The MATE desktop won't be replaced by something else

Apr 2, 2015 15:09 GMT  ·  By

Black Lab Linux Desktop, a distribution based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS that is now using the MATE desktop environment, has been upgraded to version 6.5 RC1 and is now available for download and testing.

The Black Lab Linux distros have expanded the choice of desktop, and they now come with all sorts of environments, including MATE. Interestingly enough, the previous Beta version in this branch was using GNOME Classic, but the developers decided to change it.

Now, the distribution hit feature freeze, which means that the desktop won't change anymore, and this is pretty much how it's going to look on launch day. This is not the first time when developers changed their minds regarding the desktop environment mid-cycle, but it seems to work for them.

The MATE flavor is a little bit different from GNOME Classic, but it follows the same kind of classic design. On the other hand, MATE is constantly improved,  and new features are being added all the time, and this means Black Lab Enterprise Desktop will also benefit from the enhancements.

Black Lab Enterprise Desktop with MATE looks interesting

The Black Lab devs have customized the MATE experience somewhat and it doesn't look like the stock version. The launcher is also a little bit different and the system theme has also been changed.

"Today we are releasing Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6.5 RC1. This is the first Release Candidate of what will become the final product of Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6.5. We are now in feature freeze meaning there will be no more changes to the application lineup, and we will be working on polish. We have introduced quite a few new features. Enterprise Filesystem support, Built in virtualization utilities, and webapp integration," said the devs.

They also explained that Firefox 36, Thunderbird 35.1, and VLC 2.2 were added by default. Users should also know that the OS comes with UEFI support, XFS support, and Linux kernel 3.16.0-33.

You can download Black Lab Linux Desktop 6.5 RC1 right now from Softpedia and give it a spin. It's no a stable system, so you shouldn't use it on a production machine.

Black Lab Linux Desktop 6.5 RC1 (8 Images)

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