Lubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" Review: Fast, efficient and functional

Lubuntu is one of my favorite distros for it's amazing resource efficiency and functionality. It may not be the most eye-candy in the Ubuntu clan but definitely the most resource efficient. LXDE traditionally consumes lower resources than Gnome or KDE and even XFCE. And most importantly, it is customizable enough to make it look really attractive. Though the release note of Lubuntu 13.04 didn't state a whole lot of incremental improvements, still I was interested to check it out.

"Lubuntu 13.04 is now available. Features: based on the lightweight LXDE desktop environment; PCManFM, a fast and lightweight file manager using GIO/GVFS; Openbox, the fast and extensible LXDE window manager of LXDE; LightDM; Chromium, the open-source version of Google Chrome; based on Ubuntu 13.04. Improvements since Lubuntu 12.10: new version of PCManFM (1.1.0) including a built-in search utility; artwork improvements, including new wallpapers, community wallpapers, new icons; removed Catfish, since PCManFM has its own search utility; fixed a very old bug causing GNOME MPlayer to crash with some CPUs; several fixes for the GPicView image viewer."

True to the note, it doesn't come with a whole lot of innovations from Lubuntu 12.04 and 12.10. But, without any doubt, the current release is a rock solid distro offering amazing performance.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I downloaded the 720 MB 32-bit ISO of Lubuntu 13.04 and installed it on my Asus K54C laptop with 2 GB RAM and 2.2 Ghz Core i3 processor. Lubuntu Raring comes with LXDE DE and kernel 3.8.0-19. Looks wise, it retains the same traditional look but now comes with some refreshing Lubuntu wallpapers.

Installation
Installation is the same as any Ubuntu distro - easy even for a Linux novice. Installation took about 30 minutes for me including download of multimedia codecs and Adobe flashplugin.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Applications
Lubuntu 13.04 has more-or-less the similar set of applications as in previous releases, sans catfish file search, viz.

• Office: Abiword, Gnumeric, Document viewer
• Internet: Chromium 25, Pidgin, Sylpheed, Transmission
• Graphics: Image viewer, mtPaint graphic editor, simple scan
• Multimedia: Audacious, Gnome MPlayer, guvcview webcam, Xfburn
• Accessories: Archive manager, Calculator, Leafpad, Xpad, LXTerminal

It has apps good enough to cover daily requirements of an average user. Plus, there is Ubuntu repository to download more! Except chromium, rest of the apps are quite lightweight and represent intelligent choices. Chromium works well on moderately powered systems but may be found wanting in low powered ones. Midori is my choice here.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

On multimedia side, there is no VLC pre-installed. But, Gnome MPlayer is lighter and was able to play efficiently most of the media files I tried. I could even play the heavier mkv files.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I found Audacious actually good and better than gmusic browser in Xubuntu, though even Audacious doesn't have pre-set equalizer options.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I tried the file search option in PCManFM 1.1.0 and found it to be quite good. I searched for all .png image files and it listed the available files on a single window. You can use Crtl+Shft+F to search files in PCManFM.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

One of the problem areas in Lubuntu is lack of integrated settings manager. Lubuntu has all kinds of setting options available for the users which can be accessed through the preferences. It provides flexibility of themes, fonts, setting up keyboard and mouse, and other setting adjustments. More-or-less, everything is there, only not integrated.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Repository
Lubuntu sources it's apps from Ubuntu repository only but has it's own software center GUI. Lubuntu software center is lighter than Ubuntu software center but requires more number of steps to install applications than the Ubuntu one.

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

I installed docky, conky, GIMP and LibreOffice via Lubuntu software center successfully. There is synaptic package manager option as well if you don't like Lubuntu software center.

Issue of compositing
I installed a docky to enhance the looks of Lubuntu. Unfortunately, docky requires compositing to work and Lubuntu doesn't come with compositing pre-installed. Further, opengl may be a tad bit heavy for Lubuntu. Here xcompmgr actually comes to the rescue. It is not available in the Lubuntu software center but in synaptic package manager. Else, just hit the terminal and run the command
$sudo apt-get install xcompmgr

Once installed, put the command to autostart xcompmgr whenever Lubuntu starts, by typing the following commands in the terminal
$gksudo leafpad /etc/xdg/lxsession/Lubuntu/autostart 
Add @xcompmgr -n to the autostart file, save and close it. Restart to enjoy 3D docky!

Issue of Conky
As it is, conky lua may not work with Lubuntu. To make it work, open the conkyrc file, change "own_window_type override" to "own _window_type desktop". And it will start working. Also, add the conky command to the autostart file (as mentioned above) to make conky appear automatically whenever you start Lubuntu.

Performance
Lubuntu beats any Ubuntu distro on resource consumption and smoothness of use. The distro may be a bit difficult to configure than Ubuntu but runs on one-third of the resources. Also, Lubuntu 13.04 consumes slightly lower RAM and CPU, on the same machine and under identical conditions. And it is really fast!

Parameters	Size of ISO	Base	Desktop	Linux kernel	CPU Usage	RAM usage
Lubuntu 12.04	722 MB	Ubuntu 12.04	LXDE	3.2.0	1-5%	119 MB
Lubuntu 12.10	726 MB	Ubuntu 12.10	LXDE	3.5.0	1-5%	123 MB
Lubuntu 13.04	720 MB	Ubuntu 13.04	LXDE	3.8.0-19	1-5%	103 MB

From Lubuntu 13.04 http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.in

Overall
For me, it was rather an easy decision to upgrade. If you are using Lubuntu 12.04, this is possibly an opportunity to upgrade to a more efficient distro. In overall, Lubuntu 13.04 is a rock solid distro, snappy and really smooth to use. I wholeheartedly recommend Lubuntu to any user facing challenges in running slow resource hogging Ubuntu; I am sure you would be impressed with Lubuntu.

You can download Lubuntu 13.04 32 and 64 bit editions from here.