14 DAY TRIAL // Today, November 10, 2016, PC/OpenSystems LLC and Black Lab Software, through Roberto J. Dohnert, happily informed Softpedia about the release of the Black Lab Linux 8.0 computer operating system.
After being in development since the very first days of 2016, during which it received four Alpha builds, three Beta releases, and a Release Candidate (RC) version, Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" is finally available, but only as a commercial product. A free download will be provided to the community on December 15, 2016. The operating system is based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial (Xerus).
"Currently there are no public downloads for Black Lab Linux 8.0. To ensure that we can continue to develop the best Linux distribution on the planet, Black Lab Linux 8.0 can be purchased from our online store," explains Roberto J. Dohnert, CEO of Black Lab Software. "For $19.99 USD + shipping you get 30 days installation support; for $45.00 USD you get 12 months of e-mail support."
Black Lab Linux 9 "Diesel" coming up next
Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" ships with a large number of new features, including a total of six desktop environments, such as KDE Plasma 5, LXDE, GNOME 3.18, Xfce, GNOME Flashback, and Unity. It's powered by the same kernel as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, version 4.4.0-45, and offers full UEFI and exFAT support, systemd and Upstart support, and Google Drive integration.
Some of the latest software applications have been included as well, among which we can mention the LibreOffice 5.2 office suite, Chromium 54 web browser, Mozilla Thunderbird 45.4.0 email and news client, GIMP 2.8.16 image editor, and Ice SSB 5.2.1 tool for creating Site Specific Browser launchers. Apps like Dropbox, GNOME Video, GNOME Software, Rhythmbox, or Plasma Discover are also present.
Last but not least, Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" is shipping with all the security updates that have been released upstream until November 6, 2016. Users of the Black Lab Linux 7 series are encouraged to upgrade to Black Lab Linux 8.0 at their earliest convenience. The next major release of the Ubuntu-based distribution will be Black Lab Linux 9, codename Diesel, possibly based on Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak).