As the name suggests, Linux Lite is a lightweight, user-friendly Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It is designed to be a beginner-friendly operating system that provides a familiar and easy-to-use environment for users transitioning from Windows or other operating systems.
Today, five months after the previous 6.4 release, the team behind the distro announced Linux Lite 6.6 as a continuation of the 6.x series. So, let’s have a look at what has changed.
What’s New in Linux Lite 6.6
While Linux Lite’s commitment to providing a familiar, user-friendly experience remains steadfast, some users might wonder why the distribution has opted to stick with Xfce 4.16 in its latest release, even though Xfce 4.18 has been available for over nine months.
If we can afford to speculate, maintaining old Xfce’s version likely revolves around stability and ensuring a well-tested user environment.
However, this decision doesn’t mean that the distro is falling behind in features or improvements. Linux Lite 6.6 highlights the distribution’s commitment to enhancing the user experience in other ways, focusing on language translations.
They are a vital aspect of making Linux accessible to a global audience. In this light, the new release has added support for 22 new languages across the entire desktop system, specifically to the Main Menu, right-click context menus, folder names, Linux Lite application names, desktop icons, and My Computer Menu names.
Under the hood, Linux Lite 6.6, as in its previous releases, is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, powered by Linux kernel 5.15.
Several applications have been updated, including Google Chrome 116, Thunderbird 102.15, LibreOffice 7.5.5, VLC 3.0.16, GIMP 2.10.30, and Timeshift 21.09.
Furthermore, the default Papirus icon set has also been bumped to its latest available version, and the distro’s hardware database now has over 85,000 submissions.
Apart from that, the devs implemented a check into the Welcome app to see if Linux Lite is running in a Live environment or not and only to display the “Install Now” button if it is.
And speaking of the Welcome app, we can’t help but mention the added “Free A.I. Chatbot” button that gives users instant real-time support.
Finally, we want to stress one important thing. Because Linux Lite is built on Ubuntu, Snap dependencies are not removed, so you get all of the benefits and drawbacks of this.
For example, when you try to install the Firefox web browser, you get the Snap version, just like in Ubuntu. Also, Flatpak support is not included by default in the installation.
You can refer to the announcement for detailed information about all changes. If you want to give Linux Lite 6.6 a try, you can download the installation ISO images here.
