Lubuntu release manager Simon Quigley announced that the upcoming Lubuntu 18.10 operating system would ship with the LXQt desktop environment by default instead of LXDE.

It's been three long years since the Lubuntu team promised us that they'd drop the LXDE desktop environment in favor of the more modern, Qt-based LXQt, but now it looks like it's finally happening. Lubuntu 18.10 will be the first release to ship with LXQt as default desktop environment instead of LXDE, according to Simon Quigley.

The first release that was supposed to move to LXQt by default was Lubuntu 15.10 a.k.a. the Wily Werewolf. The Lubuntu team from back then announced that Lubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) would be the last release to ship with LXDE as they prepare the migration to LXQt, but it never happened, even to this day.

Of course, there was the Lubuntu Next thingy that never got to see the light of day, which included the LXQt desktop environment by default. The first LXQt-based Lubuntu Next builds surfaced during the development cycle of Lubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark), and are still available today, but not intended for daily use.

Lubuntu Next will be gone, Lubuntu 18.10 ships with LXQt by default

So, after three years, it's finally happening. Lubuntu 18.10 will be the first release of Lubuntu to ship with the LXQt desktop environment by default as Lubuntu Next will be gone and the older, still supported Lubuntu releases, such as Lubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) will be referred to as Lubuntu Classic.

Simon Quigley confirmed that Lubuntu's primary goal will still be to offer users a lightweight computer operating system that runs without hiccups on old machines from 10 years ago. LXQt is now mature enough to be used on a daily basis, and it's getting stronger with each new release.

Lubuntu 18.10 will arrive sometime in October 2018, but, until then, you can use the current stable and long-term supported release, Lubuntu 18.04 LTS, which brings new artwork design from Lubuntu Next, Linux kernel 4.15, updated LXDE components, and all the goodies from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver).