14 DAY TRIAL // Today, June 13, 2016, Black Lab Software CEO Roberto J. Dohnert has informed Softpedia about the general availability of the fourth Alpha build of the upcoming Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" operating system.
Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" has been in development for the past three months, based on the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system, which will reach end of life in April 2019. The fourth Alpha build arrives today with many updated software packages from the upstream Ubuntu 14.04 LTS repositories, including Linux kernel 4.2.0-36 and Chromium 50 web browser.
However, starting with the Alpha 4 build, the Black Lab Linux developers are making major changes to the software collection included in the distribution by removing many of them and adding Web Apps instead, offering users a smaller core OS structure that will have a longer lifespan and save them precious time with software upgrades.
"The development team has changed the focus of Black Lab Linux 8 toward the cloud - meaning that all primary applications are Web-based, full-featured apps," said Roberto J. Dohnert. "These are complemented with best-of-breed desktop applications installed locally, and you can add any-and-all Debian/Ubuntu packages to the default lineup."
Final Black Lab Linux 8.0 release lands in December 2016
Among the pre-installed Web Apps in Black Lab Linux 8.0 Alpha 4, we can mention almost all of Google services, including Google Docs, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, Google Play Music, Google, Maps, Google Photos, Google Drive, Google Hangouts, as well as Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Outlook Mail, and Spotify.
On the other hand, among the locally installed apps included in the fourth Alpha build of Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx," there's Steam for Linux, VLC Media Player, NetOS Nanny Domain Blocker, Ice SSB, Transmission, HexChat, Dropbox, and gThumb. Download Black Lab Linux 8.0 Alpha 4 Live ISO image for 64-bit computers right now via our website.
Please try to keep in mind that this is a pre-release version, and the Black Lab Linux developers do not recommend it for everyday use because of some known issues listed in the official release announcement. The final Black Lab Linux 8.0 "Onyx" operating system lands just in time for Christmas, on December 2016.
