14 DAY TRIAL // We were the first to report two months ago, on October 12, 2016, that the Ubuntu-based Black Lab Linux computer operating system was about to become a commercial product due to lack of funding.
What that means exactly for end users is that there will be a 45-day waiting period before you can freely download a new release of the GNU/Linux distribution after its official announcement. As such, the latest version, Black Lab Linux 8.0, was released on November 10, 2016, but only now is it available for download, a bit earlier than expected, though.
"After 45 days we will provide a free download of Black Lab Linux," revealed Robert Dohnert, CEO of Black Lab Software, for Softpedia at that moment in time. "Black Lab Enterprise Linux will be a for purchase product only. There will be no digital download, and you must purchase a boxed set."
Black Lab Linux 8.0 is based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, download now!
While Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" did not arrive on November 1, as initially planned, the developers kept their word and published the download links on December 15, as promised, and you can grab the Live ISO images with GNOME, KDE, Unity, Xfce, LXDE, and MATE desktop environments right now through our website, but please note that it's only supported on 64-bit machines.
The OS is based on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, ships with Linux kernel 4.4 LTS, and offers various modern functionalities, such as full UEFI and exFAT support, Google Drive integration, systemd and Upstart support, along with the latest versions for the pre-installed applications. For more details about what's included in Black Lab Linux 8.0, check out the official release notes.