Lubuntu: The OS that everyone deserves but doesn’t need.

Yes, Lubuntu is the first OS I am going to talk about. That’s because I personally like it among all the linux distros I have tried.

Background:

Lubuntu is a derivative of Ubuntu. It uses LXDE Desktop Enviornment in contrast to Gnome 3 in Ubuntu 18.04 or Unity in Ubuntu 16.04. It has all the features of Ubuntu but in a compact Light Desktop Environment.

System Requirements:

The system requirements for Lubuntu are quite low. They are:

Memory (RAM): for advanced internet services like Google+, YouTube, Google Drive, and Facebook, your computer needs at least 1 GB of RAM. For local programs like LibreOffice and simple browsing habits, your computer needs at least 512 MB of RAM.
Processor (CPU): the minimum specification for CPU is Pentium 4 or Pentium M or AMD K8. Older processors are too slow and the AMD K7 has problems with Flash video.

When idle, It uses around 480-500MB of ram. So I recommend to use at least 1GB of ram for a good performance. You can also install Lubuntu on a Raspberry Pi or a powerPC. It comes in many options.

Packages:

Lubuntu 18.04 is based on Ubuntu 18.04 so it has all the latest packages, moreover It’s a long term release. That’s a cherry on top off the cake.

The main reason for this OS to be so light weight is it’s filemanager and and the window manager. Lubuntu comes with PCManFM File manger and OpenBox Window manager. PCManFM is easily one of those filemangers which are lightweight and yet incredibly powerful (more than Nautilius). OpenBox window manager is an easy-to-use and lightweight window manager with lot of customization options designed for LXDE. The terminal emulator installed is LXTerminal which is also designed specially for LXDE.

It has AbiWord Document reader and Gnumeric Spreadsheet by default. Libre office can be installed.

Firefox is the default web browser. Sylpheed is the default email client. Transmission comes pre-installed for all your torrent downloads.

Audacious and Gnome-mplayer are also included to satisfy all your multimedia needs. It has Shotwell Photo manager and Shotwwell image viewer pre-installed.

Additional Software include a Leafpad text editor. galculator, a notes app, a compressed files manager, etc.

My Experience:

Now let me tell you my experience of the system. I installed it in dual boot with my Windows 10 anniversary edition on my Acer Aspire ES11. It installed pretty fast and cool. I rebooted and was welcomed with its beautiful wall paper. It immediately gives that minimalist feel and you begin feeling good just by staring at it.

Well frankly speaking, It’s the wallpaper only that has that good feel. The panel and icons are not that attractive. But okay, I can change that. I installed vlc, chrome, xfce-terminal, Libre-office, and pidgin. I also Installed some new themes and plank for dock. You will also need to install xcompmgr to get the transparency and other simillar features working in plank and lxterminal.

I mainly liked the OS coz it was very light as compared to Ubuntu and Windows, Both of them who comsume double of the ram that Lubuntu uses even when idle. I can run 20 tabs at a time in firefox and also watch movie at the same time without any lag of any sort. These are the things I cannot do with my laptop in windows or ubuntu. Read about my laptop specs here. Another big reason was the amount of flexiblity it offered. I could tweak almost everything. I could pep it up to look like mac or copy Ubuntu. Even change default system apps like Filemanager and even window manager. I installed unity desktop and ubuntu-one lockscreen, when launched it used 780MB of ram in idle. That’s less than ubuntu but same DE. I also installed Linux Lite in Virtualbox giving it 512MB of ram, Even then I faced no lagging issues. This OS is fast AF. I highly recommend it.

Bottom Line: Try this OS and you will love it, see for your self.

I used Lubuntu for almost a year. Currently I am testing another Linux Distro so Lubuntu is far gone but I will get it back soon and post pictures of it.

The Confusion:

When you google Lubuntu, you get two sites :

So, how do you know which one is official? The Lubuntu.me site is the official one with all the community using and developing on the same. The Lubuntu.net is maintained by only a single person and therefore has some bugs. I don’t recommend using it.