Black Lab Enterprise Linux will cost $9.99 USD

Oct 12, 2016 00:50 GMT  ·  By

Today, October 12, 2016, Softpedia was informed by Robert Dohnert, CEO of Black Lab Software, about some important changes made to the Black Lab Linux and netOS projects.

Black Lab Linux 8 has been in development until today with the third Beta build out the door at the end of September, and we were expecting to see the Release Candidate land the other day, October 11, which didn't happen because the Black Lab Linux project is now a commercial only software product.

"Due to lack of funding for the Black Lab Linux Project we have decided the best way to move forward for Black Lab Linux is to provide it as a commercial only software product. Hardware and systems that come with Black Lab preinstalled will be provided by PC/OpenSystems LLC," says Robert Dohnert, CEO of Black Lab Software.

Black Lab Linux 8.0 will be released on November 1, 2016

The development of the Black Lab Linux project will continue, but you'll have to pay the sum of $9.99 USD for a digital download or $19.99 USD for a boxed set containing a USB flash drive with either Black Lab Linux or Black Lab Enterprise Linux, which will ship with the GNOME 3 desktop environment.

Black Lab Linux 8.0 will be released on November 1, 2016, but you'll get a free download only after 45 days from launch, while Black Lab Enterprise Linux remains a commercial-only product. Also, effective immediately, the netOS distribution, a cloud-based variant of Black Lab Linux, has been discontinued.

Therefore, starting December 15, 2016, the Black Lab Linux 8.0 operating system will be provided as a free download to users. The distro is based on Canonical's latest Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) release. Black Lab Enterprise Linux 8.0 SP1 will be available for purchase on October 24, 2016. More details about the change can be found in the official announcement.