GNU/Linux developer Arne Exton announced the availability of a new build of his ExTiX distribution, which has been designed to run on the Intel Compute Stick device.
ExTiX Build 161119 is the new version of the Linux-based operating system, powered by the latest Linux 4.8 kernel and using the lightweight LXQt 0.10.0 desktop environment as default graphical interface. However, the most important change in this release is that it ships with a kernel engineered to support the Intel Compute Stick mini computer.
“I have made a new version of ExTiX – The Ultimate Linux System. I call it ExTiX 16.5 LXQt for the Intel Compute Stick. Build 161119 is only for Intel Compute Sticks. i.e. you can’t run the system on other computers,” said Arne Exton in the announcement. “Build 161119 uses “my” kernel 4.8.0-26-exton-IntelAtom with special patches.”
Based on Debian GNU/Linux 9 “Stretch” and Ubuntu 16.10 “Yakkety Yak”
Just like previous releases of ExTiX, Build 161119 is based on Canonical’s latest Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) operating system, and the Debian Testing repositories, which will become Debian GNU/Linux 9 “Stretch” sometime in spring 2017. But, as mentioned above, it replaces the Unity user interface with LXQt 0.10.0.
All packages included in ExTiX Build 161119 are at their latest versions as of November 19, 2016, and you can study the full list if you’re curious to know what exactly landed in the new version. The most important software pre-installed are Google Chrome as default web browser, BlueGriffon WYSIWYG editor, and LibreOffice office suite.
Users will also be able to use the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail and news client, SMPlayer video editor, GParted partition editor, and Samba for reaching Windows computers. GCC and other compilation tools are available as well if you want to install software from sources. Download ExTiX Build 161119 for Intel Compute Stick and check the installation instructions on the release notes page.
