Feren OS Next Beta 3 just dropped
Today, I’m proud to announce the release of Feren OS Next Beta 3, the third in the series of Feren OS Next Beta builds (excluding 2.1, otherwise it’d be the fourth build). This release adds a bit of spit and polish to the default user experience, adds more Online Accounts options (including ones from Cinnamon) to the Plasma desktop, fixes a few issues and adds a few more changes.
Fixes
The main ‘fix’ on this build is that the lock screen is now disabled by default on the Live Session to prevent a bug with kscreenlocker from locking you out automatically from the Live Session User when inactive for too long. This bug is especially troublesome when you’re installing Feren OS just to be locked out of seeing the installation status, so should not now happen in Beta 3 and onwards unless the user is to manually lock the session.
Some smaller fixes were also made, including disabling desktop icons on the Ubuntu Unity Layout, fixes for default file associations (meaning they now all link to the correct applications by default) and fixes for Transfer Tool support (inherited from Transfer Tool 2.0.0 and onwards).
As always, if you find an issue, make sure to report it here as a ‘Feren OS Next Bug Report’: https://github.com/feren-OS/Bug-Reporting-Center/issues/new/choose
Other bugs still need to be fixed, which can happen in Beta 4 (or potentially even RC1), with updates fixing these trickling down to existing users as they’re one.
UX Improvements
ALT+TAB
The first UX Improvement in this build is the new default ALT+TAB theme, being ‘Thumbnails’. Not only does this ALT+TAB look more natural, but it also grants a slight loading speed boost in comparison to the default Breeze ALT+TAB theme.
No more scroll on desktop to change workspaces by default
Another change is that mouse wheeling the desktop, by default, no longer changes your workspace now (it does nothing now). This should make things less cumbersome for most users, however if you liked this UX decision on Plasma’s part you can easily re-enable it in Desktop Settings.
The top-left hot corner was disabled
Finally, the third change, made out of fixing potential for cumbersome-ness, is the removal of the top-left hot corner. The main reason for this change is actually to make it consistent with Feren OS Classic’s lack of hot corners by default, however that hot corner can be a little cumbersome too for some users so disabling it is an added bonus for them.
New to Beta 3
Transfer Tool
Transfer Tool makes its debut into Feren OS Next in this build, bringing with it its whole new look thanks to the Transfer Tool 2.0.0 update and support for changing the Plasma Desktop Background if running on Plasma and if a desktop background from a Windows backup is restored.
Online Accounts (feat. GNOME Online Accounts)
Online Accounts is a new GUI for (sort of) unifying both types of Online Accounts used throughout Feren OS’s main set of applications, being those affected by KDE Plasma’s Online Accounts settings and those affected by GNOME’s equivalent. To prevent any confusion, patches are made by the package responsible for this ‘hub’ application to prevent Online Accounts (KDE) from appearing in applications menu searches, and there’s a handy button at the bottom of the window to tell you which applications are known to be affected by which Online Accounts.
As consequence of this, you’ll also now be able to configure GNOME Online Accounts through a fork of the Cinnamon Settings app, made to just be a GUI framework for showing the GNOME Online Accounts settings, too in Feren OS Next.
Just as a note, this is still early days for this GUI — keyring issues and such are going to be rampant in the GNOME Online Accounts side of things for now until I can fix them.
Other improvements
OOBE
The OOBE got a small redesign in the form of its fonts and a grid-based layout for the Codecs page to make it more in line with the other changes. On top of this, Online Accounts setup is now a step in the OOBE (it looks like KDE Connect setup’s step) and, using something introduced in Beta 2 as a means of checking for being in a VM, a substitute for Feren OS Classic’s VM Warning dialog is now present in the OOBE as one of the first pages shown (beware that this page only appears once per user account, though).
Latte Dock
Latte Dock has now, finally, been updated to its latest version, meaning all the latest Latte Dock improvements are now in effect on the default dock layouts Feren OS Next has to offer. Ubuntu Unity Layout’s dock has the most obvious use of new features in this update, with it now using the tasks list overflow scrolling feature akin to Unity (Desktop Environment)’s own overflow scrolling for the same scenario.
Apologies to Beta 2 users, by the way, since this update also made the old configs look ugly as all sin now (and looking kinda broken on Ubuntu Unity Layout in Beta 2). If you’re affected by that issue, update feren-latte-config, quit Latte Dock, copy /etc/skel/.config/latte over ~/.config/latte and then relaunch Latte Dock.
Conclusion
Other than that, there’s nothing else to announce (that I remember doing anyway), so as always you can check out what’s still pending for Feren OS Next before it can be considered stable over here: https://github.com/feren-OS/Bug-Reporting-Center/milestone/1.
Make sure to report any bugs you find with Beta 3 and later Betas, RCs, or even the Stable version of Feren OS Next when released, if you find any, so that Feren OS Next can be as good as possible on and after release.
Other than that, you can download Feren OS Next Beta 3 using the exact same link on Get It as you could Beta 2. Enjoy and definitely remember to report any bugs you may find!
To download Feren OS Next Beta 3, go to the ‘Get It’ page of the Feren OS Website and click the ‘Download Now’ button in the grey Feren OS Next box and enjoy… or just click this link: https://ferenos.weebly.com/before-you-download-feren-os-next-beta.html
