This is still using LXDE and it seems that LXQt is late

Dec 19, 2014 14:43 GMT  ·  By

Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 (Vivid Vervet) has been officially released and it follows its Kubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME brethren. Users can now download and test this latest installment.

The Ubuntu ecosystem gathers some of the most important desktop environments under one roof and LXDE is just one of them. Besides Xubuntu, which is a no-show for this Alpha, Lubuntu is actually the lightest version available.

It's capable of running on systems with very low hardware requirements and it can be considered an excellent replacement for Windows XP, for example. It has a similar desktop design, so it shouldn't be too alien.

The Lubuntu project is about to undergo a more important transformation than just the jump to a new version for the operating system. The desktop environment is about to be changed, although that won't happen for now. LXDE will be replaced with LXQt, but the former is not yet ready. That means that Lubuntu 15.04 won't be the most interesting of releases, albeit it's going to be a very stable one.

Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 (Vivid Vervet) still uses LXDE

Very few changes have been integrated for this edition of Lubuntu, and the makers of the OS say that it can be considered just another maintenance update. Some of the packages have been upgraded; it’s nothing out of the ordinary. Even the Linux kernel is still the same from Ubuntu 14.10.

"We're preparing Lubuntu 15.04, Vivid Vervet, for distribution in April 2015. With this early Alpha pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next version. The Alpha 1 Vivid Unicorn snapshot includes the 3.16.0-28.38 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the upstream v3.16 Linux kernel. The 3.15 release includes increased ARM support and improved drivers (Radeon, Intel, and Nvidia graphics), to name a few," reads the official announcement.

Also, a couple of problems have been mentioned. For example, the notification dialogues have a small issue with the backgrounds, some Intel-based Macs are not working properly, and the installer still needs some improvements to deal with existing btrfs partitions.

The system requirements for Lubuntu have remained largely the same. According to the developers, a Pentium II or Celeron system with 128 MB of RAM will most likely be able to run the OS.

More details about this release can be found in the official announcement. You can download the Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 (Vivid Vervet) Linux distribution right now from Softpedia. It is still under development, so users shouldn't use a production machine for testing it.

Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 (10 Images)

Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 desktop
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