Now that my time with BSD has come to an end I thought I should jump back into Linux via a distribution I had never even heard of before (just to keep things interesting!). DistroWatch is an excellent source for finding different, unique and of course obscure distributions but I was surprised to find one in the top 10 that I had never even heard of before: LXLE.

So what exactly is LXLE? Well according to their website:

LXLE is based on Lubuntu which is an Ubuntu OS using the LXDE desktop environment. It is designed to be a drop-in and go OS, primarily for aging computers. Its intention is to be able to install it on any computer and be relatively done after install. At times removing unwanted programs or features is easier than configuring for a day. Our distro follows the same LTS schedule as Ubuntu. In short, LXLE is an eclectic respin of Lubuntu with its own user support.

After a quick install I am now running on LXLE!

Let’s take a quick walk through of what comes with this light weight distribution.

To browse your files it comes with the slim PCManFM:

Unfortunately it is also where I ran into my first issue with the distribution. The default user name in the installer was “qwerty” but somehow this survived, even though I replaced it with my own name, in the quick Places links along the left-hand side of the window. They still pointed to non-existent locations based on this default user name.

Seamonkey suite is used for most basic Internet functionality including web browsing, e-mail, FTP, IRC, etc.

Other interesting inclusions are anti-virus scanner ClamTk, password manager KeePassX, open source BitTorrent Sync alternative Syncthing, instant messenger Pidgin, Tox client uTox, music editor Audacity, music player Guayadeque, a load of games and many, many more utilities.

For a distribution that prides itself on being light weight it sure does ship with a lot of software! Like the others I’ll be playing around with LXLE over the next couple of days and post my thoughts and experiences here.

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