Next week we will have the most anticipated launch of 2020 and it is not necessary to tell you what it is because you know it well, but among its novelties, although not officially, is the dressing of Deepin. However, Deepin as such there is only one and is also preparing to present its most ambitious version to date. Ambitious and round like never before.
We do not usually talk about betas, but the Deepin 20 beta deserves it for several reasons: they have been wanting for years and introducing quite interesting news with each version they release and it is a project that is not reduced to one more distro, but to your desktop environment and many of its applications. Deepin, therefore, falls into the category of Linux Mint or elementary OS PC distros, those that have more to offer than just a 'remix' of the bunch.
Well, judging by the shallow review that I have given to Deepin 20 Beta, it comes loaded with news and ready to continue dazzling whoever has its eyes on it. If this distro has always stood out in something, it is taking care of its visual aspect down to the smallest detail and its new version will not be the exception. Quite the contrary, in fact: the fact that this will be its roundest version is literal and it is appreciated as soon as you take a look ...
Rounded shapes return to Deepin and in what way. I don't know about you, but it's the most beautiful thing I've seen on any desktop, be it Linux, Windows or Mac: modern as well as elegant. Very showy in general. And it is not that they lack level alternatives: GNOME, Plasma, Cinnamon, Pantheon, Zorin ... Except for details, the Linux desktop looks luxurious today; but there are things that Deepin is embroidering and it wouldn't hurt for others to copy him.
For example, one of the features of Deepin is the ever-widening set of native applications that it includes and that with this new version expands and improves. A good example is the calendar, integrated with the clock of the system tray, and that from being a mere prop, Deepin 20 becomes a useful tool: it adds views of day, week, month and year and finally allows adding events.
Another example of the good work of the developers of Deepin is the application store, in my opinion, the best that exists for any PC system, at least for its design. For the rest, it is true that most Deepin applications have a large presence but fall short in functions, and that I am afraid has not changed. In any case, not all applications need to have great functionality, nor is there a problem with installing the ones you want apart from Deepin's own.
This is what they do in Deepin: the file manager, the music and video players, the image and document viewers, the text editor, the terminal or the system monitor are some of the own applications that Deepin preinstalls; while it also pre-installs other well-known ones to complement the missing functionality. To highlight Chromium, Thunderbird, Simple Scan, Cheese or GParted.
Two notable changes to the desktop are the new dashboard and control center. The first is away from the Mac type dock, which is a shame, and now it only allows you to choose between two modes: elegant, Chrome OS-style; and efficient, Windows-style. The control center, for its part, also detaches from the Mac roll and the insufferable side panel of options goes into a separate window, which is a success.
There are many new features that Deepin 20 brings, despite the fact that in the official announcement they barely mention a few and above. One of the most important is that with this version they make the jump to Debian 10, but with additions such as the Linux 5.3 kernel, with all the advantages of hardware support that this entails. On the other hand, I haven't found a trace of the voice assistant they were working on.
What I have observed is something that no information is given, but it is detected from the same installation: the minimum free space to install Deepin 20 is 64 GB, crazy when we talk about Linux distributions whose explanation is in what By all accounts it looks like a new recovery system that is really interesting because of how it is implemented, without any intervention by the user.
In the automatic installation mode Deepin 20 creates two root partitions (root and rootb) of the same size and when you install updates and reboot the system, you can choose on the boot screen whether to start with the latest configuration, presumably, in the case that the update has a problem. A partition called recovery of 10 GB is also created for backup copies (the rest, the normal ones: for home, boot, and swap).
If you are tempted to try Deepin 20, I recommend you download the installation image from this replica (direct download), because from the official source it is a torment. But, beware: it is a beta version, it is not stable, so just to test.
I am left wanting to do it with disk installation and not virtual to check other things that have traditionally been Deepin's black points, such as performance, stability and software management; but I will wait for the final version to come out. I know that Deepin is not for me, but the job well done must be recognized and Deepin 20 looks spectacular.
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