Feren OS 2020.11 released

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crosscourt
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Feren OS 2020.11 released

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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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Theyve dropped their XFCE and Cinnamon classic editions and are now KDE only. Its a customized KDE desktop with some nice features and much prettier graphics. This edition is still on 5.19.5 for the time being. Ill be installing this as soon as I can, to test it.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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I only got a quick look at the live version but it appears its not based on Mint any more even though they kept a few features like the update manager.
Instead it appears to be based more on Ubuntu 20.04 but has been heavily customized to make it more than just another Kubuntu clone.
It offers many desktop layouts and global themes as well as other unique features.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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Install wasnt quite as smooth as I expected but it went fine. They made some changes in Calamares which caused me to pause a bit. They also restart the system after the install, then ask for login and password along with other settings, then it finishes. That wasnt done early on with Calamares in previous versions Ive used.
Theres not much left from their Mint days and browsers can only be installed thru the web browser manager, not thru Synaptic. I assume this has something to do with their aversion to Snap but who knows. They have a wide range of browsers including Falkon and Waterfox to name a few.
Thunderbird installed fine from Synaptic.
Hardware was auto detected fine and even though they had many desktop layouts(the MacOS style is default)I used the Redmond version which gets you the typical KDE desktop look with cascading menu.
Overall appearance is amazing, a beautiful distro. Resource usage after restart was around 500mb which is great.
The update manager is from Mint but they use the system maintenance feature as well, which for average users can really help with system problems.
Im heading off to test multimedia and games and will post back tomorrow.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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The only bit that interested me in the notes was the Inter Font. Tried it but it's a bit too round for my tastes. Probably OK for Attention Grabbing Headlines - but for normal words - nah!
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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I emailed the devs awhile back when they brought out their KDE version. I said that they needed to advertise their KDE version more as old Mint KDE users would be interested and right now there is only Kubuntu and Neon as the two main Ubuntu KDE distros. Didnt hear a thing for quite sometime then I got a mail that said here it comes.
Now Feren OS instead of wasting time with XFCE and Cinnamon versions, competing directly with Mint can now develop their own quality Ubuntu based KDE distro with different theming and their own choice of features.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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Its definitely better than Kubuntu and uses newer KDE apps such as 5.19.5. Its nice you can install Chromium without the Snap hassle, as well as many other browsers. They update regularly and very often which is a plus, as some of my KDE distros start to fall behind quickly.
The desk layout feature is really nice as not everyone wants to run a Windows style desktop and you can switch layouts very easily.
Resource usage has stayed around 500mb even though Feren does have some extras running in the background.

Its already replaced MX Linux 19.3 as my main Linux distro.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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Major update for Feren that you typically dont see this soon. They are making their move away from Mint and towards Ubuntu as their base for their OS.
Just installed the update and will post back once ive used it a bit more.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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I can confirm that this recent snapshot update officially removes the Mint repos and Feren OS is now based on Ubuntu 20.04. They are continuing to use the most recent KDE versions so its a good choice if youre fed up with some of the issues with Neon.
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Re: Feren OS 2020.11 released

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Not really sure where they are going with this. They went from being the only KDE Mint based distro to being an Ubuntu based distro. They have a custom desktop and some nice user features but thats about it. If they can become a more polished version of KDE Neon, maybe it will work out.
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