What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight, yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive.

Most people are familiar with Microsoft Windows because it’s so popular. Not everyone is as familiar with Linux, though. In this lab, you are going to install Lubuntu on your machine. The goal is to familiarize yourself with another OS and to understand that other operating systems aren’t scary or mysterious. They all do similar things; it’s just a matter of figuring out how.

Normally, installing a second OS involves a relatively complicated process where you need to dual boot your computer. We’re not going to do that here. You will use a technology called VirtualBox, which allows you to create a new virtual system on your hard drive and not affect your existing Windows installation. I promise you that this lab will not mess up Windows on your computer! And when you’re finished, you can just uninstall VirtualBox, if you want, and nothing will have changed on your system.

When the installation is complete, click the “Restart Now” button.

Now that the installation is complete, play around in your new operating system! I strongly encourage you to go back through this lesson and complete Exercises 4.1 and 4.6–4.8, but this time in Lubuntu. Windows based exercises are found within the Lesson 4 reading. Remember you want to now complete the same exercises in Lubuntu, documenting how you accomplished the tasks.