Today, August 15, 2016, Black Lab Software CEO Roberto J. Dohnert has informed Softpedia about the general availability of the first Beta release of the upcoming Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" computer OS.
Until today, Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" has been in the Alpha stages of development and received a total of four Alpha builds that have brought multiple updated components and GNU/Linux technologies, but now the Ubuntu-based operating system has entered a much more advanced development state, Beta, and the first one is here exactly six months after the development cycle started.
"Today the Black Lab Linux development team is pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Linux 8 'Onyx' Beta 1. Bringing us one step closer to our goal of a stable, secure, and long term supported Linux desktop for the masses. 'Onyx' Beta 1 is a culmination of over 6 months of user collaboration and feedback," says Roberto J. Dohnert, Black Lab Software CEO.
Based on Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Probably the most important feature of the Black Lab Linux 8 "Onyx" Beta 1 release is that the entire OS has been fully synchronized with the upstream Ubuntu Trusty Tahr software repositories. What this means is that it's now based on the latest Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS operating system, which comes with updated kernel and graphics stacks from the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) distro.
By popular demand, the Abiword word processor, Gnumeric spreadsheet editor, Rhythmbox music player, VLC Media Player, GIMP image editor, and Chromium web browser application packages are included in the first Beta release of Black Lab Linux 8 "Onyx," along with many web apps, such as Google Maps, Hangouts, YouTube, Google Photos, Outlook, Google Play Music, Spotify, Google Contacts, and Google Translate.
Using the lightweight and highly customizable Xfce desktop environment by default, Black Lab Linux 8 "Onyx" Beta 1 is now available for download via our website. A Live DVD ISO image that works only on 64-bit computers is ready for testing. Still, please try to keep in mind that what you'll see and taste is only for public testing, not to be used in production environments.
