Endless OS 3.4 Released With Phone Companion App, Linux 4.15 Kernel, And Smarter Updates
Endless Mobile, Inc., which develops the Linux-based operating system, Endless OS and reference platform hardware for it, has recently announced Endless OS 3.4, which is the company’s latest major release.
According to Endless OS’ community manager Michael Hall, Endless OS 3.4 is a “huge step forward in our journey to help you take advantage of an internet connection when you have it, and be respectful of your limited data plan if that’s what you are using to connect. Version 3.4 brings exciting new features to help you manage your data consumption and get updates in smarter ways.”
For those unaware, Endless OS is a free, easy-to-use, Linux-based operating system that provides a simplified and streamlined user experience using a customized desktop environment branched from GNOME 3.
“Endless OS 3.4 also brings many stability and performance improvements since we’ve updated our open source core. With all of these great new features and improvements, we hope that you will enjoy this new version of Endless OS as the best release to date,” Michael said in the announcement.
The new version brings low-level improvements to the system and the graphical interface based on GNOME (brought to version 3.26), which allows you to set system updates automatically or schedule them at certain times. This is especially useful if you have limited data access to the Internet. For instance, the system can be configured to not download app updates or any kind of content when a limited data connection is used. The distro is intelligently designed to know when and how it can depend on the Internet.
The App Center in Endless OS 3.4 has been updated to show users Endless OS updates for their apps. This will allow the users to manage all their updates in one place, and also provide more information about what is in the OS update before the user installs it.
Further, Endless OS 3.4 will ship with the Linux 4.15 kernel, which fixes a number of hardware bugs and increases support for various types of hardware. This release also gets updated Intel and AMD graphics drivers which should fix a number of graphical bugs that have been reported by Endless OS users’.
However, above all, it introduces the Companion App for Android that allows remote access to your PC. This is an application for sharing content, which will soon be in beta with all the instructions for use.
Lastly, other improvements in Endless OS 3.4 include the AdBlock Plus extension for Chromium and Google Chrome web browsers that automatically block unwanted banners, pop-ups, tracking, malware and more which in turn will enhance user experience when browsing the web. Further, Endless OS SDK was upgraded to version 4 with many improvements for those developers who want to write native apps.
Endless OS 3.4 is now available to download from the official website. However, for those who are running Endless OS 3.3.17 or earlier on their PC, will first be upgraded to 3.3.18 and then, after rebooting, the upgrade to 3.4 will become available.