elementaryos elementaryOS Challenge! What do you all think?

[Schyken]

Hey guys! Been quite some time since I've been here, I'm slowly getting back into using forums! What better way than talking about some super awesome community tech stuff I've been hyped about for a while?

A few days ago, Forbes writer Jason Evangelho tweeted his elementaryOS Challenge, something I was thrilled with as an elementaryOS lover and user. The basic gist of it is to use elementaryOS as your daily driver for a couple of weeks to really give it a shot. See what you think! Here's the TWEET and here's the FORBES ARTICLE

Here's my WRITEUP of it all from my eyes!

I'm curious to see if any of you might give it a try or check the system out! I'd be curious to see what you think.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Schyken
links don't link automagically

[john01dav]

I've used it before (albeit a few years ago) and it was honestly fairly buggy. Other Linux distros like Debian or even Ubuntu are a lot more stable, so if you use Elementary OS, don't use it to judge all of Linux.

[Schyken]

7 minutes ago, john01dav said:

I've used it before (albeit a few years ago) and it was honestly fairly buggy. Other Linux distros like Debian or even Ubuntu are a lot more stable, so if you use Elementary OS, don't use it to judge all of Linux.

Things have changed drastically over the past few years alone. I recommend giving it another shot. Check this out https://medium.com/elementaryos/elementary-os-5-juno-is-here-471dfdedc7b3 and maybe try it in a VM or watch some examples on YouTube I am biased in favor of elementaryOS, but it *is* much better than it once was. My elementaryOS Juno video #1

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

i might do that. it looks and feels very macOS like, which i love. i've been looking for a Linux distro to put on my PC so i might just install Elementary on it. 

[duncannah]

It's just Ubuntu with a crappy DE, what's so special about it anyway?

[Sauron]

Sorry, I'm not going to wipe the last 10 months of ricing just for a challenge I'm sure it's nice... I'm just partial to more barebones distros. Nice blog post though, it can be very helpful for new users.

[jpenguin]

I use fedora on my computer. It has been awhile since I tried elemtary, but it's Pantheon DE was pretty limited.  It had terminal so you could install synaptic and such, but KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE & LXDE are much more capable DEs

[Guest]

It's not broken as it used to be, the only thing I have to complain about is their AppStore which doesn't have all the ubuntu software in there

[alsetema]

On my experience, elementary OS was quite good looking. It had some bugs here and there but honestly nothing too major since it is still in beta. Tweaking the pantheon environment a bit made it really good, and I used it for a whole year or more. It is still installed in my old desktop

[shahaan]

The challenge is a nice idea but I gotta say I'm uncomfortable using a derivative of a derivative, i.e. elementaryOS, which is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian. I believe in the KISS principle.

 

Jason E. writes about getting out of the "Ubuntu Comfort Bubble" which seems like a great suggestion. But what if I'm using Ubuntu and am happy with its look and feel, don't face problems, it meets my daily computing needs and just generally works well?

 

I get the idea of exploration for the sake of exploration and enjoy distro-hopping every now and then to see what's out there. But I also think a PC and its OS are tools that let people get on with their daily lives. Solving issues like bugs, crashes, hardware and software incompatibilities, etc. shouldn't be a part of most users' daily experiences.

 

I enjoy tweaking, customizing, breaking and fixing, but nobody else in my family does. None of my friends do either. They're not tech-savvy and their only concern is using their PC to get their daily dose of Netflix, replying to emails, online banking and other work done. If something goes wrong, they have zero interest in trying to fix it themselves because they don't consider it fun--it's just a frustrating roadblock in the way of getting things done.

 

I started off using Debian (Stable) on my PCs at home and work about 5 years ago, and since then I've put in a decent effort to move out of my "Debian Comfort Bubble" by installing (and using for at least a few weeks if not months) Ubuntu, Mint, pop_OS, elementaryOS, Fedora, Antergos and Manjaro. Each one of these eventually gave me at least one compelling reason to abandon them and return to Debian. It meets my daily computing needs and I am not spending (read: wasting) time troubleshooting issues instead of using it to get things done. I think that's what the devs were going for?

 

So, again, I think the challenge is a nice idea. But I won't be participating. I'm in a good place with Debian and I'm busy using it to do stuff other than fixing it.

[Infiltrator]

I absolutely loved elementary. My only issue with it was that it doesn't support my older pc's - which is my reason for using Linux in the first place - to make old hardware like new again.

[Shura]

It's a decent DE with a very clean look/feel and everything a beginner would need for basic use but it's too limited/locked down for my liking. my main two machines run Arch+XFCE and Arch+Cinnamon; having distro hopped so many times, Arch is the only distro where I feel like I have control. Even Manjaro and other arch based distros feel stiff imo.

[captain_aggravated]

I've done a burst of distro hopping lately.  I think I'll make another thread on my experiences.  I did try out ElementaryOS in this batch.

 

It's okay I guess.  I mean, it's one of ten zillion Ubuntu forks.  I could probably live with it, but I'd start pining for Cinnamon every time I had to do some little detail, like close a window.

[wasab]

What sort of challenge is this? I am using nothing but Linux for the past 3 years. 

[InvisibleRasta]

elementary os is nice, i use it on my laptop, well i actually use debian stretch with the pantheon desktop environment. i do prefer debian over ubuntu base. on my desktop tho i use arch

[YamiYukiSenpai]

I tried it in a VM, and I couldn't really get into it.  It doesn't work with my workflow.  elementaryOS is a distro that pretty much wants you to do it their way or the highway.  I choose the highway with Kubuntu.

 

However, their app store's "pay what you want" model is something I'd like to see Ubuntu and other distros adopt.