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I fell in love with elementaryOS when I first learned about it c. 2013, and followed it closely (used to read commits weekly) for perhaps a year. It was one of the first open source projects I really loved. But I eventually went back to Ubuntu because I was newish to Linux and I needed something that Just Worked™, without the funny business.

I eventually fell out of love with elementaryOS when the team seemed to double down hard on some unpopular design decisions wrt window control buttons/behaviour, for instance.

I always felt that they had taken on more than they could chew, and all the good will of their community wasn't going to change that fact. To this day I maintain that the project should have just been Pantheon, the Desktop Environment. The team seems to have strong opinions about UX, and that's where most of that matters.

I'm not the only one who thought of that, and the team's justifications for their decision to roll their own distro never came across as strong.

I've since moved on (to macOS and Ubuntu one the side), but once in a while I browse the official sub for the latest. I've never shaken off that feeling that the really talented founders could have spent their energy more wisely.

IIRC ElementaryOS had the distinction of using mostly Vala/Genie for development of distro specific software. Is that still the case?

Elementary has been around for a long time. From what I recall, it tries to ape the Mac style on Linux the same way that KDE has been accused of aping Windows.

The original founder (Cassidy James Blaede) is now a designer for GNOME: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJq8Cq9LixE

I wonder why this is on the front page today.

Last time I tried it there was no way to upgrade between versions. One had to reinstall the os to upgrade.

But maybe this changed.

> We review all AppCenter apps to ensure they’re properly using permissions

Who is "we?" How is that team selected? Are their decisions public? What is the review or appeal process like?

Elementary was one of the first Linux distros I installed back in 2020. Eventually I moved on to other distros and DE’s. I was hopeful for Elementary eventually becoming THE Linux distro I would recommend people but it hasn’t happened yet, and I don’t know if it ever will.

I remember Elementary being big on UX, design, creating a universal app store for Linux, and providing a sane default type of experience. Pretty much all of that fizzled out over the past 5 years. GNOME and Plasma both leapfrogged Pantheon as a DE. Ubuntu, Debian, Mint, and Fedora are all far easier recommends over Elementary.

Isn't it a bit misleading to compare this to Windows or macOS, when it is actually Ubuntu with a preinstalled window manager, like Gnome or KDE, and it just looks a little like macOS out of the box? From the web-site I couldn't tell why I would consider it over established options like Linux Mint. To qualify as a replacement I would expect it to run native binaries. LibreOffice for example is a replacement for Office as it can handle xlsx and docx etc.

I am wondering why no one is using the wonderful LLM coding tools to cut branches of open source apps rewriting them for consistent UI. From my experience with them so far this is a task that they would be really good at especially if the underlying codebase has decent test coverage.

I'm not sure if anything about this has changed since I last tried ElementaryOS an unknown number of years ago, but one of the issues I remember encountering was that applications that weren't built-in had inconsistent styling. I think you get a better more consistent and featureful experience just by using KDE.

Even the list of applications on AppCenter is woefully limited, compared to using Flatpack and being able to access the full repertoire of Linux Desktop applications.

Cannot recommend. The software center immediately broke itself into a loop of god-knows-what error that rendered itself unable to update the system. The system generally suffered from poor usability as well. Cannot comment much further because I didn't use it very long. I paid $20 for it and wish the project well, but it's a pass from me for the time being.

What's a popular rolling release distro that's fairly stable, but also modern, for my dad's computer? He just wants a good balance of "things won't break" and "things will get updated".

Ubuntu is ok, but maybe pop!OS or something else is better for him?

These seem to be the major related threads. Others?

Elementary OS 7 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34598987 - Jan 2023 (92 comments)

Elementary OS 6.1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29627193 - Dec 2021 (142 comments)

Elementary OS 6 Odin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28130560 - Aug 2021 (319 comments)

Elementary OS 6 beta - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27001736 - May 2021 (69 comments)

Cheers to 10 Years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26658317 - April 2021 (77 comments)

Elementary OS 5.1 Hera - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21719028 - Dec 2019 (190 comments)

Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18472018 - Nov 2018 (421 comments)

Elementary OS 5 Juno Is Here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18236240 - Oct 2018 (15 comments)

Switching from macOS: Developer Environment - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12877045 - Nov 2016 (172 comments)

Switching from macOS: The Basics - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12853531 - Nov 2016 (593 comments)

Elementary OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12830761 - Oct 2016 (386 comments)

Elementary OS Loki 0.4 Stable Release - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12465763 - Sept 2016 (63 comments)

Elementary OS Freya Released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9361477 - April 2015 (87 comments)

Elementary OS 0.3 “Freya” is released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9359722 - April 2015 (62 comments)

Elementary OS Freya Beta 2 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9049592 - Feb 2015 (43 comments)

Myths about ElementaryOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7864397 - June 2014 (53 comments)

ElementaryOs Luna released - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6193148 - Aug 2013 (296 comments)

Elementary OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2781891 - July 2011 (79 comments)

Elementary OS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2091736 - Jan 2011 (15 comments)

Oh I remember using this years ago. It was pretty good. My memory always confuses it with enlightenment which had fancy compositing on a crappy computer in the early 2000s which I loved it for.

I find the description of the project to be patronizing. "Just the apps you need"? How do you know what I need? What about the battery life I need, or the excellent touchpad support that I need? Most distros drop the ball on those fundamental things.

Serious question. What does the project mean by ethical replacement?

The main webpage makes no further declaration around it for deeper understanding. Nothing in support pages or in developer resources. Anyone else familiar with the project that could describe why that needed to be called out?

This seems like a great OS to install on a child's computer

Elementary OS is stuck in 2011, offering limited customization options. I remember having hard time adding desktop icons. These days, much superior distributions are available. Examples include Mint, EndeavourOS and Fedora...

Did Elementary change designer?

This version seems to have flaws I didn’t see in the old announcements. Spacing and padding are a bit inconsistent and sometimes a bit strange. Font sizing can be weird and alignment is hit and miss especially when icons and text are involved.

Clearly these are details but I’m wondering if they lost man power on these points. I still greatly appreciate the project ambition and am impressed by what they have managed to achieve.