Releases
Looking for past releases? Scroll down to "Release Notes" for all available versions. If you can't find the information about the BitCurator software you need on this page, contact us via the BitCurator Users Group.
The current release is 4.4.4.
Install BitCurator on a dedicated host or in your own VM by following the instructions in the README at the link below:
Install BitCurator using our Saltstack repository
Our installer configures any stock Ubuntu 22.04LTS or 20.04LTS OS to operate as a BitCurator environment. Need help installing Ubuntu before getting started? You can find detailed instructions in the Install Ubuntu Desktop tutorial.
You can also find detailed installation instructions on both the installation process and using the Virtual Appliance in our Quickstart Guide, below.
BitCurator 4.x.x Quickstart Guide
The Quickstart Guide includes instructions to assist you in deploying BitCurator to a current (22.04 or 20.04) LTS release of Ubuntu. This document is undergoing maintenance, and additional instruction on included tools will be added over time.
The BitCurator environment will run on most modern Intel- or AMD-based hardware. BitCurator cannot currently be deployed on Apple hardware using Apple silicon (M1 or later). Many of the included tools are computationally intensive. For production environments, we recommend running BitCurator on a machine with at least an Intel Core i7 (11th gen or newer) or AMD Ryzen 7 (Zen 3 or newer) processor, 32GB RAM, and the primary OS installed on an NVMe SSD.
For large disk images, data-intensive tasks, and workflows that require the use of hardware write-blockers, the environment should be installed on the host machine as a dedicated operating system.
BitCurator tracks the lifecycle of Ubuntu LTS releases. Each LTS release has a lifespan of five years, after which security and package updates are no longer available for the core operating system. BitCurator-specific installers and tools are community supported; additional details on support mechanisms can be found on the BitCurator Consortium (https://bitcuratorconsortium.org/) site.
- BitCurator 4.x (when deployed on Ubuntu 22.04LTS): End of life on April 20, 2027
- BitCurator 3.x (when deployed on Ubuntu 20.04LTS): End of life on April 20, 2025
Abbreviated release notes for major milestones can be found on the the Release History page.