14 DAY TRIAL // After yesterday's report on the return of the Descent OS Linux operating system, which we recommend reading in full if you want to get up to speed on what's going on with the project, the first Alpha build of Descent OS 5.0 has now been released.
But first, a little background on the distribution, as it is an Ubuntu derivative built around the MATE desktop environment. Therefore, Descent OS 5.0 Alpha has been rebased on the upcoming Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, which received its first Beta release just a few hours ago.
Descent OS' interface aims to be as modern and user-friendly as possible while offering a small footprint with big performance. As you can see from the screenshots published in the gallery at the end of the article, the desktop consists of two panels, one at the top of the screen and the other one at the bottom, as well as an always-visible dock on the left side of the screen.
"There are a few bugs (of course, it's an alpha release), and there might be a few branding issues conflicting with upstream, mainly with Plymouth. I don't find those too critical, but please point them out as I'll have to fix a lot of things by the time release date comes around. There are several features I'd like to add as the development process goes on," developer has explained.
Pre-installed applications
Besides the standard MATE tools, the first Alpha build of Descent OS 5.0 comes pre-installed with a set of useful open-source projects. Among them, we can mention the Vim text editor, Shotwell image viewer and organizer, ownCloud desktop client, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, Hexchat IRC client, Transmission torrent downloader, Pidgin IM, and the entire LibreOffice office suite.
The Rhythmbox music player, Brasero CD/DVD burning tool, Pitivi video editor, VLC Media Player, and Guake terminal emulator are also included. Being based on Ubuntu MATE 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus), Descent OS 5.0 Alpha inherits all of its core components, such as Linux kernel 4.4.2 LTS and MATE 1.12.1 desktop environment. If you want to help with the testing and bug reporting, download the 64-bit Descent OS 5.0 Alpha Live ISO image right now.
