What are the System Requirements to Install Lubuntu 20.04?


Lubuntu used to be an Ubuntu based distro for age old Linux machines.

And also, as a part of big change now it does not have an LXDE based desktop rather it has an LXQt based.

But this time with the Lubuntu 20.04 they no longer build this one targeting the older machines. But this time they have not released any System requirments statement with the official release of Lubuntu 20.04.

But what we refer to as an “older system” may still have a 2 gigs of RAM and a 64-bit processor. So, the old is not really that old anymore the way it used to be around the 1990s!

This makes more sense in today’s world.

And that’s what the idea behind Lubuntu to support a machine that is 10 years old.

When we look back a decade ago, we see already a developed world, right? But still, if you have an older machine alive and you want to install Lubuntu 20.04 on that, let’s look at the system requirements.

So, what is the System Requirement to Install Lubuntu 20.04?

There is no definitive values on what are the system requirements to run Lubuntu.

In most cases it depends on your own usage, like what applications do you want to use, what files and how frequently do you store files etc.

The only way to know the Lubuntu system requirements is to know by running it on a machine and then observing the memory and processing consumption.

According to It’s FOSS, with the LXQt change the new Lubuntu 20.04 consumes approximately 340MB of RAM out of the box.

This is in fact around 100 MBs more than the LXDE Desktop was consuming.

System Requirement for Other Distro such as Kubuntu:

As per an example from Lubuntu.me, the system requirements is something like this:
– a fresh amd64 (64-bit) Kubuntu 18.04.1 install with 2 Gigs of RAM and a CPU core (in QEMU, running on KVM virtual machine), the idle usage with LibreOffice open and Firefox open to Lubuntu.me is about 1 GB of RAM and 6% idle CPU usage.
– With the same specifications/programs and an i386 (32-bit) install, consumed 790 MB of RAM and 7% of idle CPU usage

Which means, the other distros like the Kubuntu in this example can run on a machine with 1GB machine which can be treated as a decade old system, which the Lubuntu team has been doing it from long time.

As Simon Quigley from Lubuntu.me says:

More Linux distributions today can run on the computer of ten years ago than Linux distributions made five years ago with a 15 year old computer.

This is true, if we see that the basic system configuration did not change much in the last decade.

I mean, we still have systems with 2 Gigs of RAM and a 64-bit arch processor commonly available then.

Lubuntu’s will No Longer Target Old Systems

From their blog post after the recent Lubuntu 20.04 release:

our main focus is shifting from providing a distribution for old hardware to a functional yet modular distribution focused on getting out of the way and letting users use their computer.

This means that Lubuntu will stay light, and for users with old systems, should still be usable. But we will no longer provide minimum system requirements and we will no longer primarily focus on older hardware.

This means people will not see Lubuntu the way it used to be till the last update.

Lubuntu still be lightweight but does not focus only to run on legacy systems. Propbably they look to run on more modern systems going forward.

So, in the end, there is no definitive figures of Lubuntu’s system requirements. You may assume that a decade old machine with a 1 Gig of RAM and a single core 64-bit CPU can still run the Lubuntu 20.04.

You do not know what surprises are waiting for you until you practically run the new Lubuntu on your machine.

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