Software Changes
All software development will be handled by the Black Lab Linux team, subsequently netOS becomes Black Lab Enterprise Linux, Black Lab Enterprise Linux for Education and Black Lab Studio. These releases will be hosted on the Black Lab Linux website. Some of the changes include:
- Black Lab Enterprise Linux and its variants are now free to download for a self-support package. Users will get all the software and features that are bundled with Black Lab Enterprise Linux but they are limited to support through forums and community resources only.
- Black Lab Enterprise Linux, Black Lab Enterprise Linux for Education and Black Lab Studio will be based on the GNOME desktop ONLY. For legacy support and QT users they will come with the KDE Runtime so you can run any QT based and KDE application that you wish.
- We will no longer have a 30 day waiting period for the download editions of Black Lab Enterprise Linux or Black Lab Linux. After watching trends and looking at sales records most of our revenue has started coming from system sales and business and educational support licenses rather than consumer and user sales. We will continue to sell live install media for users who have data caps from their providers and want the convenience of physical install media.
You can order Black Lab Linux physical media here
You can download and get more information about Black Lab Enterprise Linux here
Hardware Changes
Today we are announcing our hardware partnership with ACER is over. ACER was a great partner and provided us with years of faithful service, some great products and provided awesome support for our customers. During our audits and customer feedback we discovered customers didnt care about price as much as they do about quality, availability and durability. So starting today we have enlisted Dell as our hardware provider. Dell has a much more robust presence in enterprise and education which we primarily target. Dell also has the ability to deliver more systems in a shorter period than many hardware companies. So with that change we are making the following announcements regarding our systems.
- All desktop hardware will come with a 4 year extended warranty out of box. All portable hardware will come with a 3 year extended warranty out of box.
- While Barton George and his team at Dell on Project Sputnik only provide Ubuntu 16.04 as an install option from the factory we will support ALL 1st generation and current generation Project Sputnik systems. If your company already utilizes that hardware we will provide you with installation support, hardware and software diagnosis, and hardware and software repair.
- With every desktop and portable purchased you will get a 3 year support subscription for Black Lab Enterprise Linux that includes all updates and all security and bug fixes for 3 years.
- All current customers who have ACER hardware provided by us will have the option of trading in your system for a $200.00 USD discount on any new system purchased. The BriQ systems and Server hardware are EXCLUDED from this deal.
- All Server hardware will continue to be built by our team here at PC/OpenSystems LLC
- While Black Lab Enterprise Linux will be the default OS that we ship with. We will also provide Oracle Unbreakable Linux, SUSE Enterprise Linux, Windows 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux as available options.
You can get more information on our hardware solutions here
So we have made the changes we feel that customers and users want. With our hardware warranties we go far and beyond what ANY of our competitors provide by default. With our software solutions now being streamlined and handled by one development team vs two we will be able to deliver the innovations and features customers want and need at a much faster rate.