Elementary OS 0.4 'Loki' Beta Ready For Testing - Ubuntu Maniac

elementary OS is an open source operating system based on Ubuntu Linux, the world’s most popular free OS, and built around the GNOME desktop environment. It features its own theme, icons and applications.

Distributed as 64-bit and 32-bit Live DVDs
The system is usually distributed as two Live DVD ISO images, one for each of the supported hardware platforms, 64-bit and 32-bit. It allows users to use the live environment directly from USB flash drives or blank DVDs.

Boot options
The design of the boot prompt and it’s default functionality is unchanged from Ubuntu, allowing users to run a memory test, boot an existing operating system from the first disk drive, test the OS without installing, or directly install it (not recommended).

If you don’t press a key to force the boot from the external USB stick or DVD disc, it will automatically load and start the live desktop environment, which is comprised of a top panel, from where users can access the unique main menu and launch apps, as well as a dock (application launcher) on the bottom edge of the screen.

Beta Means Beta

If you’ve never tried beta software before, there’s something very important you should know: beta quality software is not finished and contains known issues.
The purpose of releasing a beta is to give developers time to update their apps prior to stable release, give our translation teams time to translate, and give our documentation teams time to update documentation. Beta represents a more-or-less feature-complete release, but it does not represent a stable release. So if you decide to install Loki Beta, hold onto your butts because things are going to be a bit bumpy.

“Loki is being built with the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS repository, which means it comes with Gtk 3.18, Vala 0.32, and Linux 4.4 as well as a multitude of other updated libraries. This most notably brings new toolkit features, like GtkPopoverMenu, and you’ll notice that apps now benefit from native overlay scrollbars. The latest Granite comes with two new widgets: AlertView and Avatar. Last but not least, we’re introducing a simple “elementary-sdk” metapackage to quickly grab the essential set of development tools and libraries”, says Cassidy James, Cofounder and UX architect, elementary

Of course, since this is an early beta release, you should not install it on production machines. Cassidy James shares the following known issues.