14 DAY TRIAL // A new version of the ExLight GNU/Linux distribution hit the streets this week bringing users an Ubuntu 17.10-based desktop experience featuring the lightweight Enlightenment desktop environment.
ExLight Build 171112 is the latest update to the Linux distro, which is based on the recently released Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system, but also borrows some package from the upcoming Debian GNU/Linux 10 "Buster" repositories (a.k.a. Debian Testing).
The biggest change in this release is the replacement of the Linux 4.9 LTS kernel used in previous versions of the distribution with the more recent Linux 4.13 kernel series. ExLight Build 171112 runs a specially crafted kernel 4.13.0-16-exton based on upstream's Linux 4.13.4 kernel.
The Enlightenment desktop environment was updated as well, from version 0.19.12 to 0.20.99.0, though it's not the latest available at the moment of writing as Enlightenment 0.22 stable release arrived last week with greater Wayland support and several other enhancements and new features.
ExLight lets you build your own Ubuntu-based live system
The best thing about this ExLight release is that it ships with the Refracta Tools utility, which lets you build your own Ubuntu-based live system. You don't even have to install the distro to use Refracta Tools, and the entire process of creating a bootable ISO image won't take more than 5 minutes.
Among other improvements implemented in ExLight Build 171112, we can mention that the ISO image is now hybrid so you can install it on either a USB flash drive or a CD/DVD disc, there's a new boot option to run the entire live system directly from RAM if you have at least 2GB of RAM, and the Refracta Installer is now the default installer.
"The installation program Ubiquity (Ubuntu’s live installer) has been replaced with Refracta Installer," said ExLight developer Arne Exton. "A new user (your user) will be created during the installation process. The reason for the replacement is that Ubiquity is a bit too complicated and that the program crashes once in a while."
Nvidia 384.98 proprietary graphics driver is installed as well to support Nvidia GPUs, and there are some new animated wallpapers. You can download the ExLight Build 171112 64-bit live ISO image right now from our website if you want to take it for a test drive on your personal computer, and don't hesitate to check out the screenshot gallery below to see it in action.
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