Black Lab Software announced new roadmap for Black Lab Linux

Feb 24, 2017 00:37 GMT  ·  By

Softpedia was informed by Black Lab Software that they managed to publish an initial roadmap for the next point releases and major versions of the Ubuntu-based Black Lab Linux operating system in 2017.

We reported earlier this week on the availability of Black Lab Linux 8.1, the first point release to the Black Lab Linux 8 stable series, and according to the new roadmap, it would appear that a second maintenance update is planned for April 10, 2017, namely Black Lab Linux 8.2, also based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus).

"Starting this week we will start releasing weekly snapshots of Black Lab Linux. These are extremely Beta [quality] and not intended for production use," revealed Roberto J. Dohnert, CEO of Black Lab Software. "All Black Lab Linux releases will be Xfce- and MATE-based only."

Black Lab Linux 9 slated for release on June 12, 2017

Once Black Lab Linux 8.2 hits the streets in April, it looks like Black Lab Software will concentrate their efforts on the next major release of the GNU/Linux distribution, namely Black Lab Linux 9, which should hit the streets on June 12, 2017, probably based on the Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) operating system.

Just like Black Lab Linux 8, the 9 series will get two point releases. While the first one, Black Lab Linux 9.1, is shipping on the first day of August, the second one, Black Lab Linux 9.2, should land on October 31. After that, Black Lab Software will start developing the next major release of the OS, Black Lab Linux 10, planned for November 20, 2017.

The roadmap also shows us that the Black Lab Linux 10.1 point release is hitting the streets on December 20, 2017, to end the year. As for the company's commercial releases, these are currently scheduled for March 1 for the netOS 10.65 Express, Enterprise, Education and Studio editions, and March 13 for netOS 10.65 Core Server and Server.

Lastly, Black Lab Software reveals that the major netOS 10.72 Express, Enterprise, Education and Studio editions will arrive on August 10, 2017, followed almost four months later, on December 1, by the netOS 11 Express, Enterprise, Education and Studio releases. netOS 11 Core Server and Server flavors are planned for June 1, 2018. All netOS versions are based on the Xfce desktop environment.