One of the best Ubuntu based distros I have Seen so far. Rock solid and works fine out of the box. My favorite distro since I accidentally stumbled on it a few months ago. Maybe Vivaldi as standard browser is not to everybody's taste, but this can be changed easily. Another small issue I had, was that Videolan Player was freezing so I had to switch to another media Player.
Apart from that, this distro applies to anyone new to Ubuntu or who just wants things to work out Quick and simply.
I've been using FerenOS 23.04 for a few weeks now and I have to say I'm impressed. It's based on Ubuntu, so it's stable and compatible with a lot of software, but it also has a beautiful KDE desktop that looks modern and sleek. It's very customizable and easy to use, and it comes with some nice features like the Feren Store, the Feren Theme Changer, and the Feren Welcome Screen.
Some of the pros of FerenOS are:
- It's fast and responsive, even on older hardware.
- It has a nice selection of pre-installed apps, including LibreOffice, Firefox, VLC, and Steam.
- It has a friendly and helpful community that provides support and feedback.
- It has a rolling release model, so it gets frequent updates and new features.
Some of the cons of FerenOS are:
- It's not very well-known, so it might not have as much documentation or support as other distros.
- It might have some bugs or compatibility issues, especially with newer hardware or software.
- It might not suit everyone's taste or preferences, especially if they prefer a different desktop environment or a more minimalist design.
Overall, I think FerenOS is a great operating system for anyone who wants a reliable, beautiful, and user-friendly Linux experience. It's one of the best KDE distros I've ever used, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try something new and different.
this has so much potential, if only it has more work takes place.
I truly hope all the best for this distro, but clearly the development process is very slow-paced, I'm not sure but i think because the distro has few developers/maintainers.
one issue I faced is some seriously dated repos, I guess debian have a competitor in that front.
but it's a very nice and bold take on creating a unique distro, i like that, but the job is far from over, especially on updating the repos
give it a try and you'll see how unique yet familiar it is, you'll notice that very quickly if you spent some time with linux mint
I use to use KDE Mint and Feren comes the closest to that and has improved greatly on it. One of the most beautiful distros Ive seen and the modified Win11 style desktop is very nice as well as the Feren theming. Its the best KDE distro Ive tried and stays far more up to date with kernel and KDE versions, than other Ubuntu based distros. No issues with install(uses Calamares), update or hardware detection and the added Mint features are really nice, like the updater and troubleshooter.
So many nice themes with this distro and the level of customization is something very appreciated.Codecs you can install when installing the distro and I had no multimedia issues at all. System feels noticeably faster than many of my other distros and memory usage was reasonable at 830mb.
Typically I would note a few cons about this distro but honestly there werent any in my use and the pros far exceeded my expectations. KDE users, former Mint users, new users and inexperienced users will find Feren easy to use and a great daily driver to get things done. Its using the KDE 5.25.5 and the 6.1 kernel but the 7.2023 version I understand will upgrade these further. App selection is good, with everything you need to get up and running out of box, including LibreOffice and Firefox. At first boot the welcome screen will greet you and help you familiarize yourself with the distro. Honestly cant figure out why this distro is rated so low on Distrowatch as its far better than some other KDE distros like Mageia at 27. Please give this distro a try and see what you think.
The KDE Plasma version is very responsive. The desktop has a polished feel. It comes with Vivaldi instead of Firefox. I consider Vivaldi as the better web browser. Software store works well. I type Chinese characters a lot and just like Linux Mint, it's very easy to set up Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Thai input methods. System updates are frequent enough, which shows that the distro is being maintained well and your system are kept up-to-date.The only problem I have is with the Calamares installer. It worked fine with one of my laptop and crashed on my second, newer laptop, making it unbootable. Took me a while to fix that. I have no problem with the Ubiquity installer at all.
works good until you try to burn cds with k3b I have never had trouble burning cds in k3b before on other Linux distros like linux lite linux mint ubuntu and others it has a warning get mad mp3 in a side window that pops up but there is no mad mp3 to be found to install also k3b error convert to wave then add but this fails to resolve issue also updating sometime can not get all updates so I had to install ucare system-core to get full updates for it start up gives strange errors in terminal before loading on a desktop computer
I loaded Feren on an older Ryzen 3 laptop that is unable to accept Windows 11 but is still a decent computing platform. I tried multiple distros before settling on Feren.
On this particular system, Feren is the only distro I tried that installed properly, booted cleanly after installation and still continues to run smoothly. Each of the others I tried - Debian and Arch derivatives - failed to start after installation for some weird reason and in some cases wouldn't even boot into live mode. I have previously worked with all of the other distros I tried to load and for some odd reason they just didn't work this time even though they work fine elsewhere. I believe there is an underlying hardware issue but Feren seems to be more robust than the others I tried in bringing this system up to a reliably operational state.
Once booted, the desktop loads smoothly and everything works nicely. I have had no problems loading applications, installing additional tools from the repositories, and using the system with various external hardware devices including mass storage, pointing devices and keyboards, the printer, docking stations, and external displays. Wireless connectivity and Bluetooth also work very reliably. Everything just works like it's supposed to work.
As a daily driver, this is a fine system. I use it for surfing the web, editing documents, and software development. My hardware is capable of virtualization but I haven't attempted that under this distro yet.
I have no problem recommending Feren, particularly if you're having subtle hardware issues with a system and are having trouble loading other distros.
I installed this distro as my first Linux distro, just to get a feeling of it. Loaded it next to windows, which came with a few hickups along the way. I was familiar with Ubuntu already since I used it on my VServers a lot already. I really like the design that the distro comes with out of the box and the good customizability. It was easy to install and (when I got it working and) it (finally) booted everything worked smoothly. I'm just going to try the distro but up until this point it is a solid 10 out of 10.
The best Plasma DE distro I've come across so far. Basically it's as if Linux Mint had kept their KDE spin going,
Ubuntu LTS base with a decent, but not bloated, set of default apps (Vivaldi is my preferred browser, so it being the default is a big plus for me).
Less buggy than Neon (track pad is fully functional and display settings stay in place) and without the near daily updates. More stable than Manjaro and seems to be well supported (unlike Solus - which now seems to actually be dead).
Though it may seem like an odd choice for a KDE based system, personally, I like the use of Mint tools and the Nemo file manager - it's like the developer asked me which tools to substitute the KDE versions for.
Very nice default aesthetic - better than standard Plasma Breeze and a definite step up from Manjaro or Solus customizations. I did change the panel configuration and the launcher app, but i've otherwise kept the defualt customization. There are a number of preset DE configs in the Appearance pane of system settings, including Ubuntu and Mac clones, so DE arrangement is pretty easy if you don't want to go down the detailed settings rabbit hole.
It's been very smooth running so far, which is a pleasure considering the relative bugginess/instability of many Plasma based distros.
Very highly recommended in general and if you are a Plasma fan in particular, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't take this for a spin.
I've given Feren a solid 10 and it's well deserved. Many people who try it may moan and state its not rocking the latest Ubuntu base but bare in mind the current Ubuntu base 20.04 LTS is supported until 2025 with additional support as far as 2030 so is this really an issue🤔 no in my eyes. The development of feren os is that of a stable well established solid operating system and that's its edge over the others and why more people should be downloading and using. The kernel is 5.15 so follows Ubuntus kernel release cycle and again makes it very solid and robust out of the box.
The desktop is beautifully designed and the system overall is not bloated. I like the way the developer thinks with this system, stable, beautiful and solid.
The easy browser install tool is a great feature and of course being kde open many doors to customisation but you will find it's not needed because the default theme is perfect.
The Linux mint kernel tool is also shipped with this system which allows you to switch your kernel should you want to.
So download it and stick it on a USB and install. For those struggling getting a booting USB if you have an android phone then install etcher from playstore and using a USB c to USB adapter plug into your device and flash the image using etcher to your USB. Works every time for me without fail and remembering you'll need to format before flashing or writing the image iso to the USB.
Anyway it's a brilliant system and needs to be amongst the top ten distros.
I recently converted my gaming-class laptop over to Feren OS, after months of dealing with other distros that have in one way or another failed me during updates. I don't like distro hopping and I don't like having to fiddle with the system BIOS to get it set up just to load a distro every couple of months, and after reading a positive write-up on Feren OS I decided to give it a shot. So far it is working out well for me.
Install was smooth and easy. I was able to boot and install from a USB stick without endlessly messing with BIOS settings, a welcome change from the mess I have endured over the last several installs. I wasn't expecting to be asked to set up the first user account after installation had already required a reboot, but this was more of a surprise than a problem. The end result is the same.
I really like KDE Plasma which was a big draw. Once up I was in familiar territory and everything just works. When I plug in my external monitor via HDMI the system correctly extends the desktop to it which is exactly what I want.
And, so far no issues with updates that break the system hopelessly. I am hopeful that I can keep the system free from broken updates (and full reloads) for a while.
Feren OS is my new daily driver for my system. It just works and it avoids the installation pitfalls I have encountered with many other distros.
The distro is very good-looking with lots of nice touches such as downloads shown on the desk whilst they are being downloaded. You can actually see their status easily.
I have not had any issue so far with it freezy the screen as I have had on past versions, so fingers crossed.
It has all the software you will need even if it is not installed, it is easy to install via the software centre. It also has a nice touch of LT language tool installed that checks your spelling similar to Grammarly in your browser, I use chrome, and it is good to see that a basic like this is now being installed as standard.
I was surprised by the sane defaults and good-looking distro out of the box that Feren OS offers. For my liking, is it better than Kubuntu, because it replaces some software better alternatives, like Discover for the Mint store, and KMail for Geary. It includes the update manager from Mint and a kernel manager. The ubuntu base offers a wide offer of software.
It is a little behind Kubuntu cycle of updates, but for me, that's of little importance.
Overall, it seems like a good all-round distro for everyday use.
It is very easy to install this distro.
I know Linux Mint cinnamon rather well, so I can use this distro without much difficulty.
I found new things on this distro I didn't know using Linux Mint : You can easily add amusing and useful widgets on the window panel.
But what confused me very much is that I could't find the way to remove widgets I came to find less useful.
Where is the device or menu to remove such widgets ?
Does somebody know it ?
I had put three icons of Google Chrome as widget on the panel by mistake.
I don't like to see so many Google Chrome every day, so I may go back to my favorite, Linux Mint cinnamon.
I wasn't sure how to rate Feren. I like its features a lot (so should I give it a good mark?). I was ready to load it up as my primary OS. Before I did so, I thought that I better check that it would see my printers and scanners. I took this to be a mere formality, because I have NEVER had an issue with ANY Linux distro seeing my printers, which are a brand name (Epson) and which have been around for a while. Guess what...Feren does not see my printers or scanners. I tried to configure the printers manually, but Feren doesn't even list any of the drivers for this printer series (WorkForce)!.
So, what looked to be a great OS is basically useless (maybe I should have given it a lower rating). FYI, I sent an email about this to Feren 3-4 days ago, but haven't heard anything back yet. If Feren finds your peripherals, you will probably like it a lot, but be sure to try it first.
I like Feren OS KDE and it works really fine and easy to install and applications.
From office software like as LibreOffice, Wordperfect, to internet browsers like as Firefox, Waterfox, Brave, Valvadi,Falkon,
to media playback with VLC Player, email program with Mailspring and much more.
Feren OS comes with a whole variety of applications available in its, or available on Synaptic Pack Manager or Store.
I often used Linux Mint but I prefer Feren desktop than Linux Mint. With Nvidia driver installed and very much smoother.
Also there are some themes you can choose to make it looked nice on desktop. Also i can create launcher shortcuts for putting on desktop. It very nice desktop.
It works really fine. Cool Desktop. Easy to install.
From office software (LibreOffice, Okular), to internet browsers (Firefox, Google Chrome), to games, to media playback (VLC Media Player) , and much more, Feren OS comes with a whole variety of applications available in its, or available on Synaptic Pack Manager.
I often used Ubuntu but I prefer Feren desktop than Ubuntu Unity Layout. Feren Application menu is easier than Ubuntu menu and feren looks really cool.
When installing you can choose Tablet Mode. And after installing you can also choose diferent layout as Cupertino, Familiar, Redmont or even Ubuntu Unity Layout. There are flavours for every one!
The version will not boot on my Dell XPS 9710 laptop and as such I cannot test it on bare metal. I did test it in a virtual environment and it looks really promising. For me to be able to validate it completely it is important that it installs. It is hanging on the display adapter and, while it is mostly the hardware, the kernel might miss some important modules.
I'll say this about Feren: it looks pretty damn slick and it does provide a Windows migration option out of the box. Unfortunately, that's all I can say about it.
I decided to test it out on a whim and ran into issues pretty quickly. Installation didn't go through on the first try, giving me an error and it took another one to complete. The boot menu was noticeably slower after the reboot, and so was the system itself in comparison to a few other mid-range distros I normally use; on my laptop it took several clicks on Install button in their app manager for a package to install because they just wouldn't register. The bluetooth wasn't working properly. I also had trouble running Spotify on Vivaldi due to some issues with widevine, though it ultimately worked after a few launches.
Feren goes for a hybrid OSX/Windows interface with an OSX aesthetic but Windows' bottom app panel and titlebar buttons placed to the right. If you're familiar with both interfaces, this might give your OCD a run for its money; I tried placing the buttons to the left, which took a dozen attempts as the Titlebar buttons in Window Decoration settings was glitching out something awful. Cursors would change back and forth sometimes. To be fair, all this might be Plasma's rather than Feren's fault and I've seen this in other distros. But overall I gave up on it after an hour as I didn't find any redeeming qualities in comparison to some other faster and more stable distros. It's the little frustrations that add up and I'm glad this was not my first Linux experience, otherwise I could have been driven away from it.
The live medium changed my host name to "feren". That's an absolute no-go.
Hope that this was the only change made.
Besides that the distro is a crude mixture, doing everything different. Unfortunately this doesn't mean better.
Myself have been a long term user of Mint Cinnamon, recently shifted to Feren on a new laptop just for some change of scenery and I am glad I did. From the ranking, it seems a rather under-appreciated distribution under the ubuntu umbrella, but the developers did a great job of putting a fresh new look for the KDE lovers who prefer the stable point release cycle of Ubuntu rather than Manjaro. It looks elegant, customisable, efficient, with all the applications I am already familiar with.
I wish I could give it a perfect 10, but the only piece missing is the a Feren focussed support community like you have for mint. There is a website for KDE users, but seems it is pretty inactive so that nobody asks or answers much, whereas if I put a query on Linux Mint forum, I am pretty much guaranteed a decent answer within 24 hour, which also motivates me to help others in return.
Mint(Cinnamon) has been my preferred Linux distro for many years now. However, I recently stumbled across Feren, basically Mint with KDE, and I'm loving it so far. Given that Feren is based on Mint I appreciate the familiarity and similarity of the two distros. I agree with the other reviewers that Feren is elegant and polished. It's beautiful and the UI experience is top notch. If you like Mint and KDE then give it try. It's great.
Excellent distro with a high degree of polish to the gui. As a 15 year user of many a distro I truly believe this is an undiscovered gem.
Installed on multiple machines without incident.
Super work folks. Thank you for all your effort.
Larrie
Feren is the best Linux distribution out there (I have been using Linux for 22 years).
Update manager is great.
Gnome disk utility (great for writing iso to usb stick).
Nemo instead of dolphin Great.
Thank you for the great work!
Feren gets the very best of Ubuntu/mint, and kubuntu worlds.
Update manager from Mint! It is great updater tool with kernel update capabilities.
No Kwallet, thank you!
Document scanner (better Than skanlite because allows save to pdf).
Gnome disk utility (great for writing iso to usb stick).
Nemo instead of dolphin (for easy root and EFI partition access).
Variety of nice plasma themes.
Great hardware support (driver manager from Ubuntu) I have nvidia card and loved that mate Optimus is installed by default.
Really liked the installation process with calamares more intuitive.
I have tried at least the first 30 distros listed in DistroWatch, and I can say that Feren is the best IMO. Very complete Out of the box software collection. More people should know about it.
Feren is the distro that I would create myself, just amazing. Thank you for the great work!
I love this distribution. It is so well thought out and configurable, much of which comes from the KDE Plasma. I have it setup in a dual boot situation with another Linux distro that I realy like. I had done a whole lot of research on how to repartition my drive to make room for Feren and then I didn't need to do that as the Feren installation process handled the repartition process for me.
This is a super impressive Linux OS and I'm shocked how smooth in runs and is stunning;y beautiful and has so many features and polish as well can be customised to your style and liking.
I regret trying out the best rated Linux distros on this site. None of them can match Feren OS in terms of features. It is absolutely the best alternative to Windows, and if you are switching to Linux for the first time, this is the best Linux distro, better than Zorin OS trust me. It has tons of customization features, it unites all desktop layouts and even offers Windows 11 start menu called Doors. It has a browser manager that lets you easily install most major web browsers with single click. It has an awesome app store that has almost everything. I really don't understand why it is so underestimated. 10/10 fully deserved!
I love Feren OS and have only had a few slight (to me) problems with it. On a single machine I could not get it to install past setting up the locals until I retried it with no internet connection, then it installed just fine. On all my machines I cannot get wine to work. When it pops up, the window is super skinny and will not display anything. This is happening when setting up a instance in PlayOnLinux.
Besides that everything just works and works excellent. Feren's version of KDE is beautiful. I always preferred Cinnamon to KDE because I thought KDE was "Chunky" and disorganized, and always wished Cinnamon had the customization KDE had. Feren's version fits the bill and is sleek and organized. It is like the Cinnamon version of Gnome.
I hope they keep up with the hard work because I will not be able to go back to another distro after this. I installed Linux Mint and it just looks dated compared to Feren. Windows has no chance!
The Feren OS Distro easily belongs in the top 20 Distros for productivity. I use Feren Os, Linux Mint, Manjaro, and Mx-Linux on different machines. The two Distros I use most when productivity is important are Feren OS and Linux Mint. When I do, I essentially perform the same work on both Distros. Between the two, I find that I use Feren OS most often because of its speed and stability.
This distro major advantage over other distros is it's desktop layouts. You can select desktop layout out of many available options. The distro is a bit slower to boot and launch applications but it's user interface covers it all.
Minimal GRUB GUI. Works better than some others that list countless kernels, but not as nice as others, like Neptune.
Compared to other distros, it is slow to boot to the splash screen, slow to boot to the login screen, slow to get to the desktop, slow to start apps, slow to shutdown - regardless whether it is freshly installed on a 2.5" laptop HDD, 3.5" HDD or SSD.
It would have been nice if it had the Mint USB Creator applets or Etcher, but one must instead install Startup Disk Creator (which took me forever to find.)
Got confused with Audio (reading CDs that already had .wav files & accessing the CD titles database), Clementine and playing back some Videos.
Uses sudo, systemd and pulseaudio.
But being able to configure it for Windows 7 or 10 like menu is a big plus as it should make transitioning to Linux easier.
The Best Ubuntu Based Distro with KDE Plasma Desktop Environement. Thay changed a bit the default shortcut but it's not a big deal I guess. Other than that, Performance is better than Kubuntu, Look and Feel Better than any other KDE Plasma Desktop.
Since I knew that this Upgrade would involve upgrading KDE to 5.20, it would demand the re-setting of the Desktop to Feren default (Global Theme, Desktop Layout, Colours, Icons, Cursors, Application Style, Plasma Style, Window decorations) before initiating the upgrade.
The Upgrade took about 1 hour. During the Upgrade it will pop up with a Notification that the PC should be Rebooted. It is best to just walk away and let the process continue to completion. Upon a reboot the Upgrade will continue showing a Per Centage progress bar.
My system upgraded fine, the only fault I could see, after re-setting the Desktop to my theme, colour,icons, cursor, window decorations, etc., was that the icons on the Panel/system bar were overlapping a little and I needed to decrease the size of the Panel.
Feren is a semi-rolling distro, sometimes doing automatic updates, other times necessiating manual intervention. The system has been very stable, allows the installation of many Browsers. I only wish it had the Anti-X advert-blocker.
I used Linux mint until I had Bluetooth issues. So far I have had no problems except for printing I am still trying to get the printer working, even with a USB cable.
The OS has revived my old think pad, now fitted with a SSD.
The system is loaded with software and the Vivaldi browser is very good; having its own webmail. The system has numerous settings and themes for personal preferences.
I would like to change the colour of the folders for easy identification. Overall very pleased, it works but could do with some system help. In the system help you will find a list of shortcuts. The system is easy to use though, new users would soon find their way around. The icons and text are sharp. This is defiantly a good system to revive an old computer. .
I enjoy the distribution, as it better processes video image in browsers than in Mint 20; image is more crisp and clear; the desktop is polished, and in general is stable. I like the fact that is KDE and Ubuntu based.
Cons:
- In escalated UI, GTK applications don't look good: fonts are large, icons are small
- The tech support is not good; it has a Discord channel attended by a single person, and there is no forum to check previous classified posts, good search mechanisms, knowledge. It makes you feel the distro is not that institutional, nor there is a will to have a proper support to end users. When asked to the only tech support person of plans to have a Forum web page, no answer. In this regard for example, Lunix Mint is far way better.
J'avais essayé Mint, Kubuntu, Zorin mais FEREN OS, quelle surprise ! Une super distro, installation en 13mn sur SDD, tous les périphériques reconnus, et quelle beauté ! Interface belle, pratique et intuitive, customisations super nombreuses, aucun bug, aucun freeze. Super content d'avoir viré Windows pour cette distro gratuite, magnifique et pratique au quotidien.
This review is for the most recent version of Feren OS, the January 2021 release. I have to say that I'm very impressed with this OS. I was using Manjaro before I found out that the MHWD kept breaking the use of my Nvidia card. Even though Feren uses Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, my graphics card uses the proprietary software. Everything is smooth in Feren and I have yet to encounter a problem. Feren uses the latest 5.20.4 Plasma DE. I've been tempted to try out Garuda because of its similarity to Manjaro, but I'm satisfied with Feren. The best part about Feren is that default KDE themes are really great. I hate to spend countless time with customizing KDE themes. The themes by Feren are perfect to make the desktop look gorgeous. I definitely recommend Feren OS.
Of the best distros out there, it doesn't have much name but it's as good as another that they're considered the best. A little more publicity and it will definitely be in the top 10
One of the best Ubuntu based distros I have Seen so far. Rock solid and works fine out of the box. My favorite distro since I accidentally stumbled on it a few months ago. Maybe Vivaldi as standard browser is not to everybody's taste, but this can be changed easily. Another small issue I had, was that Videolan Player was freezing so I had to switch to another media Player.
Apart from that, this distro applies to anyone new to Ubuntu or who just wants things to work out Quick and simply.
I've been using FerenOS 23.04 for a few weeks now and I have to say I'm impressed. It's based on Ubuntu, so it's stable and compatible with a lot of software, but it also has a beautiful KDE desktop that looks modern and sleek. It's very customizable and easy to use, and it comes with some nice features like the Feren Store, the Feren Theme Changer, and the Feren Welcome Screen.
Some of the pros of FerenOS are:
- It's fast and responsive, even on older hardware.
- It has a nice selection of pre-installed apps, including LibreOffice, Firefox, VLC, and Steam.
- It has a friendly and helpful community that provides support and feedback.
- It has a rolling release model, so it gets frequent updates and new features.
Some of the cons of FerenOS are:
- It's not very well-known, so it might not have as much documentation or support as other distros.
- It might have some bugs or compatibility issues, especially with newer hardware or software.
- It might not suit everyone's taste or preferences, especially if they prefer a different desktop environment or a more minimalist design.
Overall, I think FerenOS is a great operating system for anyone who wants a reliable, beautiful, and user-friendly Linux experience. It's one of the best KDE distros I've ever used, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try something new and different.
this has so much potential, if only it has more work takes place.
I truly hope all the best for this distro, but clearly the development process is very slow-paced, I'm not sure but i think because the distro has few developers/maintainers.
one issue I faced is some seriously dated repos, I guess debian have a competitor in that front.
but it's a very nice and bold take on creating a unique distro, i like that, but the job is far from over, especially on updating the repos
give it a try and you'll see how unique yet familiar it is, you'll notice that very quickly if you spent some time with linux mint
I use to use KDE Mint and Feren comes the closest to that and has improved greatly on it. One of the most beautiful distros Ive seen and the modified Win11 style desktop is very nice as well as the Feren theming. Its the best KDE distro Ive tried and stays far more up to date with kernel and KDE versions, than other Ubuntu based distros. No issues with install(uses Calamares), update or hardware detection and the added Mint features are really nice, like the updater and troubleshooter.
So many nice themes with this distro and the level of customization is something very appreciated.Codecs you can install when installing the distro and I had no multimedia issues at all. System feels noticeably faster than many of my other distros and memory usage was reasonable at 830mb.
Typically I would note a few cons about this distro but honestly there werent any in my use and the pros far exceeded my expectations. KDE users, former Mint users, new users and inexperienced users will find Feren easy to use and a great daily driver to get things done. Its using the KDE 5.25.5 and the 6.1 kernel but the 7.2023 version I understand will upgrade these further. App selection is good, with everything you need to get up and running out of box, including LibreOffice and Firefox. At first boot the welcome screen will greet you and help you familiarize yourself with the distro. Honestly cant figure out why this distro is rated so low on Distrowatch as its far better than some other KDE distros like Mageia at 27. Please give this distro a try and see what you think.
The KDE Plasma version is very responsive. The desktop has a polished feel. It comes with Vivaldi instead of Firefox. I consider Vivaldi as the better web browser. Software store works well. I type Chinese characters a lot and just like Linux Mint, it's very easy to set up Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Thai input methods. System updates are frequent enough, which shows that the distro is being maintained well and your system are kept up-to-date.The only problem I have is with the Calamares installer. It worked fine with one of my laptop and crashed on my second, newer laptop, making it unbootable. Took me a while to fix that. I have no problem with the Ubiquity installer at all.
works good until you try to burn cds with k3b I have never had trouble burning cds in k3b before on other Linux distros like linux lite linux mint ubuntu and others it has a warning get mad mp3 in a side window that pops up but there is no mad mp3 to be found to install also k3b error convert to wave then add but this fails to resolve issue also updating sometime can not get all updates so I had to install ucare system-core to get full updates for it start up gives strange errors in terminal before loading on a desktop computer
I loaded Feren on an older Ryzen 3 laptop that is unable to accept Windows 11 but is still a decent computing platform. I tried multiple distros before settling on Feren.
On this particular system, Feren is the only distro I tried that installed properly, booted cleanly after installation and still continues to run smoothly. Each of the others I tried - Debian and Arch derivatives - failed to start after installation for some weird reason and in some cases wouldn't even boot into live mode. I have previously worked with all of the other distros I tried to load and for some odd reason they just didn't work this time even though they work fine elsewhere. I believe there is an underlying hardware issue but Feren seems to be more robust than the others I tried in bringing this system up to a reliably operational state.
Once booted, the desktop loads smoothly and everything works nicely. I have had no problems loading applications, installing additional tools from the repositories, and using the system with various external hardware devices including mass storage, pointing devices and keyboards, the printer, docking stations, and external displays. Wireless connectivity and Bluetooth also work very reliably. Everything just works like it's supposed to work.
As a daily driver, this is a fine system. I use it for surfing the web, editing documents, and software development. My hardware is capable of virtualization but I haven't attempted that under this distro yet.
I have no problem recommending Feren, particularly if you're having subtle hardware issues with a system and are having trouble loading other distros.
I installed this distro as my first Linux distro, just to get a feeling of it. Loaded it next to windows, which came with a few hickups along the way. I was familiar with Ubuntu already since I used it on my VServers a lot already. I really like the design that the distro comes with out of the box and the good customizability. It was easy to install and (when I got it working and) it (finally) booted everything worked smoothly. I'm just going to try the distro but up until this point it is a solid 10 out of 10.
The best Plasma DE distro I've come across so far. Basically it's as if Linux Mint had kept their KDE spin going,
Ubuntu LTS base with a decent, but not bloated, set of default apps (Vivaldi is my preferred browser, so it being the default is a big plus for me).
Less buggy than Neon (track pad is fully functional and display settings stay in place) and without the near daily updates. More stable than Manjaro and seems to be well supported (unlike Solus - which now seems to actually be dead).
Though it may seem like an odd choice for a KDE based system, personally, I like the use of Mint tools and the Nemo file manager - it's like the developer asked me which tools to substitute the KDE versions for.
Very nice default aesthetic - better than standard Plasma Breeze and a definite step up from Manjaro or Solus customizations. I did change the panel configuration and the launcher app, but i've otherwise kept the defualt customization. There are a number of preset DE configs in the Appearance pane of system settings, including Ubuntu and Mac clones, so DE arrangement is pretty easy if you don't want to go down the detailed settings rabbit hole.
It's been very smooth running so far, which is a pleasure considering the relative bugginess/instability of many Plasma based distros.
Very highly recommended in general and if you are a Plasma fan in particular, you're doing yourself a disservice if you don't take this for a spin.
I've given Feren a solid 10 and it's well deserved. Many people who try it may moan and state its not rocking the latest Ubuntu base but bare in mind the current Ubuntu base 20.04 LTS is supported until 2025 with additional support as far as 2030 so is this really an issue🤔 no in my eyes. The development of feren os is that of a stable well established solid operating system and that's its edge over the others and why more people should be downloading and using. The kernel is 5.15 so follows Ubuntus kernel release cycle and again makes it very solid and robust out of the box.
The desktop is beautifully designed and the system overall is not bloated. I like the way the developer thinks with this system, stable, beautiful and solid.
The easy browser install tool is a great feature and of course being kde open many doors to customisation but you will find it's not needed because the default theme is perfect.
The Linux mint kernel tool is also shipped with this system which allows you to switch your kernel should you want to.
So download it and stick it on a USB and install. For those struggling getting a booting USB if you have an android phone then install etcher from playstore and using a USB c to USB adapter plug into your device and flash the image using etcher to your USB. Works every time for me without fail and remembering you'll need to format before flashing or writing the image iso to the USB.
Anyway it's a brilliant system and needs to be amongst the top ten distros.
I recently converted my gaming-class laptop over to Feren OS, after months of dealing with other distros that have in one way or another failed me during updates. I don't like distro hopping and I don't like having to fiddle with the system BIOS to get it set up just to load a distro every couple of months, and after reading a positive write-up on Feren OS I decided to give it a shot. So far it is working out well for me.
Install was smooth and easy. I was able to boot and install from a USB stick without endlessly messing with BIOS settings, a welcome change from the mess I have endured over the last several installs. I wasn't expecting to be asked to set up the first user account after installation had already required a reboot, but this was more of a surprise than a problem. The end result is the same.
I really like KDE Plasma which was a big draw. Once up I was in familiar territory and everything just works. When I plug in my external monitor via HDMI the system correctly extends the desktop to it which is exactly what I want.
And, so far no issues with updates that break the system hopelessly. I am hopeful that I can keep the system free from broken updates (and full reloads) for a while.
Feren OS is my new daily driver for my system. It just works and it avoids the installation pitfalls I have encountered with many other distros.
The distro is very good-looking with lots of nice touches such as downloads shown on the desk whilst they are being downloaded. You can actually see their status easily.
I have not had any issue so far with it freezy the screen as I have had on past versions, so fingers crossed.
It has all the software you will need even if it is not installed, it is easy to install via the software centre. It also has a nice touch of LT language tool installed that checks your spelling similar to Grammarly in your browser, I use chrome, and it is good to see that a basic like this is now being installed as standard.
I was surprised by the sane defaults and good-looking distro out of the box that Feren OS offers. For my liking, is it better than Kubuntu, because it replaces some software better alternatives, like Discover for the Mint store, and KMail for Geary. It includes the update manager from Mint and a kernel manager. The ubuntu base offers a wide offer of software.
It is a little behind Kubuntu cycle of updates, but for me, that's of little importance.
Overall, it seems like a good all-round distro for everyday use.
I wasn't sure how to rate Feren. I like its features a lot (so should I give it a good mark?). I was ready to load it up as my primary OS. Before I did so, I thought that I better check that it would see my printers and scanners. I took this to be a mere formality, because I have NEVER had an issue with ANY Linux distro seeing my printers, which are a brand name (Epson) and which have been around for a while. Guess what...Feren does not see my printers or scanners. I tried to configure the printers manually, but Feren doesn't even list any of the drivers for this printer series (WorkForce)!.
So, what looked to be a great OS is basically useless (maybe I should have given it a lower rating). FYI, I sent an email about this to Feren 3-4 days ago, but haven't heard anything back yet. If Feren finds your peripherals, you will probably like it a lot, but be sure to try it first.
It is very easy to install this distro.
I know Linux Mint cinnamon rather well, so I can use this distro without much difficulty.
I found new things on this distro I didn't know using Linux Mint : You can easily add amusing and useful widgets on the window panel.
But what confused me very much is that I could't find the way to remove widgets I came to find less useful.
Where is the device or menu to remove such widgets ?
Does somebody know it ?
I had put three icons of Google Chrome as widget on the panel by mistake.
I don't like to see so many Google Chrome every day, so I may go back to my favorite, Linux Mint cinnamon.
I like Feren OS KDE and it works really fine and easy to install and applications.
From office software like as LibreOffice, Wordperfect, to internet browsers like as Firefox, Waterfox, Brave, Valvadi,Falkon,
to media playback with VLC Player, email program with Mailspring and much more.
Feren OS comes with a whole variety of applications available in its, or available on Synaptic Pack Manager or Store.
I often used Linux Mint but I prefer Feren desktop than Linux Mint. With Nvidia driver installed and very much smoother.
Also there are some themes you can choose to make it looked nice on desktop. Also i can create launcher shortcuts for putting on desktop. It very nice desktop.
It works really fine. Cool Desktop. Easy to install.
From office software (LibreOffice, Okular), to internet browsers (Firefox, Google Chrome), to games, to media playback (VLC Media Player) , and much more, Feren OS comes with a whole variety of applications available in its, or available on Synaptic Pack Manager.
I often used Ubuntu but I prefer Feren desktop than Ubuntu Unity Layout. Feren Application menu is easier than Ubuntu menu and feren looks really cool.
When installing you can choose Tablet Mode. And after installing you can also choose diferent layout as Cupertino, Familiar, Redmont or even Ubuntu Unity Layout. There are flavours for every one!
The version will not boot on my Dell XPS 9710 laptop and as such I cannot test it on bare metal. I did test it in a virtual environment and it looks really promising. For me to be able to validate it completely it is important that it installs. It is hanging on the display adapter and, while it is mostly the hardware, the kernel might miss some important modules.
I'll say this about Feren: it looks pretty damn slick and it does provide a Windows migration option out of the box. Unfortunately, that's all I can say about it.
I decided to test it out on a whim and ran into issues pretty quickly. Installation didn't go through on the first try, giving me an error and it took another one to complete. The boot menu was noticeably slower after the reboot, and so was the system itself in comparison to a few other mid-range distros I normally use; on my laptop it took several clicks on Install button in their app manager for a package to install because they just wouldn't register. The bluetooth wasn't working properly. I also had trouble running Spotify on Vivaldi due to some issues with widevine, though it ultimately worked after a few launches.
Feren goes for a hybrid OSX/Windows interface with an OSX aesthetic but Windows' bottom app panel and titlebar buttons placed to the right. If you're familiar with both interfaces, this might give your OCD a run for its money; I tried placing the buttons to the left, which took a dozen attempts as the Titlebar buttons in Window Decoration settings was glitching out something awful. Cursors would change back and forth sometimes. To be fair, all this might be Plasma's rather than Feren's fault and I've seen this in other distros. But overall I gave up on it after an hour as I didn't find any redeeming qualities in comparison to some other faster and more stable distros. It's the little frustrations that add up and I'm glad this was not my first Linux experience, otherwise I could have been driven away from it.
The live medium changed my host name to "feren". That's an absolute no-go.
Hope that this was the only change made.
Besides that the distro is a crude mixture, doing everything different. Unfortunately this doesn't mean better.
Myself have been a long term user of Mint Cinnamon, recently shifted to Feren on a new laptop just for some change of scenery and I am glad I did. From the ranking, it seems a rather under-appreciated distribution under the ubuntu umbrella, but the developers did a great job of putting a fresh new look for the KDE lovers who prefer the stable point release cycle of Ubuntu rather than Manjaro. It looks elegant, customisable, efficient, with all the applications I am already familiar with.
I wish I could give it a perfect 10, but the only piece missing is the a Feren focussed support community like you have for mint. There is a website for KDE users, but seems it is pretty inactive so that nobody asks or answers much, whereas if I put a query on Linux Mint forum, I am pretty much guaranteed a decent answer within 24 hour, which also motivates me to help others in return.
Mint(Cinnamon) has been my preferred Linux distro for many years now. However, I recently stumbled across Feren, basically Mint with KDE, and I'm loving it so far. Given that Feren is based on Mint I appreciate the familiarity and similarity of the two distros. I agree with the other reviewers that Feren is elegant and polished. It's beautiful and the UI experience is top notch. If you like Mint and KDE then give it try. It's great.
Excellent distro with a high degree of polish to the gui. As a 15 year user of many a distro I truly believe this is an undiscovered gem.
Installed on multiple machines without incident.
Super work folks. Thank you for all your effort.
Larrie
Feren is the best Linux distribution out there (I have been using Linux for 22 years).
Update manager is great.
Gnome disk utility (great for writing iso to usb stick).
Nemo instead of dolphin Great.
Thank you for the great work!
Feren gets the very best of Ubuntu/mint, and kubuntu worlds.
Update manager from Mint! It is great updater tool with kernel update capabilities.
No Kwallet, thank you!
Document scanner (better Than skanlite because allows save to pdf).
Gnome disk utility (great for writing iso to usb stick).
Nemo instead of dolphin (for easy root and EFI partition access).
Variety of nice plasma themes.
Great hardware support (driver manager from Ubuntu) I have nvidia card and loved that mate Optimus is installed by default.
Really liked the installation process with calamares more intuitive.
I have tried at least the first 30 distros listed in DistroWatch, and I can say that Feren is the best IMO. Very complete Out of the box software collection. More people should know about it.
Feren is the distro that I would create myself, just amazing. Thank you for the great work!
I love this distribution. It is so well thought out and configurable, much of which comes from the KDE Plasma. I have it setup in a dual boot situation with another Linux distro that I realy like. I had done a whole lot of research on how to repartition my drive to make room for Feren and then I didn't need to do that as the Feren installation process handled the repartition process for me.
This is a super impressive Linux OS and I'm shocked how smooth in runs and is stunning;y beautiful and has so many features and polish as well can be customised to your style and liking.
I regret trying out the best rated Linux distros on this site. None of them can match Feren OS in terms of features. It is absolutely the best alternative to Windows, and if you are switching to Linux for the first time, this is the best Linux distro, better than Zorin OS trust me. It has tons of customization features, it unites all desktop layouts and even offers Windows 11 start menu called Doors. It has a browser manager that lets you easily install most major web browsers with single click. It has an awesome app store that has almost everything. I really don't understand why it is so underestimated. 10/10 fully deserved!
I love Feren OS and have only had a few slight (to me) problems with it. On a single machine I could not get it to install past setting up the locals until I retried it with no internet connection, then it installed just fine. On all my machines I cannot get wine to work. When it pops up, the window is super skinny and will not display anything. This is happening when setting up a instance in PlayOnLinux.
Besides that everything just works and works excellent. Feren's version of KDE is beautiful. I always preferred Cinnamon to KDE because I thought KDE was "Chunky" and disorganized, and always wished Cinnamon had the customization KDE had. Feren's version fits the bill and is sleek and organized. It is like the Cinnamon version of Gnome.
I hope they keep up with the hard work because I will not be able to go back to another distro after this. I installed Linux Mint and it just looks dated compared to Feren. Windows has no chance!
The Feren OS Distro easily belongs in the top 20 Distros for productivity. I use Feren Os, Linux Mint, Manjaro, and Mx-Linux on different machines. The two Distros I use most when productivity is important are Feren OS and Linux Mint. When I do, I essentially perform the same work on both Distros. Between the two, I find that I use Feren OS most often because of its speed and stability.
This distro major advantage over other distros is it's desktop layouts. You can select desktop layout out of many available options. The distro is a bit slower to boot and launch applications but it's user interface covers it all.
Minimal GRUB GUI. Works better than some others that list countless kernels, but not as nice as others, like Neptune.
Compared to other distros, it is slow to boot to the splash screen, slow to boot to the login screen, slow to get to the desktop, slow to start apps, slow to shutdown - regardless whether it is freshly installed on a 2.5" laptop HDD, 3.5" HDD or SSD.
It would have been nice if it had the Mint USB Creator applets or Etcher, but one must instead install Startup Disk Creator (which took me forever to find.)
Got confused with Audio (reading CDs that already had .wav files & accessing the CD titles database), Clementine and playing back some Videos.
Uses sudo, systemd and pulseaudio.
But being able to configure it for Windows 7 or 10 like menu is a big plus as it should make transitioning to Linux easier.
The Best Ubuntu Based Distro with KDE Plasma Desktop Environement. Thay changed a bit the default shortcut but it's not a big deal I guess. Other than that, Performance is better than Kubuntu, Look and Feel Better than any other KDE Plasma Desktop.
Since I knew that this Upgrade would involve upgrading KDE to 5.20, it would demand the re-setting of the Desktop to Feren default (Global Theme, Desktop Layout, Colours, Icons, Cursors, Application Style, Plasma Style, Window decorations) before initiating the upgrade.
The Upgrade took about 1 hour. During the Upgrade it will pop up with a Notification that the PC should be Rebooted. It is best to just walk away and let the process continue to completion. Upon a reboot the Upgrade will continue showing a Per Centage progress bar.
My system upgraded fine, the only fault I could see, after re-setting the Desktop to my theme, colour,icons, cursor, window decorations, etc., was that the icons on the Panel/system bar were overlapping a little and I needed to decrease the size of the Panel.
Feren is a semi-rolling distro, sometimes doing automatic updates, other times necessiating manual intervention. The system has been very stable, allows the installation of many Browsers. I only wish it had the Anti-X advert-blocker.
I used Linux mint until I had Bluetooth issues. So far I have had no problems except for printing I am still trying to get the printer working, even with a USB cable.
The OS has revived my old think pad, now fitted with a SSD.
The system is loaded with software and the Vivaldi browser is very good; having its own webmail. The system has numerous settings and themes for personal preferences.
I would like to change the colour of the folders for easy identification. Overall very pleased, it works but could do with some system help. In the system help you will find a list of shortcuts. The system is easy to use though, new users would soon find their way around. The icons and text are sharp. This is defiantly a good system to revive an old computer. .
I enjoy the distribution, as it better processes video image in browsers than in Mint 20; image is more crisp and clear; the desktop is polished, and in general is stable. I like the fact that is KDE and Ubuntu based.
Cons:
- In escalated UI, GTK applications don't look good: fonts are large, icons are small
- The tech support is not good; it has a Discord channel attended by a single person, and there is no forum to check previous classified posts, good search mechanisms, knowledge. It makes you feel the distro is not that institutional, nor there is a will to have a proper support to end users. When asked to the only tech support person of plans to have a Forum web page, no answer. In this regard for example, Lunix Mint is far way better.
J'avais essayé Mint, Kubuntu, Zorin mais FEREN OS, quelle surprise ! Une super distro, installation en 13mn sur SDD, tous les périphériques reconnus, et quelle beauté ! Interface belle, pratique et intuitive, customisations super nombreuses, aucun bug, aucun freeze. Super content d'avoir viré Windows pour cette distro gratuite, magnifique et pratique au quotidien.
This review is for the most recent version of Feren OS, the January 2021 release. I have to say that I'm very impressed with this OS. I was using Manjaro before I found out that the MHWD kept breaking the use of my Nvidia card. Even though Feren uses Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, my graphics card uses the proprietary software. Everything is smooth in Feren and I have yet to encounter a problem. Feren uses the latest 5.20.4 Plasma DE. I've been tempted to try out Garuda because of its similarity to Manjaro, but I'm satisfied with Feren. The best part about Feren is that default KDE themes are really great. I hate to spend countless time with customizing KDE themes. The themes by Feren are perfect to make the desktop look gorgeous. I definitely recommend Feren OS.
Of the best distros out there, it doesn't have much name but it's as good as another that they're considered the best. A little more publicity and it will definitely be in the top 10
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