When using the Lubuntu Linux distribution, the one thought I have more than any other is, "If something exactly like this was available back in 2001, the landscape of desktop computing would have been a whole lot different."
While Linux fans make take great offense to what I’m about to say, I’m saying it anyway. Lubuntu’s best feature is that it acts like Windows 2000. Simple, rock-solid, reliable, trustworthy. And by ‘trustworthy’ I mean that the OS will not go off and do some wild unexpected thing out of nowhere.
It’s not often that I would say a particular Linux distro breathes new life into older computer hardware, but Lubuntu absolutely does. It’s a perfect substitute for those looking to ditch XP on a netbook and go with a distro that runs just as fast because it requires next to nothing on the hardware end. In the way the menus are laid out, Lubuntu acts like XP/2000 – and this is not a bad thing at all.
Ubuntu at this point is suffering from major bloat on the interface side of things, and you can even say that about Xubuntu at this point – but not Lubuntu, as it gets back to what a great Linux distro should be. Solid, fast, reliable, runs all modern software offerings, and a true set-it-and-forget-it type of environment where you can just do what you do with a computer without worrying about the engine that powers it. For that, Lubuntu gets a big thumbs-up from me.
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One problem with the Ubuntu base is that Ubuntu 10.10 dropped support
for i586 processors, including the VIA C3, AMD K6, National
Semiconductor and AMD Geode CPUs. The same holds for Lubuntu, so if you
want to revive an old computer with one of these processors, you’ll have
to make do with Lubuntu 10.04.
by Koen Vervloesem, “Lubuntu 11.04 review – If it’s good enough for Mark Shuttleworth…”
Almost forgot.. Nice video review Rich, I appreciate it.
Lubuntu? Hmmm… I don’t like the default Unity interface, so first thing I did with my 11.10 upgrade was switch to Xubuntu desktop. But now…I think I’ll give Lubuntu a try. I like Ubuntu, just don’t like their decision to dumb-down my computer’s interface to that of a smartphone. Nice vid!