Feren OS April 2021 Snapshot — change for the better
Today, I’m proud to announce the release of the Feren OS April 2021 Snapshot. Snapshots 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 to the April 2021 Snapshot
As always, it’s simple to update to the April 2021 Snapshot. 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 the April 2021 Snapshot!
However, a bug with unattended-upgrades did affect some users when doing the updates from Plasma 5.20 to Plasma 5.21. If you’re affected, check this article for a means of fixing the issue.
Changes since January 2021 Snapshot
New Wallpapers
Just like every single other Snapshot ever made for Feren OS, there are a new set of wallpapers to choose from.
With this snapshot comes new wallpapers from Unsplash, as is the norm. However, since this is an April snapshot it also means the default wallpaper has now been changed, and you got to choose which wallpaper it was changed to!
This means that, because of the outcome of a recent community poll on what the next default wallpaper should be, Surf from Feren OS 2017.0 is the first ever wallpaper to be promoted to being a default wallpaper! As is the new tradition, it has also now been given a dark variant as well for dark theme users.
KDE Plasma 5.21
KDE Plasma 5.21 makes its debut in this snapshot of Feren OS, too! However, there is a new feature in town to separate it from all other KDE Plasma 5.21 distributors — Feren OS has the Adaptive Transparency feature backported from the upcoming KDE Plasma 5.22, meaning the panel will now go opaque on supported themes when a window is maximised!
But that’s not the only change that has been made in light of KDE Plasma 5.21… there’s more than that.
Introducing Feren Application Launcher
Thanks to the introduction of Kickoff’s new KDE Plasma 5.21 design, a new applications menu has been born, based off of it, for Feren OS to replace Simple Menu. This new menu addresses a ton of complaints and bugs that users mentioned Simple Menu having, such as no tooltips for the power buttons, the menu not closing when choosing to edit an applications menu item, and more.
It’s also now more consistently designed alongside the rest of the Feren OS Plasma Desktop and should now fit in much better than before.
Feren OS Plasma Styles
Furthermore, the Feren OS Plasma Styles have seen a complete redo for KDE Plasma 5.21, addressing feedback such as the menu background not matching the panel background, as well as adding support for Adaptive Transparency, and more. It’s a refresh to make the theme look that much better in Feren OS’s Plasma.
Desktop Layout updates
Furthermore, the Desktop Layouts have seen updates:
- Breeze: Now based on KDE Plasma 5.21’s panel layout
- Feren OS Default: The Status Notch is now a Plasma Panel instead of a Latte Dock, and the panel now makes use of Margins Separators
- Cupertino: The Desktop Icons are now on the right
- Familiar: The panel now makes use of Margins Separators
- Tablet Mode: The panel now makes use of Margins Separators
- Ubuntu Unity: The launcher is now Feren Application Launcher
Snap styles now exist
For users of Snap Packages, you’ll be happy to know that the Feren OS GTK theme and Inspire Icon Set are now available in Snap form. Simply obtain ‘feren-os-theme’ from Snap Store, or find it on https://snapcraft.io/feren-os-theme, and connect the theme to your installed Snaps to enjoy the Feren OS style in your Snaps.
Furthermore, from now on installing Snap Store from the Welcome Screen will also automatically install this theme to guarantee consistent styling for the Snap Store right from the start.
An all-new Feren OS Start Page
Finally, the Feren OS Start Page, seen by default in Vivaldi in Feren OS on new tabs, has received a complete overhaul in design, and a near complete redo of its code. You can check it out right now at https://feren-os.github.io/start-page, though here most of the changes:
- The Start Page has been COMPLETELY redesigned from the ground up
- Your personalisable shortcuts are now spread across the bottom of the page
- The default background is now a random assortment of wallpapers from Unsplash picked by yours truly
- The time now appears in the Start Page, to make it feel more home-y
- You can now pick between 12 hour and 24 hour time on the Start Page
- You can now choose how many shortcuts there are on the Start Page (no limits, 8 default)
- There are now even more search engine options to choose from than ever before
- Adding search engines to the Start Page has never been easier for contributors
- Most of the code was entirely redone from scratch
Conclusion
In conclusion, this snapshot provides some noteworthy changes that you can get quite excited for. Go and check the April 2021 Snapshot out and have fun with it!
You can download Feren OS at https://ferenos.weebly.com/get-feren-os.
