A little over a year ago, Acquia announced the release of Lightning, an open source starter kit and framework that helps expedite building and authoring Drupal 8 sites and experiences.
Also affectionately known as “Drupal Core with afterburners,” Acquia Lightning was designed to make developers’ lives easier. Lightning includes more than 100 automated tests covering its major functionality, giving developers a much more solid module base to work on and extend.
By combining Layout, Media, and Workflow capabilities into a single distribution, we’re able to offer a simplified, consistent authoring experience. By making choices about how these features are implemented, commitments to maintaining the distro, upgradability, and a suite of automated tests, we also offer an easier build and a reduced maintenance burden for developers. - John Kennedy, Open Source Product Manager at Acquia