14 DAY TRIAL // Black Lab Linux 6.0, a Linux distribution that is based on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" and that incorporates the GNOME desktop environment, has been released and is now available for download.
This new branch of Black Lab Linux was proposed quite a while ago and the development cycle has been very busy. The devs switched back and forth from Xfce to GNOME a few times, but in the end the GNOME DE prevailed.
Black Lab Linux is not a radically different experience from what has been made so far, and users will find that it provides a familiar and rather conservative approach. Some of the functions available by default in GNOME have been kept, but other things have been added and the end result is something specific to Black Lab Linux.
Black Lab Linux is an interesting alternative
The developers have many packages from the Ubuntu base, including some of the main ones. For example, Nautilus is at version 3.10.1, so it's a rather old release. On the other hand, users have access to a few components that are not present in the Ubuntu counterpart and that won't be available anytime soon in the OS from Canonical.
"Black Lab Linux 6 is the fruit of over a year of labor and brings about many exciting new features and some big changes to the Black Lab Linux platform. In Black Lab Linux 6 we focused on a few core improvements. Usability, by changing to a UI that has strong features, accessibility, and speed. We also have improved driver support and multimedia features that set Black Lab Linux apart from the rest."
"Black Lab Linux 6.0 has also improved how we deliver updates to our users. Being based on LTS technologies Black Lab Linux 6.0 is supported until April 2020. All incremental updates will be released via apt-get," reveal the release notes.
The more observant users will see that the distribution comes with the Linux kernel from Ubuntu, which is 3.13.0-37, but there is some good news. If you want to use the latest Linux kernel, 3.17, all you have to do is run a simple script and you'll get the new versions. This feature is not usually available in distros, so this makes a nice change of scenery.
Another very interesting change is the fact that App Grid has replaced the Ubuntu Software Center. This is a much faster solution than USC, but it's also a lot less transparent to the end user. It's also worth noting that LibreOffice is not included by default and that its pace has been taken over by Abiword and Gnumeric.
Check the official announcement for more details this version. You can download Black Lab Linux 6.0 right now from Softpedia, although only the 64-bit edition is available. The problem with GNOME desktop has been fixed in VirtualBox, so feel free to take it for a spin.
