The distro is now powered by Linux kernel 4.5.3

May 14, 2016 21:30 GMT  ·  By

Earlier this week, we reported on the release of a new build of the Ubuntu-based Exton|OS Linux distribution, version 160512, which was rebased on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus).

However, it was a bit strange that the distro shipped with an older version of the MATE desktop environment, a clone of the old-school GNOME 2 (also known as GNOME Classic) graphical interface, version 1.12.7, despite the fact that MATE 1.14 was released last month.

Therefore, at the request of the community, Arne Exton had to upgrade the MATE package to the latest stable branch, version 1.14.0, which, unfortunately, he had to build from the freely distributed sources. The reason for that is because it looks like the MATE 1.14 desktop environment is not yet available in the main repositories of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

"After the 160512 Build with Mate 1.12.7 I "discovered" that Mate 1.14.0 was released in April 2016. The new 1.14.0 Mate packages are yet not available in Ubuntu’s repos so I had to install them from source," said Arne Exton. "While I was at it I upgraded VLC from version 2.1.3 to 2.2.3."

Now shipping with Linux kernel 4.5.3 and VLC Media Player 2.2.3

In addition to upgrading the MATE packages from version 1.12.7 to 1.14.0, Arne Exton, who emailed us earlier today, May 14, 2016, just to keep us in the loop with the latest development progress of his Exton|OS distro, managed to upgrade the kernel to the latest Linux 4.5.3 release, as well as the VLC Media Player software to version 2.2.3.

If you already have the Exton|OS operating system installed on your computer, all you have to do to get VLC 2.2.3 is to apply the latest updates. However, if you also want MATE 1.14 and Linux kernel 4.5.3, you'll have to download the Exton|OS Build 160514 64-bit Live ISO image from our website.