14 DAY TRIAL // We have just been informed today, January 5, 2016, by Black Lab Software about the immediate availability for download and testing of the Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 Developer Preview 3 operating system.
This is the first update for 2016 of the Black Lab Enterprise Linux distribution, and it promises many enhancements and new features that will be part of the final release in the coming summer. Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 DP3 also fixes many of the issues reported by users since the previous milestone.
Prominent features of Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 include support for the Android Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment), support for Xbox One Kinect, support for Xbox One Controller, Mono 4, LibreOffice 5.4, GTK 3.16, as well as Linux kernel 3.19, but the final build will ship with a kernel from the Linux 4.x series.
"Today PC / Opensystems LLC is pleased to announce its very first OS update of the year for Black Lab Enterprise Linux: version 8.0 Developer Preview 3 or DP3 for short," said Roberto J. Dohnert. "It previews many of the enhancements that will be featured in the upcoming stable release of the BLE Linux desktop."
UEFI improvements, removable drive encryption, more
Among other features that will be implemented in the upcoming Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 operating system, we can mention folder level encryption, removable drive encryption, Typescript and Angular support, Nitroshare, UEFI and SecureBoot enhancements, as well as support for 4K displays.
Furthermore, the Chromium web browser ships with Java support via the IE-On-Chrome extension, Webmin has been installed for remote access administration, touchscreen support has been improved, support for multiple wireless devices is provided out of the box, along with support for multiple monitors.
Last but not least, Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 features a more traditional Xfce desktop environment, at the request of the users, with a bottom-centered tasklist and taskbar. Every application that is included in Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 has been updated as well.
The final release of Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 should arrive in June 2016, but until then, Black Lab Software promises four more DP (Developer Preview) builds. You can download and test Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 DP3 right now from Softpedia, but please keep in mind that it's a pre-release version, not suitable for production use.