alternatives at Lubuntu 12.04 end of life

[Nio Wiklund]

Hi everybody,

Lubuntu 12.04 will soon reach its end of life. I would try alternatives
in the following order.


1. Lubuntu 13.04 and Lubuntu 13.10 (to be released very close to 12.04
end of life). Lubuntu 13.10 will have zRAM, which is good for low RAM.
It is developing well, several bugs of 13.04 are fixed, and I think it
will be a nice experience. Both of these versions can run with fake-PAE
for Celeron M and Pentium M computers.


2. Ubuntu 12.04 versions/derivatives with LTS until April 2017

If some important driver for your computer is missing in 13.04 and
13.10, because that hardware has been abandoned by newer Ubuntu
versions, the best alternatives are

- LXLE by ronniew alias Mr Wislr

http://lxle.net/index.php?id=articles&post=lxle-paradigm-goes-final-with-12043-update
http://sourceforge.net/projects/lxle/files/Current%20Release/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2125764&page=8&p=12762338#post12762338

and

- PreciseGnomeClassicTweaks by kansasnoob alias Lance

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PreciseGnomeClassicTweaks
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1966370


3. Other alternatives with security updates

- Xubuntu is also good but has only long time support until April 2015.

- Lubuntu 12.10 has end of life in April 2014, at the same time as the
next long time support version, Lubuntu 14.04.


4. A possible alternative, where you will be on your own

You can keep Lubuntu 12.04 although it will be only partially supported.
You will be on your own, trying to keep your software up to date. This
is a security issue and there is also a small risk that some not updated
package will break due to updates of other packages after the end of
life of Lubuntu 12.04. See this link

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1954702&p=11829724#post11829724


*. Backup your system. Try some versions live if possible (even if you
would need the alternate iso to install later on). And when you have
found your favourite, go ahead and install it. An alternative is to try
an 'installed system on a USB drive' according to this link.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstalledSystemFakePAE


Best regards
Nio