You can download Black Lab Linux right now from Softpedia

Jul 23, 2014 13:27 GMT  ·  By

Black Lab Linux 5.1 Alpha 2, a distribution that aims to rival Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, is now ready for testing.

Black Lab Linux is a distribution designed for general desktop and power users that comes with a lot of applications and features. The developers of this distro seem to be taking their time with this branch of the OS. It's been almost a month since the previous update and not much has changed.

There are other Black Lab Linux releases, but some of them are for enterprise use and users will have to pay for them, which also buys them support by email or phone. When this version becomes stable, it will share the same fate as the other ones, at least for a few months.

There aren't too many changes in this new version, but some of the packages have been updated. Three in particular can be noticed by users: Mozilla Firefox 31, Mozilla Thunderbird 31, and VLC 2.1.3.

“Linux kernel 3.8, now there has been some questions about our use of the 3.8 kernel. BETA 1 and final, which will drop in mid August will contain the LTS 3.10 kernel. We do understand Canonical will be dropping support for the 3.10 kernel when their Trusty HWE drops. We will not.”

“Docky has been fixed and will no longer crash on live sessions and no longer crashes the installer. All other application updates and bug fixes have been supplied,” notes the developer in the announcement.

We also reported on the fact that Black Lab Linux planned on using Linux kernel 3.8, but the update from the developers actually cleared this problem. In any case, if you don't like the kernel provided with the 5.1 release, you can always choose Linux kernel 3.15, which is already in the official repositories.

Black Lab Linux devs usually make the operating system free of charge a couple of months after the initial release. All the development releases are usually free of charge and can be tested without any problems, even in virtual environments. It should work without any issues in VirtualBox.

Check the official announcement for more details, features, and changes about this build. You can download Black Lab Linux 5.1 Alpha 2 right now from Softpedia.

Remember that this is a development version and it should NOT be installed on production machines. It is intended for testing purposes only.