CuteFish 0.4-2 Desktop on Ubuntu? This New Distro Offers It.
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You can now try the CuteFish desktop environment on top of an Ubuntu base, with CuteFish OS
Ubuntu.
A installable image of the distro is available to download for testing and development purposes.
While it can’t be recommended for daily driver status (the desktop environment is
under active development) it is nonetheless a great way to sample the promising, Qt-based
CuteFish desktop environment.
The current .iso is based off of Kubuntu 21.04, but uses the Qt-based CuteFish desktop by
default rather the more familiar KDE Plasma.
A small selection of KDE software come preinstalled, such text editor Kate, screenshot tool Spectacle,
and Muon Package Manager, as well as well-known apps like Firefox, VLC, and MPV.
Also included are some native CuteFish apps, including a file manager, calculator, terminal,
and settings hub. All of these are very functional, though the file manager is (understandably)
rather no-frills at present, compared to something like Dolphin or Index.
The CuteFish desktop itself is composed of a desktop dock (which can be moved to the
left or right), a basic status bar (with global menu), plus a full-screen app launcher (searchable),
and session and lock screens.
A unified iOS-styled control center provides quick access to settings like wi-fi, volume,
MPRIS controls, and dark mode. There’s no calendar applet atm so clicking on the time/date
does nothing.
The native Settings app is well stocked. Most core UI functions are present and working,
including wired and wireless networking, appearance settings, display resolution and orientation,
mouse/touchpad controls, swappable power profiles, and more.
One notable difference to regular Kubuntu is that CuteFish OS Ubuntu comes with two
package managers: apt, and tap. The former manages the Ubuntu base. The latter is a bespoke
package manager created to handle updates to the CuteFish desktop environment (and associated
applications), which are released regularly in a ‘rolling release’ style manner.
To update the CuteFish desktop and associated apps in the OS you need to run tap update
from the command line. Other apps, and the underlying distro, are managed by apt.
:: More ::
There’s a new open source desktop environment angling for your attention called CuteFish.
Now, let me be clear: this project is very much a work in progress. I’m not going to
focus on what it can or can’t do at this point. And that’s not because I’m being
lazy but because by the time a lot of people read this blog post there’s a good chance
bugs will have been fixed, new features finessed, and further improvements made.
Present functionality aside, CuteFish looks like the start of something very good indeed.
So what is it exactly?
CuteFish: What is it?
CuteFishOS’s stated goal is to “make a better experience desktop OS”. To do that
they’re building a new desktop environment (‘CuteFishDE’) using KDE Frameworks, Qt,
and KDE Plasma 5. This desktop will sit at the heart of a new Linux distro called CuteFishOS.
The desktop experience caters to “beginners”, rather than power users. As such, the devs
have no (current) plans to add complex, edge-case, or convoluted settings and features. Like
Ubuntu, the aim is to provide a basic set of sane defaults that “just work” for
most users.
Sidenote: I do wonder if the ‘Cute’ in the project name is a play on the pronunciation
of the ‘Qt’ project… 🤔.
Design wise, the CuteFish desktop environment looks like a mix of JingOS (indeed, the CuteFish
website lists JingOS as ‘friends’ of the project), the Arch-based CyberOS, and deepin
(sic). But unlike JingOS, which targets tablet devices specifically, this one is built with
a mouse pointer and keyboard in mind.
As the desktop is built using open source software you can already install the CuteFishDE
on other distros, including Manjaro and Arch Linux. Indeed, the former of these already
offers prebuilt .iso downloads so users can try a budding new Manjaro CuteFish spin.
That may or may not appeal to use. It does to me if only because we have DEs that broadly
a traditional Windows layout (Cinnamon, KDE Plasma). Adopting a macOS layout (i.e. a bottom
dock and a top bar with global menu) isn’t any stranger.
CuteFish devs are also hard at work on crafting a range of bespoke native apps “to ensure
that users experience a unified UI / UX experience in their daily use”. Again, at the time
of writing, those apps are in formative states and not usable for most users’ daily computing
activities.
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