Linux DeepIn 20

Video

Download and Create Bootable Media

DeepIn Linux 20 can be downloaded from their website, select ISO repository and then select a local mirror. I used the UK University of Kent mirror. You will need Rufus to make a Bootable USB on Windows.

Launch Rufus:

Input your USB flash drive and select, select:

Select your ISO and then select Open:

Select GPT as Partition Scheme and FAT32 as the File System. Then select Start:

Select ISO Mode:

Select OK:

When done Rufus will state Ready:

Installation

Power up your Dell and press [F12] to get to the Boot Menu:

The Boot Mode should be set to UEFI and Secure Boot should be Enabled.

Select your USB Flash Drive and press [↵]:

Select DeepIn20 Beta:

In the next screen, select your language and accept the license agreement and select next:

Select your SSD:

Then select Start Installation. Note you can optionally encrypt the drive here:

Select Continue:

The next stage will be automated:

Select Reboot Now:

By default China will be selected:

I am in the UK so I will select Great Britain on the map and then select Next:

In the next screen you need to create a user account using lower case letters. The pc name will be automatically generated from the user name but you can change it. Input your password and repeat your password. To the left hand side you may want to change the keyboard input as it defaults to US:

I will change mine to the UK.

If developers come across this guide as feedback it'll be useful for this to default to UK if the UK is selected on the map when region is selected. Note also at the bottom it says "back". It would be better to say something like apply here.

Once you have your keyboard and account, select next:

It will tune your system:

Log in:

Select next:

In the next screen you can select Fashion Mode which give a doc in the middle:

Or efficient mode which is more like Windows:

If installing on hardware like here, select effects mode. If installing on a VM or a machine with limited graphics select Normal Mode:

You can select your icons, I will use the default and then select done:

Connect to the Internet

The installation occurs offline. You will need to select the wireless icon to connect to the internet:

Select your wireless network and then input your password and select connect:

You will be informed that you have connected:

Updating

Go to Control Center:

Select update:

It will check for and download updates. This is going to be relatively slow as the server is in China:

Select Install:

Then reboot when prompted:

Log In:

Settings

You may wish to disable the notification sounds as they can be kind of annoying. Select Settings and then Sound:

Then Sound Effects:

Then turn off one by one according to your preferences or turn them all off:

You can view details about the License Agreement:

Rotation

You can rotate the Display by going to settings and Display.

Start Menu

By default there is a Windows 7 style Start Menu. It can be expanded to give a Windows 8 style Start Menu:

One can select to view All Categories:

Web Browser

By default the Chromium web browser is installed and unlike FireFox works well with Touchscreen

Screen Capture

One neat feature is the screen capture:

You can capture the full screen by default or make a selection:

You can capture the screen in a snapshot:

Or make a video recording:

If making a recording select Record:

The Screen Icon Capture displays in the taskbars notification tray:

Click on it to end the recording, your video will be save to the Desktop (you can change this in the options setting for the image capture but not the video capture). Again if developers are reading this, its something to add:

File Explorer

The file explorer is on the task bar:

It has the default folder locations like most Linux and Windows versions:

App Store

The App Store can be launched from the Start Menu:

Right now it is very slow as it is based in China. So the icons etc will take ages to display however the software will be downloaded from the default repository for the software. We can install Libre Office for example:

Most reviews are in Chinese. Again if developers are reading this, it would be nice to have these automatically translated into the installed language:

Terminal

The terminal works pretty nicely. I used it to install Anaconda using a bash command. Anaconda 2020-02, Python and Spyder 4.1.2 work very well on DeepIn 20:

System Monitor, Device Manager and Log Viewer

This is essentially the DeepIn version of Task manager:

The Device Manager and log viewer need permission to open. Input your password and select confirm:

Package Manager

Boot Maker

DeepIn has an inbuilt utility to make a Bootable USB:

I tested this with a Windows 10 ISO but it failed. This is because it wrote the USB as FAT32 but tried to add the install.wim file to it which screeds 4 GB (the file limitation of FAT32):

Touch Interface

Laptop/Desktop Mode

All the menus above work well with a Touchscreen interface I tested this with a Latitude 7350 convertible in laptop mode. It is easily the best linux User Interface for Touchscreen.

Tablet Mode

However the Onscreen Keyboard and ability to automatically rotate (using the systems sensor) does not work making tablet interface poor.

Onscreen Keyboard

The onscreen keyboard is more like a character map than an onscreen keyboard:

When turned on it is tiny and very hard to use with touch:

It can be re-positioned slightly:

Rotation

The screen can be rotated in Display however I found this to not work that well when I tried it on the Latitude 7350 in tablet mode.