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What is LXDE?

2006, The Beginning

LXDE was started in 2006 by Taiwanese programmer Hong Jen Yee, also known as PCMan, when he published PCManFM, a new file manager and the first module of LXDE. The goal was simple: create something fast and efficient for older or resource-constrained computers, at a time when GNOME and KDE were becoming heavier with each release.

Growing into a full desktop

Development progressed as an alternative to heavier environments like KDE and GNOME, and even lighter options like Xfce, aiming for fewer dependencies and faster performance while maintaining a familiar, traditional desktop layout. By 2007, an international team of contributors had formed around the project, and PCManFM was integrated as LXDE's default file manager the following year.

Proving its efficiency

In 2010, independent tests showed LXDE 0.5 had the lowest memory footprint among the most popular desktop environments of the time (compared to GNOME, KDE Plasma, and Xfce), and that it used less energy too, a big deal for laptop battery life.

Around the same period, LXDE saw a real surge in popularity. Distribution rankings noted the rise of distributions using the lightweight but full-featured LXDE desktop, with Lubuntu comfortably beating Kubuntu in terms of traffic, while many other distributions started offering their own LXDE-based editions.

The Qt turning point (2013)

Dissatisfied with the direction of GTK 3, Hong Jen Yee began experimenting with Qt in early 2013, releasing the first Qt-based version of PCManFM in March that year, followed by a full Qt port of the LXDE suite a few months later. Shortly after, LXDE's Qt effort merged with another lightweight desktop project, Razor-qt, giving birth to what would become LXQt.

Two paths: LXQt and LXDE

While most of the original development team moved on to focus on LXQt (formally splitting off in 2018), the classic GTK-based LXDE didn't disappear. Other developers continued maintaining it on GitHub, and as of recent years there are still fresh commits keeping the GTK 2 version updated, alongside an experimental GTK 3 port from the Arch Linux community.

Where we are today

Nearly two decades later, LXDE is still here: still lightweight, still Openbox-powered by default, and still capable of bringing old hardware back to life without a fight. That's exactly why this site, and r/LXDEsurvival, exist.

"But isn't LXDE dead?" Addressing the Elephant in the Room

If you've spent any time researching LXDE, you've probably run into comments calling it deprecated, abandoned, or "just use LXQt instead." Let's clear a few things up.

Is LXDE actually deprecated?

Not exactly. While the original development team shifted its focus to LXQt back in 2013–2018, LXDE didn't disappear. It's still being maintained with security updates, even though it doesn't need much further development at this point, the core idea was finished a long time ago, and it still works. Other developers continue to maintain it independently, and it's still available in Ubuntu's repositories and still being updated, with well over 40 distros still shipping it.

Is it safe to use a desktop environment that isn't actively "developed"?

Yes, and here's why: most of what makes up LXDE (PCManFM, LXAppearance, LXSession, and Openbox itself) is a thin layer of glue code around your system, not something that handles sensitive operations directly. These components hardly need security updates, and it's safe to use as long as it works and the rest of your distro is kept up to date. Your actual security depends far more on your kernel, your browser, and your package manager staying updated, not on whether Openbox got a UI refresh last year.

Why still choose it today?

Because it does exactly what it was built to do, efficiently, and without asking for more. It's still the default on Raspberry Pi OS, it's noticeably lighter than its own "successor" LXQt, and for older hardware, that difference is often exactly what keeps a machine usable instead of ending up in a landfill.

System Requirements

LXDE is designed for resource-constrained systems. The minimum requirements are roughly equivalent to Windows 98-era hardware.

Minimum hardware:
CPU: 400–600 MHz Intel-compatible processor (a Pentium II or later is enough).
RAM: 256–512 MB (LXDE itself consumes around 45 MB of memory on an idle boot).
Storage: at least 4–8 GB free, depending on the distro you build it on.

Keep in mind these figures come straight from LXDE's own documentation, largely unchanged since the late 2000s. Back then, LXDE on top of the Linux stack of the day really was comparable to Windows 98 in terms of what it asked from your hardware.

LXDE itself hasn't gotten heavier since. The same can't be said for everything running underneath it. A modern Linux kernel carries a lot more than the 2008 one did, and systemd, now the default init system on most major distros, adds its own overhead compared to older, simpler init systems. So while LXDE stays true to its original weight, the base system it sits on has generally gained some. Real-world requirements today are somewhat higher than these historical numbers suggest, even if the desktop environment itself hasn't changed.

That said, it depends heavily on what you pair it with. Run LXDE on top of a distro built around OpenRC or runit instead of systemd, such as Artix Linux, and you get a lot closer to those original numbers, since the extra weight was never in LXDE to begin with, it was in everything systemd brought along with it. Even with a heavier init system underneath, LXDE still remains one of the lightest full desktop environments you can install today.

Worth noting too: a fair number of apps you'll actually want to run day to day, especially anything built more recently, need GTK3 rather than the GTK2 LXDE was originally built around. That's not a weakness specific to LXDE, pretty much every GTK2-era desktop faces the same thing, but it does mean your system will likely end up with both GTK2 and GTK3 libraries installed side by side, GTK2 for LXDE's own components, GTK3 for modern applications.

As a concrete example: LXDE with GTK3 on EndeavourOS in 2026 remains an extremely light choice, typically using between 250 MB and 450 MB of RAM at boot, depending on which background services are enabled (NetworkManager and Pipewire being the usual suspects that add a bit of overhead). That makes it a solid pick both for reviving old hardware and for simply keeping more memory free on modern machines.

(Based on discussions from the EndeavourOS forum.)

On top of all this, real-world hardware requirements will still scale depending on the applications you intend to run alongside your desktop. Modern web browsers like Firefox or Chrome remain memory-heavy regardless of how light your desktop environment is, so on genuinely old hardware, your browser choice often matters more than your desktop choice. If you're planning a full Linux installation rather than just swapping the desktop environment, it's worth looking at distributions built with the same philosophy in mind. You can opt for rock-solid minimal bases like Debian (with its official LXDE flavor), Arch Linux, or Artix and EndeavourOS configured with LXDE, where you build your software selection from scratch. Alternatively, there are dedicated lightweight projects like Loc-OS, DebLight OS and WattOS (temporarily dormant) that tailor LXDE for immediate use. Just be mindful of the out-of-the-box software selection: while some distros keep it lean, others like the legendary KNOPPIX (or the now-abandoned but classic LXLE), pair the ultra-light LXDE desktop with an massive, heavy suite of pre-installed applications. On genuinely resource-constrained hardware, choosing a minimal base and being selective with your apps (especially your web browser) will always make the biggest difference.

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