14 DAY TRIAL // Today, April 26, 2017, the developers behind the Debian-based Q4OS GNU/Linux distribution announced the release of the fourth stability and security update of the Q4OS 1.8 "Orion" series.
Q4OS 1.8.4 comes almost two months after the release of the previous point release, and besides incorporating all the security patches backported from the upstream repositories of the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" operating system series, it adds an exciting new feature, namely the integration of alternative desktop environments.
Q4OS is one of the few Linux-based operating systems to be built entirely around the Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE), and open-source initiative to keep the spirit of the old-school KDE 3.5 desktop environment alive, and the new feature is implemented in the native Q4OS "Desktop Profiler" utility.
"Users can now select alternative desktops to install and use alongside the default Q4OS Trinity desktop," reads today's announcement. "Other minor improvements have been implemented and security fixes have been received from the stable Debian base."
LXQt desktop no longer supported in Q4OS 1.8 "Orion" series
Among other changes that landed in the Q4OS 1.8.4 stable release is the deprecation of support for the lightweight LXQt desktop environment, which the Q4OS developers promise to support thoroughly on the upcoming Q4OS "Scorpion" series of the operating system.
They also removed the Icedove email and news client from the Q4OS installer, replacing it with Mozilla's very popular Thunderbird. Version 45.8.0 of Mozilla Thunderbird will be installed on Q4OS 1.8.4, when deploying the OS on new computers.
Existing users will also receive all these changes and updates, as they are available as we speak from the Q4OS repositories. You can download the Live CDs or installation-only ISO images of Q4OS 1.8.4 right now from our website if you plan on reinstalling or installing Q4OS on other computers.