Welcome

The objective of the Lubuntu project is to create a variant of Ubuntu that is lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient by using lightweight applications and LXDE, The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment, as its default GUI.

Lubuntu is targeted at PC and laptop users running on low-spec hardware that, in most cases, just don't have enough resources for all the bells and whistles of the "full-featured" mainstream distributions. Members of the team take care of LXDE and other packages that are part of Lubuntu. Lubuntu received official recognition as a formal member of the Ubuntu family, commencing with Lubuntu 11.10. Even though Lubuntu is a lightweight distribution, it does not mean you will not be able to run all applications that other distributions are currently offering. It does mean that it is prepared and developed for low-specification computers. Nonetheless, you can run any application available in the official repositories, as long as your hardware can bear with it.

Please join us and contribute to an exciting international Free and Open Source Software project. We look forward to working together with you.

System Requirements

We have done many tests and we've found out that Lubuntu can be installed on a Pentium II or Celeron system with 128 MB of RAM, but such a system would not perform well enough for daily use.

With 256MB - 384MB of RAM, the performance will be better and the system will be more usable.

With 512MB of RAM, you don't need to worry much.

The default "Desktop" installer requires 384-800 MB of RAM (depending on selected options.) If you have problems, please use the alternative installer.

Get Lubuntu

To download Lubuntu and see the various options available head over to Get Lubuntu. This section discusses both the standard installs and those required for computers with low memory (RAM), old chipsets (i586) and low disk-space (netbooks). Please read the release notes before you install.

Upgrading from last release

When upgrading, it is recommened that you back up your own data.

The update manager GUI will offer you the next release of lubuntu (it shows as Ubuntu, but updates Lubuntu); Alternatively, launch LXTerminal and enter

sudo do-release-upgrade

Lubuntu vs Ubuntu

Both Lubuntu and Ubuntu share Two Major Important Things:

• Same Core System
• Same Repositories

Lubuntu and Ubuntu belong to the same family and talking about each as totally different two systems is not correct since they have some things in common. Thus, we use the same Forum Area and share many Wiki Pages.

The differences between Lubuntu and Ubuntu are:

• Different DE - Lubuntu uses LXDE while Ubuntu uses Unity as the default DE.

• Different Default Applications

Other than that, they are the same. The DE is what makes Lubuntu a lightweight OS, and of course the selected applications too because we make sure to use the lightest applications. However, you are still free to use any application available in Ubuntu’s repositories, as long as your computer can run it.

Lubuntu is recognized as a member the Ubuntu family by the developers of Ubuntu.

As of 14.04, long term support (LTS) versions are available - you can check the predicted calendar here.

Lubuntu vs Windows 7

For those of you who are feeling that your computer is not working anymore with Windows 7 because, say, it is getting slower, here is a chart comparing Lubuntu’s starting applications and the most used softwares in Windows 7:

These are the minimum hardware requirements in order to run Windows 7:

• 1 GHz processor or faster, 32 or 64 bit;
• 1 GB of RAM for the 32 bits version, or at least 2 for the 64 bit version;
• 16 GB of hard drive (32 bit) or 20 GB (64 bit);
• Graphics card that supports DirectX 9 with WDDM 1.0 controler or superior

For comparison, here are the minimum supported requirements of Lubuntu:

• 266 MHz processor;
• 128 MB;
• 3 GB hard drive;
• no fancy graphics

A more usable system would have:

• 512 MHz processor or faster, 32 or 64 bit;
• 512 MB of RAM;
• 6 GB hard drive;
• no fancy graphics

Contribute to Lubuntu

Do you want to help make Lubuntu even more awesome? Learn more using the links below. We need contributions in the following areas:

• Reporting bugs

• Translations

• Code & patches

• Artwork

• Documentation

• Marketing & Press

• Testing

More detail are available on the Getting Involved page.

Lubuntu Links

• The Lubuntu Blog

• Lubuntu Website

• Lubuntu on Launchpad

• Lubuntu Wiki map

• Lubuntu OneStopPage

• Lubuntu Advanced Methods

LXDE Links

• LXDE Website

• LXDE on Launchpad

• LXDE on Ubuntu Wiki

• Ubuntu LXDE Desktop