Elementary OS time!

[nephilim]

After constantly mentioning Elementary OS (Luna) to members of this forum looking for an OS X style Linux, I finally got my feet wet. Instead of just looking at screenshots and articles, or even a live boot, I installed it 32-bit on my old Macbook 2,1. I figured it would be better than sitting in a file cabinet with a broken keyboard.

I have to say that right off the bat it was extremely simply and straight-forward. Not in a bad way though. It installed quickly and with no issues on this old mac. It is definitely very pleasing on the eyes (in my opinion). I first thought it used Gnome 3, but I recently had Mint with Cinnamon on this same computer and it had a lot of trouble moving fluently. Elementary runs wayyyyy to fast to be Gnome 3. I even think it runs faster than XFCE did on this hardware. NICE!! According to the SESSION command it runs "pantheon", but I believe it's a custom gnome 2/fallback with a dock. No complaints on performance so far. In fact, I'm kind of impressed.
If any of you have used Mac OS X and enjoyed it... try this! It has customizable hot corners which I've always enjoyed and eventually depended upon with this laptop. The OS X-like dock is very similar to Mac's. It bounces on application launch but also auto-hides when a window goes full screen (sweet!). Being based on Ubuntu, it has all similar features such as the repositories, along with Elementary's own, and software manager (which I'm not a fan of, but for those who are, it's there). I'm intrigued that it has some of it's own software like "Music" which is an amazing dupe of iTunes. I've read so many threads about people desperately trying to get iTunes to work on Linux and some fail, some succeed... just use this!

I don't want to make this too long so I'll wrap it up. As I've read in a few articles about Elementary OS, it is an extremely under-rated Linux distribution. I agree with this but "opinions are opinions" so.. I'm sure not everyone will agree with me. I recommend giving this Ubuntu-based Linux distro a shot; maybe a live boot or an install on an old computer kicking around. It's definitely not perfect and needs some work which I'll talk about in another spew, but getting it out there will only help it grow and get better as an OS. There's much more to say about it, but this was intended as just a shout-out to Elementary OS.

 

[DevynCJohnson]

Thanks for this great post! The next time a Mac user wants a GNU/Linux distro, I will suggest Elementary OS.

 

[CesarCara]

As I've read in a few articles about Elementary OS, it is an extremely under-rated Linux distribution.

I agree with you, ElementaryOS is indeed a underrated distro. Actually I use it as my primary OS. I was very surprised that in www.linux.org it isn't very discussed.
At first I was an Ubuntu user, but when started to use ElementaryOS and tasted the speed and the nice GUI in harmony with the CLI, I didn't want to go back. Maybe I'm wrong but I think that it is a great distro.

 

[ryanvade]

Everyone has there opinions. It has not been discussed here on the forums because no one brought it up. Until now.

 

[CesarCara]

The only thing about elementaryOS is that the native software, in my opinion, isn't as good as the interface and features of the OS. The only native app I use is Files and I use it because I'm a little stubborn. Except for Shotwell (pictures), Terminal (witch is really good) and Updates the native software is unstable and keeps crashing. Geary Mail and Empathy I never used.

But even with this cons, combining some good software with the nice environment given by elementaryOS it is quite fast and stable.