14 DAY TRIAL // Black Lab Linux 6.0 RC1, a Linux distribution that uses Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" as the foundation, is now out and users are able to test it.
Black Lab Linux started its life as a Windows XP alternative and the developers actually made a big deal about it. Even the interface was designed in such a way that it resembled the Windows XP desktop layout, at least to some degree. They have since parted ways with that kind of desktop and statement, but they are still looking for their identity.
The Black Lab Linux devs have gone through some important modifications and each development version in this latest branch had a different desktop environment, oscillating between GNOME and Xfce. Granted, both have their strengths and weaknesses, but it looks like that we might finally have a winner.
The last Beta that was made available back at the end of September had Xfce and the developers seemed to be pretty convinced that they would stick with that desktop, but now they have switched back to GNOME. We can only hope that it’s the last time.
Black Lab Linux 6.0 RC1 is really close to the final release
"Today we have released the RC1 (Release Candidate 1) of Black Lab Linux 6. While with this release we are in feature freeze, we really worked on the stability of the system."
"There are less sporadic crashes and now with GNOME 3, we have nailed down performance in Virtual Machine Instances and we also improved support for running Black Lab Linux 6 in Openstack instances as well as VMWare and Hyper-V. Interface wise we added the Dash to Dock Extension as well as quicklists so you can have more functionality out of the dock," note the developers on the official blog.
The devs have also explained that they now integrate the latest Linux kernel 3.13.0-37, but it's easy to understand why. This is the same kernel used in the Ubuntu base, which is in fact a kernel maintained by Canonical. Also, Black Lab Linux now features the latest Mozilla Thunderbird 32, the Simple Screen Recorder package, and the App Grid software center, which is built as an alternative for Ubuntu Software Center.
Check the official announcement for more details, features, and changes about this build. You can download Black Lab Linux 6.0 RC1 right now from Softpedia, although only the 64-bit edition is provided. The ISO should work just fine in VirtualBox and it's recommended not to use a production machine if you decide to install it.