14 DAY TRIAL // Just a few moment ago, elementary OS developer and founder Daniel Foré announced the release and immediate availability for download of the first maintenance update to the elementary OS 0.4 "Loki" operating system.
elementary OS 0.4.1 is the first point release in the Loki series, which is based on Canonical's Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system. As expected, this release is based on Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS, which inherits the kernel and graphics stack from Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak), so it's also powered by the same HWE (Hardware Enablement Stack).
Therefore, elementary OS 0.4.1 is powered by the Linux 4.8 kernel, allowing users to install the operating system on their Intel computers boasting 7th generation Kaby Lake chipsets, and the X.Org Server 1.18.4 display server and Mesa 12.0.6 3D Graphics Stack, though users should be able to install Mesa 17.1.0 from Canonical's X-Updates PPA repository.
A brand new AppCenter, latest updates
As you might have already noticed, the folks over at elementary have been working hard in the past few months to revamp the AppCenter graphical package manager, which is included in today's elementary OS 0.4.1 "Loki" release. The new AppCenter comes with support for applications submitted to the AppCenter Dashboard, thus encouraging third-party developers to build apps for elementary OS.
"We’re excited for developers to get their apps directly in the hands of users. If you’re an interested developer, be sure to head over to the AppCenter Dashboard to sign up for the public beta and check out our publishing documentation," said Daniel Foré in the release announcement. "We’re also looking forward to pushing out continued updates to AppCenter with new features."
Apart from the user interface revamp, various stability, quality and performance improvements were also added to the AppCenter, among which we can mention that the Infobar is now displayed when users need to restart their computers after applying important updates, and the appearance of hardware drivers in the updates tab. Download elementary OS 0.4.1 "Loki" right now!
