lighweight, simple and easy-to-use Linux distribution with which I could give older computers a new life.
Quick to open and light. Compared to Linux Mint Xfce, the lightness of the old machine is noticeable when browsing the Internet, for example. Until now, I have been satisfied with the lxqt desktop, even though it is not that familiar yet. In the past, Lubuntu lxde has been used on the desktop, which I was quite satisfied with. Many have claimed that the current Lubuntu is no longer light, but I think it works well even on older machines. And as for the software, you can of course download it if you need to. Some operating systems have too many programs ready that you may not even need.
I prefer lightweight Linux distos like Lubuntu. Of the 100 listed on Distrowatch I usually start with the most popular. I tested about 10 on a 2010 Macbook-Air all OK but to dual-boot a new Lenovo model: IdeaPad 1 14AMN7 next to Widows-11 took the testing of several more distros till one worked out-of-the-box with the Realtek wifi hardware. Some failed to boot from the USB. Ubuntu found the wifi but then had a Firefox/Chrome display problem, then I tried lubuntu-22.04.3-desktop-amd64 an off-shoot of Ubuntu and it looks good on wifi and Firefox, has a simple desktop and useful software pre-installed. Fedora 39 was the only other distro so far tested OK on the Lenovo but I’m not so familiar with its software manager.
I have now tried several Linux distros with my old laptop (Dell Latitude E4300) and Oracle Virtualbox. Lubuntu has the best performance and stability, especially with the laptop. I'm delighted with Lubuntu because everything works 'out-of-the-box'. Super easy and user-friendly. And yet I have a lot of possibilities to make my tune-ups and configs. Seems that Lubuntu takes the max. performance out of my old laptop. I want to thank the Lubuntu community for their great! The other Ubuntu-based distros that are next to recommend are Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Kali Linux. Linux Mint was a disappointment due to huge number of bugs and problems.
Lubuntu is the best choice in my laptop with 4GB RAM. For office use, playing light games, browsing the web, watching videos or listening to music, the system is perfect. Installation was intuitive and simply quick. The LXQt environment is not as configurable as KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, XFCE or Gnome, but this is where I see its strength. I don't need to change the appearance of icons, desktop effects or window behavior every day. I want to devote myself fully to my activities, and Lubuntu allows me to do that perfectly. Thanks to all the people involved in the creation and development of Lubuntu.
I found it better than other popular Linux Distro.
I recommend other people, You must test this one time, you will love it.
I am Windows user and i was using Windows when Windows XP came. Windows XP and Windows 7 were best Operating Systems. But i starting hate with Windows from Windows 8, 8.1 and now Windows 10, 11 are full with bloatware. They removed start menu. And no Windows 10 and 11 seems less stable.
I tested Linux OS. I am new in Linux world. I tested Linux Mint, MX Linux, Manjaro. Ubuntu Mate. But i found Lubuntu more stable, light weight and according to my taste.
I want to thanks Lubuntu developers for this wonderful operating system.
It's simply the best for me. I understand that it is absolutely not mainstream, and it's shame...
There's nothing useless, no all that redundant menus and options. I moved form windows 10... you know menus and menus and options and here and there, and one more window, and one more link... but you really cannot tune things as you like...
I was shocked by Lubuntu/LXQt simplicity. First reaction: there are no options! Second one: but I can do everything with this several that there are! Third: why all that redundance???
It's light. It doesn't do anything that I don't need. But it does everything I need!
Having tried several different distros in the past few days, all of which proved to be so fragile that they self-destructed, I thought I'd give Lubuntu a spin, and I'm glad that I did.
I'd tried LXQt before, with Porteus, and it seemed OK.
Now it's more mature, and the Lubuntu iteration is nothing less than fairly excellent. It is clean, fast, stable, and has a very informative, interactive user interface.
Much as I love LXDE for its configurability, etc., it's dated. LXQt is just as configurable, but it's modern both in looks and feel. I think that the Lubuntu development team made the right decision in dropping LXDE in favor of LXQt.
Which brings me to another point. Too many distros are trying to be 'all things for everyone', offering a multitude of DE options, rather than focusing on one and doing it very well.
Switching desktop environments involves a lot of work under the hood, especially in ~/.config and /etc. I know this from bitter experience.
I want stability and consistency, and Lubuntu LXQt offers this, as did Lubuntu LXDE. I don't have to spend days on configuration, only for the system to break, because I've somehow breached a parameter.
There is also the aspect that it is community developed, rather than a personal project that can often seem like an ego trip.
I distrust those particular flavors (re. William Gibson's book 'Distrust That Particular Flavor'). They are often very fragile, and tend to be suddenly abandoned.
I think its fair to consider LXQt as 'KDE Lite', and I am tempted to try Kubuntu, even though it is very specialized and 'niche' as a a complete DE. I'll probably stick with Lubuntu, because of the greater flexibility.
PROS:
Lubuntu is very stable. Why can't Debian do this?
Lubuntu installs in about 5 minutes.
Lubuntu does not enforce swap on installation, giving the option of 'no swap/swap to file'. There really is no need for swap on modern X86-64 machines that can handle more RAM than most users will ever need.
The Muon package manager is far superior to Synaptic, which is so dated it's becoming clunky. Even broken packages are resolved as easily as closing and relaunching Muon.
Lubuntu is simply a very pleasant experience.
CONS:
There is no minimal install option, which means having to remove LibreOffice if you don't want it, although that's easy enough with Muon.
There's no OEM install option, which would be good for passing on or selling old machines.
Calamares installer doesn't recognize certain keyboards when it comes to setting a passphrase for an encrypted install, e.g. '# vs £'.
But these are no big deals, just ideas for the future.
I would recommend Lubuntu to people who want a light, fast and responsive DE.
I have it installed on three different systems, and runs perfectly fine even on the oldest of them all. The dual core system I have normally throttles while idle on w10. It really is one of the least resource hungry distros
LXQt is quite consistent, and allows for sufficient customization. You can really consider this version a 'modern' distribution. I guess the only "downside" I see is the selection of certain apps, but just install the ones you prefer.
It's the first distrbution of linux I'm willing to keep as my daily driver and recommend to others. I can finally say I'll stop distro hopping.
Top distro.
Just like Xubuntu, it just works great.
Tried after reading this week's distrowatch review.
Lubuntu is now using other tech but ligh as it was.
Tried it on a very old 10 year pentium Toshiba laptop.
Installation took a while but usb 2.0 etc etc, no ssd, old disk, etc, it's normal.
Installed it on dual boot but after reinstalled using all disk. Worked great recognizing all.
Was the best install i did in some time. New installer is cute, easy and works.
I use kubuntu and xubuntu for daily tasks but i found lubuntu to be top on my older and forgotten hardware.
I was using OpenBSD on it and i will later, for now Lubuntu is a good experience.
Congratulations
It works as well as could be expected. I've grown to like LXQt and Lubuntu puts it together in an efficient and effective manner. There's not much more to say about it.
I do miss the original LXDE, but LXQt grows on you and has many of the same features. The version is a bit old in 22.04, but it's fine. If you want the newer version, you'll have to wait. I do not believe they'll be backporting it to 22.04, unfortunately.
As far as distros go, Lubuntu is still lightweight - even though it's not specifically designed to be lightweight. I know of people running Lubuntu on some pretty old computers.
Light and very user friendly for new users.
Look good without all those visual effects without looking like dated software. I tested all official Ubuntu flavors for weeks before choosing one, and I chose Lubuntu because of the perfect relationship between visuals, usability and speed.
Can't think about any cons, seriously. I am a new Linux user and feel very comfortable using it.
It is definitely a step up compared to the old LXDE based Lubuntu. It's heavier compared to LXDE of course, but still lighter than XFCE and so on.
For my very old machines I still use version 18.04 though. But anything newer than 2015 Lubuntu 22.04 is the way to go.
Lubuntu is no longer the light distro in the club, but it's still very efficient with resource usage and overall responsiveness.
I use Lubuntu in my two external hard drives in case my main system is rendered unusable for whatever reason, let me tell you LXQT is very fast on HDDs running at slow speeds and overall the system is stable and upgrades work well, please enable LXQT backports for a better experience.
The other main reason to choose Lubuntu and LXQT is the use of the QT toolkit, in case you prefer it over GTK and want system consistency if your apps are all QT based.
By default lubuntu uses minimum ram of around 350mb without using any compositor. Compositor for transparency uses little more ram around 550mb in total but desktop environment feels much modern than the older one. One of the most practical and minimal desktop environment for all ranges of pc from old to the latest one. It is smooth, fast, and reliable. With minimal customization we can enhance its look and feel much to kubuntu style taskbar or what ever we want.
Only downside I see is lxqt 0.17.0 version instead of 1.1.0 by default. We have to add extra ppa to get upto date with lxqt 1.1.0 version.
I came back to see if Lubuntu was better than last time I tried it.
LXQT is a mess . Horrible confusion with bloated software all over. Where is LXDE . Was so perfect.
Why did you ruined this distro. It had it all.
I found a replacement at Ubuntu Mate. It's nice and I can even choose a lighter version at the installer.
Lubuntu was light and great, with the right software. It was clean. Great for beginners to get into linux.
Either coming from Windows or MacOS.
I don't understand why Lubuntu gave up LXDE. I don't get it.
My opinion continues to be the same. I don't recommend this distro. It's heavy and has so much bloated software . So annoying. If I could give less than 1, like a rating of ZERO, I would, but I can't.
It troubles me that those who try a distribution then give it low ratings do not take into account the hardware they are attempting to run it on. This distribution ran fine in virtualbox and bare metal, in fact it was better than fine in terms of overall performance. When installed bare metal I did experience a peculiar issue whereby three USB 3.1 type A ports would not always be recognised at boot time, yet the two USB-C ports worked as expected, but I do not see this as a reason to give a lower rating because a) i'm sure I could have remedied this with a little investigation and b) if this was indeed a serious issue with Lubuntu then their forum would be awash with cheesed-off users, but it is not. So overall I quite liked it. I say "quite" because my personal preference is MX Linux and has been for a long time, but I could be just as productive with Lubuntu if pushed.
If you own a machine that's say 7 years old or less, has 4Gb ram or more then you will probably appreciate Lubuntu even if you finally choose another distro. But, if you're intending to run any modern distribution on machines more than 7 years old then expect to find your experiences to be less than stellar. As I said at the outset, it troubles me to see one or two very low ratings given to distributions by users attempting to run them on machines that are as much as ten or more years old. (one user was not happy on a 15 year old Phenom II !!)
I am Lubuntu fan who wants to stay with this distro. Using it on a 64 GB RAM machine based on Intel i7 at 3.9 GHz. Nice LXDE desktop, easy to operate. Very flexible, thank to Ubuntu repositories. Works even with demanding tasks like Antenna Analysis or PCB board design and prototyping including 3D modelling. Some problems with USB ports and udev. An USB port randomly disappears (Arduino with CH341 is here), restart needed to refresh. USB keyboard and mouse stays without any issue. Otherwise great distro.
I have been pleasantly surprised with Lubuntu 22.04. I have installed it on an Intel Celeron (2015) with 4gb ram and the machine flies, powers up with about 430mg of ram. The previous version of Lubuntu was heavy even for this computer, but now Lubuntu flies, especially if instead of firefox we use chromium. Lxqt is not a very modern desktop, but it can be customized and left to your liking. It is really worth this new version of Lubuntu, which had abandoned the old PCs a bit, but now has become friends with them again.
I was a windows user since 1998 till 2021 Feb. I had a hang of using linux though so switch over was not a worry.
AMD A6 - 2.5GHz
RAM - 8GB
I have a pretty good configuration from stand point of general users. I have these windows pretty much open all the time on my laptop
1. Android Studio - Application Development
2. VS Code - NodeJS development
3. MongoDB
4. Word and Excel
5. Web Browser (outlook, aws console, and few other tabs)
6. GIMP 2.10
All of this works fine only because I have Lubuntu 20.04 LTS
Go for it. worth every penny you have invested in your hardware.
There is literally nothing that is making me go back to windows environment. The one and only one reason why I need windows is for performing digital signatures on govt documents using DSC. Unfortunately only for this activity I need windows. This i am saying after dumping windows for more than 13 months and have run a full cycle of business using this laptop.
I am running Lubuntu on an a 2012 HP Pavilion g6 with an AMD A4 Vision and 3 gig of ram. The laptop was originally low end, and was given to me used. The graphics worked great, but it was first running Windows 9 and then 10, both of which I hated, so the only way for me to tolerate using it for my daily driver was to move to a Linux solution. I chose Lubuntu based on brand recognition, as well as having a very positive prior experience with Lubuntu back in 2010-11.
I installed it almost 2 years ago, and the only reason I have not moved to Lite or Mate, is because I have several hours of prep work to do prior to making the switch, and I always seem to have higher priorities.
The system works, so I am not complaining about that. I am able to get my work done, etc, but I will switch in the next few months, because I am just not happy with it. I have Linux Lite running on an old high end Dell, with terrible graphics, but it runs great. I have Ubuntu running on a used Panasonic Tough Book, and it is awesome.
Bottom line is that I have been using Linux since 2009, and it seems to me that an identical distro works differently based on the differences between inner workings of the computer - and this is obvious from the spec standpoint for sure, but I am more thinking about it as an internal components viewpoint, and so I may wait for the new Lubuntu LTS release, which is coming up soon, before I make my final decision, but if it does not improve, I am going to put the blame on the incompatibility of the Lubuntu system with this particular HP laptop.
Lubuntu is really good again. When they first dumped LXDE for LXQT, the ram and cpu usage were only slightly less than a full blown kde desktop or xfce desktop,(maybe 35 to 45 mb less). So I thought what's the point of Lubuntu now.
However, after trying 21.10, it seems like memory usage is way down around 160 to 190 mb less than kde or xfce. I was installing LXDE onto Xubuntu for a while, but seems like no point of doing that anymore, since I'd really only be saving 20-25 mb doing that...makes more sense now to just to use Lubuntu. Lubuntu also nicely has a search function in the menu.
I only wish a 32 bit version was available but that's a Canonical decision, not the Lubuntu team.
I guess you can always use 18.04 for a bit longer.
The 18.04 version was awesome!!!, but when I change to 20.04 the problems appears. Many many problems, and today with the last upgrade, I cant use the browsers. When I start one and a couple of minutes navigating the computer freeze.
I dont know what happend but It doesn't seems like a stable version. :/
Lubuntu has gotten heavier in weight over the years, and slower too. Gone are the days with LXDE having only lightweight applications installed by default in this distro and now only heavyweight applications are used, and surprisingly, no lightweight applications are in the repositories, you have to add in other repositories to get lightweight applications. It’s sad that Lubuntu is this misleading. I do not recommend using this distro is you need something lightweight and/or for older computers.
Simple yet elegant and light operating system from ubuntu flavours
I have used lubuntu 18.04 lts, it was perfect in many terms and coming to new 20.04 things have changed drastically with implementation of qt environment. lubuntu team still needs to improve overall look and feel of OS. It is better than antiX because it doesn't comes with lot of apps but with essential or needed applications.
After installing lubuntu, few tweaks must be done to avoid headache in future. Overall good ubuntu flavour for older hardware which i use.
I think Lubuntu looks good now and everything works quite well, but its reason to exist has changed from being a lightweight Ubuntu flavour to being the best distro with LXQt and for many users that used Lubuntu bofore the change, the shift in direction has been a disappointment. There are other, more mature middleweight desktops like MATE and XFCE and LXQt has failed to get much traction as many see it as a lighter but still not very light, version of KDE Plasma.
LXDE is still maintained (contary to popular belief) and there was recently a new version of LXterminal. For users that loved the old Lubuntu, Debian + LXDE is now the natural option, or maybe something like Antix that is even lighter than Lubuntu ever were.
For those who love LXQt, Lubuntu is a good option, but I doubt there are that many of those users. I continued to use Lubuntu for a while after the transition and even contributed some bug reports, feature requests and translations, but I never felt that excited about LXQt and a few years ago, I moved to Arch, first with LXQt, then LXDE and then with tiling WMs (for even less resources spent on things that do not matter and even more left for the programs I run). I still think Lubuntu is a good Ubuntu flavour if you want a middleweight desktop and like Qt-based stuff and the design and the default apps are good choices. It just isn't for me anymore.
Hearing that this was meant for lower end computers, I put it on a 4GB Intel I3 based laptop (circa 2015).
It didn't work out so well. Often times with just Firefox and a few tabs open, kswapd0 kicks in and effectively stops the computer for 1-5 minutes. Being a laptop, the fan kicks in on high. Eventually the laptop recovers, and some browser tabs had crashed, needing reloading.
I found the UI to be sufficient but kludgy in a few areas. For example, when on power, I didn't want the computer to go to sleep. Going into the screen saver settings, I unset the sleep activity there. But it still went to sleep. There's also a setting in Power Management one has to set.
Essentially, this would have been usable, but fails the Parent Test, meaning, could your parent use it and not get frustrated.
Eventually this might come into something if Canonical and the community can come together and make a decent UI for all.
The image was eventually formatted and replaced with Manjaro XFCE.
I was an avid and happy Lubuntu user during years, and used it on all class of computers, not only for his "Lightness", i simply loved how LXDE worked, without any distracting effect. It was fast, solid and really nice in his simplicity.
Now...well, i really dont like how Lubuntu works with LXQT, i know that all the people behind the distro it´s working hard to give a good distro for the user, but it barely works like his past versions.
We can undertand that LXDE was old, etc, but now you have a Lubuntu distro that seems to wear an incomplete and cheap version of Plasma, not so comfortable to work with it, and really odd. Seems an incomplete desktop, and maybe is normal, because LXQT needs a lot more of work during his development in the future, to try to compete with other more mature or advanced desktops.
Maybe someone can fork LXDE and try to give it more life, but for Lubuntu, we have to wait a bit more to see it shine again and for LXQT to have more personality.
Longtime user of the 'Buntus. I first started using Lubuntu back in the LXDE days. The first thing I have to say is that I do a lot of restoring old computers for people, and all the 'Buntus get a minus three on their rating automatically from me because of dropping 32 bit support. A lot of people that can't afford computers get old refurbished 32 bit computers and in 3rd world countries they are still far more common than 64 bit computers, so hard scold on all the 'Buntus for that move. I also have to say that LXQT (they ditched LXDE) does not work as well as LXDE did, in my experience. The whole purpose in Lubuntu and Xubuntu was to provide lightweight environments for older computers. Now with the ditching of both 32 bit support and LXDE, Lubuntu is not that OS for old computers it once was. It is definitely light on its feet compared to the giant sauropods of the Linux world, KDE Plasma and Gnome, but for a mid to light weight 64 bit system, I would say Xfce (Xubuntu in the 'Buntu family) is probably better. You may be able to squeak by with a little less memory on LXQT than Xfce, but not by much. Plus, I have had more bugs in LXQT. If you really need a lightweight distro, I would go for broke and skip out on Lubuntu and head for Q4OS. It uses the outdated looking, but extremely lightweight Trinity Desktop Environment (forked from KDE 3 - back when KDE was not a memory gorging behemoth), and Q4OS is based squarely in Debian ('Buntus are Debian based to an extent, but there is major reworking). Being based squarely in Debian means that for those in need of 32 bit support, Q4OS has that.
So my tally:
Minus 3 for not having 32 bit support and excluding those that still have to/need to use those computers.
Minus for the switch to LXQT, which (in my experience) is not as sprightly as LXDE.
Minus for the primitive look without making up for it in resource gain.
Minus for the bugs in LXQT compared to both LXDE and Xfce.
I am currently using an old 32 bit Samsung Netbook with 2GB RAM, 160 GB HDD (partitioned) and an Atom processor so I'm very limited what Linux OS to use now that it no longer uses Windows 7. Apart from a number of Android Motorola smartphones and Samsung tablets, this old netbook is my main go to machine at present, for scanning, printing, photo-editing/cropping (Fotoxx and Gimp), e-mails, web-browsing and shopping, spreadsheets and written documents, etc. and I find that LUBUNTU 18.04 LTS works excellently in this little machine. Granted it struggles with high-end BBC I-player streaming of TV shows,etc., so I generally use a Samsung tablet for that, but YouTube videos are fine to watch. As the internal architecture for my Samsung Netbook is only 32 bit, it will not be able to run 64 bit LUBUNTU 20.04 LTS onwards as the 32 bit (i386 software) is being terminated by Canonical (Ubuntu) after April 2023. This frustratingly I find a shame as my netbook (albeit old) still works and should not be thrown away yet awhile (well not until it has had a major hardware failure anyway, hopefully it might continue for another 10 years). Disappointed with the Linux Community with their lack of response and interest into what happens to old machines that still work after April 2023, particularly as Linux Users used to always pride themselves in supporting older hardware that Microsoft seemed to abandon. This was one of the many reasons why I, and I'm sure many others, left the Microsoft Windows systems over 10 years ago. LUBUNTU 18.04 LTS should be ideal for users wanting to put some life back into an older 32 bit Computer / Laptop / Netbook - but don't expect miracles, it's never gonna be a Ferrari....
lubuntu 20.04 so far is the best linux distro for my intel core i3 witn 4Gb ram laptop. other distro such as ubuntu 20.04 make laptop's fan spin hard and then bring sudden off because of thermal heat. i give 10 because of openbox, no matter how weird the screen is , it really make my day especially when i am in a hurry. salut.
Lubuntu is running on an old Toshiba laptop, with increased ram to 8gb. Where new Linux Mint and Ubuntu stopped working after upgrading. Lubuntu 18 seems to have it flying again.
As a long term Lubuntu user, I have always admired how Lubuntu used to beat almost all other distros when it comes to speed, leight-weightness and other key indicators. But the change from version 18.04 to 20.04 has not been great. Since the update my computer's memory usage more than doubled and CPU usage rose. Also, the total amount of background tasks rose 20-30 percent. I compared fresh installed Lubuntu 20.04 and fresh installed Manjaro LXDE and Manjaro won clearly. However, Manjaro still cant beat Lubuntu 18.04 in these key areas (total amount of tasks, cpu and memory usage in fresh state). Hopefully Lubuntu dev team backtracks a little bit and redirects this back to its roots: Simple, lightweight, no bloatware, FOSS, etc...
Never been a fan on ubuntus but this is the best flavor they offer. Besides lxqt being minimal and really lightweight this is the best implementation of it in any of the distros i've tried. The overall default settings are very good and the installed programs are mostly well selected. However they could do without a couple of them like the game and instead offer the Gdebi which is a must have.
Very good distribution. The switch to LXQT is positive in my opinion. The interface is more pleasant and benefits from the integration of QT software while being lightweight. Installed on an Asus Zenbook UX333 everything is recognized out of box.
For those who do not know, we can obviously reduce the number of desktop by going to Openbox settings then Desktops.
All good, long life to Lubuntu!
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