Feren OS Classic will reach end-of-life on April 30th

This is the second last forewarning post on the Feren OS news area to inform users that the following releases of Feren OS will be reaching end-of-life in 30 days from the time of writing this post:

• Feren OS July 2018 Snapshot
• Feren OS October 2018 Snapshot
• Feren OS January 2019 Snapshot
• Feren OS KDE Experimental (all builds)
• Feren OS April 2019 Snapshot
• Feren OS July 2019 Snapshot
• Feren OS Next (all builds, Betas, and Release Candidates)
• Feren OS (and Feren OS Classic) December 2019 Snapshot
• Feren OS (and Feren OS Classic) January 2020 Snapshot
• Feren OS (and Feren OS Classic) April 2020 Snapshot
• Feren OS (and Feren OS Classic) July 2020 Snapshot
• Feren OS Classic (all snapshots and versions)

April 30th 2023 will mark the end of an era, in more than one significant way. For the context of this post, it will mark the end of the era of Feren OS that started it all, as the final Cinnamon-using release of Feren OS, and the experience it brought, will be finally coming to a close.

Feren OS Classic

Feren OS Classic is the name of the original Feren OS, of whom uses the Cinnamon desktop environment and an assortment of traditional GTK+ applications. It was superseded by Feren OS in December 2019, but has remained supported and regularly updated… until the upcoming end-of-life cutoff date.

It is also the last Feren OS version with 32-bit support, as upstream support for 32-bit was dropped with the release of a major update for Feren OS Classic’s successor in November 2020.

Feren OS Classic never got rebased on a newer upstream base as the community voted against doing so when polled about that.

While the reason for Feren OS Classic’s soon-to-be discontinuation, in favour of Feren OS, will not be explained yet (I plan to explain why in a retrospective in the near future), ultimately this decision was for the best.

How to update from Feren OS Classic to…

1. Fully update your device (if you get EXPKEYSIG, or expired key, errors, click here)
2. Press Refresh in Update Manager and make sure your device is fully up-to-date
3. In Update Manager, find an orange or red banner informing you about support ending for Feren OS Classic, and press Ok to open the Feren OS Major Updater
4. Press Next

…Feren OS

5. Select “Feren OS” when prompted to choose your update path

6. Close all your applications, as you will not be able to use applications once the update begins, and unsaved data will be lost upon your device restarting during the update process

7. Review the changes to be made, and press “Begin the update”

8. Authenticate, and let the process complete (if it fails, try again in a few minutes)

9. Your device will restart, and you’ll be prompted to continue the update — wait until a first login setup window appears before pressing “Begin the update” so that your Feren OS Classic configurations get transferred over

10. Authenticate again, and let the update complete (your computer will restart twice during the update process)

…Linux Mint

5. Select “Linux Mint” when prompted to choose your update path

6. Close all your applications, as you will not be able to use applications once the update begins, and unsaved data will be lost upon your device restarting during the update process

7. Review the changes to be made, and press “Begin the update”

8. Authenticate, and let the process complete (your computer will restart once the update process has completed)

9. After your device restarts, you will be presented with the option to remove leftover programs that were pre-installed in Feren OS Classic — if you use the applications listed, do not tick the checkbox, otherwise feel free to tick the checkbox (you can always install or remove those programs later through Software Manager)

10. If you want to turn your device off, press Shut Down on the top-left, otherwise press Continue — once you do, your device will perform post-update cleanup, and then either power off or take you to the login screen of what is now your Linux Mint 20.3 device

If you take the Linux Mint path, please remember that any support questions you have, once this update has finished, should now be pointed at Linux Mint communities instead of Feren OS communities, as you will no longer be running Feren OS nor Feren OS Classic on your device.

How to update affected Feren OS versions to a supported release

1. Fully update your device (if you get EXPKEYSIG, or expired key, errors, click here)
2. Press Refresh in Update Manager and make sure your device is fully up-to-date
3. In Update Manager, find an orange or red banner informing you about support ending for Feren OS Classic, and press Ok to open the Feren OS Major Updater
4. Press Next
5. Close all your applications, as you will not be able to use applications once the update begins, and unsaved data will be lost upon your device restarting during the update process
6. Review the changes to be made, and press “Begin the update”
7. Authenticate, and let the update complete (your computer will restart twice during the update process)