Lubuntu 12.04

I always tell the Computer Information System majors that you are a CIS major if you look forward to Friday not because it is a chance to go out and socialize with friends but rather a chance to take new software for a spin that you could not get around to during the regular working week.

Lubuntu 11.04 and 11.10 on my home computer always heated temp1 to 42 degrees Celsius. I came to consider that "normal operating temperature" for my home system. Until Lubuntu 12.04.


Upgrades usually bring "new features" - a nice word for OS bloat. Newer means slower, more CPU cycles, and hotter. Not so apparently for Lubuntu 12.04. While 39 Celsius might not sound like much of a temperature drop, consider that my system at boot shows 36 Celsius. That is a new delta of three Celsius, half of the change in temperature of six Celsius under 11.10.

Note that on upgrade one is given the option of changing from the lxdm desktop manager to the new 12.04 default lightdm desktop manager, and I did so. Whether this underlies the cooler rig or not is beyond my ability to determine. All I know is that my CPU is running cooler on a newer OS, unusual in this day and age.



Lubuntu 12.04 also brings a new software center to the Lubuntu distro. The OS also shows more desktop polish, small visual tweaks that enhance the user experience. The window buttons on the panel compress in a visually more informative manner.

If LibreOffice.org is already installed, the distro upgrades the package to 3.5.2.2, which appears to have resolved the bug wherein closing windows could crash the windows manager. The LibreOffice.org no-program-screen is also visually repaired.

With 12.04 Lubuntu matures in its ability to handle programs not specifically selected for the distro.

A colleague of mine upgraded their Apple to Lion and has rued the day they did so - Lion has brought no end of compatibility problems for that colleague. All of my software survived the upgrade with the exception of the Google Earth client.

This summer science and mathematics laboratory at the college will switch back to Windows after over half a decade of Fedora/Ubuntu/Lubuntu. The reason is simply that the rest of campus is Windows and students still have file format compatibility problems as a result. The change will also align the lab with everything else on campus, simplifying life for IT as well.

While the lab will return to the world of Microsoft, I will continue to find more productivity, better security, and more educational apps for the kids and I over on the Ubuntu/Lubuntu side of the force.

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