Linux Lite , a Ubuntu LTS based and lightweight Linux distribution is focused on Windows users who want to turn to Linux easily. The distribution has always been trying to make it so easy that any Windows user has no trouble performing regular tasks on Linux Lite . Linux Lite was improved a lot in 2 series and now there is starting of series 3 with many improvements.

Linux Lite 3.0 Series

We have previously covered stories from Linux Lite 2 series, most of which were new releases. We now have a new series starting with so many improvements most of which are GUI fixes, improvements, and changes. Other than GUI, Linux Lite 3 team has also worked on improving system update speed, automatic upgrades, share hardware configuration.

What’s New In Linux Lite 3?

New Login Screen

Below is the screenshot of the brand new look of Linux Lite login screen. Linux Lite 3 users now have the ability to customize the login screen using lightdm.

Start LightDM + Greeter Settings from the start menu.

Using LightDM + Greeter Settings, you can customize login screen background image, use current wallpaper as background and you can also change user image (icon).

New Arc Theme

Linux Lite 3 comes with the very popular Arc theme that I have been for long on my other Linux distributions. Arc is a lightweight theme and comes with three variant, Arc, Arc Dark and Ark Darker for complete black.

Share Hardware Configuration (Lite info)

This option allows you to share your hardware configuration with other Linux Lite users. There are already 600+ users have shared their hardware configuration for you to look and see what hardware other are using to run Linux Lite. Note: Linux Lite team requests not to share hardware configuration when running Linux Lite 3 under Virtual machine.

Automatic Upgrades

In order to keep the users system secure from software vulnerabilities and stable from bugs, developers provide frequent software updates that you need to install as quickly as you can. Linux Lite 3 comes with the default feature to install upgrade automatically.

Less PPAs means faster updates

Personally, I have experienced faster PPA updates due to fewer PPAs. The only PPA that Linux Lite 3 has, Gimp, Wine, and Systemback.

Numlock is enabled at login screen

Small tweak to the system is that now Numlock is enabled by default at the login screen.

Folder Access from the menu

Linux Lite is the system targeting Windows users. Many of the features and tweaks we have seen in past releases that were from Windows so that users can become familiar with Linux Lite quickly and easily. In Linux Lite 3, another small tweak has been implemented to increases accessibility to users files through My Computer option in menu.

SystemD

Using SystemD users can manage startup services in Linux Lite 3. SystemD manager is not installed in Linux Lite 3 but it’s available in PPA for both, 32-bit & 64-bit packages.

$ sudo apt-get update $ sudo apt-get install systemd-manager

Steam not included but installable from Lite software

Linux gaming is improving and we have more than 2000 Windows games through Steam. But Steam is not installed by default on Linux Lite 3. The team says the majority of Linux Lite users perform tasks like, browsing Internet, office and for other days to day tasks. Gaming is not what users do on Linux Lite. Although if you are interested, then Steam is available to install in Linux Lite 3.

Updated Applications

Since Linux Lite 3 beta, many applications have been updated so all the packages in Linux Lite 3 have also been updated to their latest versions.​Firefox 46.0.1

Thunderbird 38.8.0

LibreOffice 5.1.2.2

VLC – 2.2.2

Gimp 2.8.16

Base: 16.04

Kernel: 4.4.0-21

UEFI Not Supported

UEFI is not and will not be supported in Linux Lite 3 series.

Download Linux Lite 3

Don’t Forget To Take Poll!