Feren OS 2022.07 — (hopefully) the final release before big changes happen

Before I do the announcement part of this whole announcement, let me just get these out of the way now: This is still based on Ubuntu 20.04, not 22.04 (that’s normal), and this is hopefully the last ‘calm before the storm’ release before Feren OS’s new Store is completed and makes its grand debut into Feren OS.

Of course, this could mean 2022.10 gets delayed, or even becomes the last Ubuntu 20.04-based Feren OS release, if Store isn’t fully ready yet, so no promises the next release will definitely be the big release that has been in the works for a while now.

Anyway, today, I’m proud to announce the release of Feren OS 2022.07. These releases are a regular occurence that usually occur every 4 months and provide the latest updates to Feren OS at the time of the ISO’s release right from the get-go.

Updating from 2022.04

As always, it’s simple to update to Feren OS 2022.04. Just go into the Update Manager, hit Refresh, and install any updates that might be there. Once you’ve done that, congrats, you’re now on Feren OS 2022.07!

NOTE: If some packages fail to download, cancel the update, Refresh, and try again.

Changes

Plasma 5.25.3

KDE Plasma 5.25.3 makes its Feren OS debut in 2022.07. To see the changes made, read https://medium.com/feren-os/plasma-5-25-is-now-available-in-feren-os-db65bbdb9f93, but to summarise Feren OS’s changes:

• The default accent colour is now automatically generated from your current wallpaper
• ALL the Feren OS themes now have their own distinct wallpapers (excluding the default Feren OS themes and Tablet Mode, which retain their usage of Feren OS’s wallpaper)
• Breeze now uses KDE Plasma’s official wallpaper
• The Status Notch got updated padding to account for a bug in older Plasma versions, causing it to get odd padding, being fixed in 5.25
• Everything was updated where required to function in 5.25, and Global Themes now use the newer Plasma metadata format

Firefox configuration updates

The optional Feren OS Mozilla Firefox pre-configuration got a few updates, including:

• Now coming pre-supplied with Lepton, with a preconfiguration of it
• An updated GTKless CSS
• Minor fixes

New wallpapers

Just like every single other version/snapshot ever made for Feren OS, there are a new set of wallpapers to choose from.
With this version comes new wallpapers from Unsplash, as is the norm, so you have new and fresh wallpapers to try and enjoy on your Feren OS device.

Other changes and bug fixes

• Vivaldi’s Feren OS configuration was updated to fix the toolbar layout being incomplete in later versions of Vivaldi
• Some minor package updates occurred to fix issues that would otherwise occur updating to KDE Plasma 5.25.3 and onwards

Reminder: Feren OS Classic reaches end of life in April

At the end of April next year, Feren OS Classic will officially be discontinued, never to get security updates or software updates ever again, outside of major updater fixes and updates.

For 32-bit users, this means you have until May 2023 before Feren OS no longer is supported on your hardware. For 64-bit users, this means you have just until then to make the decision to transition to Linux Mint with the Major Updater, or update to the latest and greatest Feren OS with the Major Updater.

I do plan on doing something very very special on the week, if not the day, Feren OS Classic reaches end of life, next year, so do look forward to that.

Conclusion

Other than that, you can download Feren OS 2022.07 from the usual place of the Feren OS website. Enjoy Feren OS’s latest release!