A new update is now available to Feren OS Next (formerly 'KDE Experimental'), with Big changes

The ISO was updated yesterday to hopefully fix EFI-boot Installation Failures.

Known Bugs/Issues for 1/1/2019 Update:
- 'Login Window', aka 'lightdm-settings', is left-over from when LightDM was still the DM for Next
​- displaymanager.conf has been re-added to the Calamares Installer (caused LightDM Initialisation Failure issues for some users) for SDDM Configuration, but I'm not entirely sure about whether it will work fine for everyone now or not.
- Default Favourites will only display once the menu has been swapped out for an 'Alternative' menu, due to a slightly glitchy value for the default favourites value (don't know what causes it, but looking into it)...
- Some Open With defaults are completely wrong, such as Text Files opening in Okular rather than Kate by default, these will be ironed out near the end of development, most likely
- Potentially more minor niggles
Changelog...? Check the January 2018 Snapshot Announcement Blog Post for that...

Download Feren OS Next with Calamares and Ubuntu 18.10 Base (x64, 2.0GB)

Too big an ISO for you? Well... Have a look at the size of Kubuntu 18.04's ISO, for comparison... and then put that on top of the fact that removing XFCE from Xubuntu and installing the Standard Kubuntu KDE Package makes the Xubuntu ISO then made A LOT BIGGER... yeah, Plasma's great for resource usage... just not so great for ISO Size... eh, I'll figure out ISO Size Optimisation closer to the Stable Release of this thing... that's a promise, I will try to make it near to the Feren OS with Cinnamon ISO Size, or 0.1GB bigger than that, at least, by release.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Another new build for experimental ISO of Feren OS is now available, showing the early workings of what Feren OS could be like with the KDE Desktop Environment. Note that what you see in the ISO is NOWHERE near the finished product, with a lot of change planned over time, some of which will potentially make the experience as a whole feel different, and all the ISO is right now is the accumulation of the Default Settings and Experience for KDE being put in the OS. This means that the ISO is nowhere near the final product still. However, with this build, there are some huge changes happening with this build, including:

• Now based on Ubuntu 18.10 (BETA)
• ​New Vivaldi Configuration (available to all new Feren OS users)
• KDE 5.13, meaning A LOT of improvements regarding Resource Usage, etc.
• Themes can now be changed on the fly without the need to restart applications (users of the old ISO will have to install the package 'feren-xsettings' for this functionality)
• Calamares System Installer has replaced Ubiquity System Installer
• More

This also means that the following things are still missing, that aren't mentioned by the WIP Notice on the OS:

• ????? ?????? ???????? (shh, you'll find out about this at a later date)
• Welcome Screen optimised for KDE
• Package for managing additions to Feren OS package-wise (this means you'll have to manually install new Feren OS Packages, for now, as they come to the Feren OS Next Builds)
• OOBE
• Themer (though you can assemble the layouts of many Layout Themes using the 'Add Panel' menu in the Panel right-click menu and the 'Layouts' menu in the Latte Dock (by default it's the 'notch-thing' up top) right-click menu)
• More

There's also a few issues to iron out right now, that may or may not be mentioned in the 'WIP Notice':

• Latte (top floating panel thing, also Familiar Looking Dock) crashes when the 'Connection Established' notification is closed and/or times out. Weirdly it doesn't seem to trigger Apport's reporting utility when it does though, even if it's a thing added directly to Startup. For now, the OS simply launches a script to keep Latte going for a few crashes, instead of Latte directly, on startup.
• The OS isn't yet being optimised too much so expect a bigger than normal installation size, never-mind ISO Size (that thing got compressed... A LOT.).
• The Live Session and the Installed OS both mostly identify themselves as 'Kubuntu'. Again, the work done here is MAINLY JUST KDE Configurations
• Kvantum Theme Engine isn't in the OS as an option yet, it might make its debut into Feren OS with KDE later on in its development...
• Timeshift isn't yet pre-installed
• 'Open In Terminal' in Nemo (Files) points to GNOME Terminal and therefore does nothing
• 'Install Now' in Welcome Screen still points to Ubiquity, and since the OS now uses Calamares for its installer (Feren OS Next only right now), that button will do nothing.
• Latte Layouts are pending some slight renames, in the spirit of what the Panel Layouts for Panels you can add to Plasma are called)
• If your HDD is too small for Feren OS but big enough for Lubuntu 18.10 BETA then Feren OS will still let you begin installation - this will be rectified in the future once I figure out a final estimate of the HDD Space needed by Feren OS with Plasma.
• More

Fixed Stuff:

• Favourites are now pre-included in the default configuration in application menus
• The panel's intended height is now reflected for the default screen resolution the user starts at, no matter how wide that screen may be, though this also means that the panel will still go back to the Vanilla KDE Height upon a screen width change
• Live Session User now auto-logins successfully
• GDEBI has its latest version meaning there shouldn't be any issues relating to it using GKSU instead of PKEXEC, once installed
• Fixed Opera's installation failure issue in Web Browser Manager
• Nemo (Files) now should have all the pinned folders on the left-side, as is on Cinnamon, in Next
• You should no longer be rejected by the login screen and kicked back into your user account in a new session when you log out of your user

Stuff to know:

• Vivaldi will fail to play certain YouTube Video Codec'd videos with a 'A playback error occurred' error, or similar, on YouTube's part, to fix this install 'chromium-codecs-ffmpeg' or 'chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra' via Synaptic, Terminal, or the Software Manager, and then relaunch Vivaldi and try again. This won't be as much of an issue once the 'Codec Management Tool' is introduced to Feren OS in the future (this package will be one of the codecs available to install/remove in that application).
• Just like Cinnamon, in Feren OS Next to edit a panel you must right-click on it, and look for 'Configure Panel'. If you don't find that option, look for a menu called 'Panel Options', and if you find that, it should be in there. No offence to the Cashew Fans, but I prefer not having the 'Cashew' button on my panel when widgets are unlocked, plus it needlessly attracts newbies into customising the Plasma Panel wondering how to make the Cashew invisible, and potentially trashing their configuration or thinking Plasma's more complicated than it really is.

Lastly, there's EVEN fixes done by me for KDE in Feren OS:

• Nemo File Manager has been fixed for KDE in Feren OS so that with 'feren-kde-nemorouting' installed, Nemo will integrate pretty well with Plasma's shortcuts, though it isn't fool-proof, as some features simply are not implementable into this, such as KDE Connect Phone File Browsing via Nemo, from my current knowledge of KDE Stuff.
• (KWin Rule) KWin has been given a ruleset for most Office in Wine programs to fix issues with the maximise/restore functionality of Office 2010 windows, and potentially other Office versions too that use the Ribbon User Interface Design.
• (KWin Rule) KWin has been given a ruleset for EVERY WINDOWS PROGRAM, forcing them to be 'Closeable' in KWin's eyes. This is to prevent the annoyance that is programs such as Games forcing you to play with no obvious quit option once you're into them, as well as them preventing their windows from being closed normally, on top of the lack of a quit option. In this ISO, those games WILL NOT stop you from having the ability to try and close them.
• (KWin Rule) KWin has been given three rulesets, one for Vivaldi, one for Opera and one for Welcome Screen which all force KWin to draw window decorations around these programs's windows if they're undecorated, which, combined with Breeze Window Decorations being tweaked to make these programs NOT have titlebars with buttons on them, means that these windows then have shadows around them, when they otherwise would not.

Overall, this ISO is mainly for getting feedback on the current default experience that the ISO gives its users with KDE, as well as showing KDE x Feren OS as it progresses... Check it out. Download link at top.