14 DAY TRIAL // It appears that the developers behind the Debian-based Devuan GNU/Linux operating system continue to pursue their vision of providing a libre Debian fork without the systemd init system.
A new development version of Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0.0, the project's upcoming first stable release, has been announced on the last day of November 2016. Versioned Beta 2, the update adds various important security fixes and the latest package versions from the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" repositories.
"After some important fixes and updates, we continue down our path of providing Debian without systemd by announcing the release of Devuan Jessie Beta2. This interim Beta 2 release is another milestone as Devuan continues towards its goal of sustainability as a universal base distribution," reads the mailing list announcement.
The Devuan developers have also revealed the fact that the development cycle of Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0.0 will continue in 2017 with a Release Candidate (RC) version, which will be followed by the final release of the operating system a few weeks later. The good news, however, is that Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0.0 is shipping in early 2017.
Until then, you can now get your hands on the Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0.0 Beta 2 release by downloading the ISO image from the project's website. A Live ISO from Refracta is coming soon, and you can also get a minimal live image with accessibility support. However, if you're using Beta 1, you can now update to Beta 2 or upgrade from Debian.