Live data from Hacker News

Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

elementary.io

61–70 of 431 posts

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#61
post #37

I'd recommend https://getsol.us if you asked me what Desktop Linux distro to get.

I really like Solus, but I've had issues updating it. I installed it on an old laptop for a friend, which they have occasionally used for a year or two. Recently, they wanted help setting up a USB device, so I started by trying to update. The GUI showed a progress bar like it was working on it, but it wouldn't proceed. To debug, I ran the update utility from the command line. It spit out an error that the update serv…

Well they changed stuff recently, new domain, new ISO. I hope that means they got their act together, it's a great project overall.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#62

I tried to use the OS multiple times through the recent years, but every time there's a missing feature that breaks all bi+lingual user experience: You cannot switch the keyboard layout for each window separately. Seems like they do not care about anyone except exclusively English speaking audience.

That's unfair. If you're not bilingual yourself, wanting to switch keyboard layout per window is extremely non-obvious. It would never have occurred to me.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#63
post #37

I'd recommend https://getsol.us if you asked me what Desktop Linux distro to get.

I too love solus, but I'm a bit concerned with the ongoing project stability with it's creator and technical leader(ikey) leaving the project. It's been such an amazing project.

What do other think, can it continue to be relatively stable and not break things too much going forward?

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#64

elementary is not for me because it limits configuration a little bit too much to my taste, but it's a wonderful project. One of the cons of Linux--which is the OS I use exclusively--is that most apps are made by programmers, and programmers often don't care and don't have design skills. elementary OS looks absolutely stunning, and it's perfect if you stick to curated apps and you just want something that works. Most…

"Most importantly, they were able to finally find a way for devs to get paid, so that they can continue working and debugging their apps." This is the most exciting part of elementary IMO: it is a model for free software to bring in some cash and fund full time development.

Definitely. They were the first to do that, so it wasn't easy.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not too different from c#, and it's very popular for writing gtk applications.

Even so, it’s going to scare off a lot of potential contributors long before they investigate the language deeply simply by having a name they don’t recognize. It effectively limits the contributor pool to those who’ve previously written GTK apps, which is relatively tiny compared to the number of devs coming from more mainstream backgrounds.

Maybe. It didn't scare off me, though. It piqued my interest!

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#66
post #7

70/30 split for apps is ridiculous and a non-starter. Apple and Google can demand that because of market share. This experiment cannot.

I have no problem with an operating system that is trying to get adoption attempting to monetize. I say go for it. We’ve seen the adoption rates in the public for operating systems that take the completely free route.. near zero.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#67
post #55

Elementary is a fine distro, but short off being pretty and not afraid to ask for money what does it i really achieve that I can't get on other bigger distros?

At the moment, not a whole lot, but if you’re in the group of older MacBook [Pro] users who are looking to upgrade, don’t like the options from Apple, but love macOS, then it makes the transition less painful.

My hope is that it will further distinguish itself with time.

They’ve got the basics in place, which is no small task given they’ve essentially created their own desktop environment. They have a long road ahead of them before they catch up to distros like Mint in terms of features, but with more of the underpinnings in place (like their new cloud providers API), I’m hoping it starts to feel more complete during the next couple releases.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#68

I've recommended Fedora to several "I'm scared of computers" people recently and the experience has been very good. The new GNOME does require 5 minutes of tutorial, but after that they've been completely happy exploring on their own. The new "Software" app is an excellent GUI for installing new apps and updating the system. Personally I use Macs but if I didn't, Fedora would probably be my next choice. It has by far…

For the "I'm scared of computers" crowd, isn't it still a bit hands-on to get proprietary codecs so you won't run into to problems watching things like YouTube?

For that crowd one wonders why anyone is recommending any Linux distro instead of a tablet or a Chromebox or something.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#69
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fedora is my daily driver, and I think it really strikes a good balance between stability, security, and bleeding edge. Having said that, I hesitate to recommend Fedora to newbies. Some things about it can be scary and unpredictable. SELinux is enabled by default, and gnome shows audit2allow notifications every time there is an AVC denial. Someone coming from windows will be scared by seeing dozens of errors the very…

I absolutely love Fedora, and I think they've even managed to make great progress on sane SELinux defaults (I haven't seen an audit2allow prompt in Fedora 29!) but I think "Workstation" is a great term. It's a wonderful experience for developers and I think it can eventually supplant the Mac as the ideal dev workstation. But for friends/family I'll always recommend ChromeOS. A little less so these days because of the…

The android integration is actually very handy as you can use all the android apps, not so nice if you don't have a touch screen.

The linux containers or what has gotten my attention.

Having desktop linux apps, android and all in one os.

Re: Elementary OS – Fast, open, privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use a high DPI display? How is that? I'm reticent to give up my 5k screen and crisp text when programming but I'd love to use Linux as my daily driver (as much as I like macOS).

can't speak for OP but I've been using a retina MBP since 2014 until this year and I'm typing this from a 4k screen (both running ArchLinux) - everything is fine except the occasional 1997 TCL/Tk app not updated for hidpi

Oh you use ArchLinux, tell me more (;
Post reply on HN