[HN Gopher] Cheers to 10 Years
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Cheers to 10 Years
Author : mariuz
Score : 144 points
Date : 2021-04-01 09:32 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (blog.elementary.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (blog.elementary.io)
| divbzero wrote:
| The Elementary OS blog also links to sellers of Linux-only
| computers [1] [2]. I might start recommending these to friends
| who are tired of Windows but also wary of Apple's ecosystem.
|
| [1]: https://laptopwithlinux.com/ "Laptop with Linux"
|
| [2]: https://starlabs.systems/ "Star Labs"
| noobermin wrote:
| I once upon a time suggested installing dual boot for a family
| member's pc with elementary just for her to try linux out. Every
| so often she uses it when windows has issues (more often than
| not) and ever since that, when I got a new laptop I tried using
| it over gentoo which is my usual choice (I have other issues with
| gentoo over the past few years but that's an aside).
|
| Elementary isn't perfect, it has its hang-ups like anything else
| but it's pretty good, stable, and it's generally a pleasant
| experience. I can't really decide if elementary is better than
| gnome or not, I think I prefer gnome's activities view to the
| macos inspired dock+applications shtick but the design elsewhere
| feels a little bit more my taste than gnome. Also, while I don't
| use the curated apps that much, greatly prefer firefox to
| epiphany and the email app has issues with protonmail the ones I
| use are aesthetically pleasing.
|
| All in all, I'm still waiting on the next update! But kudos to
| the team for a good 10 year run and here's to the next 10.
| veddox wrote:
| > Elementary isn't perfect, it has its hang-ups like anything
| else but it's pretty good, stable, and it's generally a
| pleasant experience.
|
| I think they have one of the nicest Linux UIs out there; they
| certainly put a lot of thought into it and I love the
| aesthetics. But I must admit that both times that I tried out
| elementary, I switched back to Ubuntu after a few months
| because I found it annoyingly buggy.
| aquir wrote:
| I've tried it but it was unable to handle different dpi for each
| screen and that was the end of it :( hidpi is something that bugs
| so many distros
| distracted_boy wrote:
| Can you now close the lid of your laptop and the OS will go to
| sleep? And can you open the lid of your laptop and the OS will
| wake up?
| talhah wrote:
| In my experience it has worked flawlessly without any manual
| setup (aside from changing bios sleep mode setting to linux).
| Worked for my ThinkPad and it has also worked for my older
| lenovo about two years ago.
| input_sh wrote:
| If you don't have an external screen connected, yes. If you do,
| it just counts it as if you've disconnected laptop's monitor.
|
| But of course, your mileage may wary on the hardware.
| jeroenhd wrote:
| Was this ever a problem? I haven't used a laptop where that
| wasn't the default.
| tmaier wrote:
| This is a feature, which does not work at all on my company-
| managed Win10 Lenovo laptop.
| zwaps wrote:
| I have yet to get that reliable working on any Linux laptop of
| mine.
|
| Maybe I am closing it wrong or something.
| viklove wrote:
| Works fine for me, XPS 15 running Ubuntu 20.04.
| Faelian2 wrote:
| I believe it's mostly fixed nowadays. I remember fixing this on
| Ubuntu like 10 years ago by adding an "acpi=off" in the grub
| config file.
| flaxton wrote:
| I put Elementary OS on my 2012 MacBook Air. I'm a very
| experienced Linux user, but in the past I had to fiddle a lot
| with things, especially on Mac hardware.
|
| It setup Ubuntu 18.04 very well, with wifi, Bluetooth, audio,
| ethernet, those are not unusual. But also the brightness
| controls, the keyboard backlighting controls, the trackpad, the
| volume control keys. Everything and all hardware worked out-of-
| the-box. I was very pleasantly surprised. Been using it for
| months now and it works a charm. And yes I made a donation and
| was very happy to do so.
|
| Kudos!
| gkorland wrote:
| I still don't get why is there a need for so many "Ubuntu" based
| distributions
| Faelian2 wrote:
| Well, Ubuntu is a great base (like all the commands on github
| repos are for Ubuntu). But Ubuntu isn't such a great
| distribution. So everybody is trying to fix it by pulling their
| own distro :)
| taytus wrote:
| Imagine telling a poet: "Yeah, but there is a poem about love
| already..."
| breakfastduck wrote:
| Great analogy
| square_usual wrote:
| They fullfil different niches. Elementary is laser focused on
| macOS converts, pop is focused on gamers + enthusiasts, etc.
| Ubuntu at its core is a decent operating system, the
| distributions just make it easier to get an out of the box
| config that "just works" for your use cases.
| input_sh wrote:
| Also Flatpak is so much more pleasant than Snap, which is why
| I'll always go with something based off of Ubuntu.
| grawprog wrote:
| I've used a Ubuntu based os for years. I don't think I've
| ever had an app that uses flatpak. I have several snaps
| installed though.
|
| I have to admit though, I can't stand the way the snap
| folder defaults to a non-hidden folder in your home
| directory with no easy way to change this.
| Jaxkr wrote:
| Are you mixing up Flatpak and Snap? Ubuntu supports snap by
| default and it's much more feature rich [1].
|
| I found the ability to install JetBrains products through
| Snap particularly delightful (they don't support flatpak).
|
| [1]: https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/Similar-
| project...
| everybodyknows wrote:
| Any suggestions on distros that play well with Flatpak? The
| org itself presents only a flat list -- of many icons:
|
| https://flatpak.org/setup/
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Fedora, Mint, eOS.
|
| Basically anything that's _not_ Ubuntu.
| [deleted]
| JustSomeNobody wrote:
| Why not? People have an itch to scratch, let them scratch it.
| If they want to use Ubuntu as the base, so be it.
| stevewodil wrote:
| Ugh I know, and so many programming languages based on C as
| well! Ridiculous.
|
| /s
| clarifier123 wrote:
| I think it's interesting that so many things in elementary OS are
| written in Vala. They are probably the biggest user of the
| language.
|
| For example:
|
| Calculator: https://github.com/elementary/calculator
|
| Calendar: https://github.com/elementary/calendar
|
| E-mail client: https://github.com/elementary/mail
|
| File manager: https://github.com/elementary/files
|
| Image viewer: https://github.com/elementary/photos
|
| Music Player: https://github.com/elementary/music
|
| Terminal: https://github.com/elementary/terminal
|
| Window manager: https://github.com/elementary/gala
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| They actually offered to become stewards of the language itself
| when it looked like it was dead, IIRC.
|
| I think its development has picked back up, although I'm still
| not sure it's getting much love, as most developers are pushed
| just to use GNOME Builder instead.
| megapoliss wrote:
| Vala is really good language, if you target GObject/Gtk. GNOME
| also uses Vala extensively.
| JNRowe wrote:
| Being able to switch to Genie on a whim is great1. I've used
| vala on a few projects, and depending on the devs involved or
| type of project the ability to choose a syntax is really
| useful.
|
| Although, quickly scanning through the GitHub topic doesn't
| paint the rosiest of futures2 :/
|
| 1
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(programming_language)
|
| 2 https://github.com/topics/vala?o=desc&s=updated
| mastrsushi wrote:
| Congrats to 10 years of writing an Ubuntu theme pack!
| input_sh wrote:
| That means that I've been actively using it for about 8 years
| now! Back then it was the only Linux-based OS that was
| lightweight enough for my old Asus laptop not to overheat.
|
| It's the little things that make me always go back to it:
|
| - If I've made a selection in terminal, Ctrl+C will copy it. If
| there's no selection, it will kill the process as usual.
|
| - Simple math directly from the launcher without the need to open
| calculator. Just press meta key, type the calculation, see the
| result. I wish it did more than that, but I'm using a third-party
| launcher for that stuff (https://ulauncher.io/, comes with
| elementary-inspired theme out of the box).
|
| - Fuzzy search in the app launcher! I'm quite annoyed that I have
| to type "fire" in the launcher in every other OS I've tried to
| start Firefox (in Win10 even that does not work reliably). In
| elementary OS, I can do "ffox", "ffx", or anything resembling
| what I'm looking for, and Firefox will pop up.
|
| Overall the system just gets out of my way and lets me launch
| apps quickly and navigate between them with breeze, which is
| precisely what I'm looking for in an OS. There's also a couple of
| third-party apps specifically designed for it that I absolutely
| love, most notably Planner (https://planner-todo.web.app/).
|
| Congrats on the awesome decade team! I hope for many more
| successful ones and can't wait for the v6 to be ready for my
| laptop!
| square_usual wrote:
| > If I've made a selection in terminal, Ctrl+C will copy it. If
| there's no selection, it will kill the process as usual.
|
| You can set that up in a bunch of terminal emulators these
| days. I have it working that way in Konsole.
| input_sh wrote:
| I can, but I don't have to, it does that out of the box! I've
| dabbled in other terminal emulators, but could never be
| bothered to set them up quite as I'd like them to behave.
| AltruisticGapHN wrote:
| > If I've made a selection in terminal, Ctrl+C will copy it. If
| there's no selection, it will kill the process as usual
|
| Which is already a prime example of bad user interface design.
| horsawlarway wrote:
| I'd say it's a really functional compromise to handling well-
| established and conflicting keyboard shortcuts.
|
| I turn this feature on in gnome terminal on all my machines
| (It's built into it by default).
| stevewodil wrote:
| I also love that feature. It's not inherently good or bad,
| just you clearly don't prefer it. I definitely prefer it to
| work intuitively like this.
| viklove wrote:
| Have you tried xfce? It's even more lightweight than eos, and
| has existed for more than 20 years.
| BasicObject wrote:
| I've been testing Xubuntu 21.04 in virtualbox and so far it's
| solid. Definitely recommend trying it out if people are
| interested in xfce.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| It's funny, those features you mention mirror macOS features I
| love almost exactly (macOS used Cmd + C/V for copy/paste which
| I personally think works better than other meta key choices).
|
| I mean this in the best way possible: macOS has a very a well
| through out UI and copying some of its patterns in an
| intelligent way is a good thing. I look forward to trying
| Elementary OS.
| carlivar wrote:
| Agreed. But now we need touchpad hardware and/or drivers at
| Mac level quality and features.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| There have been precisely 3 reasons why I've been using a
| MacBook for my laptop for the past 11 years while being a
| diehard Linux on the desktop fan:
|
| 1. Hardware quality. Metal chassis, amazing screen, an acre
| of touchpad surface that just works. I know I can't pull
| the hard drive or upgrade the RAM. I know I can't replace
| the battery, but even with those limitations it is an
| amazing build.
|
| 2. AppleCare. I don't mind paying for insurance on my
| laptop (or phone for that matter). In all other products I
| use I opt for the "if it breaks I'll either fix it or buy
| another one) approach but when it comes to my two main
| devices I don't want to do that. Peace of mind is nice.
|
| 3. Pixelimator and Graphic. These are two amazing pieces of
| software and as much as I'd love for an open source
| alternative to come along and eat their lunch, GIMP and
| Inkscape can't touch them. I have been using darktable
| instead of Lightroom but might switch to the latter at some
| point as it just has much more community support. The only
| other bonus thing would be iMessage/Messages because a full
| size keyboard is nicer for texting people than a tiny on
| screen one, but plenty of alternatives exist.
|
| That's really it. If I could have these things in an open
| build, my next machine might not be a MacBook.
| martinald wrote:
| I agree on 1. for sure. I bought a HP Envy laptop a
| couple of years ago and the hardware is terrible. The
| touchpad is awful compared to a MBP, the thermals are
| awful (doing anything will start the fans), and worst of
| all the metal is flimsy and has started to bend around
| the USB ports and the whole thing generally feels like it
| is going to fall apart, in around a year of use.
|
| Even though the envy was a fair bit cheaper than a
| Macbook (Air/Pro) it doesn't really make sense if it
| falls to pieces after a year. I usually get 5 years out
| of my Apple laptops and that is with insanely heavy use.
| itsoktocry wrote:
| > _AppleCare. I don't mind paying for insurance on my
| laptop (or phone for that matter)_
|
| There are all kinds of third-party companies that will
| insure your electronic goods, in which case you get the
| benefit of fixing it or replacing it. Not quite as
| convenient if you have an Apple store nearby, but just
| sayin'.
|
| I agree that Apple touchpads can't be beat by anything
| else I've ever used. But, I eventually got to the point
| that using an inferior trackpad was trumped by features
| found in other laptops.
| Faelian2 wrote:
| I have been using elementary on my laptops since 2013. If you
| want to give Linux a try, I recommend it over Ubuntu or Fedora.
| (KDE is nice, but I didn't try it in years).
|
| I really wish they had more resources. I mean look at theses
| mockups from years ago ! (Nothing offical).
| https://www.deviantart.com/bassultra/art/Spreadsheet-3631475...
| https://www.deviantart.com/spiceofdesign/art/Writer-Concept-...
|
| The default apps aren't this great. For my workflow nowadays it's
| mostly Firefox, Tilix, Visual Studio Code. + VirtualBox for Word
| and Kali Linux (I work as a pentester). But the virtual desktops,
| the launcher and the file browser are a pleasure to use.
|
| Also it's based on Ubuntu, so all your commands from the Internet
| will works.
| Faelian2 wrote:
| And finally good default touchpad gestures on Linux in the next
| version. https://blog.elementary.io/multitouch-gestures-in-
| elementary...
| spinningslate wrote:
| Congrats to the elementary team: 10 years is something to
| celebrate. I remember they took some stick for changing the
| website such that one has to specifically enter 0 in order to
| download for nothing.
|
| But it seems like it's enabled them to fund the distro and the
| people who work on it. Without resorting to ads or data mining as
| the article notes.
|
| I suppose there'll still be those who criticise the design as a
| "dark pattern": there's no hint that says "hey, you can get this
| for nothing if you enter 0". That's true, but then it's all
| relative: I'd personally rather have that than the "HEY IT'S
| FREE!! (but you pay with your privacy)" so beloved of the ad tech
| world.
|
| I'm also biased, though, because I really like elementary. As an
| inveterate distro hopper, it's the one I keep coming back to.
| (And have donated annually to support it).
|
| So congrats again to the team: looking forward to v6.
| cyberlab wrote:
| I tried this in a VM just to test it out, and I think it looks
| nice, but that's about it. It tries to mimic macOS and that's the
| only unique selling point of it. Personally I am happy with
| vanilla Ubuntu with a few custom themes I installed that makes
| Ubuntu easier to use and aesthetically pleasing.
| fredleblanc wrote:
| After hearing complaints for years from my mom about how slow her
| laptops were (with Windows), we bought her a NUC and I put
| elementary on it. That was about 4 years ago. Since then: not one
| single complaint.
|
| She's not a power user. She uses a web browser for Facebook, her
| bank stuff, and to play silly word games and puzzles. She checks
| email. But even those two tasks were enough to land her into
| trouble on seemingly any Windows machine we put in front of her.
|
| I assume she was clicking on questionable ads, accidentally
| visiting who knows what websites from weird Facebook clicks, etc.
| but since she's not on Windows, she's less of a haphazard target.
|
| Whenever I'm a good son and visit her, I'll make sure
| everything's updated and it usually is. She knows to click the
| update button when it asks.
|
| I'm sure this could have been ANY Linux that would have fixed
| this, but Elementary looks the most simple, and that's what it's
| a great fit for her. It's easy to use, easy to keep updated, and
| won't virus itself up when your mom clicks on weird banner ads.
| All in a cheap little package. (Which I get could have been even
| cheaper.)
| kodah wrote:
| Anecdotally, elementary OS is the only OS I've gotten my mom to
| use consistently. She's 70+ and Windows absolutely confuses
| her.
| AdmiralAsshat wrote:
| Is she still on the version from 4 years ago, then?
|
| IIRC, my biggest complaint about eOS was that you _could not_
| upgrade it between major versions, and had to do a clean
| install every time.
| atoav wrote:
| Had the same experience with Ubuntu and my mother, who is
| similarily not a power user. Even the software she uses to
| create her photo books had a linux variant, the printer worked
| out of the box.
|
| Before that she had quesions about the computer every week,
| after that she maybe asked me once every two months and was
| very happy.
| fredleblanc wrote:
| The printer support really blew me away. Maybe I still have
| PTSD from trying to get any peripheral to work with anything
| that required a driver when I was younger, but that you can
| just plug and play anywhere these days (on Linux or Mac or
| Windows) still makes me smile.
| pacifika wrote:
| Probably not PTSD
| agumonkey wrote:
| I need to force myself a bit and setup a "study" giving people
| eos on old laptops and ask them to live in it for a month.
|
| And kudos to the team, even it's highly macos inspired (someone
| would say stolen or lifted) it was a brilliant ~replica and
| felt great right away.
| Nextgrid wrote:
| > Whenever I'm a good son and visit her, I'll make sure
| everything's updated and it usually is. She knows to click the
| update button when it asks
|
| The advantage of a Linux machine is that SSH is both trivial to
| setup & use but also reasonably secure to leave exposed to the
| Internet (as opposed to RDP) which is great for remote
| maintenance & troubleshooting.
| fredleblanc wrote:
| I know, but "I've converted my regular visits to SSH tunnels"
| doesn't go over well with moms. :)
| dsr_ wrote:
| "I can fix that in a few minutes" versus "I can come visit
| you in two weeks" does work well, though.
| [deleted]
| kodah wrote:
| I'm just going to put out there that to my mom,
| priorities are different. She'll absolutely prefer a
| video/phone call and visit to me just solving her
| problem.
| nkozyra wrote:
| Especially if you live in the same town :)
| fredleblanc wrote:
| The thing about her using Elementary is that these things
| haven't come up in the years she's been on it. I'm sure I
| just jinxed it now though.
| yoandy wrote:
| Here is my 5 stars review: Years ago I downloaded the Freya
| version after donating $20 , and it was a very pleasant
| experience. Later on I got a Tuxedo laptop that came with
| Elementary preinstalled based on Ubuntu 16.04 and I haven't ever
| reinstalled it again, it is very stable, the upgrade process work
| all the time without issues.
| m-p-3 wrote:
| One of my favorite distro for the laymen, but it's also
| expandable with Ubuntu-based repos if you need to get out of the
| mold.
| subjectsigma wrote:
| I don't want to be the guy who just complains about everything
| and provides no solution, but eOS is, at the end of the day, just
| Ubuntu, which is just Linux.
|
| I recently installed eOS because I was excited about the
| following things: paid app stores, a simpler and more intuitive
| UI, and a resource-light desktop. Target machine was a Dell XPS
| laptop with 8GB RAM and a previous gen i5 - outdated but far from
| 'old'.
|
| Sleep and hibernate did not work because the installer did not
| add a swap partition. It took me forever to connect my Bluetooth
| headphones and the sound quality was really flakey. The
| touchscreen didn't work well and didn't support gestures or
| scrolling. Battery life was horrible compared to Win 10 or even
| Ubuntu. The native apps like Mail looked good but would often
| freeze or crash (esp when searching).
|
| Without a focus on fundamental stability, there's no way for me
| to appreciate the UI or the paid apps. I went back to Kubuntu.
| ac29 wrote:
| Sleep doesn't require a swap partition (or even swap at all).
| The memory stays powered on during sleep. Sounds like it was
| broken for some other reason, which is somewhat surprising
| since XPS laptops are supported well by Linux in my experience.
| subjectsigma wrote:
| I also remembered: fingerprint reader doesn't work any Linux.
| Given that list of issues I'm surprised you consider them
| 'well supported'.
|
| Do you have a newer model and how is your experience? I would
| consider buying another XPS in the future if it had better
| Linux compatibility.
| ac29 wrote:
| I have a ~2 year old XPS13 thats been pretty flawless,
| though it was bought as a "Developer Edition" that shipped
| with Linux (which was replaced with a different distro on
| day 1). Not sure how much those differ in hardware, but it
| seemed more or less identical to the Windows versions at
| the time.
| netcyrax wrote:
| IMHO probably the most user friendly & unique linux distro out
| there! Congrats for the milestone!
| _spduchamp wrote:
| We used Elementary OS for our point-of-sale systems at our small
| chain of resale clothing stores. It's been very solid, and my
| staff, who are not technically inclined at all, have no trouble
| with it. We're super happy with this choice.
| noobermin wrote:
| Can you share more details? Kind of cool to hear linux being
| deployed in non technical businesses.
| freebuju wrote:
| I remember trying out linux desktop with this many moons ago.
| Don't know if it was my curiosity or my noobness at the time but
| this OS is the easiest one I've ever broken before.
|
| Had something do with python dependencies but goddamn the
| pantheon desktop was a real pain trying to get it back up. Am
| definitely positive that things have changed now as the desktop
| matures.
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(page generated 2021-04-01 23:03 UTC)