14 DAY TRIAL // Point Linux, a GNU/Linux distribution that is based on Debian GNU/Linux and uses the MATE desktop environment, has been upgraded to version 3.0 Beta 2 and is now ready for download and testing.
The Point Linux developers have two separate branches for their distribution and there is a very simple reason for it. The stable one uses Debian "Wheezy" as a base, whereas the development one employs Debian "Jessie." This ensures that the regular version of the Point Linux operating system is actually quite stable and that the dev version is using the latest packages from Debian.
Because the OS is still in the works, its makers are still adding more features with each new iteration, and the current Beta has done the same thing. There is a lot of new stuff and users will need a moment to catch up.
Point Linux 3.0 Beta 2 gets MATE 1.8
The development of this operating system is influenced by other software stacks, like Debian and MATE, so anything that gets cut or implemented there will eventually reflect in this OS as well. This is one of the reasons why there has been a slight delay and this latest Beta arrived a little bit late to the party.
"It was a hard way to Beta 2 and that convinced me that Beta 1 was released too early. The reason is that Debian is a slow-developing distro, so Jessie was completely different to the one we see today. In two words we've got the systemd working (like it or not) and we've got MATE 1.8.1 in the official Debian repo (Point Linux Beta 1 had MATE 1.6 from the Point Linux repo). Debian also moved to PackageKit, and that was a lengthy process. So Point Linux Beta 2 has not much in common with the first Beta."
"The bad thing is that Compiz was removed from Point Linux 3. I tried to implement it but nothing worthy came out of it. I'm uncertain about the Compiz future at all as it is officially dead, but I promise I will port it if it arrives for MATE 1.8," says the maker of Point Linux in the announcement.
The developer also explains that the distribution no longer fits on a CD, it uses Linux kernel 3.16, MATE 1.8.1, and most of the major packages, life Firefox, Thunderbird, and LibreOffice, have been updated as well.
A complete list of changes and improvements can be found in the official announcement. You can download Point Linux 3.0 Beta 2 right now from Softpedia.
