The new distribution is based on the LXQt desktop

Nov 18, 2014 15:05 GMT  ·  By

Lubuntu-LXQt is an unofficial spin of the Lubuntu distro that is using the LXQT desktop environment instead of LXDE. It's not supported in any way and it's built more like a proof of concept.

In case you didn't know, the L in front of Lubuntu comes from LXDE, which is a very light and easy-to-use desktop environment. In fact, Lubuntu is probably the Ubuntu flavor with the lowest hardware requirements.

The project hasn't changed too much over time, but the developer from the LXDE-Qt and the Razor-qt project have gathered forces to make a single desktop environment better than any one of them. This is how LXQt came to be.

The Lubuntu flavor will eventually feature the LXQt desktop, but for now it was decided to keep the GTK-based LXDE desktop, which is more mature and much more stable. Now, a developer took it upon himself to prove that Lubuntu works just fine with the latest LXQt and put together a distro that seems to be very stable and light.

Lubuntu-LXQt is much prettier

The Lubuntu-LXQt flavor is not officially supported, even if it carries the 14.10 version that might indicate otherwise. It does share the Ubuntu repositories and it will get security updates, but anything else for the other components is not guaranteed.

One thing is for sure, the LXQt desktop is much prettier than its GTK counterpart and that can be easily seen from the screenshots. Everything fits together much better and the devs are definitely on the right track.

"The future of LXDE (gtk2+ part) is uncertain, as only a few devs are currently improving the code (and the work is focused on the panel and the file manager) with an LTS behind us, we have the possibility to make massive changes without the fear of having support problem."

"Pushing all LXQt into official repositories will take time. Without them, no real and official ISO testing will be possible. Usually, we have to set up this things for Alpha 1, to have time to make ad justments. For now, A1 is out of the target, even with Qt4 version of LXQt," the Lubuntu devs wrote on the official wiki a few months ago.

For now, if you want to take a closer look at Lubuntu-LXQt, you can download the images from Softpedia. Please keep in mind that it's a rather buggy release and it won't work in VirtualBox or from an USB stick. It's only possible to get it running with GNOME Boxes, which says a lot about the quality of the build.

Lubuntu-LXQt 14.10 (10 Images)

Lubuntu-LXQt 14.10 desktop
Lubuntu-LXQt 14.10 launcherLubuntu-LXQt 14.10 accessories
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