Xubuntu is a community-maintained derivative of the Ubuntu operating system. Wikipedia says “Xubuntu seeks to provide “a light, stable and configurable desktop environment with conservative workflows” using Xfce components. Xubuntu is intended for both new and experienced Linux users. Rather than explicitly targeting low-powered machines, it attempts to provide ‘extra responsiveness and speed’ on existing hardware.” The first official Xubuntu release was on June 1, 2006. To install and use 64-bit Xubuntu, you need an Intel or AMD 64-bit processor with at least 512 MB of memory. You can also try Xubuntu with a USB or DVD with the same amount of memory. Keep in mind that running the system from a USB or DVD will be slower than an installed system.
Lubuntu is a lightweight Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, using the LXQt desktop environment in place of Ubuntu’s GNOME desktop. Lubuntu’s website is at https://lubuntu.me. Lubuntu was originally touted as being “lighter, less resource hungry and more energy-efficient”, but now aims to be “a functional yet modular distribution focused on getting out of the way and letting users use their computer”. The minimum system requirements for Lubuntu 13.04 are a Pentium II or Celeron CPU with PAE support, 128 MB of RAM, and at least 2 GB of hard-drive space. That’s very minimal.
Lubuntu is a complete Operating System that ships the essential apps and services for daily use: office applications, PDF reader, image editor, music and video players, etc.
System requirements for Lubuntu 18.04 LTS included a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, although 2 GB was recommended for better performance, plus a Pentium 4, Pentium M, or AMD K8 CPU or newer.
The latest (most recent) version of Lububtu is 20.04.1 LTS, as of this writing. LTS stands for long-term support. I would not recommend LTS versions.
Comparison
How do they compare? Xubuntu is more lightweight than Ubuntu, but Lubuntu is truly lightweight. Xubuntu looks better, and it comes with more features and is more user-friendly than Lubuntu which looks more outdated and bare allowing very minimal customization.
Lubuntu Partitions
A note on manually creating partitions. You do this as part of the installation of Lubutu. The installation steps are; welcome, Location, Keyboard, Partitions, Users, Summary, Install and Finish. First, create a new partition table that is MBR. Click Free Space. Click the Create button to create a Primary partition of file type ext4 with a mount point of /. Do not use all of your space by typing in a Size. You will be creating another partition. The second partition will be ext4 and have a mount point of /boot.