The Lubuntu development team promised to finally switch from LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) to the more modern and actively maintained LXQt (Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment), and the switch is now official.

Lubuntu developer Simon Quigley approached us earlier today to inform that the latest Lubuntu 18.10 daily build is quite usable as he and his team did a lot of work in the past week to accommodate the LXQt desktop environment by default instead of the LXDE desktop environment.

The main difference between LXDE and LXQt is that the former is written with the GTK+ 2 technologies, which will eventually be phased out in favor of the more advanced GTK+ 3, and the latter is built using the Qt framework. However, it doesn't look like there are any plans for LXDE to move to GTK+ 3.

That's why LXQt was created in the first place, as a fork of LXDE that offers computer users a classic desktop environment with a modern look and feel, and supported for a long time thanks to the Qt technologies, on which the popular KDE Plasma desktop environment is built.

A first look at Lubuntu 18.10 with LXQt by default

Long story short, the first Lubuntu release with the LXQt desktop environment by default will be Lubuntu 18.10, due for release on October 18, 2018, as part of the Ubuntu 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) series. And the first daily build is now available for testing on both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures.

That's right, we're not talking about Lubuntu Next, which was used by the Lubuntu development team as a testbed to thoroughly test the LXQt desktop environment on Lubuntu before they made the migration from LXDE. Lubuntu Next is no more, and the Lubuntu 18.10 development starts now with LXQt by default.

We took the first Lubuntu 18.10 daily build with LXQt for a test drive, and we have to say that we're impressed. It's so good that it could be released to the masses tomorrow. Of course, this is because of Lubuntu Next and the rigorous testing the Lubuntu team did over the past several years.

The layout is very simple, yet stylish with a sleek dark theme by default and a single panel at the bottom of the screen from where you can access everything you need. Also, it's packed with all the tools and apps you can imagine, including LibreOffice, Mozilla Thunderbird, Qtransmission, SMPlayer, MPV, Calibre, and Audacious.

It even features some cool KDE apps like the awesome K3b CD/DVD/BR burning program, KDE Partition Manager, Muon and Plasma Discover graphical package managers, KCalc calculator, Ark archive manager, and Quassel IRC client. Default file manager is PCManFM, and the default web browser is Falkon (formerly QupZilla).

We don't know if all these apps will remain in the final Lubuntu 18.10 release later this year, but we give it a five-star rating. Even though it's an early development build, you can try it out on your PC right now by downloading the latest Lubuntu 18.10 daily ISO image from here, and check out the screenshot tour below to see it in action.

Lubuntu 18.10

Lubuntu 18.10