Having a working computer, but no money to buy a Windows licence for it is as useful as owning a large garage with many cars, but no money to fuel them. This was the predicament I was faced with for quite some time. No, not the cars of course, but a handful of spare computers.
At one point in the last couple of years, I owned and maintained as many as five different computers in my house wherein my primary desktop and laptop always ran the latest version of Windows, and the next two, a slightly older version or a Windows Preview (beta) copy, and the last one, some distribution of Linux. Sometimes, I even had Linux installed alongside Windows for variety. I’ll admit I had great fun playing mix-and-match with all these OSes.
With Windows, there really isn’t much of a choice; one tries to buy the latest version of it and sticks to it for a good half a decade before it’s time to cough up to Microsoft again and that has been the mantra until quite recently. Linux however, being a different and open-source ecosystem, allows the user to choose from a variety of flavours and variants. And I had tried them all; Ubuntu (with the old GNOME and the new Unity interface), Fedora, MeeGo, etc., but never stuck with anything for too long. Every distro has its own quirks, so I could never place my finger on one of them and say, ‘This is the OS I want to use permanently.’ I found myself wanting to go back to Windows often because they all felt equally slow or limiting due to driver incompatibility or lack of apps. Until I tried Lubuntu.
Lubuntu is a lightweight Ubuntu distribution based on an LXDE interface. It’s designed to run easily on old and low-end computers with low memory, and I have a couple of old-timer PCs that just about run Windows with occasional hiccups. Ideal candidates then. Lubuntu is lovely to use because the interface is very similar to that of Windows, but is not Windows. Unlike Unity and GNOME that have an app-switcher bar on the sides and corners (which if I’m honest, can be putting-off at first), Lubuntu uses a simple and conventional taskbar at the bottom with a Windows Start-like button on the left, followed by shortcuts and running tasks in the middle, and finally the system tray icons on the right. This alone makes for a flatter learning curve for new Linux users.
My Acer netbook, which has struggled to run most versions of Windows and Linux mostly due to inadequate memory and driver incompatibility, works with Lubuntu as if it were an old buddy. And my old Windows desktop too feels completely at home with Lubuntu. There’s definitely some magic here.
Lubuntu serves me well for most of my everyday computing needs. Web browsing is taken care of by Chromium, the father of Google Chrome. It is identical to the current version of Chrome and runs apps like Hangouts for chatting, and Keep for note-taking. A pre-installed Mozilla browser is also available if you prefer the fox instead.
The default music player is Audacious, a simple yet powerful tool that’s so good I even use it on Windows sometimes. I have noticed the audio output through Audacious to be crisper when compared with the competition. The popular VLC media player too is available for download in the Lubuntu Software Centre.
Dropbox works just as well as it does on Windows, and that’s lucky because I use it very heavily. Thunderbird is the most popular email client on Lubuntu, but I haven’t really taken to it. I prefer Sylpheed for speed, although it may prove to be too simplistic for some when you actually use it. There are a few more email clients to choose from, however.
The LibreOffice suite does its best to mimic Microsoft Office, but may lack full file and feature compatibility with new Office files. In this department alone, I’d recommend using Office Online if you really want the Microsoft Office experience or something close to it.
Transmission is the default torrent client and I daresay it works just as well as its Windows counterparts like the uTorrent client.
After a few months of using Lubuntu, I found myself left with a surplus of Windows licence keys. I found Lubuntu to be a better match for my Acer netbook than the Windows that came with it. I also found it liberating to use a computer without so many updates being thrown at your face every now and then, and if you’ve used genuine Windows before, you’ll know that it can get sickeningly overbearing.
Understandably, Lubuntu may not be everyone’s cup of tea. At the end of the day, it still is a Linux and sadly, a Linux can never be your only OS. This is because, in the twisted world we live in, too many applications run only on Windows or Mac. If you’ve accidentally bought an iPod for instance, or if you want to Photoshop that lightning-shaped scar off your forehead in a picture, you’d be pretty helpless with Linux. Having been designed for low-resource usage, Lubuntu lacks finesse in its user interface design. Expect zero animations and clunky looking fonts and icons that you can tweak later on. However, if you do have a spare computer lying around and are willing to give Linux a shot, Lubuntu is a great place to start.
Until next time...
Vignesh
At one point in the last couple of years, I owned and maintained as many as five different computers in my house wherein my primary desktop and laptop always ran the latest version of Windows, and the next two, a slightly older version or a Windows Preview (beta) copy, and the last one, some distribution of Linux. Sometimes, I even had Linux installed alongside Windows for variety. I’ll admit I had great fun playing mix-and-match with all these OSes.
With Windows, there really isn’t much of a choice; one tries to buy the latest version of it and sticks to it for a good half a decade before it’s time to cough up to Microsoft again and that has been the mantra until quite recently. Linux however, being a different and open-source ecosystem, allows the user to choose from a variety of flavours and variants. And I had tried them all; Ubuntu (with the old GNOME and the new Unity interface), Fedora, MeeGo, etc., but never stuck with anything for too long. Every distro has its own quirks, so I could never place my finger on one of them and say, ‘This is the OS I want to use permanently.’ I found myself wanting to go back to Windows often because they all felt equally slow or limiting due to driver incompatibility or lack of apps. Until I tried Lubuntu.
Lubuntu is a lightweight Ubuntu distribution based on an LXDE interface. It’s designed to run easily on old and low-end computers with low memory, and I have a couple of old-timer PCs that just about run Windows with occasional hiccups. Ideal candidates then. Lubuntu is lovely to use because the interface is very similar to that of Windows, but is not Windows. Unlike Unity and GNOME that have an app-switcher bar on the sides and corners (which if I’m honest, can be putting-off at first), Lubuntu uses a simple and conventional taskbar at the bottom with a Windows Start-like button on the left, followed by shortcuts and running tasks in the middle, and finally the system tray icons on the right. This alone makes for a flatter learning curve for new Linux users.
My Acer netbook, which has struggled to run most versions of Windows and Linux mostly due to inadequate memory and driver incompatibility, works with Lubuntu as if it were an old buddy. And my old Windows desktop too feels completely at home with Lubuntu. There’s definitely some magic here.
Lubuntu serves me well for most of my everyday computing needs. Web browsing is taken care of by Chromium, the father of Google Chrome. It is identical to the current version of Chrome and runs apps like Hangouts for chatting, and Keep for note-taking. A pre-installed Mozilla browser is also available if you prefer the fox instead.
The default music player is Audacious, a simple yet powerful tool that’s so good I even use it on Windows sometimes. I have noticed the audio output through Audacious to be crisper when compared with the competition. The popular VLC media player too is available for download in the Lubuntu Software Centre.
Dropbox works just as well as it does on Windows, and that’s lucky because I use it very heavily. Thunderbird is the most popular email client on Lubuntu, but I haven’t really taken to it. I prefer Sylpheed for speed, although it may prove to be too simplistic for some when you actually use it. There are a few more email clients to choose from, however.
The LibreOffice suite does its best to mimic Microsoft Office, but may lack full file and feature compatibility with new Office files. In this department alone, I’d recommend using Office Online if you really want the Microsoft Office experience or something close to it.
Transmission is the default torrent client and I daresay it works just as well as its Windows counterparts like the uTorrent client.
After a few months of using Lubuntu, I found myself left with a surplus of Windows licence keys. I found Lubuntu to be a better match for my Acer netbook than the Windows that came with it. I also found it liberating to use a computer without so many updates being thrown at your face every now and then, and if you’ve used genuine Windows before, you’ll know that it can get sickeningly overbearing.
Understandably, Lubuntu may not be everyone’s cup of tea. At the end of the day, it still is a Linux and sadly, a Linux can never be your only OS. This is because, in the twisted world we live in, too many applications run only on Windows or Mac. If you’ve accidentally bought an iPod for instance, or if you want to Photoshop that lightning-shaped scar off your forehead in a picture, you’d be pretty helpless with Linux. Having been designed for low-resource usage, Lubuntu lacks finesse in its user interface design. Expect zero animations and clunky looking fonts and icons that you can tweak later on. However, if you do have a spare computer lying around and are willing to give Linux a shot, Lubuntu is a great place to start.
Until next time...
Vignesh
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