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

Elementary OS 6 Odin

blog.elementary.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 321 posts

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#151

Post by scns »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #78
beermonster wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense? If you mean the fact there are multiple solutions, I don't think it's anything to do with Linux Desktop. I don't think that's even to do with Linux. More the plethora of alternatives in general when using FOSS. But that to some is its strength, not failure.

I disagree. Now to ensure I can install software I need not just one package manager, but at least 2 or 3 (atp, flatpak, snap). Of course that doesn't cover all the bases either, I'm still occasionally going to have to compile something from source because the developer didn't even bother making a binary because they don't want to build it for 5+ different packaging formats, several of which will need constant mainte…

> the developer didn't even bother making a binary because they don't want to build it for 5+ different packaging formats

No snark intended, but how much did you pay for the software?

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#152

Post by OJFord »

luke2m wrote: post #142
OJFord wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

..ok. So they didn't have to put much/any effort in? Still though, how many users are actually going to use 'GNOME Web'? If I installed this, even for an elderly relative or whatever rather than myself, probably my next step would be to install Firefox. (And for others it might be Chrome of course.)

Why? Gnome web is actually simpler and easier to use than Firefox for elderly people. It performs surprisingly well, too.

Because I've heard of it before this evening, trust it'll get updates, it has a decent privacy/security record, I know where things are if I'm asked for help, ...

But mostly it's the first, I couldn't possibly have picked GNOME Web before this conversation, I didn't know it existed!

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#153

Post by KronisLV »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #132
OJFord wrote: post #43

I'm surprised they spend so much (presumably) time and effort on applications, especially 'Web' and 'Terminal'. How many users are actually going to use 'Web' as their browser? That said, I wish them all the best, because I use 'Files' (but not the distro) since it's the best I've found for the odd occasion where I think using a GUI file manager will be easier than the command line. I still wouldn't say it's good , j…

>I'm surprised they spend so much (presumably) time and effort on applications, especially 'Web' and 'Terminal'. How many users are actually going to use 'Web' as their browser? Elementary is aimed in part at non-power-users, moreso than most other distros besides Ubuntu. Most of them don't care or even know what browser they're using.

But isn't it pretty likely that most of their users will be more tech savvy regardless of who they aim towards, just due to most Linux distros having to be seeked out instead of coming preinstalled and therefore mostly being used by the more technically inclined people?

To that end, why not just go with Firefox, which would appease the more technical users, would be closer to what most other distros out there are doing and would also have a higher chance of it being familiar software to all users?

I think that for the most part custom browsers are only good when you want to include something functional, yet minimal in your distro and want to save space or something like that.

Edit: admittedly, an argument could also be made about having software look and feel consistent with the rest of the OS, where such a solution could be better than off the shelf browsers, at least without heavy modifications.

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#154

Post by outworlder »

temp8964 wrote: post #27

I have tried Linux desktop. One of the couple things I can’t get over with is remote. It seems there’s no straight and reliable way to remote to the same session of the host desktop. In addition, Windows RDP can also reliably adjust to client screen setup.

Serious question. Do you have to use a GUI? Windows RDP is more polished because generally the only way to interact with a server is through a GUI. Even powershell didn't move the needle that much.

On Linux, interaction is overwhelmingly through SSH. Or a client/server app.

Of course, the canonical answer to that is remote Xorg. It needs a high performance connection and X running on both sides, but it works. And the most Windows-like answer is VNC.

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#155

Post by SkyMarshal »

This is a big update for a relatively small community distro. Kudos to the team.

A summary of some of the cooler features:

Performance: General performance improvements on all hardware resulting from optimizing for Pinebook Pro and Raspberry Pi - namely, reducing and asynchronizing inter-process communication between desktop components, removing unused code, and reducing disk I/O.

Firmware: Linux Vendor Firmware Service now built-in, enabling firmware updates from within the OS.

Flatpak: all-in on flatpak, all AppCenter apps are flatpaks, as well as some Elementary apps like Web.

Portals: apps must explicitly request permission to get access to files or interact with other apps. Can tweak these permissions in System Settings.

Mail: The Mail app now sandboxes html emails.

Multi-Touch: Extended from supporting just desktop to various apps now too.

Multi-Tasking: Better hot corners + new window and workspace controls.

CalDav: Tasks and Calendar now designed around the CalDav format, making importing and sharing of tasks and calendar items with other CalDav apps easier.

Dark Theme: system-wide, applies to GTK apps too.

Terminal: smart-paste protection extended from sudo pastes to multi-line pastes.

More OEM/Vendor friendly:

- Installer is simplified and streamlined - network connectivity, user account creation, and updates moved out of the installer and into the installed OS. Better for vendors & OEMs.

- Startup is intentionally non-Elementary-branded, better enabling OEM/Vendor branded startup splash screen — "we don’t need to constantly advertise your operating system to you".

There's a separate blog post on hardware-specific improvements here: https://blog.elementary.io/hardware-improvements-coming-to-e...

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#156

Post by badsectoracula »

tayistay wrote: post #79

- Can't publish closed-source apps on their AppCenter. "To ensure reproducible builds, transparency, and auditability, binaries cannot be uploaded or included alongside the source code to be installed on users' devices." So that precludes my apps, and probably most other devs I know. I'd guess because of this restriction, their app store is going nowhere as a business. - Their 70/30 split is higher than what Apple cu…

I have used eOS at the past and while from a superficial quick look it looks like a copy of macOS, also having used macOS for a long time i can easily say that it is far from a copy. For all intents and purposes it is doing its own thing.

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#157

Post by onkoe »

tayistay wrote: post #79

- Can't publish closed-source apps on their AppCenter. "To ensure reproducible builds, transparency, and auditability, binaries cannot be uploaded or included alongside the source code to be installed on users' devices." So that precludes my apps, and probably most other devs I know. I'd guess because of this restriction, their app store is going nowhere as a business. - Their 70/30 split is higher than what Apple cu…

It's insane to me that they're charging anything for their store; that split is actually insane

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#158

Post by HerbMcM »

Been using Elementary for a couple months and it's pretty comfortable. Every new version, however, I look to see if they've added support to increase mouse scroll wheel speed with no success. Sadly, it's still in the limbo circle of blame between GNOME,libinput,x,wayland,etc.

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#159

Post by badsectoracula »

kzrdude wrote: post #98
appleiigs wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Their own forks of popular apps? They do their own apps. It's actually one of their most frequent criticism - they recreate the wheel in building their own apps instead of focusing on the OS. And they do it for consistency, which is also goes against your other point.

It sounds so unsustainable in the long run. It's good that we have parallel alternatives for some categories of apps, but we need better apps not more shallow copies of apps. The gnome project is doing the same thing, so the same kind of goes for them.

How would you solve the issue where the existing apps do not fit their UX (which is one of their main "selling points")?

Re: Elementary OS 6 Odin

#160

Post by jeromenerf »

handrous wrote: post #89
jcelerier wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> First is what happens once you run anything that isn’t made by them — all of the sudden totally different UIs That's a weird criticism. How many competing UI frameworks with completely different look'n'feel are there in a default win10 install ? How many control panels and file dialogs ?

Sure, and everyone complains about that on Win10 because it sucks there, too. Windows the OS has improved greatly over the years, in many ways, but the UI has mostly not improved, or has even regressed, since, oh, I dunno, win98/2k. Maybe WinXP.

No, no one really cares about homogeneity. Big name apps geared towards music, photo, video, 3D, GIS, IDE … have always looked somehow differently designed and for a good reason when compared to the browser and file manager.

There is more value in design than consistency on production oriented systems. It seems the contrary is preferred for mobile.

Post reply on HN