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Comment by chirau | Hacker News Reader

I have maybe dumb questions...

I have been using Linux for for almost 15 years now. Mint, RHEL, CentOS and most recently Ubuntu. For some reason, though, I can't understand all these variations in Ubuntu flavors. For example, other than the Desktop Environment, what else does Lubuntu offer that vanilla Ubuntu doesn't? Can't one just install the desktop environment on Ubuntu? Isn't this stuff modular, take in what you want take out what you don't?

So what exactly is Lubuntu's value proposition over Ubuntu?

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It's nice to have more effort put into making sure the DE and default apps work well together. Sure it's possible to start with the normal or minimal Ubuntu install and put something together yourself, but little incompatible things can easily cause "death by a thousand cuts" and make someone decide that e.g. KDE just doesn't work well with Ubuntu. Default configuration counts for a lot.

I think you have a wrong view of things here.

Lubuntu isn't really a "different distribution". The different "flavors" of Ubuntu are all the same distribution, they just differ in their default install and settings.

If you remove lxqt from lubuntu, install kde you can morph it into kubuntu.

Where did i call it a "different distribution"?

Ubuntu's default install is massive. Lubuntu has a significantly smaller default install, both storage-wise and performance-wise.

It also has zram configured by default, if I remember right.

I've never used it, but unlike most spins of distributions, it seems to have some interesting changes to the base.

You can use the Ubuntu minimal installation to keep it's footprint small.

Yeah but when you need a desktop you're back to using a big desktop or use a coherent set of smaller apps, hence lubuntu.

I've been using Xubuntu for over 10 years. Besides a lighter Desktop environment, I don't know if it offers something else. The advantage over Ubuntu+Gnome+XFCE is that there are fewer packages installed on the system, which means there are fewer compatibility issues and fewer packages to update.

One problem with just installing the packages for different desktop environments is that various config files in /etc may be optimal for Ubuntu Gnome but a poor experience for Kubuntu or Lubuntu. Installing a different DE doesn’t necessarily change all the other pieces that work best when configured a certain way. For example, I tried i3 briefly on my Kubuntu install once. It changed some configuration and made all my desktop notifications styled completely differently, even when I was using KDE plasma and not i3. Uninstalling i3 didn’t remove the change to my system notifications. I’m sure there’s something I could have done (apt purge? Maybe there was another package i3 installed that I needed to remove?) but I ended up just reinstalling Kubuntu.

> Can't one just install the desktop environment on Ubuntu? Isn't this stuff modular, take in what you want take out what you don't?

Yes to both. I run Window Maker on Ubuntu to the exclusion of any other desktop environment, and it works. It's in the package repositories, and there's no barrier to making it your GUI.

The big difference is the libraries installed in the initial OS install: Ubuntu has the libraries required to support Gnome, Kubuntu has the libraries to support KDE, and I don't know what libraries Lubuntu has by default. But since we have dependency-tracking package management, if you install Ubuntu and then install a KDE-based application, the packaging system will install all of the libraries required for it to work.

The thing is also in the default pack of apps. Say you want a light text editor. Which one do you use? If you select a gnome based one on a kde desktop, you might pull all of kde libs ! So the pack of light image viewer, notepad, calculator form a mini coherent set (a "distribution") that fits well together, but does not justify a full on packaging of kernel, glibc ... hence flavours, not packages or distros.

I opted for Lubuntu when I switched back to Linux after a ~15 year hiatus and I'm very pleased. It's really aimed at older/slower computers, but I think it offers the convenience of Ubuntu (easy installation, good online resources for help, large and well-maintained package repositories, fast security updates) without much of what old neckbeards like me dislike about Ubuntu proper. Lubuntu has saner defaults (IMHO), no massive desktop environment or office suites in the default install, is less dependent on Gnome apps, etc.

(Edit: I see now that Lubuntu 20.04 LTS comes with Libreoffice, whereas 18.04 did not.)

I've been using Ubuntu and variants for a long time now. I find lubuntu is ok and small in terms of size. As for older computers, I must have some really slow ass hardware, because even lubuntu is kind of slow on some of my hardware. I stick to standard ubuntu on my desktop just to see what it's like, but prefer xubuntu because I prefer the DE over the gnome crap. I'm used to the more standard keystrokes and shortcuts that you see on windows and the IBM standard which gnome wants to ignore. It's also tough to customize gnome to how I like to do things.

Yes, it's modular and the difference in names is mainly marketing. At the end the packages are hosted by the same infrastructure and switching from one DE to another is just a single apt install lubuntu away, and a single selection in the login screen.

I believe it's

    apt install lubuntu-desktop

The default installation wizard is not very interactive when it comes to deciding what to install.

Maybe they don't want to confuse the new users with choices they don't understand, and give them the most reasonable defaults they can.

Less setup time for end users who ultimately wanted the different DE

Previously, Lubuntu used LXDE, a deprecated and dying DE that's like Xfce (lightweight and janky and buggy) but moreso.

Now, it's been forked and resurrected as LXQt, which uses the Qt framework (KDE faction) as opposed to GTK (GNOME et al faction).

It was a DE for when your 2003 laptop is so weak or when your neurotic minimalism is so hellbent that even Xfce feels too heavy.

Now, I guess it can also be a Qt-flavored Xfce.

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