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

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

#121

Post by coned88 »

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…

Weird argument. Because I have given Linux systems to the elderly before. People with little to no experience with computers. Guess what they were all fine.

My mother was a long time windows user. Kept getting viruses. She was converted to Ubuntu and has used it for over a decade now without issue.

Linux is far easier for people than you think. My mother is a senior citizen now and this is her second computer.

The UI concerns you bring up are just silly, They are about the same as you buying a new hammer and it having an inconsistent wood grain or a metal burr.

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

#122

Post by ganlub »

EastSmith wrote: post #101

Someone knows if this is a good fit for a dev machine: Rails, React, PostgreSQL & Elastisearch? VS Code?

Why not? This isn't anything out of the ordinary. Just some Docker containers and VSC. You can even find the Open Source version of VSC in some repositories.

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

#123

Post by coned88 »

DCKing wrote: post #99
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 agree. I would be using Linux full time if the experience was not so jarring all the time. Fonts and themes are off, stuff gets jumbled around, things are wildly inconsistent. You end up spending lots of time doing weird hacks to make everything look alright. Even Elementary will break if you move outside the core applications - it cannot be helped in this ecosystem. When Linux works for you it's so damn great but…

Been using linux for decades and have never had to do any of this. Even 15 years ago I didn't need to.

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

#124

Post by AndrewDavis »

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #110
AndrewDavis wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear these every so often. Just curious if noticing or more so, even being bothered by them is the norm? Example Mint, the font heights I wouldn't have noticed and definitely something I would not be consciously aware of if I used it. And I still don't know what's wrong with the render beyond it looking at bit outdated. Am I the odd person here or is it a vocal minority that have issues with it?

You are part of the vocal, online minority that doesn't look at Mint and cringe because it looks so amateur and dated. Most people intuitively have a sense of whether the software they're using is elegant, polished, and user-friendly without necessarily being able to articulate that the "font heights", etc. are the problem. By a common user's standards, Mint looks amateur and janky compared to Windows 10 and Mac OS.

I look at it and just think old. But I don't dislike it. I just see it as old. Like fashion, is what was popular in the 90s bad?

Or is it just some perpetual need to evolve for the sake of evolving?

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

#125

Post by vel0city »

lazzlazzlazz wrote: post #110
AndrewDavis wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear these every so often. Just curious if noticing or more so, even being bothered by them is the norm? Example Mint, the font heights I wouldn't have noticed and definitely something I would not be consciously aware of if I used it. And I still don't know what's wrong with the render beyond it looking at bit outdated. Am I the odd person here or is it a vocal minority that have issues with it?

You are part of the vocal, online minority that doesn't look at Mint and cringe because it looks so amateur and dated. Most people intuitively have a sense of whether the software they're using is elegant, polished, and user-friendly without necessarily being able to articulate that the "font heights", etc. are the problem. By a common user's standards, Mint looks amateur and janky compared to Windows 10 and Mac OS.

FWIW, the screenshot above was Linux Mint 17, there has been a lot of improvement with Cinnamon since then. Current version is 19.

https://www.linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/tara/cinnamon...

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

#126

Post by tathougies »

coned88 wrote: post #121
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…

Weird argument. Because I have given Linux systems to the elderly before. People with little to no experience with computers. Guess what they were all fine. My mother was a long time windows user. Kept getting viruses. She was converted to Ubuntu and has used it for over a decade now without issue. Linux is far easier for people than you think. My mother is a senior citizen now and this is her second computer. The UI…

Yeah same experience here. Installed gentoo on our home computer for my mom and dad and once i showed them how to open Firefox, they were happy as clams. The only issue was when my dad wanted to install tax software

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

#127

Post by vel0city »

PakG1 wrote: post #111
dingdingdang wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minorly unfair on Mint since it is a 2 versions old screenshot being compared to present day version of Elementary. Personally by far prefer the Mint paradigm: it is clear what is running and what is a launch icon without studying icon shading/overlays/dots..etc.

Could you share a screenshot for Mint today then and describe how it's improved?

Look for yourself and see if you can notice any differences.

https://www.linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/tara/cinnamon...

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

#128

Post by coned88 »

Investogician wrote: post #38
LeoPanthera wrote: post #12

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?

Ubuntu even has an option to install these at install time

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

#129

Post by simplify »

computerex wrote: post #74
hawski wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning Vala is still far better than GObject-C. Rust GTK bindings are probably not yet there. So what's left? Python and JavaScript. If you care about native performance the way I believe they are these will also not cut it. Vala seems then a logical choice, especially at the time they were deciding. The question I have is: will Vala be supported further by Gnome in foreseeable future? I heard some time ago that it…

Vala is more or less dead.

Seems not? https://github.com/GNOME/vala

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

#130

Post by moondev »

sterlind wrote: post #105

I'd love to have a Linux distro with the frontend of Elementary OS and the backend of Nixos. And I say that as a Microsoft employee. Are there efforts to make Nixos grandma-worthy? Or are the only pretty distros all reskins of Ubuntu?

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
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