Zbigniew Konojacki, the creator and lead developer of the 4MLinux project, had the great pleasure of informing us earlier today, September 22, about the immediate availability for download and testing of the Beta build of 4MLinux 14.0.

4MLinux 14.0 will be the next major version of the independent GNU/Linux distribution. The Beta release comes today for those who wish to take it for a test drive with numerous updated applications, under-the-hood improvements, and lots of bug fixes.

Among the pre-installed applications in 4MLinux 14.0 Beta, we can mention LibreOffice 5.0, Mozilla Firefox 40.0.3, Mozilla Thunderbird 38.2.0, Skype 4.3.0.37, aTunes 3.1.2, Dropbox 3.8.8, Transmission 2.84, Google Chrome 45.0.2454.85, MPlayer SVN-r37443, GNOME MPlayer 1.0.8, and SMPlayer SVN-r7051.

Additionally, the X.Org Server has been updated to version 1.17.2, the Mesa 3D Graphics Library 10.6.5 has been included, and it is now possible to set up a 4MLinux LAMP (Linux, Apache, MariaDB and PHP) server that includes Apache 2.4.16, MariaDB 10.0.21, PHP 5.6.12, Perl 5.22.0, and Python 2.7.10.

"Create your documents with LibreOffice 5.0.2.1 and share them using DropBox 3.8.8 and Transmission 2.84, surf the Internet with Firefox 40.0.3 and Chrome 45.0.2454.85, stay in touch with your friends via Thunderbird 38.2.0 and Skype 4.3.0.37, enjoy your multimedia collection with aTunes 3.1.2 and MPlayer SVN-r37443," says the developer.

The Beta version of 4MLinux 14.0 is powered by Linux kernel 3.18.21 LTS. You can download the 4MLinux 14.0 Beta Live CD ISO image right now from Softpedia, but please try to keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, which means that it's not suitable for production use.

Default desktop in 4MLinux 14.0 pic.twitter.com/4eCTtDK73P — Zbigniew Konojacki (@MyNameIsZK1234) September 21, 2015