14 DAY TRIAL // Linux Lite creator Jerry Bezencon announced the release and immediate availability for download of the first Beta release of the upcoming Linux Lite 3.4 open-source computer operating system.
Linux Lite 3.4 Beta is based on Canonical's recently released Ubuntu 16.04.2 operating system, which is the first point release to the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) series to come with an HWE (Hardware Enablement) kernel and updated graphics stack from a newer Ubuntu version, in this case Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak).
However, this Beta release of Linux Lite 3.4 is not powered by the Linux 4.8 kernel that's been made available upstream for Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS users. Instead, the GNU/Linux distribution remains true to the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel series, but ships with many other up-to-date components.
"Linux Lite 3.4 is based off 16.04.2, however, we do not include the 4.8 kernel Hardware Enablement Stack," said Jerry Bezencon. "We prefer to offer people the option to switch to one of our custom kernels should you require newer hardware support, not forcefully impose a newer kernel where it is not necessary or where it may drop support for older hardware."
Lite Welcome gets a major revamp
As reported by us last month, Linux Lite 3.4 will land on the first day of April 2017 with a revamped Lite Welcome app that promises to make the life of ex-Windows users who want to use an open-source operating system much easier by implementing a so-called 3-step post-install process for installing updates, drivers, and language support.
Additionally, Linux Lite 3.4 promises to enable window snapping by default and introduces the Lite Updates Notify app, which will always run in background to inform users when new updates are available for their system. Included in this Beta we can find the Mozilla Firefox 51.0.1, Thunderbird 45.7.0, LibreOffice 5.1.6.2, VLC Media Player 2.2.2, and GIMP 2.8.20 apps.
If you want to get an early taste of Linux Lite 3.4, you should download the Beta Live ISO images for either 32-bit or 64-bit computers right now from our website. However, you should be aware of the fact that this is a pre-release version, which means that it's not suitable to become your daily driver. Happy testing!
