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I tried installing LXqt on Ubuntu. The login screen offers the following choices:

Openbox
Lubuntu
LXQt Desktop
Ubuntu on Xorg
Ubuntu
Ubuntu on Wayland (Wayland)
Ubuntu (Wayland)

What's the difference between all these? Why would I choose one or another?

In particular, I don't understand the difference between "Lubuntu" and "LXqt Desktop". As a Linux newbie, they sound the same to me.

nerdfever.com
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1 Answers1

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A modern Lubuntu install will offer you the following sessions

  • Lubuntu (full Lubuntu experience, everything matches the Lubuntu manual)
  • LXQt Desktop (purer upstream experience of LXQt; parts will match the manual)
  • Openbox (WM alone, no desktop)

The LXQt desktop (like LXDE before it) is WM (window manager) agnostic, and Lubuntu uses openbox as its WM. We offer users the choice of using that WM alone, ie. no panel, openbox menu (you can configure that yourself; its default is rather basic though). If you don't like openbox, or just prefer another WM, it can be changed too.

Users may not notice much difference between LXQt Desktop & Lubuntu, however many shortcuts & features the Lubuntu team have added will not be available when using the LXQt session, meaning not everything found in the Lubuntu manual will work as expected.

Your other choices are Ubuntu Desktop defaults

  • Ubuntu on Xorg (GNOME using Xorg; ie. force Xorg)
  • Ubuntu (GNOME desktop using Ubuntu defaults)
  • Ubuntu on Wayland (Wayland) (GNOME using Wayland; ie. force wayland)
guiverc
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  • I'm sure I've answered this before (without the GNOME bits), but I didn't find the question sorry. – guiverc Jan 11 '23 at 21:52
  • Note: No release was mentioned, so I used the latest stable release for links, ie. manual links will currently match Lubuntu 22.10. If you're using another release (eg. 22.04) adjust the links appropriately (though the links I provided will better match 22.04 with the newer LXQt available using the backports PPA if added) – guiverc Jan 11 '23 at 21:56
  • I was actually asking about an Ubuntu install (not Lubuntu) - question says "I tried installing LXqt on Ubuntu". But I suspect the answers are the same. If I can paraphrase you to confirm my understanding - the 3 flavors of Ubuntu are identical except using different WMs (Xorg, [something], Wayland). I'd love to know more about the pros/cons of each WM choice, but I guess that's a different question. – nerdfever.com Jan 12 '23 at 00:16
  • Re LXQt Desktop & Lubuntu, I think you're saying (please correct any misunderstanding) that the differences are the shortcuts, apps and config defaults. Am I right to think that in LXQt (on Ubuntu) these will be more similar to Ubuntu than they will be with Lubuntu? (And to speculate further - that the Lubuntu team thinks their choices are better for LXQt...otherwise they wouldn't change them.) FWIW, my machine is not resource-constrained (it's a high-end gaming desktop). I just like the LX DE. – nerdfever.com Jan 12 '23 at 00:19
  • I see only evidence of Ubuntu Desktop & one flavor being included, ie. Lubuntu. Many systems offer different sessions; your example shows the effect of just main Ubuntu Desktop & the additions when adding the one flavor of Lubuntu. Lubuntu isn't just pure LXQt; but a modified LXQt experience, with the Lubuntu team giving you a chance to explore all (WM alone, LXQt barely modified or heavily modified). – guiverc Jan 12 '23 at 00:35
  • FYI: The upstream LXQt experience I'm referring to is what I consider upstream for LXQt sorry, ie. https://github.com/lxqt as Lubuntu uses a LXQt that is ahead of Debian mostly, our Lubuntu devs have been 'upstreaming' LXQt from Ubuntu archives to Debian, so Ubuntu and Debian are back to being in sync (until very recently this Debian bookworm box I'm currently using was using a LXQt that was in Lubuntu 21.04 or 2021-April!). For most of Ubuntu though, yes Debian would be seen as upstream. – guiverc Jan 12 '23 at 00:38
  • Any NO, it's not that Lubuntu think they can decide better than upstream LXQt; LXQt just like LXDE before it, made their desktop WM *agnostic* meaning the desktop cannot draw borders around windows, or have close etc buttons... The end-user can decide what tool they add to provide that; for Debian that choices is xfwm4 (from Xfce), but the Lubuntu team have chosen openbox. That is just a choice that had to be made, using that as example. If no choice was made, users would be disappointed as I'm betting they'd expect borders around windows, CLOSE, MINIMIZE, MAXIMIZE buttons etc... – guiverc Jan 12 '23 at 00:40
  • Thanks - I didn't realize "flavor" had a well-defined meaning (and that I was misusing it). I think the source of my confusion is that https://ubuntu.com/desktop/flavours offers different .ISO downloads - Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, etc. And it's (still) unclear to me if/how choosing one of those .ISO downloads is different from installing plain Ubuntu then installing a different DE, or a [a "flavor"? not sure of terminology] on top of that. Is it different? (Other than, obviously, occupying more disk space that way - but I'm not short of disk space.) – nerdfever.com Jan 12 '23 at 00:50
  • FYI: I can be found on IRC pretty easily I suspect, but if you look, all Ubuntu flavor ISOs are coming from the same place - ie. https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ as they'll all Ubuntu. The flavors just use different seeds to create different Ubuntu system using different packages from the Ubuntu repositories. Ubuntu flavors can only use Ubuntu repository software as we're all built on launchpad by the same tools. If using an older release; ubuntu-support-status I felt gave helpful output you might want to read; but some found it confusing thus it was replaced with ... – guiverc Jan 12 '23 at 00:57
  • Another FYI: I'm a lover of multiple desktop installs; my old desktop (not yet got the replacement ready for it) was actually a Ubuntu Desktop install; on which I added xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop (LXDE at the time too) and ubuntu-mate-desktop meaning I had many session choices (written about here.. There are pros & cons to multi-desktop machines; myself I love them. There are also many questions on the topic on this site such as my linked example – guiverc Jan 12 '23 at 01:00
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – nerdfever.com Jan 12 '23 at 01:01
  • Sorry I access the site via my Ubuntu SSO, which allows me to access here, but not chat (that requires a Stack Exchange login). – guiverc Jan 12 '23 at 01:01