Lubuntu has always been the premier alternative for all those who want a lightweight Ubuntu distribution as an alternative to the GNOME or Plasma-powered ones.
Lubuntu 22.04 LTS (codenamed Jammy Jellyfish) marks the 22nd release of Lubuntu and the eighth release that features the popular LXQt as the default desktop environment. Since it’s a long-term release, you can expect both security and performance updates alongside various tweaks here and there until 2025.
It comes with a plethora of changes, including the Calamares Installer, a new version of LXQt 0.17.0, as well as a new wallpaper.
LXQt 0.17.0, not 1.1.0?
Yes, it would have been a lot more exciting to see Lubuntu 22.04 LTS launch with the LXQt 1.1.0, but considering the short period for testing, the team behind Lubuntu considered 0.17.0 was the way to go.
It brings a series of improvements to the session behavior for non-LXQt apps, an interesting auto-hide feature for the LXQt panel, some nifty adjustments, and various power management updates. The good news is that, if you want, you can upgrade to LXQt 1.1.0.
Other changes
As mentioned at the start, Calamares (3.2.41.1) is now the default installer for Lubuntu, and it replaces the Ubiquity installer from older versions. There’s a swapfile size set to 512 MB by default, but you can also opt for no swap if that’s what you fancy.
Other noteworthy upgrades include Qt (now at version 5.15.3), LibreOffice (upgraded to 7.3.2), VLC is shipped with 3.0.16, and Featherpad has also been updated to 1.0.1. Last but not least, the Discover Software Center has also been upgraded to version 5.24.4.
Sadly, or thankfully, Firefox is now shipped as a snap package. The main advantages are brought by the fact that it’s sandboxed (hence, it should be safer than other options), but as we all know by now, it’s quite slow when it comes to booting after a cold start.
Long-time Lubuntu fans will definitely notice that some software is missing in this new LTS release. These include the Trojita email client, k3b, and fcitx.
Verdict
Considering this is not the final form of Lubuntu 22.04 LTS (small updates will follow), and if you’re coming from Lubuntu 20.04 LTS, the upgrade is a definite must.
The latest LTS version Lubuntu has a fresh look, major upgrades, and improvements, as well as a new wallpaper.
