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The latest long term support (LTS) release of Lubuntu arrived, along with all of the other flavors of Ubuntu, on 25 April, 2024. This is a much-anticipated release, as most Lubuntu users stick to the LTS versions for daily use and will upgrade to take advantage of the longer support period.
Lubuntu 24.04 LTS is the end-product of what has been a fairly quiet two-year development cycle and, surprisingly, it brings a list of new things here at the last minute.
This new LTS release is the 29th for Lubuntu overall and the 12th with the Qt toolkit-based LXQt desktop. Because this is an LTS, it comes with three years of support, until April 2027.
Installation
I downloaded the Lubuntu 24.04 LTS ISO file from the official source and carried out a command line SHA256 sum check on it to make sure the file was uncorrupted.
This download weighed in at 3.1 GB, a slight increase from the last release and a 24% increase in size since the last LTS version, Lubuntu 22.04 LTS, which was 2.5 GB. Even at 3.1 GB, Lubuntu 24.04 LTS is still half the size of the mainstream Ubuntu 24.04 LTS which is 6.1 GB.
As usual, I did not install Lubuntu 24.04 LTS but dropped it onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.0.97 and booted it up from there. Lubuntu is officially listed as supported by Ventoy and it worked just fine. Ventoy makes trying out Linux distributions fast and painless.
System requirements
Since the release of Lubuntu 18.10 six years ago, the Lubuntu developers no longer publish any minimum system specifications. That said, it should run on any relatively modern 64-bit hardware with at least 4 GB of RAM, although 8 GB would be better.
New
The changes start on the first ISO boot-up where there is a brand new “try or install” screen that is actually nice and clear.
If you decide to go ahead and install Lubuntu, the newest version of the Calamares installer now includes a “customize” menu that gives users the option of a normal or a minimal installation. The new minimal option is of much the same philosophy as found in Xubuntu and Ubuntu. In Lubuntu’s case, it is truly minimal, as it omits even snapd, the whole snap packaging system, and even a web browser. For people who like Lubuntu but not the inclusion of snap format packages, this will be a real boon, you just have to figure out how to get a web browser, since within the Ubuntu ecosystem both Firefox and Chromium are now snap packages. Additionally, there is a checkbox option to install any of the Krita painting programs, Thunderbird email client, the Virtual Machine Manager or the Element encrypted messenger.
Also new is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) installation option designed for people shipping computers, new or used, to end users. This option allows a complete Lubuntu setup, with the end user able to boot it up and create their own system sign-in and password.
This version brings some welcome utility upgrades to Lubuntu. These finally include a better bluetooth manager, Blueman, which replaces the previously-supplied Bluedevil, which never worked well. Blueman is actually GTK-based but the Lubuntu developers have plans to rewrite the interface with the Qt toolkit to better fit Lubuntu's Qt-based desktop.
Further new utilities include an SDDM Configuration Editor that allows customizing the Lubuntu login screen, a brand new Lubuntu Software Updater, Redshift-Qt for night-day screen adjustments, and the Picom Configuration Utility for desktop effects which allows selecting window transparency, title bar transparency, shadows, and fade-in/fade-out effects.
The Lubuntu 24.04 LTS desktop is now LXQt version 1.4.0 which is based on the Qt 5.15.13 toolkit. Work has begun on Qt 6 basing, but the lack of a stable version of KF6 has further delayed this. Visually, 24.04 LTS still looks similar to the other recent LXQt releases and uses the same default, signature Lubuntu Arc theme with blue Papirus icons.
The included Linux kernel is version 6.8 with its improved new hardware support, and systemd 255.4 as the initialization system.
Settings
The new Lubuntu 24.04 LTS default wallpaper features a night sky Milky Way and rising full moon scene. Given that this release is codenamed Noble Numbat, after the Australian insectivore marsupial, there is also one very elegant numbat wallpaper. There are 16 additional wallpapers included, many of them from recent Lubuntu releases.
Other setting choices include19 window themes, 13 icon themes, 15 LXQt themes, 3 cursor themes, and 10 GTK3 and GTK2 themes – providing users with a really wide range of customization possibilities.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Lubuntu 24.04 LTS normal installation are: 2048-qt 0.1.6 simple lightweight game* Blueman 2.3.5 bluetooth connector Discover Software Center 5.27.11 package management system* FeatherPad 1.4.1 text editor Firefox 125.0.2 web browser ImageMagick 6.9.12.98 image editor* Kcalc 23.08.5 calculator KDE partition manager 23.08.5 partition manager LibreOffice 24.2.2 office suite, Qt interface version Lubuntu Update 1.0.0 software update notifier LXimage-Qt 1.4.0 image viewer and screenshot tool LXQt Archiver 0.9.1 archive manager Noblenote 1.2.0 note taker* Okular 23.08.5 PDF viewer PCManFM-Qt 1.4.1 file manager PipeWire 1.0.5 audio controller Qlipper 5.1.2 clipboard manager* QTerminal 1.4.0 terminal emulator Qtransmission 4.0.5 BitTorrent client, Qt interface version Quassel 0.14.0 IRC client* ScreenGrab 2.7.0 screenshot tool Skanlite 23.08.5 scanning utility Startup Disk Creator 0.3.17 (usb-creator-kde) USB boot disk maker* VLC 3.0.20 media player* Wget 1.21.4 command line webpage downloader XScreenSaver 6.08 screensaver and screen locker * Indicates the same version as used in Lubuntu 23.10 supplied as a snap, so version depends on the upstream package manager
As far as application changes go, other than Blueman replacing Bluedevil, the Muon package manager has been dropped entirely, and the PDF viewer has been changed from qPDFview to Okular from the KDE desktop.
Conclusions
Lubuntu 24.04 LTS is a good, solid release, with just enough improvements to keep Lubuntu users happy without changing too much. It does feel like progress, though.
The next release will be an interim one, Lubuntu 24.10, expected out in October 2024. This will kick off a new development cycle which will lead to the next LTS release, Lubuntu 26.04 LTS, due in April 2026.
External links
Official website: https://lubuntu.me/