14 DAY TRIAL // Approximately two months after the release of the first Test build for the upcoming Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 "Erik" operating system series, the project's development team has announced today the availability of the second Test build.
Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 Test 2 has been once again synchronized with the upstream software repositories of the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" operating system as of July 2, 2016, and it uses the latest GNOME 3.20 desktop environment with GNOME Shell 3.20.3 user interface. The distribution is now powered by Linux kernel 4.4.14 LTS.
"Our goal is to provide a ready to use and easy to install desktop and laptop optimized operating system based on Debian's stable branch and the latest stable release of GNOME desktop environment. Users can easily install extra software packages from Parsix APT repositories," reads today's announcement.
Here's what's new in Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 Test 2
As expected, some of the pre-installed software components in Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 "Erik" have been updated to their latest versions at the moment of writing this article in this second Test build, such as Mozilla Firefox 47.0 and Chromium 51.0 web browsers. However, it seems that many remain with old versions, including the LibreOffice 4.3.3 office suite.
Continuing, Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 Test 2 comes with the Oracle VirtualBox 4.3.36 virtualization software, Empathy 3.12.12 IM client, and Gparted 0.19.0 partition editor, GIMP 2.8.14 image editor, VLC Media Player 2.2.1 video player, Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.626, X.Org Server 1.16.4, and Grisbi 1.0.0 financial management program.
Under the hood, the second Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 "Erik" Test build still ships with the GLibc (GNU C Library) 2.19 core library, and various extra patches for the long-term supported Linux 4.4.14 kernel LTS, including TuxOnIce 3.3 and BFS, which has been upgraded from Linux 4.4.8 LTS used in the first Test snapshot.
You can download Parsix GNU/Linux 8.10 "Erik" Test 2 64-bit and 32-bit ISO images right now via our website, but please try to keep in mind that this is still a pre-release version of the upcoming operating system, meaning that it's not yet suitable for use as a daily driver. The Live ISOs were compressed with the latest XZ and SquashFS compression methods.