Linux Lite -- a highly trimmed down version of Ubuntu, has been updated to version 5.8 and adds several new features including a new Widget, an updated Papirus icon theme, the command line information tool Noefetch and Mintstick, which lets you create bootable USB drives. There are also nine new wallpapers to freshen up your desktop experience.
Linux Lite is a highly stripped-down operating system based on the Debian and Ubuntu flavors of Linux. Similar to Linux Core we covered a few days ago, this operating system is designed to run on very low-end hardware, but not as low-end as Linux Core.
Nonetheless, the minimum requirements for Linux core are still very low in today's world, requiring just a 1GHz CPU, 768MB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. This means you can run this OS on almost any PC from the past 15 years (never mind the best ultrabooks of today), and perhaps some low-end android phones too if the OS were ported to ARM.
But despite the name, Linux Lite's primary goal is actually to give Windows users an easy way into the Linux world. The GUI and apps that come with Lite are chosen specifically for novice users who want to give Linux a shot if they are coming from Windows.
When you first fire up Linux Lite, the taskbar, start menu, and desktop all have the same layout as Windows. Clicking the "menu" button brings up a start menu lookalike interface where you can access and open all your apps on the PC.
Thankfully, each version of Linux Lite is modified based on the Long Term Support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu. With Linux Lite version 5.8, running on Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS right now. This means you can stay on a specific version of Linux Lite for up to 5 years and know you are getting the latest security updates for that version of Linux, as well as bug fixes. Just keep in mind you won't always get the latest features of Linux or Ubuntu from the LTS versions.
If you want to check out Linux Lite, it is available here for download.
