I know that there is already a discussion for this technically and perhaps this is redundant—in which case I will accept if the admins wish to close this.
However, I felt the need to post something here where people who perhaps cannot contribute yet but still would like to show their appreciation for Lubuntu and the community/team behind it. TL;DR is at bottom.
I have felt an immense sense of gratitude for Lubuntu where just recently I have actually been able to boot up my old laptop on which I had put 20.04 on a while back. It was literally the most satisfying feeling I had felt in a long while with tech. I was able to get my WiFi driver installed without issue. I had Firefox ready to go without issue. When I needed to download and send documents, I could open up all the .docx and .pdf files without issue. When I needed to install Veracrypt, I downloaded the .deb and the GUI let me do it without issue. When I had archives that I needed to extract, Lubuntu let me do it all via the GUI without issue.
Basically, I was never short of anything. Even when I wanted to add a logon noise via Autostart, I was able to use VLC to convert my MP3 to OGG. No effort!
Every time I thought I would be short of something, I already had it!
I think it goes without saying that maintaining a project like this takes a huge effort when you consider the work taken to make Lubuntu the way it is today—not to mention the administrative effort for the resources some of us use often like the manual, wiki, etc.
Everyone who has contributed to this project in one way or another—whether its code or management of community resources, or manual documentation, or even simply providing some support/discourse to people via the forum or mailing lists—it shows that people from varying backgrounds, identities, and cultures can come together to help one another for a bigger cause.
I know some might be hesitant to give praise to Lubuntu when their particular experience with it might not have been ideal. Perhaps you might not have received the support you wanted, etc.
Am I saying Lubuntu is perfect? - No.
Do I think Lubuntu will please everyone? - Also, no.
I think Lubuntu has its own vision and direction—and because my particular experience with it has been rather positive, I happen to like what it offers—and while there will always be weird politics involved with things inside of a particular community like open source, I support the vision they have.
That being said, I think there is always room for improvement. Naturally, as a part of anything that exists in life, there is always a road full of failure paved for the treasure of success. As humans we have evolved through time from banging sticks on rocks to skyscrapers among smog-ridden data centers. Just as we as an individual can improve and mature over time, so too does this apply to anything that extends from our egos and passions. We owe it to ourselves to strive to be better not only for the realization of what we want to become but for the legacies we wish to depart.
TL;DR:
All of that being said, I thought it would be nice to have something for those of us who really like Lubuntu but perhaps cannot exactly show that appreciation in the form of donation, support, etc. Believe it or not, sometimes communicating something as simple as a “thank you” can actually make someone’s day. I know a few cases myself where I’ve had life happen to me one day, putting me at my lowest and sometimes you get a sincere moment of human empathy that let’s you see that every cloud has a silver lining.
In the spirit of communicating appreciation for this project and the awesome community behind it—and although I might have had a few too many drinks this evening—I just want to give a huge THANK YOU!