Lubuntu 18.10 will be the first version to be migrated to the LXQt desktop

­Lubuntu-Next will be the first version to be officially ported to the LXQt desktop after a period of development from a GTK-based LXDE desktop environment to a modern LXQt desktop environment powered by Qt 5. The Walter Lapchynski of the Lubuntu project has confirmed that for Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish", they will switch to the LXQt desktop environment.

­Lubuntu's Simon Quigley says there are several reasons for switching, but the main reason is that upstream LXDE development has slowed significantly, and most desktop environments are based on GTK 2, which is losing support and will eventually be phased out. On the other hand, upstream LXQt development is quite active, it is based on the Qt 5 framework and is more stable than GTK (independent of GNOME).

­Simon Quigley also mentioned that it took so long to switch because of a lack of team resources and that the technology was not yet in place.

­more details can be found at https://lubuntu.me/this-week-in-lubuntu-development-5/