Lilidog is a lightweight desktop Linux distribution based on Debian "Stable" and featuring a customised Openbox window manager. It incorporates the tint2 desktop panel, the Thunar file manager and the xfce4-terminal terminal emulator. Other window managers, including Awesome, dwm, i3, JWM and sowm, are also available for installation. Besides the standard Lilidog, the project provides two other editions of the distribution - the "Beardog" variant which starts without a display manager on login, and the "Waydog" flavour which uses the Wayland display server and offers a choice between the labwc and Sway Wayland compositors.
To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
Colour scheme:green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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I have been trying out many distros over the past few months. There was always some problem with all of them, even with very well known and usually reliable editions. Either the installation stopped, the printer could NOT be hooked up or simply no synaptic repository available to pull in vital and necessary programs. In my desperation I tried quite a few unknown or lesser known distros and low and behold "Lilidog Trixie" came to the rescue. It made my "day" - or should I say "week" or "month" ?
To my way of thinking Lilidog behaved as Linux should behave - give it a command and it does exactly that ! Installation was a breeze, the desktop was pleasant and useful and all important programs were either there or available through "synaptic".
Even after installation of many programs, particularly printer files, the system worked well and didn't complain of anything. Even a change of keyboard and locale went without a hitch - I am truely impressed :))
One can tell that the developer(s) tried their work out before they released it and a lot of thought went into this distro. I am very grateful for this because the terrible thought crossed my mind that all is not well in the Linux world and I might have to give Windows another try after 15 years of Linux relieve.
Credit must be given where credit is due and I can only recommend "Lilidog Trixie" for beginners and Linuxers alike, it definitely deserves 10 out of 10 points !
Best distro I have ever used. I was using Mint Debian and I was having some lagging issues, so I decided to distrohop. I came across Lilidog while scrolling at new releases and at first I was not attracted by the concept of it, but I decided to check it out. I am pleasantly surprised. Easy to install, smooth, it works perfectly. The coolest thing about Lilidog is the fact that the auto themes also affect newly installed programs, so even VLC and Geany change accordingly. This is going to be my main distro if nothing changes. It has everything I need for my daily usage, I can use Appimages, tint2 is great, my USB WIFI adapter went through without needing to install drivers, I cannot ask for more. For a person who only wants to get rid of Windows and not tinker with anything unnecessary, this is one of the best options. Maybe it takes a little while for beginners to get used to the window manager and using synaptic but it just works. Highly recommended.
I didn’t know this distribution before; I discovered it for the first time here on DistroWatch. I have two rather old laptops, a 10-year-old Samsung and an even older Acer, but both are still in excellent working condition.
I tried several lightweight distros on these two laptops, but I was never completely satisfied with the responsiveness, or because some things didn’t work as promised.
I immediately wanted to try Lilidog in live mode. I tested it for quite a while and liked it very much, so I decided to install it.
The installation didn’t seem as simple as with Calamares. Maybe I made a mistake choosing among the different installation options, but there were some specific choices I didn’t really know how to answer, and I just moved forward.
I’m not an expert user. Even though I switched to Linux almost 10 years ago, I don’t like using the terminal. I would prefer to do everything from a graphical environment. I’d like updates to run automatically, and for the operating system to handle these operations on its own without asking me whether I want to remove old versions of programs or other questions and choices during the update process.
That said, there is a small program—probably a script—in English for updating, which is easy to understand, with intuitive options and well designed.
I’m 60 years old and I have good computer knowledge, but I don’t have time to study terminal commands. I always look for intuitive and easy-to-use distributions that make daily PC use simpler and faster.
Lilidog is lightweight and responsive. It feels modern and pleasant to look at. I like having all possible options available with a right-click, and I generally use that to choose which programs to launch.
There are many possibilities to customize the look of the OS. There’s a widget menu, and you can enable Conky with partial or complete information, just the way I like it.
Icons and colors can be changed easily.
Unfortunately, the Italian translation is incomplete or missing. I hope this issue can be fixed.
Lilidog uses only 350 MB of RAM when idle, which is an excellent result—exactly what I was looking for.
I do miss a small software store to quickly install the most popular browsers or other commonly used programs. It’s not a big problem for me, but it would be convenient to have.
Of course, Synaptic is included by default. I have no problem using it, even if it’s not very intuitive.
So overall, everything is good. I’m very happy with Lilidog. I would give it a 10 for responsiveness, a 9 for completeness, and a 10 for being a well-designed, well-organized distro, with a thoughtful selection of programs and solid overall engineering.
I immediately felt it was “mine,” exactly how I wanted it. So my compliments to the author.