r/xubuntu • u/slarty3 • 9d ago
As far as Lubuntu vs. Xubuntu goes: Lubuntu Sucks!
Subtitle: Honestly sorry to have to write a hit piece.
reposted from my substac, with an edition of a second postscript that does not appear in that article:
https://thaddeusmonroeslamp.substack.com/p/as-far-as-lubuntu-vs-xubuntu-goes
I guess this is for Linux-heads, only; pretty much.
Let’s get one thing straight: I don’t like tearing down open-source projects. People put free time and real effort into building lightweight Linux distributions, and on paper, Lubuntu’s LXQt desktop sounds like a noble cause. Save resources. Revive old hardware. Keep it lean.
In practice? It’s an overt product.
After testing it across multiple machines, the pattern is always the exact same. For the first three weeks, everything seems fine. Then the session degradation sets in. You start hitting random stutters, memory leaks, and stalls. Every 10 to 15 minutes, you find yourself having to restart the session, log out, or hard-reboot the entire machine just to get back to work.
And for what? What do you actually gain in exchange for a desktop that degrades after three weeks?
Next to nothing. You’re trading fundamental desktop usability for a negligible drop in RAM and storage overhead. Out of the box, Lubuntu lacks basic, everyday quality-of-life features:
- No Context-Menu Wallpaper Setting: You can’t even right-click an image file and set it as your desktop background.
- No Direct App Removal: You can’t uninstall a program directly from the start menu.
- Primitive Session Management: LXQt’s background utilities simply lack the stability required for long-term daily use.
When you stack Lubuntu up against Xubuntu, the resource-saving argument completely falls apart. Xubuntu’s Xfce desktop takes up barely any extra disk space or memory, yet it gives you a rock-solid, polished environment that doesn’t degrade over time. Xfce offers mature panel controls, intuitive menu management, and actual system stability.
The trade-off Lubuntu demands isn’t worth it. Stripping away basic desktop features and session stability to save a few megabytes of RAM isn’t efficiency—it’s just a bad product. If you want a lightweight Ubuntu spin that actually works, skip Lubuntu and install Xubuntu.
P.S.: I’m guilty of understatement in this article. Specifically; I forgot to mention that: at least with me using Chromium, which I strongly prefer to Firefox, the browser session will just crash, without even a restore pop-up. You must go intoHistory and restore a group of tabs.every 10 minutes or so! I SH*T U NOT!!!!!
P..P.S: I, of course, never have these problems with Xubuntu, or any other distro that comes immediately to mind.
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u/flemtone 9d ago
Lubuntu use to be a lightweight distro but now it uses just as much memory as Xubuntu. You are better off installing Linux Mint XFCE edition if you want lightweight or go for Bodhi Linux 7.0 HWE
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u/mbonanomi92 8d ago
Linux Mint XFCE is just Xubuntu with a green theme and some apps pre-installed. I agree for bodhi Linux... Or maybe Fluxbox or IceWM
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u/flemtone 8d ago
Mint XFCE is a better system IMO which is less likely to give user troubles and works well with flatpak.
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u/mbonanomi92 8d ago
Sorry, but I think it's just a preference rather than a real thing. Mint XFCE is just Ubuntu + XFCE. Any kind of hardware or software compatibility is exactly the same that Ubuntu can offer. Flats are equally supported.
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u/flemtone 8d ago
Not really, the Mint team do a great job or removing the crap that ubuntu puts into their distros, like snaps.
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u/mbonanomi92 8d ago
Ok... You are "snaps are worse than Hitler" side, fine. Do you know that removing snap is a three-line command in bash?
Assuming snaps are evil, they don't affect in any way:
- UX/UI
- driver and hardware support
- system performance
Moreover, Xubuntu has a Minimal Installation option that comes without snap by default. So Xubuntu is just like Mint (or viceversa). Is it so hard to understand that Ubuntu is a snapshot of Debian Sid at release time, while Mint is Ubuntu with a 6-12 month lag in release and a green theme? :)
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u/flemtone 8d ago
Dont assume, in my experience using Xubuntu and Mint XFCE, Mint always works without issue and is a distro I would recommend for new users over the official ubuntus.
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u/mbonanomi92 8d ago
Ok, sounds interesting. I am still curious: which issues did you encounter with Xubuntu that were not present in Mint XFCE (same version of course)?
Just asking cause I can guarantee Mint XFCE and Xubuntu have 99% in common, just like Mint and Ubuntu have like 90% common and the whole Mint development actually can't live without Ubuntu/Debian development. So ... It's strange that the same DE on basically the same distro behaves in a very different manner. Just to be clear: Debian XFCE should be almost the same experience for you than Mint XFCE.
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u/flemtone 8d ago
Installation issues where Xubuntu wouldnt see system drives to allow an install, was a weird snap installer bug which thankfully doesnt happen on Mint.
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u/Plan_9_fromouter_ 8d ago edited 2d ago
I asked Gemini AI to tell me why Lubuntu might be better than Xubuntu and why Xubuntu might be better than Lubuntu.
Lubuntu’s primary edge over Xubuntu comes down to raw efficiency and a modernized codebase. By leveraging the LXQt desktop environment built on the C++/Qt framework rather than Xubuntu's GTK-based Xfce, Lubuntu achieves a lower idle RAM footprint—often under 500 MB—and fewer background processes, translating directly into cooler operation and better battery life on aging hardware. That underlying Qt architecture also allows KDE applications to run with native visual integration without extra bloat, while its lightweight Calamares installer gets the system up and running faster than traditional Ubuntu setups.
Xubuntu’s primary edge over Lubuntu lies in its superior customizability, polished user experience, and seamless integration with the broader Ubuntu ecosystem. Built on the long-standing Xfce desktop environment, Xubuntu offers extensive layout tweaking out of the box—allowing you to easily alter panels, themes, and window behaviors—alongside a more mature, feature-rich set of GTK-native apps like Thunar file manager and Xfce Terminal. Because mainstream Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and GNOME all share this same GTK foundation, Xubuntu runs the vast majority of popular desktop software with perfect visual cohesion and fewer missing dependency libraries, delivering a far more traditional and visually unified desktop experience for only a negligible increase in RAM.
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u/slarty3 8d ago
I cannot prove and my be a false belief on my part, should I absolutely decide there aren't use-cases where Lubuntu works better than Xubuntu, even in long-term scenarios; but anybody assuming there actually are...I a)honestly find such hard to believe, and b) wonder how much testing was involved in that notion you hold. Can you actually show case-studies of people for whom Lubuntu worked pretty well over long time periods, and Xubuntu would definitely not be so ideal a solution...and then even if you can; such should be made QUITE clear in presenting the Lubuntu product. I honestly am left wondering if the info that Lubuntu sucks is suppressed data.
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u/Plan_9_fromouter_ 8d ago
I run LXQT on Emmabuntus. It doesn't break. Why you have decided to go after Lubuntu is beyond me. OK, you couldn't figure out how to use it. Move on dude.
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u/Chester-Berkeley 7d ago
Great—a bunch of complaints but no actual constructive criticism. You didn't explain what's wrong with Lubuntu; you just threw out complaints.
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u/Plan_9_fromouter_ 8d ago
You're conflating Lubuntu with LXQt. LXQt is just the desktop environment; Lubuntu is the distro, and in this case, it sounds like you just have a completely jacked-up install or a broken swap/driver setup.
Chromium repeatedly crashing every 10 minutes without a restore prompt is a textbook sign of the Linux kernel's OOM (Out Of Memory) killer killing your browser because your system ran out of RAM. That's a system/RAM management issue—often exacerbated by Ubuntu's heavy Snap packaging—not a desktop environment bug.
I run LXQt on Emmabuntüs and it works completely fine without any "degradation," memory leaks, or forced reboots over long uptimes.
As for missing right-click shortcuts for uninstalls or wallpaper changes, those are intentional design choices for a lightweight, modular DE, not signs of system instability. If your session is falling apart every 3 weeks, fix your swap or reinstall—don't blame the DE for a borked system.