14 DAY TRIAL // The Neptune team was proud to announce the release of Neptune 4.5.3 on the first day of the year, which appears to be a minor maintenance update bringing various updated applications and a newer Linux kernel version.
Neptune is a GNU/Linux distribution developed for desktop computers and fully based on the Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 "Wheezy" operating system and KDE Plasma 5. Neptune 4.5 is currently the latest stable release of the Linux OS, but from time to time, it gets up-to-date ISO snapshots featuring recent technologies and updated packages.
Neptune 4.5.3 is the third point release in the series, coming four months after the 4.5.2 build and shipping with an improved graphics stack rebased on the Mesa 13.0.2 3D Graphics Library. It also features a newer kernel based on the long-term supported Linux 3.18.45, and includes apps like Chromium 55.0 and Icedove 45.5.0.
"This version comes with the newest updates like Chromium 55 & Icedove 45.5 aswell as an upgraded graphicsstack based on Mesa 13.0.2. Besides that this version comes by default with the LTS Kernel 3.18.45. (Newer 4.4 based kernel releases can be found in our repository)," reads the release announcement.
Existing users should update their installations
The new graphics stack based on Mesa 13.0.2 landed for Neptune 4.5 users on the first day of December 2016, and it brought better driver support for OpenGL and 3D animations for the Intel, AMD, and Nvidia GPUs. The KDE Frameworks 5.29.0 collection of add-on libraries for Qt 5 and KDE Applications 16.12 landed as well in Neptune 4.5.3.
As with any new ISO respin, existing users don't need to download anything to keep their healthy installations up to date. Just make sure that you have all the latest updates installed and you're all set to go. Neptune 4.5.3 is available for download if you plan on reinstalling or deploying the OS on new systems.