14 DAY TRIAL // The Parsix 7.0 final version is still a long way off and the developers have just released a new development iteration of the system, simply titled Test 3.
The Parsix operating system uses only the GNOME and Debian packages from the stable branches. The developers aim to provide a complete and bug-free Linux distribution, at least as much as humanly possible. The fact that the OS is based on Debian "Wheezy" helps a lot, especially because it's now a Long Term release and comes with all the latest security updates.
The developers seem to be following a specific schedule and this latest version comes just a month after the previous Test. It's not clear just how many of these Testing releases we will have, but it does look like the system is getting more stable.
What's new in the latest testing version
Parsix is not one of the famous Linux distros out there, but the developers are very active and they manage to have two big versions and four minor ones each year. This new upcoming update is a very important one, and that can be seen very easily from the changes posted on their forum.
"The last testing release for Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 code name Nestor is out now. Parsix Nestor ships with GNOME Shell 3.12.2, brand new kernel based on Linux 3.14.21 built using our modernized kernel build system and enhanced live boot system and installer to support UEFI, built on top of rock solid Debian Wheezy (7.0) platform."
"TEST 3 ships with a lot of fixed, updated and recompiled packages. Everything is very stable and we are hoping to release the final version," say the devs.
As usual, the Linux kernel is one of the first components to get updated and the new one is 3.14.21. It might look like an older version, but you have to keep in mind that the system is using only stable packages and this is the latest LTS kernel branch. Other including packages are Chromium 37.0, LibreOffice 3.5.4, GIMP 2.8.2, VirtualBox 4.3.10, and VLC 2.0.6.
Check out the official announcement for a complete list of new features and updates. You can download Parsix GNU/Linux 7.0 Test 3 right now from Softpedia. This is a Live CD and it can be tested in a virtual environment, but GNOME has a poor track record of running in VirtualBox, for example. If the OS doesn’t run in Virtualbox, you can always test it from a USB drive.