Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

elementary.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 431 posts

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

#261

Post by jillesvangurp »

nobody271 wrote: post #204
zwaps wrote: post #81

Some of the comments here feel weird. Elementary OS has picked a specific niche, and its arguably the best distribution in it. It has a really well designed and consistent UI experience, and you can't break it. I think most of you just don't realize how difficult linux is for people who barely understand how to use a Mac or Windows machine. Furthermore, linux is a world where mainstream distributions still release wi…

I don't think Linux will e... okay, probably ever, be a replacement for Windows or MacOS. Linux is Linux no matter how you dress it up. The first time a non-crazy person has to decompress and unpack a .tar.gz to install a program that usually comes in a .msi they're done. Forget about the fact that they'll be running down dependencies and the programs themselves don't usually work as good. What is the benefit they ge…

Linux in the form of Chrome OS seems to be capturing a lot of market share lately. Likewise Linux is also by no small margin what runs of most people's mobile phones or tablets. And the remaining ones run a fruity flavor of BSD. So most of what users is using is already unix and most of that is in fact Linux. MS is of course still pushing their own kernel but they seem to be insisting on that less when it comes to servers and all but gave up on mobile.

The problem with 'traditional' linux distributions is not Linux the kernel but the notion of window managers and other stuff that just isn't very good or user friendly. With Chrome OS, basically Google decided to cherry pick Linux for stuff that they could use/savage and scrap/replace the rest. Given how successful they are with that approach, I'm very confident in predicting that KDE vs. Gnome is never going to end in a victory for either. At least not in the form of world dominance. If anything, I see a lot of techies using alternative, lighter weight window managers. Even the target audience is opting out of using either.

Elementary OS looks like straightforward rip off of OS/X before they dropped the whole aqua look. That is to say a bit dated, not very original, and not that impressive or tempting to me.

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

#262

Post by iagovar »

tathougies wrote: post #191
tdsamardzhiev wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, they'll be okay as long as they only use the browser. When they need to edit a MS Excel file, or use their digital signature (mandatory for companies in my country), or use some accounting software... or anything like this, you understand that Linux isn't as ready for the mainstream desktop as we think it is.

My dad was happy with OpenOffice.org Calc (now LibreOffice), and he loved excel. But, yeah, obviously Linux doesn't run accounting or signature software that is not built for it. That's not a technical issue with Linux of course (see Android), but a lack of proprietary software that runs on GNU/Linux.

If you are a medium-advanced user with Excel it's not gonna be good with calc.

Linux is only going to be smooth for very basic stuff or if you have de knowledge to troubleshoot it.

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

#263

Post by solarmist »

dorfsmay wrote: post #226
tdsamardzhiev wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically, they'll be okay as long as they only use the browser. When they need to edit a MS Excel file, or use their digital signature (mandatory for companies in my country), or use some accounting software... or anything like this, you understand that Linux isn't as ready for the mainstream desktop as we think it is.

Your country mandate digital signature that aren't cross platform?

"Cross platform" is in the eye of the beholder.

How easy is it to use for someone that thinks their browser IS the internet to install and use?

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

#264

Post by smhg »

veddox wrote: post #255
tapoxi wrote: post #21

What advantages does Elementary have over (its upstream) Ubuntu? It just looks like a different GTK/GNOME Shell theme to me.

Well, for some people that is a pretty big advantage. I'm on Ubuntu 16.04 now, running Unity. Despite all its bad press I love Unity - it perfectly fits my workflow and just gets out of your way. (Not like Gnome Shell, where a third of your screen real estate is gone just with various menubars, each of which you could park a truck on.) Gnome Shell on 18.04 pretty much killed Ubuntu for me. Next time I set up my compu…

Unity still works perfectly fine on 18.04 for me. There is still some maintenance going on, so it can be an ok choice for the near future.

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

#265

Post by keithpeter »

andy_ppp wrote: post #176
dnautics wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have run exclusively Linux and mostly on laptops for 15 years and it's been about 10 years since I have had problems with packages clashing, except for python pip. (I don't use python though)

Can you give us details of laptop and distribution used? Seems hardware is still difficult i.e. trackpads, WiFi, screen resolution, external displays, etc.

Thinkpads and Dell Latitude series (5xxx something). Currently Thinkpad X220 and L440. Wifi non-free drivers but in most distros, trackpad on L440 seems to recognise multiple finger use for scrolling &c. I admit that I tend to use at most one external display - projector - and that seems to work, I know that the newer hires external displays pose issues around scaling &c

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

#266

Post by rcarmo »

bprasanna wrote: post #172

Looks promising. It would be great if they can offer a scaled down version (something like Lubuntu) which we can install in single board computers (like RaspberryPi).

The Raspbian distribution has recently been improved to the point where it has a decent (if less polished) experience. I have a Pi desktop for developing in Arduino, and it’s great with the newest 3B+.

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

#267

Post by Monotoko »

androidgirl wrote: post #139
moondev wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not too familiar with Nix, but can't you run different window managers? I know you can install and use Pantheon (Elementary's WM) on Arch: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pantheon

Huh, had no idea this was a package. I'll have to try it out soon when I reinstall arch for the gazillionth time.

Arch is brilliant for packaging things up, it's my daily driver and while it drives me mental sometimes I still use it on the laptop for work.

However my main desktop these days is a bog standard Win10... probably showing my age that I can't be bothered to tinker round with it anymore.

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

#268

Post by solarmist »

llIIllIIllIIl wrote: post #34

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.

This.

There are 1,000 of these little things that just aren't right with linux as a desktop that make me drop it in less than a week every time I try it out.

* How to I switch keyboards from English to Japanese easily?

* How do I run excel or Lightroom or blah software that I'm already familiar with?

* How do I upgrade my OS if I don't know the difference between Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 and Linux 3.16.0-4-generic or some such? Or even the difference between Intel and AMD? Why am I picking "amd64"? I have an intel processor! (That was hypothetical don't answer that)

* How do I buy a new laptop that all of the hardware just works like it's supposed to?

* How can I upgrade a piece of hardware and be sure it'll work?

Only macOS and Windows answer all of those questions.

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

#269

Post by rcarmo »

I don’t get the hate, really. It’s the only distro I’ve used in the past few years with a “nice enough” desktop where my Mac instincts translate across and where I can use anything packaged for Ubuntu with zero hassles.

I’ve been running it on a low-end Chromebook for a long while now, and upgraded from 0.4.1 to 5.0 via the CLI (not recommended, but feasible if you know what you’re doing), and other than the ultra-niche app ecosystem (which I don’t need, since I mostly run Firefox, Docker and VS Code on it, besides dev packages) it has zero weirdness.

Well, except for the mail client. It has improved, but every single time I try to use it to send out some notes while away from my regular machines it breaks somehow, and there is zero addressbook/calendar integration (I have Thunderbird installed, but keep trying the built-in mail client after each update because I like the UI).

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

#270

Post by tonyedgecombe »

jacobush wrote: post #260
ryanmarsh wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks I was staring at the code examples trying to figure out which language it was. Some of the examples looked like C# but then some I could have swore were C++. Took me a minute.

Vala is to me the Dutch of programming languages. A fine language. When I hear it I first "know" it's English, then I know it's Danish, then I "know" it's German. Which is when I realise is has to be Dutch. But should I learn Dutch? Even though it's a fine language? Maybe I'm better off learning English and German first. And French. Dutch, and Vala, are too niche. I wish ElementaryOS, would, in probably this order, w…

used ObjectiveC instead of Vala

Or Swift?

Post reply on HN