Building a slide deck, pitch, or presentation? Here are the big takeaways:

  • Slack is now available in beta for Linux as a snap, allowing open source users to better collaborate.
  • Slack will be available to Linux users including those using Linux Mint, Manjaro, Debian, ArchLinux, OpenSUSE, Solus, and Ubuntu.

Slack is now available as a snap, which means Linux users can take advantage of the workplace collaboration platform, Canonical announced last week.

Slack has recently debuted a number of features that make it more appealing to businesses, including Shared Channels and Private Shared Channels, which allow employees from different companies to work together on projects in private if they so choose. With more than 9 million weekly active users, Slack has gained a lot of traction in the enterprise, as noted by our sister site ZDNet.

Back in October 2017, Linux overtook MacOS for the first time in terms of global operating system market share–which means the move opens up even more users to the Slack platform.

Snaps are containerized software packages designed to work in any Linux environment, across desktops, the cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Adopting this will allow the community of Linux users to tap the technology, including those using Linux Mint, Manjaro, Debian, ArchLinux, OpenSUSE, Solus, and Ubuntu, according to the Canonical press release.

SEE: Electronic communication policy (Tech Pro Research)

The Slack snap is designed to help Linux users work in a more efficient and streamlined manner, the release noted. It is also intuitive to use, with automatic updates and rollback features to give developers more control in how they deliver their products.

“Slack is helping to transform the modern workplace, and we’re thrilled to welcome them to the snaps ecosystem,” Jamie Bennett, vice president of engineering, devices and IoT at Canonical, said in the release. “Today’s announcement is yet another example of putting the Linux user first – Slack’s developers will now be able to push out the latest features straight to the user. By prioritising usability, and with the popularity of open source continuing to grow, the number of snaps is only set to rise in 2018.”

Thousands of snaps are now available, and their automated updates and rollback features allow developers to revert back to a previous version of an application should a bug occur.

Users can download the Slack snap here. However, Slack cautions that Slack for Linux is still in beta, and issues may arise.