Hi all,
Would upgrading my version of lubuntu slow down my computer the same as windows does, ie memory etc
Regards, steve
Yes and No.
I’ll provide some thoughts/factors
- newer kernels may have different/additional kernel modules that are better for your hardware, thus providing better performance (esp. the case with newer hardware) or less performance. However given you can choose kernel stack (if using a LTS release) you could if moving from one LTS to the next LTS and if using the HWE stack prior to release-upgrade, use that same kernel stack on the newer release (ie. switch to GA) anyway avoiding any change; ie. run the newer release using the same kernel you had before
- changes in toolkit/libraries may run faster or slower when upgraded according to your CPU; so effects here are specific to your hardware (some hardware may benefit, other hardware may not)
- software does tend to increase in size (RAM use especially), especially as new features are added (eg. scaling: those with higher definition monitors will benefit, but those without those monitors will still have that code available on their system but it’ll do nothing for them), but some mitigations of this are made; eg. LXDE devs switched from GTK to Qt due to weight issues with GTK3 which is why we’re using LXQt now, and we do on rare occasion switch out apps
- additional security does tend to cost cycles; so increases of security alas can cause newer & more secure code to be a tad slower, but additional security is actually a benefit
Yes it’s possible that newer software may make your machine feel slower; yet with that exact install and upgrade on another machine and that install may appear faster OR make no difference at all. Newer code tends to benefit newer hardware most, where newer code can be slower on older hardware, but in most cases user behavior has far more impact, and differences are extremely minor.
I’m on my newest device currently; it’s a ~2016 dell optiplex (i5-6500), and I’ve noticed no speed differences in upgrading it (every six months) since it was installed. I have a secondary machine which runs on a 2008 dell optiplex (c2q-q9400) and I can’t recall any differences on that box either… however I do use the two machines a little differently so each performs at its best for me (I do the same things on both machines, but I’m always considering RAM/resources on the older core2 box and so my order of tasks is more careful on the older box).
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I should not worry too much, unless your machine has very limited RAM. Sufficient RAM is key.
My experience: I’ve been using Lubuntu on a very minimal laptop (2GB of memory, some kind of simple Intel Atom processor with two cores, and a 32 GB hard disk on a chip).
Good enough for simple daily tasks like browsing, email and LibreOffice. Not for games and videoediting.
The main reason I abandoned that machine was that around 2022 Lubuntu switched to 64 bits only, and although my old laptop was 64 bit, the EFI system accepted only 32 bits. I did not understand what the problem was, and just upgraded.
I think I still would be able to run another decent OS that still supports 32-bit EFI (e.g. SparkyLinux). The other reason would be the limitation of the 32 GB hard disk.
If you now have a swap partition enabled, you can check with the following command if the swap is frequently utilised (check in a terminal ‘’$ free -h"):
$ vmstat 1
Parameter ‘‘1’’ lets the program run every second.
It is a rather technical overview of what is happening with your installed memory. And indicative enough.
If columns si and so are zero (swap in and swap out I guess), or if not much changes occur, you are still in the save (test this with your usually workload of open apps). Just read the man page 
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Thanks for the replies,
my laptop specs are,
HP Pavilion Laptop
- Pentium 4415U Processor
- 14 Inch Screen
- 4GB RAM
- 1TB Hard drive
Going by the replies, i should be good to go with future lubuntu releases
should be enough to run Lubuntu without problems.