I am a big fan of the Lubuntu Minimal Desktop from the mini.iso. For 18.04, it is still using LXDE, which I am grateful for. Does anyone know if this will change to LXQT beginning with 18.10, as is the plan with the main distro? Or, might it stay LXDE (I hope…)?
Ubuntu – Lubuntu Minimal on mini.iso after 18.04 – lxde or lxqt
lubuntulxde
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The first Lubuntu release with the LXQt desktop environment by default will be Lubuntu 18.10, due for release on October 18, 2018. The first daily build is now available for testing on both 64-bit and 32-bit architectures.source
Lubuntu 18.10 with the LXQt desktop environment (Click image to enlarge)
Since Lubuntu changes its desktop from LXDE to LXQt there have been changes in icons of the panel and PCmanFM, the file manager. I am not an experienced user but I am wondering why a change in technology also has to come with changes in the look and feel of the desktop environment.
It's because it was a complete rewrite of the desktop. It wasn't just a single underlying technology change; the whole release should be considered a new feature.
The Lubuntu theme, Box, was starting to bitrot. There's no way currently to get that theme back, because not only would it require reworking for LXQt, it needs maintenance.
Sorry; if you enjoyed the old Lubuntu, it's still supported for the next 2.5 years.
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Best Answer
If you're asking about https://packages.ubuntu.com/bionic-updates/lubuntu-core, it was last available with bionic/18.04 which will be supported until 2021-April.
Lubuntu uses LXQt from 18.10 up as @DKBose mentioned and no such package exists after 18.04.
Lubuntu 18.04 LTS was also the last with the alternate ISO which allowed installs on machines with less than 768MB of ram (it wasn't even re-spun for 18.04.1 or later ISOs, just the original 18.04) See https://lubuntu.me/taking-a-new-direction/
If you're worried about lightness, I used old single-core pentium M, 1GB ram laptops to test Lubuntu 18.10 & 19.04, and in my subjective opinion it was the lightest Ubuntu flavor available (Xubuntu was the only other capable of running on those laptops though; MATE had already ported to GTK3 so was painful on those under-powered & ancient laptops). For later/subsequent cycles I finally added memory as few people would use 1GB ram laptops these days, though I did push a pentium 4 box up to eoan/19.10 too.
LXDE is currently on life-support It was noted by pcman some GTK3 patches were submitted years ago, and pcman actually started porting it to GTK3 but noted the performance hit (I can't currently find the blog on this, I'll add it if I find it), so it was re-reported to Qt5 which performed much better. Most of the LXDE team then joined with Razor-Qt team creating a new LXQt team & project. Lubuntu wants to remain light, which today means LXQt/Qt5.
LXDE may still survive if it's converted to GTK3, however I personally suspect it's days are numbered (in Debian/Ubuntu). Lubuntu now uses LXQt/Qt5, Xubuntu is now all GTK3 (since 19.10), and the main project that has kept GTK2 libraries mostly-patched is still
gimp(GNU Image Manipulation program) which is nearing its GTK3 port completion. Once the port ofgimpto GTK3 is done, we may see Debian/Ubuntu EOL GTK2 & start removing all GTK2 libraries which will cause LXDE to disappear as well (this won't occur before April-2021, though packages are likely to remain in existing repositories for the full life of those systems just aspython2& Qt4 packages did; what happened with those are what I'd expect to happen with all GTK2 based packages).For LXDE to survive in Debian/Ubuntu, it'll require a community member to package it's GTK3 port when it's completed (an unknown date in the future) which will likely involve even more work if it's after removal of existing packages, but that's just my opinion! (it may be packaged via PPA as that's a lot easier having a very loose security model)
The real answer to your minimal package question though is probably best answered by the already provided Taking a New Direction blog.
An alternative way of achieving that however would be to
Quoting @wxl from https://discourse.lubuntu.me/t/what-happened-to-the-meta-mackage-lubuntu-core-in-20-04-lts/1045