Linux distribution
Nate Drake is in too deep with Deepin – is this Chinese-made distribution a crouching tiger or a hidden dragon?
Deepin development began way back in 2004 as Hiweed Linux. Until 2015, it was based on Ubuntu, but since then, successive versions of the OS have been based on the latest stable version of Debian (in this case, Debian 12 Bookworm).
The distro is known for its DDE (Deepin Desktop Environment), built on the Qt 6 toolkit (updated to version 6.6.1 for this release).
DDE is available in the repos of distros like Fedora as an alternative desktop, which is why you may have heard of this OS despite its main user base being in China.
Deepin is wholly owned by Deepin Technology, a subsidiary of Union Tech. The developers follow an irregular release cycle but aim for four releases per year.
Besides a graphically rich home-grown desktop environment, Deepin boasts its own window manager (dde-kwin), which for this latest development release contains a number of fixes for small bugs, such as one that previously caused window formatting not to follow those laid out in system settings.
Deepin 23 also includes the latest version of the OS’s own package manager, Linglong, which includes an update to allow launching it immediately upon login.
The system repository itself has also received over 4,000 software package updates (including new packages). The OS now supports i386, riscv64 and LoongArch64 architectures.
Deepin’s own File Manager has also been overhauled, with bug fixes that allow creating folders with spaces at the end of filenames, as well as the ability to copy folders directly from the Recycle Bin. Users can also create desktop shortcuts for Google Chrome with the relevant website icons.
Aside from a slew of its own packages and tools, according to other online reviews, Deepin comes preinstalled with proprietary software such as Spotify and Steam, which may explain the hefty 4.2GB ISO.
Deepin 23 also comes with UoS AI plugins, enabling you to use UoS AI via a free trial account.
If you do take the time to download the ISO, Deepin’s own installer is extremely intuitive. The latest installer also now supports screen interface adaptation for 768p, 1080p, 2K and 4K resolutions. As snazzy and
