14 DAY TRIAL // The month of April kicks off with the release of a new ISO snapshot of the widely-used Arch Linux operating system, Arch Linux 2017.04.01, which brings the latest GNU/Linux technologies and Open Source applications.
Last month, when we reported on the release of the Arch Linux 2017.03.01 ISO snapshot, we told you that support for 32-bit installations was dropped from the official images of the independently developed GNU/Linux operating system, which slimmed down the images in size with a couple hundred MB.
While Linux kernel 4.10 was out for a while when the Arch Linux 2017.03.01 launched on the first day of March, it didn't make it to the stable channels as more testing was needed, so the ISO snapshot shipped with a kernel from the Linux 4.9 series.
Arch Linux 2017.04.01 is the first to be powered by Linux kernel 4.10
Things have changed in this regard, and Arch Linux 2017.04.01 is the first ISO image of the GNU/Linux distro to ship with a kernel from the latest Linux 4.10 branch. Linux kernel 4.10.6 appears to be included in the ISO snapshot, along with all the updated packages released on the stable repos during the entire month of March.
As usual with any new Arch Linux ISO snapshot, they are recommended only to those who want to deploy the Linux-based operating system on new computers or plan to reinstall because of various reasons. For them, and newcomers, the Arch Linux 2017.04.01 64-bit ISO image is now available for download from the official website.
On the other hand, existing Arch Linux users with a healthy installation need only to make sure they have all the latest updates installed. To do that, run the "sudo pacman -Syu" command in your favorite terminal emulator from time to time. We always recommend our readers to keep their PCs up to date at all times.