Ubuntu Makes Lubuntu Official Derivative
Lubuntu now officially supported Ubuntu derivative.
It's official: Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu derivative. In a UDS session in Budapest, Colin Watson and Mark Shuttleworth clarified the details with project member Julien Lavergne. There are still no ISO and packages on the official Ubuntu site, but Lavergne will announce on the Ubuntu project development mailing list when the application is in the official repositories and there is an installable image. Lubuntu 11.10 will be the first officially supported version of the derivate.
Lavergne is pleased with the decision. He and his colleagues hope to gain greater visibility for Lubuntu with the help of Canonical.
Lubuntu is mainly geared toward low-memory computers, such as the Pentium II, which packs a mere 128MB of RAM. The LXDE desktop lacks some features, but it does not require much in terms of resources. Lubuntu uses PCManFM as a file manager, the Chromium browser, and the Sylpheed email client.

Lunbuntu
I understand your analogy with Windows and Mac and can see how confusing it can be at first. Many people still look at computers with amazement and wonder. I prefer to know I can switch between these "distros and derivatives" as I want to. I like the great variety and can see how others put together their flavor while adding my own changes and sharing them with others. The different ways Linux can be put together isn't daunting.
Whenever I explain, "Why so many different kinds of Linux? Aren't they all the same?" I use the food analogy. "Why do you like this dish? This kind of analogy usually helps as it seems everybody has some dish they prefer over some other. Spices can make or brake the meal but, why would someone want to eat the same thing all the time and never change it?
Would anyone like a beer?
lUbuntu
Lubuntu
Do you think windows XP or Windows 7 would be the top OS if there was Windows Lite, Kinda-sort-like-Windows, UberWindows, JustAnother Window, My First Window, BrokenWindows, Non-MS Windows, Microsoft, and a dozen other names for Windows. Consumers, would be utterly confused which one to use.
Same could apply to Apple's OS. if there were multiple flavors of MacOS or MacOS lite, or alternative MacOS, I'm-really-not-riding-the-unix-train-MacOS, Just-Another-pretty-face-ontopof-Unix-MacOS, We-couldn't-build-our-own-OS-so-we-hopped-the-unix-train-MacOS, etc, etc, etc. Apple wouldn't be as popular as it is now because users would be confused.
lubuntu