Deepin OS 20 – Innovation is Ongoing

Deepin OS is among the most awesome operating systems in the world, period. The Debian-based distro has successfully won the hearts of everybody that I know has used it for over a day and its latest release, Deepin 20 (1002) brings so many improvements I could have a field day reviewing them all.

To summarize the changes in this latest version, deepin ships with a unified design style and a redesigned desktop environment that makes its brand look more consistent across its updated preinstalled applications.

The underlying repo has been upgraded to Debian 10.5, there is a new launcher, its security has been improved thanks to enhanced fingerprint support, and users can make use of dual kernels – Kernel 5.4 and Kernel 5.7 in order to enjoy greater compatibility and stability.

Dual-kernel System Installation
Dual-kernel System Installation

If you are not already familiar with this OS then don’t skip this article.

Deepin OS is an open-source, Debian-based desktop distribution whose aim is to provide users with a beautiful, security-conscious, and user-friendly Operating System. It was initially based on Ubuntu until the release of its significant version 15 when it switched to model Debian.

As at the time of writing, it has an 8.81/10 rating out of 603 reviews on Distrowatch and sits at #8 with over 1000 hits per day in the past 7 days.

Deepin Installation & Setup

Installing Deepin is a breeze and it is easy to start liking the OS at this stage. You get to use an installation media as you would for an Ubuntu or Debian ISO file and the steps are straightforward.

When you boot into the OS you are welcomed by an animated introduction panel that gives you an overview of Deepin’s UI, modes, and coolest features; and allows you a little bit of customization. Needless to say, the presentation is 10/10.

Deepin Boot Menu
Deepin Boot Menu
Deepin Intro Video
Deepin Intro Video

Deepin Desktop Environment

Deepin uses a custom-built, Qt 5 toolkit-based DE naturally called the Deepin Desktop Environment (DDE) and it features a beautiful UI with a lot of attention to detail.

It comes with its set of applications including the DPlayer, DMusic, Deepin System Monitor, etc.

Deepin 20 Desktop
Deepin 20 Desktop

Given its modern design approach and features like a start menu reminiscent of Windows 7, a translucent UI similar to that in Windows 10 with tab sections, and an app overview similar to macOS, Deepin easily steps in as an alternative to using Windows and macOS.

Deepin Default Applications

Deepin comes preinstalled with a number of applications that enable the OS to maintain a consistent UI/UX throughout and even cooler is the fact that all the applications work efficiently.

Deepin Default Apps
Deepin Default Apps

Deepin’s application set includes a Deepin file manager, Deepin Music, Deepin Manual, Deepin Screen Recorder, Deepin Voice Recorder, WPS Office Suite, Google Chrome, Deepin Movie, Deepin colour picker, Deepin font installer, Thunderbird Mail, and Deepin System Monitor.

Deepin Store

The Deepin app store is a beautiful avenue for managing your applications easily. Like any app store, you can search and browse for applications, check app categories, and read app details. What’s cool about the app is that you are free to make donations to both open-source and closed-source applications in the spirit of respecting the labor that developers put into their projects.

Deepin Store
Deepin Store

You can recommend applications to the featured section of the store and update old apps according to your requirements.

What’s New in Deepin 20

Unified Style DDE

The new desktop environment features ingenious colorful icons with natural and smooth animation effects, rounded-corner windows and a pretty multitask view. It also supports light and dark themes, colour temperature settings, and transparency adjustment.

Dual-kernel system installation

Deepin 20 users can enjoy a system installation interface with dual-kernel options for Kernel 5.4 (LTS) and Kernel 5.7 (Stable) and their “Safe Graphics” modes which gives them support for more hardware devices.

Personalized notification management

Deepin’s upgraded notification settings now support sounds for incoming messages, the option to display messages in the notification center, displaying messages on the lock screen, displaying message previews, and customing the priority of messages displayed.

Optimized fingerprint recognition

Deepin 20 features an updated fingerprint scanner that delivers clearer interaction guidance and more accurate scenario prompts. It now supports a variety of fingerprint readers with which users can unlock, log in, verify their identity, and get root permissions.

Improved System Installer

Installing Deepin has never been easier with a system installer that detects NIDIVIA cards and offers closed-source drives to be installed. Aside from that, the installer features the option for full disk encryption and a revamped UI that makes following the installation wizard a lot easier.

Improved App Store Management

The App Store features different categories of applications and thanks to its revamped UI, users can make use of a simple one-click button for update and application filtering – making application management a breeze.

Deepin 15.7 was a milestone in the development process boasting a new version number and upgrade strategy using the format: x.y.z where X represents the main version number as an indicator for when development commenced. Y represents the subversion number which is updated every 3 months. Y is either even or odd.

An odd number signifies that the update focuses on stability enhancement and system optimization, while an even number signifies that the updates are focused on feature updates. Z represents the minor version number and will be used whenever there are important system updates between the X and Y versions and they can be as many as 2 z versions.

With that being said, Deepin 20 signifies that the current release began development in 2020 and yes, feature updates and system optimization passes will be present in every new release.

Deepin OS was optimized to work with at least 2 GB RAM with an Intel Pentium G3250 @ 3.20GHz dual-core. Its basic standard configuration is now 8 GB RAM with an Intel 4th Core i5-4460 @ 3.20GHz quad-core. The ISO image size became smaller after the pre-installed app list was revised causing a drop from 3.1 GB to 2.5 GB in size – a 19.3% decrease!

The OS also received a series of tweaks in memory usage that enable it to use 24.5% less RAM than its predecessor as it uses 830 MB and longer 1.1 GB.

Deepin System Monitor
Deepin System Monitor

More Improvements in Deepin 20

  • New Device Manager for viewing and managing hardware devices.
  • Improved Font Manager for installing and managing fonts with custom text preview.
  • New Log Viewer for finding system and app logs quickly.
  • Voice Notes combines the text note and voice recording features, providing two ways to record notes.
  • Cheese is preinstalled for taking photos and recording videos on your PC.
  • User Feedback support is activated with the ability to deepin users to communicate among themselves.
  • Improved Document Viewer, Archive Manager, and other apps for better user experiences.
  • A new icon theme added with support for more display options.

There are more changes included in Deepin 20 and you can check them out yourself here. Left to me, I think you should just go ahead and take this beauty for a test drive.

Deepin offers an excellent desktop right out of the box with a file manager that supports smb and file tagging, a movie player capable of playing virtually any video format that you throw at it without the need to install extra codecs or VLC, an elegant music player, and a memory-friendly-yet-efficient performance and a consistent design philosophy.

If you are looking for a Linux distro to use, Deepin is definitely worth a try. Have you checked out the latest Deepin OS? Head to the comments box and share your experience with us.

[mks_button size=”medium” title=”Download Deepin OS 20″ style=”squared” url=”http://cdimage.deepin.com/releases/” target=”_blank” bg_color=”#529b30″ txt_color=”#FFFFFF” icon=”fa-download” icon_type=”fa” nofollow=”1″]

Important Note:

You will be receiving over 1 GB of updates if you’re upgrading from an earlier version to 20 because it fully synchronizes the latest repository components of upstream Debian.

Exercise some patience till the upgrade is complete before you unplug your power or shut the system down.

Divine Okoi is a cybersecurity postgrad with a passion for the open-source community. With 700+ articles covering different topics in IT, you can always trust him to inform you about the coolest tech.

Each tutorial at GeeksMint is created by a team of experienced writers so that it meets our high-quality writing standards.

7 thoughts on “Deepin OS 20 – Innovation is Ongoing”

  1. If you own macbook, do not install deepin, because the touchpad is somehow undetectable and un-setting-able. You need mouse to use the cursor.

    Reply
  2. My keyboard doesnt work on kernel 4.11 🙁 . im just upgrade to kernel 4.14 but im got stuck when shutdown.
    please help!

    Reply
  3. Looks very nice and modern, in my opinion user friendly, but on my older laptop does not run so fast as it could.

    I think it is very good choice for desktop PC with better hardware,

    and for linux newbies , and people who want distro which is ready to use.

    Deepin store is extremely slow right now, actualy it was imposible to dowload any software

    … they have to fix it 🙂

    Reply
  4. Fantastic article! You already know that I was bit by the Deepin bug some time ago. The category view was returned as promised in an email from the development team. This version is very fast. I noticed the difference right away when it rebooted after updating.

    The Deepin Store is even better and now CNZZ free! They have also updated most of the software to the newest versions. Memory use is close to half what 15.6 used.

    KDE Neon is also using far less memory now, as well. I still run Neon in a dual-boot setup and it seems like I am watching to heavyweights slug it out. KDE Neon and Deepin 15.7 keep coming out with all these great improvements and some pretty awesome eye-candy to go along with it.

    Really like Mint Cinnamon ‘Tara”, too. However is it really necessary for Timeshift to use up that much hard disk space with snapshots? I like that I can restore my system but one, maybe two restore points are all that i have ever needed. Like one after a fresh install with all updates and essential software installed. then another, more recent snapshot prior to new software installs, in case of system breakage.

    I have never had a breakage in Deepin. I mean, never. I am running the same edition I first installed when it was 15.4. It has been updated and that is it. Neon has been pretty solid too, but I have had to reinstall a couple times. The breakage was probably my fault. I can’t quit tinkering with the possibilities Plasma offers. With Deepin or Mint, I can get stuff done. With Plasma, I just play but I have learned alot about the ins and outs of Linux on it and I know just about every setting Plasma has, hidden or not.

    I own several laptops so I have the luxury of getting dual-boot my favorite distros as well as distro-hop. Martins, as always another great article. Perhaps you could shed some light on the application Shadowsocks-Qt5? From what I can gather, it is not a VPN but has VPN-like capabilities. It sounds very interesting and possibly useful. Thanks again for your imfomative articles.

    Reply
  5. I am a bit seduced by the snappiness of Deepin. Installation was a breeze. Its really fast, except when downloading updates and the distro itself :/ But it wont play nice with my setup. I cant change to the Nvidia closed graphics driver so it is a bit sluggish dragging windows and scrolling web pages. It just says “download failed” and “sorry, cant switch” – thats it. Not many seems to have this problem (actually I havent seen anyone through my searches 😮 )
    So I cant enable any effects. I also noticed that it is a bit over simplified, especially when it comes to using a VPN that uses “TUN”, there is no option in the settings to enable that wich is required for my VPN provider when using Linux (PrivateVPN). I cant find a way to do more advanced settings. Just the ones in the sidebar “control center”
    The software center has quite outdated versions and for some software I have to use synaptic coz they’re not in the “store” There are some rough edges still, for example you cant have the terminal the size you want, only small, normal or big.
    So I’ ll stick to Linux Mint for now, it just works, and wait for Deepin to mature a bit, I quite like it anyway but not for my daily distro yet. It is a bit exciting that it is based on Debian and a roiling release.

    Reply
  6. Recent Linux Mint works perfectly for me now. I’ve been reading about deepin with enthusiasm, but thinking, is it worth swapping to a distro I don’t know because it is prettier. Mate desktop seems fast and useable, and not seen any good comparisons (I guess the users will either come from Ubuntu/mint or from Microsoft). Mint has such a market share, I wonder whether deepin will get the popularity it (maybe) deserves?

    Reply

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