Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0 released

Today the development team at PC/Opensystems LLC is pleased to announce the release of Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0.

While both contain common kernel and common utilities, they are targeted towards two different user bases. Freespire is a FOSS distribution geared for the general Linux community, making use of only open source components, containing no proprietary applications. This is not necessarily a limitation : through our software center and extensive repositories, Freespire users can install any application that they wish.

 Linspire is a commercial release which builds on the elegant Freespire foundation. It does include a proprietary software set optimized for business users, students, researchers and developers. It is a capable solution for utilizing cloud-based web apps as well as legacy software from our Debian or Ubuntu’s repositories.

For educational facilities and agencies that have older hardware to re-purpose we offer Linspire Embedded; this contains a web browser, media player and the core Freespire / Linspire app selection.

So what features does each contain?

Let’s start with Freespire; it contains the following applications and features:

1. Kernel 4.10.0-42
2. Firefox Quantum Web Browser
3. Geary e-mail client
4. Ice SSB
5. Abiword
6. Gnumeric
7. Parole Media Player
8. Pinta Graphics tool
9. Font Manager

Linspire contains the following applications and features:

1. Kernel 4.10.0-42
2. Google Chrome
3. Thunderbird e-mail with Calender, MS Exchange and Google Sync
4. IceSSB
5. LibreOffice
6. Software Center
7. VLC Media Player
8. Rhythmbox
9. Font Manager
10. Wine integration for running some Windows applications
11. VirtualBox Virtual Machine
12.  XFS, JFS, ZFS, BTRFS support
13. .NET Core support
14. ClamAV Virus Scanner
15. Bleachbit
16. Intrusion Detection System
17. Integrated Build Environment

When you purchase Linspire you also get 12 months of e-mail and phone support and businesses with their license purchase are entitled to the following services:

• Custom ISO generation
• On-Site setup and auditing services
• Free Upgrade to major releases
• 10% off of all hardware purchases

This Freespire 3.0 is supported until 2021.  Linspire 7.0 is supported until 2025.

You can download Freespire from our FOSS development labs

Freespire Info Page

http://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/freespire-3-x64.iso
http://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/freespire-3-x64.iso.md5
http://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/freespire/freespire-3-x64.iso.sha256


You can purchase Linspire licenses from our webstore and preloaded on workstations. More information on Linspire is available from the distribution’s page.

Linspire Support License

1 License $79.99 USD 2 Licenses $159.99 USD 3 - 10 licenses $399.99 USD 11 - 25 licenses $999.99 USD Unlimited Support License $3,999.99 USD

Install Media

LiveUSB LiveSD Card LiveMicroSD

Order Notes

Black Lab Education software and hardware services

Today PC / Opensystems is pleased to announce a new set of hardware and software services for Black Lab Enterprise Linux for Education. Over the last year you have seen a ton of innovation come from PC/OpenSystems, in terms of the most usable Linux based desktop on the planet that blows away all of our competitors.  We have had a ton of innovation in terms of hardware and management and you have seen a ton of innovation in our service and support offerings and we are hoping to keep the innovation alive in 2016.  Since our academic customers are a very important segment of our business, we have made some corresponding changes to the services we offer them. PC / OS now has a dedicated web portal for our Education customers and 4 hardware selections : a desktop system, notebook and RAID solution all optimized for the academic sector, as well as the premier Linux backend solution, Black Lab Advanced Server for Education. With that being said, lets get started.  

1. Software – Black Lab Enterprise Linux for Education will offer the same certifications featured in its Black Lab Enterprise sibling : Microsoft Office 365, Oracle online and on-premise support, WebObjects and IBM Websphere. Black Lab Server for Education is available preinstalled on hardware only and will include OwnCloud support, Apache, Postfix e-mail server and Google Apps support. Black Lab Enterprise Linux for Education will also continue to include the unique application set which has separated it from the competition. When customers purchase an unlimited district license they will also get Black Lab Enterprise Linux with unlimited district licensing: two OSes for the price of one. Black Lab Enterprise Linux for Education is available in single-license format for is $75.00 US; unlimited district licensing costs $399.99 for the standard build, and custom builds for $500.00 US, which includes school branding, specialized applications, etc. 

2. Hardware - PC /OS presents 4 new offerings.

First : the Briq, our awesome Core i3 / 8 GB RAM / 128 GB SSD mini powerhouse, with a 3-year warranty and UPS, priced at $650.00. 

Second, a rugged Core i3-5010U 2.1GHz / 8 GB RAM / 1 TB hard drive notebook PC targeted towards schools, also with a 3-year warranty, priced at $699.99. Both ship with Black Lab Enterprise Linux preinstalled, or our Education release upon request. 

Third : a new server product line for education which has been on our drawing board for over a year. Schools tend to be very conservative on server choices, so PC/ OS presents our basic academic server : Black Lab Basic Server – based on our BriQ architecture, with an i5 Processor / 16 GB RAM / 256 GB SSD. Don't let the fact that it's based on the BriQ platform fool you : this is a full-featured, dedicated server platform with unlimited client licenses, a 4 year warranty and a UPS protection unit as standard options. This basic configuration can be expanded with our 4 drive rack-mounted USB-connected RAID system supporting up to 4 hard drives at 4 TB apiece. PC / OS also realizes that its academic customers may have some old Apple Xserves and Xserve RAID laying around : yes, these Xserve hard drive caddies can be integrated with our RAID, which ships with 4 1 TB hard drives by default. This full-featured basic Black Lab Server costs $1,299.99 USD with the default configuration : UPS, 4 year warranty and a backup hard drive preloaded with Black Lab Server for Education, keyboard, mouse and a monitor.    Black Lab Basic Server with RAID is $2,599.99 : this includes rack, UPS, powered USB hub, and 4 year warranty for both RAID and Server. 

Fourth: larger districts need a much more robust server. Black Lab Advanced Server is offered with a 6 core Intel Xeon processor, 16 GB of RAM (expandable to 192 GB), 4 HD bays that support up to 4 SATA HDs up to 4 TB each and ships with 4 1TB hard drives. The price for that system is $1,899.00 for the base model which includes UPS and 4 year warranty. For the Advanced Server with our USB-connected RAID device the cost would be $3,499.00 for rack, UPS and 4 year warranty on RAID and Server, and UPS. PC / OS is going to insure that its academic customers are fully protected, serviced and ready to go from day one; these solutions will be setup so you can plug them in, turn them on, and get to work immediately if not sooner.  Out of the box productivity, literally.

How are we going to service these systems? PC / OS offers on site service and support through our new SystemCare Product Service and Support  or you can self-service with the assistance of our SystemCare Parts Kit. PC / OS has examined our academic customer base, taken a hard look at their needs, and has put solutions in place that can be made to fit a wide variety of scenarios with few changes necessary.

You can find more information on our Black Lab Education Services website.

You can find out more about our hardware on the Black Lab Education Hardware site.

Q&A

Here we will answer some of the most common questions we encounter.  Please direct any queries outside of this Q&A to sales@pc-opensystems.com and they will be answered promptly.

1.  Why use PC/OpenSystems LLC and not Dell or Apple who are the tried and true leaders in academic IT?
A:  Since our founding in 2008 we have retained over 90% of our academic IT customers - in a space where change is so prevalent, this is practically unheard of.  PC/ OS believes we have the right formula, the right mix of hardware to match our long-running stable software base.

2.  What is the response to PC/OpenSystems' software products in the IT world?
A.  Very positive overall.  Among our clients we have a well-deserved and long-established reputation for responsive service and innovative products.  Black Lab Enterprise Linux is the most popular desktop Linux based operating systems for many major fortune 500 companies.  PC / OS clients include law enforcement, security agencies, factory, grocery and academia among its most frequent repeat customers; Black Lab is extremely popular in venues where a premium is placed on stability and security. When Google started giving Chromebooks away for free we lost 7 academic customers - after the pilot, 6 returned.

3.  Is this the first time PC/Opensystems has offered hardware in the academic space? 
A. No.  While we used to deal with academic customers and their hardware needs on a case-by-case basis, we have made these offerings in the past, and have evolved our approach to the marked based on feedback received and what hardware tiers schools have ordered from us before.

4.  What about service?  Will we have onsite service and support and  can we do onsite installation? 
A.  Yes and yes. Customers who order from us can arrange onsite installations on their schedule within a 4-hour-window in North Carolina, New York and California. PC / OS will be expanding that prerogative to other states based on demand.  For other academic customers who self-service, the SystemCare parts kit for the BriQ, Basic and advanced server and XRAID are available when needed.

5.  Will software upgrades come with the server systems for 4 years or does the customer have to buy the software with every new release? 
A.  Software has to be purchased yearly, unless a SystemCare software support plan is purchased, which relieves a customer of the obligation to constantly monitor software upgrades and licensing.  Purchasing our hardware without a SystemCare subscription requires the customer to purchase-upon- release every 12 to 18 months.

6.  Can the parts kits be ordered separately without having to enter a software subscription? 
A.  Yes.

7.  Can the Black Lab XRAID be ordered outside of academia and when will it be available?
A.  Yes and it will be made available on our Enterprise hardware site in a couple of weeks.

8.  Who can order the educational products?
A.  All primary and secondary schools.  Vocational schools, colleges and military academies.  We are also making our education products available to home schooled individuals.

9.  When can we start ordering hardware and software and what is the acquisition turnaround?  
 A.  You can order it today., January 19, 2016.  Software you have a 24 hour turn around, hardware is 7 to 10 business days.

Support licensing vs Community support: A Comparison

Some people have asked us, why a commercial Linux distribution? Why not go with a free distribution like Linux Mint or Elementary? There are some advantages to purchasing support from a company vs community support. Here we will outline the differences between a community supported distribution vs a distribution with paid support.

Community forums vs phone and e-mail support: 

Black Lab Enterprise Linux comes with 12 months of phone/e-mail/on-site support. Which means - call in or e-mail a support request, and the average initial response time will be 10 minutes. After this response time your issue, whether it be software or hardware related, will be diagnosed and then our support will assist you in fixing the issue. Support times range from 5 minutes for easy solutions to 2 or more hours for more complex issues. If its a longterm issue PCOS support will continue to work with you toward a resolution. Community forums are much more tedious. Community based forums can be difficult to navigate; then, someone who is willing to discuss your issue with you has to 1). offer their support and 2). actually be able to fix your issue. Finally, response time on a community forum depends on the schedules of its contributors, which can vary from several hours to several days – and the issue may just start being discussed.

Donations vs license costs : 

Donations to community based distributions are very important. Our own free and open source distribution, Black Lab Linux http://www.blacklablinux.org relies on donations to fund the distribution and keep it running. A donation is not a purchase of a product or service;it's not a requirement for support. It's viewed as a gift, enabling the free product that you use on a daily basis to be maintained and updated. PCOS has heard from its customers and users how they gave donations to certain other distributions receiving no support or lackluster service in return : this is not surprising, for the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) model. A support license is completely different You are purchasing a product and/or service which comes with support for the term of the license.  Our length of support vary which are : 1 year for desktop, 2 years for server.

On-site service and installation support : 

A commercial distribution includes terms in their on-site service clauses which states that if the problem is severe enough, the customer can have a support tech to come and assist the user with the issue for a predetermined fee. The tech can also come on-site and assist in setup and installation of desktops and servers. Most free and community driven distributions don't offer those services, no matter how much they're offered in donations. Some consultants work with specific free and community driven distributions but they are at the mercy of the distribution provider; this means they rely on the software vendor for support issues. This also means that any security or application fixes are provided on an as-available basis – meaning, significant time can elapse, during which systems are vulnerable to data breaches, security issues and problematic operation. These are the comparisons between Black Lab Enterprise Linux, a commercial and licensed Linux distribution and community based distros like Linux Mint, Elementary OS and Ubuntu. What you use depends on your needs : if your data and applications are sensitive and mission-critical, then you need real support in real-time from paid Linux techs and Black Lab Enterprise Linux. If you take your chances using a distro with a community forum for support as a last resort in the event of problems, or have the in-house expertise and the desire to be held liable if something goes wrong, then a free distribution like Black Lab Linux might be your best bet.

At PC/OpenSystems LLC we provide you with the whole stack : hardware, software and the means to support both reliably. If you have any questions on how Black Lab Enterprise Linux can best service you and your organization's computing and data needs, please visit http://www.pc-opensystems.com or contact sales@pc-opensystems.com .

Thank you.

Black Lab Server 6.8 released

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Server 6.8.  With this release we bring major changes to the Black Lab Server platform.  The Black Lab Server platform was designed to be used for small server functions.  print, file and serve, and internal network controls.  We have extended that and Black Lab Server 6.8 is on par with many enterprise level servers offered by other Linux vendors.

With that lets go over what Black Lab Server 6.8 offers to customers.

Kernel: 3.19
Primary User Interface:  Command Line
Secondary User Interface:  XFCE
Included functionality:

Directory Services
LAMP services
PostgreSQL
Emulation Services:  VirtualBox, DOSBox, Hercules Mainframe Emulation
OwnCloud services
OpenStack support
Docker support:  Included with the Black Lab SDK
GCC Compiler Suite
Postfix E-Mail Server
Remote Administration via Webmin
Webapp facilities
Dropbox integration

Some other changes that we made are:

network-manager completely usable via the command line
Debian and Ubiquity Installers
Improved headless support
Accelerated Hardware Support no longer required

The cost for Black Lab Server 6.8 for one license is $399.99

You can also order it on our new Black Lab POWERServe system for $1,299.99

Eager to learn more of this exciting product we asked our development lead, Roberto, some questions:

Q) After spending so many years as being a desktop only distribution, why this leap into developing a server?
A) Well it was because mostly of customer demand.  We noticed many of our customers were adding server applications and deploying them.  They really like the user experience of Black Lab that they wanted a server system to complement their own infrastructure.
Q) How does Server 6.8 differ from eServer 6
A) eServer 6 is a product thats basically a do it yourself product.  Most of the users of eServer use it for ATM's, Point Of Sale systems, billboards and other systems of that nature.  Its also really useful as a common intranet appliance and not an internet appliance.  Black Lab Server 6.8 is designed for a higher level of deployment, web hosting, e-mail hosting, high performance database and directory services.  Its designed to scale much greater than what eServer 6 is designed to do.
Q) We also noticed a higher degree of virtualization technologies for example, mainframe virtualization. Do our customers use that?
A) Absolutely.  Virtualization is necessary in todays world.  Virtual systems are deployed by over 70% of enterprises.  Mainframes are not going away.  Many people hope they would but they arent.  Mainframes are adapting, they are being used more in some datacenters and they just havent vanished into the night.  We include Hercules because some customers want to be able to test and develop mainframe applications without having to do it on their primary systems and Hercules does support many of the popular mainframe systems, Z/OS, OS/390 OS's as well as the S/370, ESA/390, and z/Architecture instruction set and it supports networking.  The users of course need to own the OS as we dont provide the Mainframe OS's but they can certainly deploy it
Q) When can customers purchase Black Lab Server 6.8?
A) Today

Q) Whats the install media for Black Lab Server 6.8
A) USB Flash Drive, DVD, SD Card, Preinstalled Hard Drive and you can order a Virtual Machine Hard Drive image.

The Black Lab POWERServe Specifications

Intel Core i3-540 3.06GHz,
16GB DDR3,
2x 500GB Hard Drive,
RAID 0,
9.8" Deep Ultra-Short Chassis,
2x Gigabit LAN
Price: $1,299.99
Price with 3yr warranty: $1,650.00




Please contact sales@pc-opensystems.com for shipping costs for the Black Lab POWERServe

Black Lab Server and POWERServe

Black Lab Server 1 license $399.99 USD Black Lab Server 2 licenses $659.99 USD Black Lab POWERServe $1,299.99 USD Black Lab POWERServe + 3 year warranty $1,650.99 USD

Install Media

LiveDVD LiveSD Card Live USB Flash Drive Preinstalled 500gb Hard Drive Virtual Hard Drive Image

Order notes

Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 SR4 released

Today we are announcing the availability of Black Lab Enterprise Desktop.  Black Lab Enterprise Desktop is a distribution that is commercially supported and targeted at small to medium sized desktops for businesses or home office users.  Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 is based on LTS technologies so it is supported until 2020.  Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 utilizes the KDE desktop so users have a modern, full featured desktop at their disposal and Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 can run all of your existing Linux based and Unix ported applications and can run commercially available applications and development tools from Red Hat, Oracle, Salesforce.com, RealVNC, Apple Web Objects among others and is the only commercially supported Mate and KDE based distribution on the market today.

Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 is also built for the cloud and can run many of your cloud based applications like Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps, Oracle, Salesforce etc.  Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 can be configured to run OpenStack and can be used with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.

With this release Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 also comes with:

KDE 4.14.2
Mate 1.8.2 (RHEL 6 compatible desktop)
GCC 4.9.2
Firefox 38
Thunderbird 31.7
Skype 4.3
ScudCloud - Which is a Slack Client
Citrix Receiver
LibreOffice 4.3
Focus Writer
Timeshift restore facilities
Backup Utility
Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 also supports a wide variety of NAS and other enterprise capable devices
kernel 3.16.0-38 which has a ton of bug fixes and stabilized device drivers
Ubuntu LTS kernel 3.13.0-53 which is the default kernel included with Ubuntu 14.04

Also includes all security updates until May 25, 2015.  We have also synchronized all package version to Debian Jessie 8.0.

Using modern technologies such as LDAP, SAMBA 4, Active Directory and NFS.  Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 can be deployed in ANY environment with ease from Windows, Mac OS X, UNIX and other Linux based environments.

Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 is backed by 24/7 support and Black Lab Software has shown unprecedented ability in being able to patch, deploy and cure many security risks and deficiencies before they become a problem for our users. Over 20 corporate customers have deployed Black Lab Enterprise Desktop and Black Lab Software celebrates an unprecedented 98% client retention rate and 100% active customer satisfaction rating.

Pricing and Availability

Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 is available today, June 1, 2015.  While most companies charge per socket, we charge per machine.  

Single license  $75.00 USD
2 licenses $136.00
3 - 10 license pack $500.00 USD
11 - 20 license pack $950.00 USD
Unlimited Corporate License $4,500.00 USD

We can also customize your distribution with any desktop environment and targeted towards ANY hardware platform you desire from x86_64, PPC, SPARC.

Custom Configuration License comes with 100 licenses $1,200.00 USD

You can order Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 below

Black Lab Professional Desktop Subscriptions

1 seat 12 month Subscription $75.00 USD 2 Seat 12 month Subscription $99.99 USD 3 - 10 seat 12 month Subscription $500.00 USD 11 - 20 seat 12 month Subscription $950.00 USD Company Subscription - Unlimited Seats 12 month Subscription $4,500.00 USD Custom Configuration - 100 Seats 12 month Subscription $1,200.00 USD

Medium

KDE Live USB Flash Drive KDE Live SD Card KDE Live DVD KDE Live MicroSD

Order Notes:

You can also purchase Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6 on our select hardware systems.

Black Lab Business Desktops

Black Lab eServer 6 released

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab eServer 6 and our new hardware product, the Black Lab MiniSERV.

Black Lab eServer 6 is the perfect solution for small to medium sized businesses for lightweight server functions.

LAMP services
Mail Server
File and Print Services
Virtual Machine Services
Docker Container services
Development Collaboration Services

It is based on the same LTS technologies that power our enterprise distributions so you will get support up until 2020.

Some of the features of Black Lab eServer 6 are as follows:

Fully functional CLI environment
GUI environment KDE  4.14.2
DWM Tiling Window Manager
GCC 4.9.2
Linux kernel 3.16.0-38
Ubuntu LTS Compatible Kernel 3.13.0-53
Linux Kernel 4.0 update kit
LDAP Directory services
NFS Directory Services
Samba 4
Docker Containers
VirtualBox Virtualization
Webmin 1.750
Timeshift Backup and Services
Apache
PostgreSQL Database
Tomcat
NMCLI

You can order Black Lab eServer 6 from our webstore for $399.99 on LiveUSB or DVD installation or bundled on our new miniSERV hardware appliance:

Black Lab MiniSERVE

Processor    1.8 GHz Core i3-3217U
RAM            16 GB DDR3
Hard Drive    1 TB SATA or 
                     250 gb SSD (+49.99 USD)

Black Lab eServer ( miniSERV)

Black Lab eServer 6 (10 client licenses) $399.99 USD Black Lab eServer 6 (20 Client Licenses) $699.99 USD Black Lab eServer 6 (Corporate License) $1,099.99 USD Black Lab MiniSERV $799.99 USD Black Lab MiniSERV (250 gb SSD) $839.99 USD Black Lab MiniSERV + 3 year Warranty $879.99 USD Black Lab miniSERV + 250 gb SSD + 3 year warranty $940.00 USD

Install Media

Live DVD Live USB Live SD Card

Order Notes:

Black Lab Linux Professional Desktop 6.5 Beta 1 Released

Today we are pleased to announce the availability of Black Lab Linux Professional Desktop 6.5 beta 1.  This is an upcoming look at the future version of the Black Lab Linux Pro series.  With this release we include over 300 bug fixes as well as kernel updates.  We also worked on presentation and functionality.  All of the important bug fixes and application updates can be viewed in our release notes which can be viewed or downloaded here.

Release Notes

Here is a short list of the immediate visible updates that we have provided.

GNOME Classic as the default desktop.  Due to customer demand we enabled GNOME Classic by default because of customer demand, as well as to increase familiarity with those used to using Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux and CentOS.  It also helps to improve performance for terminal service users.

For those wanting a more traditional desktop interface we provide the XFCE user interface as an integration desktop.  This has the latest XFCE user interface and is the full XFCE interface.  It has not been cut down and is selectable from the login screen.

kernel 3.16 is the default kernel upon boot

Signed Linux kernels are provided for use on UEFI/Secureboot enabled systems.

You can download the Black Lab Linux Professional Desktop 6.5 Beta 1 from Sourceforge.  This is a Beta release and is not meant to be used in a production environment.  There is no warranty either expressed or implied with this release.

Black Lab Linux Professional Desktop 6.5 Beta 1 x86_64

Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 SR3 released

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 Service Release 3 or SR3. Black Lab Pro Desktop 6.0 SR3 is a major upgrade to our pro desktop line of distributions. With this release we worked on a few issues with memory consumption, security and speed. With the Black Lab Pro Desktop we deliver it in two different desktops, KDE and GNOME Shell . While these are commercial releases we do offer a cut down version of it available for download from our website. While we do not release for download all of the features of the retail release it is far from being crippled. The KDE release boots only consuming 480 mb of RAM and the GNOME Shell release boots using only 545 mb of RAM

With the Service Releases we introduce all the new updates since our last release which was in October 2014.

• GNOME Shell 3.10.4
• KDE 4.14.2
• Firefox 35.0.1
• Thunderbird 31.4
• GTK+ 3.14
• QT 5
• LibreOffice
• Pidgin
• GLOM
• Kexi with PostgreSQL and MySQL drivers
• Simple Screen Recorder
• GNUCash
• Kmymoney
• Updated Flash Player
• Kernel 3.13.0-45
• DWM
• Nanny parental controls for
  system access controls
• Gnome EncFS Manager for creating
  encrypted data folders

Kernel 3.18.4 is available for both systems for users who want the latest stable kernel

These are just some of the updates available. Overall we have over 400 system and application updates since our last release.

So whats lacking from our free download vs our retail release?  With the retail release you get 12 months of phone and e-mail support, Skype integration, all the Oracle 12c prerequisites set up, Active Directory integration. With the community release you get community support.

You can download Black Lab Pro Desktop from our Sourceforge page

Download Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 SR3

We encourage everyone to join our Facebook groups, Twitter and Google Plus pages to keep up with the latest news, join our community, and learn of the latest developments. Also, if you run into a bug report it on our bug reporting system.

Black Lab Facebook Page

Black Lab Facebook Group

Black Lab Twitter Page @Black Lab Linux

Black Lab Bug Reporting

Black Lab Linux at Google +

Or if you want the retail release which also comes with a user guide you can purchase that here.

Buy it Now

If you wish to purchase support for the download release please contact us at sales@pc-opensystems.com

Users of Alternative Desktops: We will remaster and deliver under a custom configuration agreement the following desktops; XFCE, Cinnamon and Mate.

Black Lab Linux KDE 6.0 SR1

Today we are announcing that back by popular demand is the KDE release of Black Lab Linux.  We have a long history with KDE and  it has always been one of our more popular releases and the KDE desktop is the most requested desktops for our custom build service.  With this release we are bringing it to the general public.  With this release we made many changes to the KDE desktop to make it more friendly to novices as well as power users alike.  The KDE release like all of our releases of Black Lab Linux is based on the LTS version of Ubuntu and so you can be rest assured of continued support by us and by Canonical


Built on the base of Black Lab Linux 6, the KDE release contains the following software.

KDE 4.14.2
LibreOffice
Firefox 35
Thunderbird with the Lightning Extension
Spotify
Steam
Dropbox
TimeShift
Backup Utility
Dragon Player
VLC
Digikam
All multimedia codecs
Muon Software Center
Firewall utility

And many, many more software packages included and many more waiting to be discovered.

Some of the customizations that we make with Black Lab Linux KDE is that we cut off all unnecessary services and effects so we trim down the memory requirements for the system.  Many people have asked, what do we get that we wouldnt get with vanilla Kubuntu?  We include everything you need as a desktop system completely out of box.  You get streaming music, audio and video, office applications, system management tools, gaming facilities, and the ability to create your own desktop webapps.  So if you use Google Docs, Microsoft Office Online you can use them with Black Lab Linux.  Filesharing is made easy both by industry standard networking tools as well as through Dropbox.  So with that lets go ahead an answer a few questions that users may have.

Q) Will you guys be switching from GNOME3 to KDE now?
A) No, GNOME3 will continue to be our default window manager we are offering KDE as an alternative desktop for users.  Rightfully so because demand has been so high.

Q) Will KDE be offered alongside GNOME3 for professional desktop users?
A) Yes, KDE and GNOME3 are the only two choices users get on the Pro Desktop series. 

Known issues
----------------------

Installer still sports Kubuntu Branding - We are working on a new installer
Older NVIDIA cards may not work in live mode but the direct install option does work.
No installer on desktop in live mode - Open the menu and go to the system submenu and the installer is there.

You can download Black Lab Linux KDE from our Sourceforge Page

Black Lab Linux KDE 6.0 SR1 x86_64

If you are would like installable media or are on bandwith restrictions or you would like to purchase Black Lab Linux KDE on a Live USB, Live SD card or Live DVD please visit our store:

Buy Black Lab Linux

Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0 BETA 2 Released

Today we have released the second beta for the new release of our award winning education focused distribution, Black Lab Education Desktop.  The Black Lab Education Desktop 6 release focuses on the rock solid base of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which also includes functionality and feature support until 2019 and security and bug fix support until 2021 and we include an application lineup for education users that is untouched by any other education focused Linux distribution.

Here are the new changes in the Black Lab Education Desktop.

GNOME 3.10.4, modified GNOME 3 desktop to make it easier for tradition users
Kernel 3.13.0-43.50
Parental Controls, we have brought back Parental and access controls that can be used to block websites and manage time spent on machines.
Thunderbird Suite 31.3 with built in Google Apps support and translation utilities
Firefox 34 with built in translation utilities
LibreOffice 4.3.4
Full NFS support
Updated nitroshare for passing files between systems
Synergy so instructors can take control of a students PC easily and efficiently
Tux suite of educational tools.
Kinect and Wii support

Along with 360 updates to the previous Beta for security and application updates.

Pricing:  We have worked very hard to be competitive on pricing and we follow trends on education spending, so the custom configuration  for education has changed.  So we have 1 and 2 seat licenses as well as custom configuration and unlimited licensing.  For custom configuration the price is $1,000.00 for unlimited licenses for your district.  For the stock build of Black Lab Education Desktop, the price is $300.00 USD for unlimited licensing.  Unlimited licensing means you can deploy it on as many machines as you would like and you have unlimited redistribution rights so you can give a copy to your teachers, to your students and they get the exact same 1 year Telephone and e-mail support that the schools get.  Upon final release we will have a digital download option where you can download it from a secure server for $40.00 USD for one license and you get the same one year support.

If you purchase hardware you will get the OS for free preinstalled as well as a free year of support licensing.

You will also be able to download it for free and get community forum support or as we call it self-support.  You also wont have the commercial application support, Oracle, IBM, Red Hat etc. or the Active Directory integration support.

To get the Beta you can download it from the Sourceforge page for x86_64 systems.

Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0 Beta 2 x86_64

Black Lab Linux 6.0 SR1 Released

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Black Lab Linux 6.0 SR1, which is Service Release 1.  The purpose of our service releases is to focus on security and application updates rather than new features.  Service Releases are provided every two to three months in between our 6 month release schedule.  Black Lab Linux 6.0 is based on LTS technologies so users can be rest assured that you will receive feature and functionality updates until 2017 and security updates until 2020.

With Service Release 1 we have tweaked the user experience per user and customer feedback to move from a Unity type look to a more traditional GNOME/Mate experience.  You also have all security updates from October to December 14, 2014.  These include.

Linux kernel 3.13.0-43.50
Linux kernel 3.17.6 for kernel 3.17 users
Firefox 34
Thunderbird 31.3
GNOME 3.10.4
GTK 3.10.8

All together there are about 200 updates to the  system.

Users who dont need a new ISO can simply update their systems with the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Users and new users who would like to get a new ISO can download it from our Sourceforge page, 64 bit only.

Black Lab Linux 6.0 SR1 x86_64

If you would like to support the Black Lab Linux Project you can purchase install media and preinstalled hard drives from us.  Our holiday pricing is still in effect until January 3, 2015.

Buy It Now

Making the case for Black Lab Professional Desktop

Many people have asked us; Why Black Lab Professional Desktop?  After all Red Hat and SUSE offer desktop systems with their enterprise offerings.  What can we do with Black Lab Professional Desktop that they don't do?  So we are going to answer those questions right now and hopefully give you, the customer, some insights into our practices  vs theirs.

The Open Open Desktop

We call Black Lab Professional Desktop the Open Open desktop.  So what does that mean?  While SUSE and Red Hat love to talk about open source and they declare themselves the champion of open source thats not 100% accurate.  Red Hat and SUSE have a policy that if you compile your own kernel, if you pull down your own version of GNOME or XFCE that you will lose your support contract and your subscription is null and void.  We don't believe in that.  We believe that it is your system and that if you need to compile your own code you should be able to without consequence.  Our policy is that if you compile your own kernel, we will help you support that.  If something breaks, we help you fix it.  There are only two requirements to that. 1.  You give us access to your changes and 2.  That you use a stable kernel.  The reason why we require a stable kernel is because development kernels have so much change and so many code differentials between releases we obviously cant keep up with them and by the time you fix those problems many times a fix is already submitted.  Red Hat and SUSE only support one desktop..GNOME.  Thats it.  if you deviate from that once again, they cut your subscription and you are null and void.  Null and void are two words we dont believe in here.  If you want KDE, use it.  If you want Mate, use it.  If you want Cinnamon, use it.  While we don't offer ISO's with those desktops we dont penalize you.  While we offer ISO's with GNOME and XFCE we believe its your enterprise and you can use what you feel comfortable with.  We believe in that so much that we have alternative desktops in the repository and if you want those as your default, order the custom configuration and we build it for you.  We offer options and flexibility which are two options Red Hat and SUSE don't offer.

Price and Support

Lets face it, economic challenges are on the rise.  With the BSA (The Software Alliance) running campaigns like, Bust your Boss and Play it Cybersafe, proprietary software makers are out to get you.  You will never get fined or punished for using Black Lab Professional Desktop even if you don't have a support subscription.  If anyone tries to punish you or fine you for using Black Lab Professional Desktop we will help you defend against such attacks. While Red Hat and SUSE have really expensive software license fee's ours are extremely reasonable.  For the same price that Red Hat and SUSE charge you for 10 systems we have a corporate license which means you can install Black Lab Professional Desktop on as many machines as you like and as you need.  We believe we need to earn your business not that you have to give it to us.  While Red Hat and SUSE penalize you for not renewing your support subscription by cutting off important system and security updates we do not.  Even if you do not renew your support subscription you will continue to get important security updates for Black Lab Professional Desktop.  If you decide not to renew and a few months pass and you say "Hey I think we need a support subscription" while Red Hat and SUSE will charge you a separate fee for that and you will lose time because they start it over from when your original contract ended, we don't.  The minute you pay the subscription costs you get a full year, from the date you renew to that date the next year.  With Black Lab Software there is no pay in May and then pay again in January.  We believe the support subscription is to help the customer not to be used to obligate the customer and not to be used as a leash to lock you into our services.  With Red Hat and SUSE's support subscriptions, they only support their products.  With Black Lab Software we realize that you have a mix of environments.  You may use Ubuntu, you may use Linux Mint, you may use Kubuntu and you may use Windows.  We even help you guys support systems that are not even our own.

Technologies and development

While Red Hat and SUSE offer workstation systems they are limited in what they can do.  You have web browsing, e-mail and documents.  Thats it.  At Black Lab Software we realize there is much more to desktop computing than that.  You want to watch videos, you want to do multimedia presentations and production, you want to video conference and some of you may want to do graphics and animation work.  With Black Lab Professional Desktop you get it all.  We have all multimedia codecs installed.  We have full multimedia support.  We have graphics manipulation programs, video production software as well as common desktop productivity applications.  Developers, we have the Black Lab SDK included with every copy of Black Lab Professional Desktop.  Red Hat and SUSE, you have to use their enterprise OS for application development.  You cannot write UI code and graphical applications in Fedora or OpenSUSE and move it over to Red Hat Enterprise or SUSE Enterprise.  Because Fedora and OpenSUSE are bleeding edge releases code changes.  Black Lab Professional Desktop and Black Lab Linux Community Edition are both based on LTS technologies and share common code.  We are also compatible with Ubuntu 14.04 and Linux Mint 17.  Any applications you write on Black Lab Linux Consumer Edition, Ubuntu 14.04 or Linux Mint 17 will run on Black Lab Professional Desktop.  With LSB support most apps you write on Red Hat enterprise or SUSE Enterprise will run on Black Lab Professional Desktop.  Some of you may say, well Red Hat and SUSE have container support and XFS support.  When you install the Black Lab SDK, included with every copy of Black Lab Professional Desktop, you have FULL container support.  If you want to use XFS or BTRFS you can use those file-systems as well.  Once again flexibility and options.

Application support

Red Hat and SUSE have a reputation for being able to support a wide range of Enterprise class applications.  Black Lab Software and Black Lab Professional Desktop does as well.  Oracle products, JBoss, IBM enterprise products and PeopleSoft are all fully supported on Black Lab Professional Desktop.  With Ubuntu becoming the defacto standard of Linux distributions we support any and ALL applications written for Ubuntu.  This includes many other enterprise and commercial packages.

So we believe we have a good base for Enterprise and professional desktop deployments.  We offer options and flexibility not only in features but in support and pricing.  We are here to earn your business and to work with you in your truly Open Enterprise environment.  For more information on Black Lab Professional Desktop visit our Professional Desktop page.  If you want to purchase Black Lab Professional Desktop you can Buy It Now.

Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 Service Release 2 Available Now

Today we are announcing the immediate availability of Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 SR2.  SR2 (Service Release 2) is a collection of all security updates for October and November 2014.

We also have some new additions to the /opt/Black Lab Extras/ folder:

Kernel 3.17.2 Installer
Skype 4.3
Black Lab SDK 1.9

Along with security updates we have also included:

Kernel 3.13.0-39
Appgrid 0.13
GNOME Clock
GNOME Weather
GNOME 3.10.3
Calibre 1.48
GNUCash 2.6

The Black Lab SDK 1.9 also installs and configures Docker for you for full container integration.

Users and current customers can install the updates via the terminal with the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Commercial customers who have support:  Your updated USB keys have been fully updated and shipped as of Friday November 14, 2014.

New comers can find out more about Black Lab Professional Desktop from here:

Black Lab Professional Desktop

Users that would like to subscribe to support or purchase Black Lab Professional Desktop on a preinstalled Hard Drive, you can purchase your licenses from the Buy it now page.

Buy It Now

Users who want to try Black Lab Professional Desktop on a 60 day evaluation basis or with forum and community support can download from our sourceforge page.

Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0 SR2 x86_64

Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0.1 Public Beta released

Today we are releasing our Public Beta 1 of Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0.1. Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0.1 is a revolutionary new design of the Black Lab Linux desktop for education environments and is tailored for those environments. Based on the same technologies that make up our Black Lab Professional Desktop series we offer the same longevity and support that our enterprise customers have come to expect. Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0.1 is supported by us until April 2022.

The feature set for Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0.1 is unique among other education based distributions. We offer features for K-12, Pre-K as well as college level environments meaning that no matter the level that you teach, you have the same featureset, power and customization options that enterprise customers and Linux enthusiasts have come to expect. So here is the package lineup for the Public Beta of the Black Lab Education Desktop.

1. GNOME3 – Our heavily customized and lightweight functionality that Black Lab Linux 6 users have.

2. LibreOffice

3. Wine 1.7

4. Firefox 33

5. Thunderbird Suite including calendar functionality as well as translation utilities

6. Nitroshare – For sharing files among the classroom

7. Synergy – This allows teacher to actually take control of the students desktops and perform valuable education tasks

8. Ardesia Desktop Sketching – This allows teachers and presenters to use their own computer screen as a whiteboard

9. Callibre ebook management – This allows for quick deployment of etextbooks as well as distribution of reading materials

10. Tux Education Suite – Tux Paint, Tux Math, Tux Typing tutor and Tux Notes

11. Celestia

12. Timeshift System Backup and Restore – This feature allows administrators and teachers to restore school desktops should they be made into an unstable state

13. VLC

14. Audacious

15. GMTP for syncing files among android tablets, Kindle Fire HD/HDX and Barnes and Noble Nooks

16. GIMP

17. Scribus

18. Wine 1.7

19. Fogger Webapp Utility

20. Weather

21. World Clock

22. Simple Screen Recorder

23. Gcompris Suite

24. Springseed Note application

25. Kinect and Wiimote support

Among these all security updates up to Oct 27, 2014 have been applied. Black Lab SDK 1.8 is fully compatible with this system as is Google Chrome and the Opera Web Browser.

Our goal by offering a public beta is to continue to provide the best of breed education based distribution and we hope you guys will help us do that.

You can download the Public Beta from our Sourceforge Page but do keep in mind that it is 2.5 GB's to download.

Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0.1 (64 bit) ISO

You can also purchase a copy if you are bandwidth restricted for $35.00 + Shipping. Black Lab Education Desktop will also be available pre-loaded on hardware and upon request on preloaded hard drives by certified education facilities.

Black Lab Education Desktop Public Beta

1 copy $35.00 USD

Install Media

LiveUSB Live SD Card Option 3 Option 4

Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0.1 released

Today we released a slight incremental update to Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.  This release, Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0.1 addresses three issues that users have reported to us.

1.  Samba Networking - Some users filed issues where Files wasnt automatically picking up created shares.  This issue has now been fixed.

2.  Single Core - Some single core systems that were 64 bit capable would register an error during installation citing that the system could not be installed and continue with the installation anyway.  This was potentially negative for users so the error code was removed.

3.  Wifi Stability - When going into standby Wifi would disconnect and refuse to reconnect unless the user rebooted the system.  This issue was fixed with the 3.13.0-37 Kernel update.  This error is NOT present in the 3.17 Kernel Kit.

Among that we refreshed the system with the 3.13.0-37 kernel as well as the following:

1.  All October security updates have been applied to the system.
2.  Firefox 33 is now included
3.  All GNOME 3 UI enhancements from RC1 have been applied
4.  OpenSSH server has been installed but not enabled
5.  Skype 4.3 has been updated in the /opt/extras folder

For current users all you have to do is open the terminal and type "sudo apt-get update " and then "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade"

Or you can download the new ISO from the Sourceforge Page

Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0.1 x86_64

If you wish to purchase a copy or a corporate subscription of Black Lab Professional Desktop 6.0.1 and get 12 months of phone and e-mail support as well as enable advanced features please visit our Buy It Now Page.

Purchase support Subscriptions for Black Lab Professional Desktop