Lxle 12.04.3 lts (1 Viewer)

[Hedon James]

Just sharing the knowledge of a recent distro find that I've been quite impressed with, called LXLE (Lubuntu eXtra Life Extension).

Revive that old PC! < The LXLE Desktop

I think everyone here is aware I'm a huge Ubuntu fan. And even though I didn't care for the Unity desktop, I've grown to like it. Although it appears I'm in a minority, or perhaps a silent majority?!

While I continue to run Ubuntu 12.04.3, I'll readily acknowledge that Ubuntu with Unity is a bit of a resource hog. It isn't a problem on my desktop, or laptop, but on older hardware it's a real drain. It also lags on my dual core Atom netbook, and a newer but low-end dual-core Toshiba Satellite laptop running at 1.4Ghz. So I've been checking out alternative Enlightenment & LXDE desktops and distros for these 2 machines, including Bodhi, Lubuntu, Mint LXDE, etc...

While most provide acceptable performance gains, each has a feature that is just not acceptable, whether a "strange" interface, lack of LTS, software packages, etc... And with 9+ computers in this house, I like my machines to be as uniform as possible for maintenance reasons. LXLE is interesting because it takes the Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS core, adds an LXDE and Openbox desktop (Lubunu 12.04 is NOT an LTS version!), and adds "Paradigms" that mimic Unity, Gnome2, WinXP, and Mac OSX desktops. Choose your "paradigm" at login and a low-resource LXDE desktop is rendered on an LTS Ubuntu core!

After playing with LXLE in a VM, I took the plunge and installed on my underpowered Toshiba Satellite. All of a sudden, this machine is usable again! I'm quite pleased with its performance, tweak-ability, and included apps (the ISO is a little heavy @1.2GB, due to all the packages included). While I'm not ready to replace all my systems, this is the PERFECT solution for my lower powered machines: light resource usage of an LXDE desktop, with LTS support, and strongly resembling another desktop of familiarity. I WILL keep LXLE on this machine, with installation to the dual core Atom netbook shortly!

Anyhow, FYI... I just wanted to give it a plug for anyone else who is unaware, but may be interested. Post your thoughts if you give it a try...

 

[Buickman]

I'll load it into a VM and take a look.

Have you looked at Puppy Linux? A few years ago that was the one for older machines. I haven't messed with it, myself.

 

[Hedon James]

I haven't messed with Puppy. One of the few... With so many Ubuntu derivatives, I just don't have the time to know a little about everything(?!), so I try to stay in the Ubuntu family, occassionally straying to the Debian side. Although I did see a Lucid Puppy based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

If LXLE caught your eye, as it did mine, I saw this article this morning. Considering the timeliness of it, I figured I'd share the link:

DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD.

The only comment I'll disagree with is the part about Lubuntu 12.04 being LTS. For whatever reason, Lubuntu 12.04 is NOT an LTS version. I've seen numerous posts from Lubuntu fans "rolling their own" LTS by installing Ubuntu 12.04 server and installing the LXDE desktop on top of it. Clever...

I still like my Unity desktop, but I've grown more interested in the LXDE environment for its "light" reputation. For me at least, LXLE is the perfect solution for older systems that I'd like to install a Unity-like experience but, truthfully, don't have the resources for Unity. I imagine the rest of the world would be more interested in the G2, WinXP, and OSX paradigms. Seems like something for everyone.

While I'm pretty fond of LXLE so quickly, I won't be switching my main machine anytime soon, as it's a production machine and I've spent many months finding drop-in replacements for Windows programs before I officially made the Linux migration. I see no reason to duplicate that process, and I imagine the programs I use would just bloat LXLE right back up. But I'll continue to experiment with it and I think I'll add it to the stable of Linux distros for Windows migrators.

Depending on hardware, system resources, and technical expertise of migrator: Ubuntu 12.04, Zorin 6, and now LXLE 12.04. All good choices, IMO! Enjoy...

 

[zeetes]

I'll load it into a VM and take a look.

Have you looked at Puppy Linux? A few years ago that was the one for older machines. I haven't messed with it, myself.

i ran puppy off a thumb drive for a while at work for 'net surfing. very lightweight with a small footprint.

 

[FranklinSaint]

I've been meaning to resurrect an old laptop I have that's an AMD64 3200+ (single-core) with 512mb ram, so I'm on the look-out for a light Ubuntu derivative. I think this still may be a bit heavy, but I'll take it for a spin soon.

Currently using Elementary OS Luna (12.04 LTS derivative) on my production machine, haven't run into any problems so far in the 2 weeks I've been using it.