The Regata OS 22 was finally released, codenamed "Discovery", which comes with more fixes and better support for new hardware. The new KDE Plasma 5.25, the default graphical environment, is certainly one of the main responsible for the changes that will be more noticeable by the user. Among the new features, we can mention better support for touchpad gestures, the overview effect now shows all open windows and virtual desktops and much more.
Improvements for Touchscreens
Another very interesting change from KDE Plasma 5.25 is better support for touchscreens: it is now possible to activate the "Touch Mode" feature by disconnecting the screen, rotating it 360° or activating it manually. This basically means that "if your laptop supports detaching or rotating the keyboard, then Touch Mode will be enabled". If this doesn't happen automatically, you can still manually enable the feature for touch screens by going to System Settings, clicking the Workspace Behavior tab, and in Touch Mode selecting the "Always Enabled" option.
When Touch Mode is enabled, the Task Manager and System Tray become larger, making it easier to select items using just your fingers. You can also customize the size of icons when Touch Mode is off.
In addition, window title bars are taller when Touch Mode is on, making it easier to press, drag, and close windows with touch. Context menu items also change, getting taller, giving the user more space to tap the desired item.
Initial support for Microsoft Surface devices
In addition to the Plasma touchscreen enhancements, Regata OS 22 brings better support for Microsoft Surface devices. Among the supported models are: Surface Book, Surface Book 2 and Surface Laptop, Surface Laptop 2.
As Surface devices are designed to run Windows, some hardware features and functionality may not be available when running Regata OS. Also, the following models are not yet supported: Surface RT 1, Surface RT 2 and Surface Pro X (SPX).
However, to check if Regata OS 22 supports your device, just disable the Secure Boot feature in the BIOS and run the system in live mode, booting it from a USB stick. This allows you to test Regata OS without having to install the operating system on disk.
More changes
To provide better support for newer hardware, Regata OS 22 ships with the newest Linux Kernel 5.18 which includes a new driver for power sensors for AMD Zen 2 processors and newer, FreeSync video mode is now enabled by default , support for Intel Alder Lake N graphics, improved sensor monitoring for newer ASUS motherboards, and better support for Apple keyboard.
On the gaming side, Regata OS Game Access has also received significant improvements, including better support for games available through the Epic Games Store, such as Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 2, Sid Meier's Civilization VI, XCOM 2, Bioshock 1 Remastered, Bioshock 2 Remastered and Bioshock Infinite.
In addition, issues involving running games through Ubisoft Connect and Origin have also been fixed, with the latter still requiring to disable the "In-Game Origin" feature.
Download Regata OS 22
You can download Regata OS 22 Discovery right now via the download page of the official website. Once the ISO image is downloaded, simply use an application like balenaEtcher to burn the ISO file to a flash drive.
