Within the Linux ecosystem we can find distributions for all kinds of uses and all kinds of configurations. Some of the most interesting distros are light Linux distributions, systems designed and optimized to work on computers with little memory and very few resources. Linux is generally faster and less consuming than any version of Windows. However, we can always find distros that go a step further, as is the case with ExTix.
ExTix is a well-known alternative Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that seeks to offer users an experience similar to that offered by Canonical, but without the promoted applications or data collection of this company.
In addition to the regular Linux ExTix edition, its developers have just released a much more minimal and lightweight new version, perfect for users who are low on memory or an old processor and need to be given a second life. This is the new ExTix LXQt.
ExTix LXQt: a much smaller and lighter Ubuntu
ExTix LXQt is an even much smaller version of the normal version of this distro. Its developers have removed a large number of packages included in the main distro and, in addition, they have changed the default desktops for the lightweight LXQt.
Thanks to this, the developers have achieved that this distro has a size of only 1 GB , which makes it work very quickly both installed on any PC and loads in Live mode from RAM.
This new distro uses Ubuntu version 20.04 as its base, the next update of the Linux distro that will arrive later this month with extended LTS support for 5 years . Among the main applications installed by default in this distro we can highlight Firefox, VLC and Virtualbox, all of them updated to their latest versions. In addition, this distro uses by default the latest version of the Linux Kernel , released today, 5.6.2.
Here we can see the complete list of packages, and their versions, which are included in this minimalist version of Ubuntu.
Download and try ExTix LXQt
This new version of ExTix can be downloaded for free from the following link . We can use the ISO image that we downloaded to start a virtual machine with it or record it to an installation medium (such as a USB) to be able to boot any PC from it. The best program for this purpose, recommended by developers, is Rufus.
This distro is prepared to be used in Live Mode , from RAM, without installing anything. In this case, the default user we will find is “user”, and his password “live”. In case you want to start as root, the user will be “root”, and the password “root”. We can also use the “sudo” command to become superusers with the current user.
Differences from normal ExTix versions
In addition to this lightweight edition with LXQt desktop, ExTix developers have other much more complete distros available. All of them are based on Ubuntu, so broadly speaking they are very similar. The main difference with them is the number of packages included by default.
We can find ExTix editions with Deepin, Budgie and KDE desktops depending on the needs of each user. These editions take up much more space, have higher requirements, and also come with a greater variety of software, such as GIMP and KODI, among other programs.
We can find all the versions of this distro in SourceForge to download and install the one we want.