Lubuntu


Lubuntu is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that uses the LXQt desktop environment in place of GNOME. Lubuntu was originally touted as being "lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient", but now aims to be "a functional yet modular distribution focused on getting out of the way and letting users use their computer".
Lubuntu originally used the LXDE desktop, but moved to the LXQt desktop with the release of Lubuntu 18.10 in October 2018, due to the slow development of LXDE, losing support for GTK 2 as well as the more active and stable LXQt development without GNOME dependencies.
The name Lubuntu is a portmanteau of LXQt and Ubuntu. The LXQt name derives from the merger of the LXDE and Razor-qt projects, while the word Ubuntu means "humanity towards others" in the Zulu and Xhosa languages.
Lubuntu received official recognition as a formal member of the Ubuntu family on 11 May 2011, commencing with Lubuntu 11.10, which was released on 13 October 2011.

History

The LXDE desktop was first made available for Ubuntu in October 2008, with the release of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. These early versions of Lubuntu, including 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10, were not available as separate ISO image downloads, and could only be installed on Ubuntu as separate lubuntu-desktop packages from the Ubuntu repositories. LXDE can also be retroactively installed in earlier Ubuntu versions.
In February 2009, Mark Shuttleworth invited the LXDE project to become a self-maintained project within the Ubuntu community, with the aim of leading to a dedicated new official Ubuntu derivative to be called Lubuntu.
In March 2009, the Lubuntu project was started on Launchpad by Mario Behling, including an early project logo. The project also established an official Ubuntu wiki project page, that includes listings of applications, packages, and components.
In August 2009, the first test ISO was released as a Live CD, with no installation option.
Initial testing in September 2009 by Linux Magazine reviewer Christopher Smart showed that Lubuntu's RAM usage was about half of that of Xubuntu and Ubuntu on a normal installation and desktop use, and two-thirds less on live CD use.
In 2014, the project announced that the GTK+-based LXDE and Qt-based Razor-qt would be merging into the new Qt-based LXQt desktop and that Lubuntu would consequently be moving to LXQt. The transition was completed with the release of Lubuntu 18.10 in October 2018, the first regular release to employ the LXQt desktop.
Lenny became Lubuntu's mascot in 2014.
During the 2018 transition to becoming LXQt-based, the aim of Lubuntu was re-thought by the development team. It had previously been intended for users with older computers, typically ten years old or newer, but with the introduction of Windows Vista PCs, older computers gained faster processors and much more RAM, and by 2018, ten-year-old computers remained much more capable than had been the case five years earlier. As a result, the Lubuntu development team, under Simon Quigley, decided to change the focus to emphasize a well-documented distribution, based on LXQt "to give users a functional yet modular experience", that is lightweight by default and available in any language. The developers also decided to stop recommending minimum system requirements after the 18.04 LTS release.
In January 2019, the developers formed the Lubuntu Council, a new body to formalize their previous organization, with its own written constitution.

Releases

Lubuntu 10.04

On 30 December 2009 the first Alpha 1 "Preview" version ISO for Lubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx was made available for testing, with Alpha 2 following on 24 January 2010. The first Beta was released on 20 March 2010 and the stable version of Lubuntu 10.04 was released on 2 May 2010, four days behind the main Ubuntu release date of 28 April 2010.
Lubuntu 10.04 was only released as a 32-bit ISO file, but users could install a 64-bit version through the 64-bit Mini ISO and then install the required packages.
Lubuntu 10.04 was not intended to be a long-term support release, unlike Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, and was only going to be supported for 18 months. However, since the infrastructure of Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat dropped support for i586 processors, including VIA C3, AMD K6, and AMD Geode/National Semiconductor CPUs, the release of Lubuntu 10.10 prompted the community to extend support until April 2013 for Lubuntu 10.04, as if it were a long term support version.
In reviewing Lubuntu 10.04 Alpha 1 in January 2010, Joey Sneddon of OMG Ubuntu wrote, "Not having had many preconceptions regarding LXDE/Lubuntu i found myself presently surprised. It was pleasant to look at, pleasant to use and although I doubt I would switch from GNOME to LXDE, it can give excellent performance to those who would benefit from doing so." In writing about the final 10.10 release, on 10 October 2010 Sneddon termed it "A nimble and easy-to-use desktop".
Writing about Lubuntu 10.04 in May 2010 Damien Oh of Make Tech Easier said: "If you are looking for a lightweight alternative to install in your old PC or netbook, Lubuntu is a great choice. You won't get any eye candy or special graphical effects, but what you get is fast speed at a low cost. It's time to put your old PC back to work."
Also reviewing Lubuntu 10.04 in May 2010 Robin Catling of Full Circle magazine said: "The first thing that impresses on running Lubuntu on my modest Compaq Evo laptop is the small memory footprint... It beats Karmic on Gnome, and Xubuntu on Xfce, by a mile. The Evo used to take 60 seconds-plus to boot to the desktop, LXDE takes exactly 30. Yet you're not restricted; gtk2 applications are well supported, and Synaptic hooks up to the Ubuntu repositories for package management." Catling did note of the file manager, "The PCManFM file manager needs a little more maturity to compete with Thunar, but it's a competent and robust application that doesn't hog resources like Nautilus or Dolphin."
In June 2010 Jim Lynch reviewed Lubuntu 10.04, saying, "One thing you'll notice about using the Lubuntu desktop is that it's fast. Very, very fast. Even on an underpowered machine, Lubuntu should perform very well. It's one of the best things about this distro; it leaves behind the bloated eye candy that can sometimes bog down GNOME and KDE... I didn't run into any noticeable problems with Lubuntu. It was very fast and stable, and I didn't see noticeable bugs or problems. I hate it when this happens since it's so much more interesting for my readers when I run into one nasty problem or another. Hopefully the next version of Lubuntu will be chock full of horrendous problems and bugs. Just kidding."
In September 2010 lead developer Julien Lavergne announced that the Lubuntu project had not been granted official status as a derivative of Ubuntu as part of the Ubuntu 10.04 release cycle, but that work would continue on this goal for Ubuntu 10.10. Lavergne explained the reasons as "there is still a resource problem on Canonical/Ubuntu infrastructure, which was not resolved during this cycle. Also, they are writing a real process to integrate new member in the Ubuntu family, but it's still not finished."

Lubuntu 10.10

Lubuntu 10.10 was released on schedule on 10 October 2010, the same day as Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat, but it was not built with the same underlying infrastructure as Ubuntu 10.10. Developer Julien Lavergne said about it, "Lubuntu is actually not part of the Ubuntu family, and not build with the current Ubuntu infrastructure. This release is considered as a "stable beta", a result that could be a final and stable release if we was included in the Ubuntu family." Version 10.10 introduced new artwork to the distribution, including new panel and menu backgrounds, a new Openbox theme, new Lubuntu menu logo, splash images and desktop wallpaper. Lubuntu 10.10 was not accepted as an official Ubuntu derivative at this release point due to "a lack of integration with the infrastructure Canonical and Ubuntu" but work is continuing towards that goal.
Lubuntu 10.10 was only released as a 32-bit ISO file, but users could install a 64-bit version through the 64-bit Mini ISO and then install the required packages.
Developer Julien Lavergne wrote that while 10.10 incorporated many changes over 10.04, not all of the changes were considered improvements. The improvements included a new theme designed by Rafael Laguna, the incorporation of xpad for note taking, Ace-of-Penguins games, LXTask the LXDE task manager in place of the Xfce application, replacing the epdfview PDF reader with Evince due to a memory leak problem and removing pyneighborhood. The minuses included a last-minute rewrite of the installer to integrate it properly, which resulted in some installation instability and the raising of the minimum installation RAM from 180 MB to 256 MB. The other issue was the incorporation of the Ubuntu Update Manager which increased RAM usage by 10 MB. Lubuntu 10.04 had no indication of updates being available, so this was deemed necessary.
The minimum system requirements for Lubuntu 10.10 were described by Mario Behling as "comparable to Pentium II or Celeron systems with a 128 MB RAM configuration, which may yield a slow yet usable system with lubuntu." Chief developer Julien Lavergne stated that the minimum RAM to install Lubuntu 10.10 is 256 MB.
In reviewing Lubuntu 10.10 right after its release in October 2010, Jim Lynch of Eye on Linux said "Lubuntu's biggest appeal for me is its speed; and it's no disappointment in that area. Applications load and open quickly, and my overall experience with Lubuntu was quite positive. I detected no stability problems, Lubuntu 10.10 was quite solid and reliable the entire time I used it." Lynch did fault the choice of Synaptic as the package manager: "One of the strange things about Lubuntu is that it only offers Synaptic as its package manager. Xubuntu 10.10, on the other hand, offers the Ubuntu Software Center as well as Synaptic. I'm not sure why the Ubuntu Software Center is missing from Lubuntu; it would make a lot of sense to include it since it is a much easier and more attractive way to manage software. Synaptic gets the job done, but it's less friendly to new users and can't match the Ubuntu Software Center in terms of usability and comfort."
By mid-December 2010, Lubuntu had risen to 11th place on DistroWatch's six-month list of most popular Linux distributions out of 319 distributions, right behind Puppy Linux and well ahead of Xubuntu, which was in 36th place. In reviewing Linux distribution rankings for DistroWatch in early January 2011 for the year 2010 versus 2009, Ladislav Bodnár noted, "Looking through the tables, an interesting thing is the rise of distributions that use the lightweight, but full-featured LXDE desktop or the Openbox window manager. As an example, Lubuntu now comfortably beats Kubuntu in terms of page hits..."