Feren OS celebrates its 5th anniversary
No time right now?
The new version 2021.01 “Dysprosium” appears right on time for the fifth birthday of the Linux distribution Feren OS. The so far little known Ubuntu derivative is astonishingly well-rounded.
Which Linux user doesn’t know that: One night the bored distro hopper stumbles over a video on YouTube that shows a little-known Linux distribution. Most of the time the distribution is ugly and serves a niche purpose that is not of interest to you; or it is overly pretty, but unusable on closer inspection. Even if you take the trouble to drag it to a USB stick and test it yourself, it rarely ends up as an installation on the hard drive.
One of these superfluous Linux distributions was also Feren OS until recently. The hobby project of a British student was originally derived from Linux Mint. The Cinnamon desktop looked more modern and prettier, but it was jittery and tough to use and inconsistent in every nook and cranny. Even the mostly superficial and unsuspecting distro YouTubers only treated this distribution because you have to tear something up. Even on Distrowatch, the distro ekes out a shadowy existence and has a mediocre rating.
However, Feren OS was completely rebuilt last year. It is now based directly on Ubuntu, uses a very nicely adapted KDE and the crude mixture of numerous repositories has been cut back to a minimum. The result, in the form of version 2020.11, landed on my hard drive for the sake of fun and completely surprised me: I haven’t booted Ubuntu, which I actually work with, for three months and have used Feren OS instead, simply because it’s fun and is practical.
Sophisticated KDE desktop
The KDE interface is visually very appealing and at the same time high-performance. On the surface, it is based on Windows, but does not want to imitate it any further. Instead, the arrangement of the desktop elements can be switched between Windows, MacOS, Ubuntu and other concepts with one click. Vivaldi is preinstalled as a browser. As one of the very few Linux distributions that allow this, Feren OS allows you to install, remove and switch numerous browsers from Chrome and Chromium to Firefox and Brave with one click. “Coming soon” is currently only available under Microsoft Edge.
A good example of the developers’ pragmatism is the handling of the Snap software package format. Many were upset when Ubuntu switched to the semi-proprietary Snap. The Ubuntu descendant Mint, however, has removed Snap from the system and replaced it with Flatpak. Feren OS takes a middle ground here: Flatpak is active by default and Snap can be switched on at any time if desired. The handling of proprietary drivers and codecs is similar.
The system contains borrowings from a wide variety of Linux distributions, from the Calamares installer to a welcome screen reminiscent of Linux MX to the Timeshift backup tool. Steam and Wine are not preinstalled, but can be installed with one click. In many distributions, KDE applications look ugly under Gnome and vice versa. Feren OS, on the other hand, does the integration of software from different distributions really well, even if minor inconsistencies cannot be avoided here either.
For old hardware without being spartan
This means that Feren OS can find its target groups in very different areas: As an entry-level distro, it is just as easy to use and well designed as Zorin OS or Elementary OS. As a lightweight system, it also runs very well on old hardware and competes with Xubuntu and MX Linux without looking spartan. Even on a ten-year-old laptop, the gently animated surface with transparencies runs with a high degree of waviness. HD videos can be played without stuttering even in the outdated setting, which is not a matter of course under Linux. Last but not least, Feren OS is aimed at everyone who uses Mint or Pop_OS, because they are very well and pragmatically preconfigured.
Of course, Feren OS also has disadvantages. The biggest shortcoming is probably the extremely small community that cannot even begin to compete with the communities of other distributions. However, help from the Ubunut world also works under Feren OS. As is often the case with small distributions, there is a risk that the developers will not be able to maintain the distribution in the long term. And in the system there are still remnants of the rather chaotic early years in some places. The latter in particular is currently getting better from version to version and nothing stands in the way of using it as a normal office and everyday system. The fact that the dark theme does not affect all applications is also a teething problem that affects all Linux distributions to varying degrees.
Feren OS is not suitable for purists who insist on a bare Debian or who install their Arch Linux by hand. Likewise, developers who work a lot on the shell and maybe even use a tiling window manager are unlikely to be happy with Feren OS. On the other hand, it is particularly suitable for people who otherwise use Windows or MacOS, but are toying with Linux, especially to breathe new life into old hardware for the living room PC, for example.
As is common with Ubuntu-based distributions, Feren OS as a live system downloaded for free and tested with a USB stick without having to install it immediately.
