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ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

elementary.io

21–30 of 90 posts

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#21

> 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?

“We” is just our developer community. Folks that have write access to our git repos.

We manage AppCenter reviews as pull requests to a public git repository: https://github.com/elementary/appcenter-reviews

There’s some more documentation for developers here: https://docs.elementary.io/develop/appcenter/publishing-requ...

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#22
post #17

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.

I recently installed it on a 13 year old old MacBook, haven't had any issues.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#23
post #5

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?

I put Zorin OS on my dads old laptop 5 years ago and I think the only time I got a question was when someone setting up his new internet was digging through network settings but hadnt used any Linux distro before. Even then it was a 5 min call. Its a very Windows-like experience and I've noticed most parents really just write an email, browse the web and maybe consume media. All of those can occur in a browser.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#24
post #5

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?

My two recommendations would be openSUSE Tumbleweed or EndeavourOS. In particular Tumbleweed is underappreciated around here I think.

BTW, what makes you look for rolling-release distro specifically?

Ubuntu and pop are not rolling release. Neither is Fedora.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#25
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.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#26
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.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#27
post #5

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?

Are you sure he wants a rolling release? If so, then Manjaro. If not, I always say: From Windows? > Mint. From MacOS? > Ubuntu. The answer is almost always one of those two for non-technical people.

Manjaro is a mess. EndeavourOS is similar (both are Arch derivatives) but less breaky and something I'd recommend more.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#28
post #16
post #5

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?

I’ve been daily driving Linux Mint for about 4 years. It’s usable and stable with standard software packages and can also be tweaked in the Linux way if you so need it. Another person mentioned Ubuntu if coming from Mac. I haven’t considered it before but they’re probably right. I was using Mac at home, but Windows at work. So moving to Mint was easy. Ubuntu was OK on high performance hardware but when they introduce…

Also recommend Mint, but it's not a rolling release like OP asked.

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#29
post #18
post #4

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.

OP probably had to update Windows today. It's a weird world where KDE out of the box is more usable than Windows. I gave the wrong laptop to my mother a few months back and she only told me when she finished banking that the windows menu looked funny (Like the hacker one you put on the family computer when you were 12.) it was KDE. Usually she asks for help at least once on windows for getting the wifi connected. The…

/r/thathappened

She had an account on the wrong laptop?

Re: ElementaryOS – Thoughtful, capable and ethical replacement for Windows/macOS

#30
post #9

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

They certainly still recommend it. Too bad the evolution & development of Vala itself has stagnated mostly.
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