So far so good. I installed 7.0 first and donated as well. The 7.0 was buggy and laggy so I even had to patch the kernel to fix the realtek wifi probs. Luckily by the time there was already the 7.1 update available which fixed all my problems with the hardware and with appearance. I like minimalism and tidy look of eos and with numix themes it looks nice. All in all I was able to config my one just as I like it on my hp probook g9 with ryzen 5, radeon 12 and ati barcello on board. Nine is given for the burden of the 7.0 though I've read that most of the problems descend to Ubuntu.
With the 7.1 release, Elementary OS has made some additional improvements via updates: The Appcenter is now fast and has Flathub by default. The installation of the distro is exemplary: printer and scanner are included out of the box, like everything else. The in-house GUI Pantheon is a pleasure compared to Gnome and KDE and is well thought out. For example, installed applications can be easily removed from the software overview with a left click (similar to Linux Mint). Everything runs super fast and well.
Strange on the other hand: Among the few included programs are Mail and Web - two weak Gnome programs. The online accounts are limited to IMAP and calendar data - there is nothing else. This is not very helpful.
Conclusion: If you are looking for an uncomplicated, nicely designed and fast Linux distribution for everyday use, this is a good choice. And since Elementary OS is based on LTS Ubuntu, you are spared constant updates.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2024-05-07 Votes: 0
Frustrating .
Close button on the left side of the window bar, minimize on the right? So... I can't have them both on the same side? Trying to understand the logic behind that one. The single click for some things and double click for another? Some programs respect dark mode and others don't? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the user interface.
Weird, uncomfortable and unnatural interface aside, I seemed to keep running into problems. App Store crashed my system or rather it froze. Same thing I guess. The performance seemed jenky (animation stuttering). My understanding was there was access to a ton of software. Seemed pretty limited to me.
I am new to Linux and go between Windows for work and MacOS for play. I got laptop from a friend and thought this would be a good opportunity to explore a whole new world. I saw elementary OS on YouTube once a long time ago which got me curious. Once installed the WiFi didn't work so I plugged in an old USB 2.4GHz WiFi adapter I found in my desk drawer.
Pile this on top of an already troubled, stuttery user interface and buggy, lackluster default applications. There is just no way to take this seriously. App Store kinda sorta works when it wants. And if you're lucky enough to not take your system down you're met with very limited software.
For beginners this is not. Be honest here... the out of the box experience is trash. You're going to have to spend some time to get it to a place of usability, functionality and if you're lucky, stability. Just too much work required for this one.
I wont talk about the backend system. It is a Debian-based -> Ubuntu-based distro. As a Debian-based distro you have access to A LOT of official supported installation packages, good support and endless documentation.
The big advantage here is the graphical part (windows).
The desktop environment (Pantheon) is deeply designed. When you find your way and all the elements you need to work, it will always feel like home. It is compact and consistent. Feature wise it is better than Gnome but not as feature-rich as Plasma.
Pantheon is a smooth, fast and full featured desktop. It is easily customizable with the tweak application included in the AppStore. The AppStore provide applications as native packages or flatpacks so you can find almost everything in there.
What I dont like is the "modern" Linux thing of not including desktop-icon and system-tray functionality.
The desktop-icons and the top bar system-tray are easy to install using 3d party free apps.
Overall, ElementaryOS is one of the best options for an "everyday" convenient working environment.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2024-03-21 Votes: 1
I have been looking for a distro for my primary computer needs for a while now.
A distro that appears very quiet. Beautiful, quiet so not loud. So not those 1001 settings (MXLinux, especially the KDE version, pffffffffff). I have reasonable experience with Linux. I can use the terminal well and know how to install software via the terminal.
Ok, I installed Elementary OS 7.1 Horus. After the first boat there was still work to be done. You get the first time
the impression that the system does not allow much, but that is not too bad. I already had some experience with older versions of this distro; I thought it was worthless.
First impression:
-Very nice.
-Seems ideal for the inexperienced user, but the actual imposed choice of software is absolutely outdated.
-You feel trapped in this distro.
As I said, I have quite a bit of experience with Linux. You need that to want a little more than what this OS offers you;
but I actually don't want that much because that is my goal.
What have I done:
Installed Synaptic via terminal (sudo apt-get install synaptic)
Installed as much as possible via Synaptic software.
My choice fell on:
Firefox (not installed by default.) Search for Firefox and your country of choice via Synaptic, and install it.
Gnumeric (quiet)
Abiword (quiet)
Homebank (quiet)
Check the firewall Ufw (installed via Synaptic) and via terminal (sudo ufw enable) (sudo ufw status verbose).
I adjusted the font using gnome-tweaks (I think that's the only option that Elementary accepts through this program, but give it a try.
You install gnome tweaks via Synaptic. After installation you need to start this program via terminal, "gnome-tweaks"
And for my collections and databases Tellico (Very nice and quiet) and Sqlitebrowser.
So I use this Laptop with Elementary for my daily office needs. If you want more, you have to look for apps. This can be done via the Appcenter. I prefer to do it via Synaptic, because these packages are simply more stable. But everyone has to know that for themselves.
I can imagine that the real Linux terminal user (MR Robot) does not want to use this system, but it is not designed for that. It was made for the "stupid" user. But this "dumb" user has to do a little more to bend Elementary to his will, and that's really not difficult. If you delve a little more in Terminal and Synaptic then you can get a very nice OS with Elementary on your computer.
I also have a Desktop Computer with Ubuntu that I use to learn Python, to delve deeper into Terminal commands and everything that makes Linux fun.
This is of course also possible with Elemntary, but you have to do something for it. Now I have the Laptop that I use for my daily "serious" activities. Quick and easy.
Conclusion:
I'm very happy with Elementary. It's really beautiful and it works very well, but you have to put in a little effort and not give up.
I don't think a ranking of 10 exists for an OS (Every distro has its shortcomings) but Elementary OS 7.1 Horus gets a 9 from me.
I have achieved my goal of finding an ideal distro for my Laptop that meets the needs I mentioned above.
Give this distro a try. Cheers.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2024-03-14 Votes: 5
Is this still a non thing? I'm very curious who actually uses it for serious work. Every iteration leaves a lot to be desired.
Wireless, Bluetooth and nVidia have always been a problem and nothing has changed in this area.
The base OS and stock apps feel and perform as if it's a Beta version.
It's Ubuntu and MacOS marinated in wrong sauce with lots of missing ingredients.
At this time, and for a long time still, not something I'd use or recommend.
1 out of 10.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2024-03-11 Votes: 0
I don't think any other Linux distros come even close to the highly polished and consistent looks provided by eOS. Also, I think that#s the only good think about it too!
Lacks customisation in almost every app/system setting. Opinionated settings are good if you're a novice installing Linux for the first time. But, for an advanced/power user, the lack of simple customisation options is very limiting and, at times, even discouraging to consider the eOS as a daily driver.
As others have already pointed out, lack of common apps/tools is still a major issue. If you just rely on a browser, file manager and terminal, you're in for a treat with eOS. Over the years, I've been in a love-hate relationship with eOS. Install and try to make it work for me and then replace it after a while with Fedora or Ubuntu. That's a constant for me. I'm eagerly waiting for an eOS release to address at least some, if not all of these shortcomings soon...
Version: 7.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2024-03-03 Votes: 2
This is an impressive operating system. It is stable and predictable. The desktop environment is one of the best out there. Why I rate 9 instead of 10:
1. The App Store should include common Linux applications. If not, there should be a second "software center" to find more apps. However, the need for a terminal is more than just a window manager...
2. Disk is missing. Many desktop applications use the system tray to provide easily accessible menus for background services.
3. Lack of desktop. Come on guys, I know you can do better than an image preview as a desktop!!!!! Many desktop environments like MacOS or Deepin even organize automatically your desktop icons.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 3 Date: 2024-02-14 Votes: 3
Nvidia is still busted. Will not install at all despite acting as if it does. Trying alternate methods can cause you serious issues. No other Ubuntu base has this problem. Store is incredibly buggy. Suspend is hit and miss. Calendar claims to connect to "accounts" but only shows two rare known services. No Google, Outlook, or Proton Calendar. Seems way too much focus on looks and not function. I'm not a dev or I would be happy to help fix these issues. I did pay for the download so I feel I have a right to complain.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 7 Date: 2024-01-30 Votes: 10
I had been a Windows user for 15 years. In 2018, I switched to Elementary OS and never looked back.
First off, what do I LOVE about the distro?
1.Files app. It's so awesome to create web-browser-like tabs and transfer files and folders between those tabs. Having as many different tabs as you'd like and going back and forth between them.
2.MULTITASKING. With a literal press of a button or a swipe on a touchpad, you create new workspaces, transfer applications between said workspaces, go back and forth between active apps and workspaces, or see all the apps open at the moment and choose the window you want to go to. Again, all of that with the press of a button or a swipe on a touchpad.
Too bad that the project is drawing dead. Updates are too slow (even by FOSS standarts). A key founder left the team, and the company is loosing money as we speak. And there’s one key concept that devs refuse to understand:
1.Most people who don’t know how computers work want a GUI for everything. They want to click icons with their mouse. For them, if a function in your app has no icon to click on, that function doesn’t exist.
2.Most people are never going to use Terminal.
There are a lot of must-have utilities that should be preinstalled by default but aren’t:
Eddy (GUI.deb file installer)
Monitor (Task Manager from Windows)
Mixer (a Windows-like sound panel to control multiple sources of sound separately)
AppEditor (GUI editor for the Applications menu)
Desktopius (put files and folders on your desktop)
wingpanel-indicator-ayatana (System Tray-like icons from Windows for apps that run in the background)
Warehouse (GUI Flatpak manager)
Synaptic or Apper (GUI package manager)
AppCenter...
1.Is completely unreliable (buggy, unstable, fails to fetch updates, fails to see installed apps and/or drivers).
2. Updating Nvidia drivers with it results in having conflicting packages. AppCenter doesn’t actually delete your Nvidia drivers; it puts one on top of the other. You are forced to use Terminal if you want your drivers to work.
3. It has no packages to begin with because, in OS 6, support for both Ubuntu and Flatpak repositories was removed from the utility. You can still install everything manually in the Terminal, but no Lunux noob is going to do that. Your average user is going to enter AppCenter, see that there are no apps, and bail.
If you love Mac OS looks and functionality and you know how to use Linux (or are willing to learn), Elementary OS looks like the best distro out there. It’s beautiful and cohesive. It’s fast and capable. It gives you what you want out of it. It saves you time.
But nowadays, I would suggest using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with GNOME 45. It’s better in almost every way, has actual support from the devs, has an Elementary OS founder working for them (GNOME), and is not going to die.
And if you like Windows and/or want to have a great experience out of the box, or to do things only by clicking things with a mouse... Try Linux Mint Cinnamon. Or OpenSUSE with KDE Plasma.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-12-03 Votes: 3
Here's my review: Pretty. Simple.
To elaborate a little, this is a very pleasant and beautiful OS with a unique ("Pantheon") interface. It looks Mac-like and has similar usability. But for some, it's too simple. Just add apps, you say? The app store is slow, buggy, and may need restarting to work at all. That's the most half-baked part of this distro.
In any case, it's worth a try. If I was setting up something for an aging relative this might be it. But I've also used it myself for months at a time and enjoyed the experience.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-11-14 Votes: 9
I've been using the eos since the introduction of Freya and didn't have any problem switching to 7.1, but I also skipped the 6* after trying it as I didn't like that changes wrt to Freya already in the 5-th one, so it was kind of easy to change to 7.1 for me personally and the interface was like nothing changed. I don't use most of the native tools like calender of music and use the CLI for the most of my tasks, that is why I like the philosophy of asceticism of the eos and don't need to spend much time to get rid of the bloatware which I would do in other distros. On my HP laptops it works well, except for minor problems with the Realtek WiFi and the toughpads of the newest hardware. Realtek is known to be Linux unfriendly, although in the last updates that problem has already been fixed. Still I give 8 for initial problems and broken dependencies right after the installation. But one needs to say that many of those problems descend to the native distro of Ubuntu and to the version of the kernel specifically, so I had to patch. I also don't like that the semitransparency of the terminal which was nice and useful was abandoned and that you can't paste commands into the command line.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 6 Date: 2023-11-07 Votes: 1
I tried so hard to use it - it's a great concept, cohesive and beautiful; but unfortunately it's too buggy, and the team has very little resources to tackle the issues. I've tried every release so far on a Dell laptop.
Issues
- When you resume from suspend, the unlocked desktop appears for a second. This is a long-standing lightdm-greeter issue that affected multiple DEs like Xfce and MATE. It's at least a decade old, or older.
- Email and calendar apps don't yet support Google Sign In, or Microsoft Account.
- Overall, apps crash often, screen flickers and so on. Interactions don't feel so responsive, and animations are a little slow.
If only they had the resources and commercial support GNOME has...
I'll give it another try in the future, after the wayland transition. I always do.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-10-12 Votes: 3
Takes forever to start, six times longer than windows.
They still arrogantly refer to Flatpak as sideloading to their system, and its not populated by default.
Could have provided an empty catalogue that could then be populated as soon as the AppCenter connected to the internet. No just their paid apps, no one elses.
It claimed there were updates (Chime ...) but never showed them, just kept "Checking for Updates" over and over again.
In the end I had to resort to using the terminal to force it to update. (As one does)
I think that 5.1 was as good as it ever got then went down hill and never recovered.
It's a shame because I like the interface.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-10-07 Votes: 21
If I had to summarize Elementary OS in one sentence, I'd describe it as an unusable version of Mac OS High Sierra. By today's standards, this distro looks like an outdated version of Mac OS from 2016. Furthermore, Elementary OS is unusable out of the box. The web browser is extremely slow, the software center has no apps, and the app updates constantly fail to finish. This is easily the buggiest Ubuntu distro I've ever used.
If you're looking for a Mac OS clone distro, you'll be much better off using the Whitesur GTK theme in Ubuntu Budgie. You'll have a more stable and modern looking Mac OS clone experience than Elementary OS.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-10-06 Votes: 11
Totally outdated. And if you want to update it, it breaks and is totally broken and useless, and leaving it as it is is useless. Not recommended to install
- Outdated
- Totally broken and useless
- Leaving it as it is is useless
- Not recommended to install
- It has no plus points other than it's "pretty" everything else is garbage.
- I would put more things against it because it has everything against it and nothing for it.
- You can't have a distro so outdated and so broken.
- Maybe they can improve in the future, for now I doubt it with the amount of competition out there is to try it, delete it and install a distro that is worth it.
Version: 7.1 Rating: 4 Date: 2023-10-06 Votes: 3
There are a few minor improvements in the 7.1 release. First and foremost, updates no longer get stuck on the "waiting for headers" message. This problem used to drive me crazy in the 7.0 release. Additionally, updating flatpaks and runtimes in the appcenter no longer results in error messages (based on my experience). Finally, the installer now allows users to include proprietary drivers with their installation. In theory, this should make installing NVIDIA drivers easier, right?
Unfortunately, installing NVIDIA drivers is still an unpleasant experience in Elementary OS. Even after selecting the checkbox for proprietary drivers, this distro failed to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver for my graphics card. To make matters worse, when I tried to install the NVIDIA 535 driver through the appcenter, it resulted in repeated installation failures. Therefore, I still cannot recommend Elementary OS for NVIDIA users.
My previous criticisms of Elementary OS 7.0 also applies to version 7.1 as well. Users still have to manually sideload flatpaks into the app center, which is far from beginner friendly. The default web browser, Gnome Web, is still unusable for most people due to its slow performance and lack of extensions. Also, Elementary OS lacks a package installer by default, meaning that new users won't be able to install deb files from the web, such as Google Chrome or Steam.
In conclusion, Elementary OS is a distro I cannot recommend. While some of the annoying bugs from the previous release have been fixed in the latest version, the NVIDIA driver issue is a deal-breaker for me.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-09-01 Votes: 11
Flatpaks are interwoven in the the operating system itself. So you're stuck with them whether you like it or not. Start removing things and you'll most certainly run into troubles.
I can mostly see the bigger picture they are going for but it's far from where it needs to be. Out of the box, there's a few inconsistencies. Such as single click for some stuff, double click for other. The system wide dark theme setting also does not work
Updates are very slow to install both via the app center and terminal.
A few must haves are elementary OS tweaks, synaptic and a real web browser to replace the stock one.
It's going to take some effort to normalize things. That is if you have the patience.
This is not something I would recommend for serious users. Or as a daily driver. Or for anything really.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-08-08 Votes: 8
Not the worst of bad distributions but definitely bad.
Post Loki, elementaryOS has been in a continuous downward spiral. If you like Pantheon, you can have it on other distributions. You can even replicate it in GNOME (if you're into GNOME that is).
The amount of bugs, performance issues and overall experience feels like an experiment that's gotten out of hand.
Loki was great at the time. But these days eOS is just too far far behind the pack. Not certain what it's purpose is anymore. Certainly not for production or everyday use.
It's really too bad.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-08-06 Votes: 1
Elementary OS is actually one of my favorite distributions. I have installed it on a 2012 Macbook Air and it works great, right out of the box, even the wifi.
What I particularly like about it is the general operation. The multi-finger gestures on the trackpad work grea, specially the swapping between the Workspaces.
I did find that a couple of the Flatpak applications that I needed didn't work well, so I removed them, installed Snapd and installed the Snap version of the applications I needed (Nextcloud, Mailspring) and they have been working great every since.
One thing that I don't like is the lack of System Tray. I like to have Nextcloud Desktop running in the System Tray so that I can see if the Nextcloud sync has completed successfully.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-08-02 Votes: 0
Me encanta, muy estable y muy chula estéticamente.
Tiene muchos puntos a favor, no he notado malestar a la hora de utilizarlo o problemas que bajen la buena experiencia obtenida.
Mis aplausos para el equipo de Elementary OS.
Un saludo.
10/10
----------
I love it, very stable and very cool aesthetically.
It has many points in favor, I have not noticed discomfort when using it or problems that lower the good experience obtained.
My rounds of applause for the Elementary OS team.
All the best.
10/10
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-08-02 Votes: 1
Elementary has never been a good choice for a desktop OS. It's pretty but functionally useless.
The most horrible file manager imaginable. One of the most important pieces of software on a PC and Elementary completely screws it up. App center is hit or miss if it will work. Very poor performance. Unstable. A nightmare to customize. problematic networking issues and doesn't work well at all with VPN's. Just no longer worth the download. It is a complete waste of time. The developers have absolutely 0 interest in making it better or listening to users feedback.
Very restrictive, very quirky. Weird bugs here and there. Not a huge fan of the App Center at all, which isn't a deal breaker for me since I've been using Linux long enough to know what I use and have all of the installs scripted from the command line, but it's still nice to go in and poke around to find new things every once in a while. There are enough issues with this distro to the point where it's not worth messing with anymore just to get it working as well as something like Mint does out of the box, so it's not for me.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-07-29 Votes: 1
* Worked out of the box (If you have nvidia graphics and are fine with nouveau).
* A pretty good looking distro with soothing colors that you might prefer light theme instead of dark one.
* Installation was smooth, nothing broke or froze.
* I have not checked the fonts on the system but I love it.
* For nvidia drivers, just installed it from store and everything working smoothly.
* Keyboard shortcuts are very easy to remember. I use it for development and gaming.
I wish the project all the best, it would be a shame to lose this distro. A rating of 9/10, removed 1 because I have to side load the first flatpak, after that I could see all flatpak apps in App Center.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 2 Date: 2023-07-22 Votes: 1
I am disappointed with the current version of Elementary. Spent 4 hrs. running in circles. The flatpak didn't install right (side loader didn't work). Updates stalled...took a long time. What is offered free is not what I wanted. It looks pretty but that isn't the most important part of a linux os. I see others had similar views of Elementary. It is going downhill unnecessarily. Perhaps later, I will give it another shot, but not today. I deleted it off the drive I had installed it on with sadness.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 2 Date: 2023-07-21 Votes: 5
Probably the painful experience I've had with a Linux distro. As an out-of-the-box distro it was practically unusable.
It looks great and Pantheon is well-made and easy to learn, and the emphasis on keyboard shortcuts is great since I was looking for a distro to install on my laptop, but I gave up trying to use it.
Live USB takes unusually long time to load, and very frequently hangs before it could even load into the desktop environment. Even when I get to the desktop environment the installer and greeter would randomly freeze and buttons randomly stop being responsive.
I had trouble getting custom install to work as the installer just stops working, and I only found out that there was a mistake partitioning the drive and I only found that out because I tried installing Debian instead and received an error there.
After I managed to find out the correct partition size and install the OS, I log into the live environment, only to find out that none of the softwares launch properly and the login menu stuck on the screen. Couldn't even install .deb packages for some reason. After that, it just gets stuck at the boot logo and straight up wont even reach the login screen.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-07-12 Votes: 2
This system is the opposite of the idea of linux. Paid applications, choosing colors for folders instead of decent utility programs, and many other unnecessary features. System updates work like windows. In general, this system should be forgotten by Linux users. Neither mac os nor windows nor tm more linux. I advise against this system to everyone. This system is an anti-advertisement for the open source movement. This system is a paywall. It doesn't even deserve 1/10. Less than zero is, in my opinion, the only correct rating for this distro.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 4 Date: 2023-06-09 Votes: 8
Elementary OS is essentially a walled-garden operating system like Apple without any useful apps included. Beginners will find this distro frustrating to use since the AppCenter only contains a small number of curated apps; this distro by default doesn’t even include an office-suite or an alternative web-browser that isn’t gnome web (which is one of the worst web browsers I’ve ever used). Users are required to manually sideload Flatpaks into the AppCenter in order to have access to any useful applications at all. Manually side-loading Flatpaks is a poor design choice and it only adds more hoops that a new user needs to jump through.
Elementary OS does have a few positives. It is the most visually appealing Linux distro that I’ve ever used. I also found the Pantheon desktop environment to be very intuitive with the easy-to-learn keyboard shortcuts and the multi-touch gestures for window management. If I didn’t mind spending the extra time configuring additional software and repositories, then I wouldn’t mind using this distro as my daily driver.
However, as others pointed out, NVIDIA drivers do not cooperate well with Elementary. Installing the NVIDIA 515 driver completely borked my desktop environment, resulting in my computer booting into a command line. This is an issue that I haven’t experienced with other Ubuntu-based distros on my System76 laptop.
In summary, I’d avoid Elementary OS if you’re a Linux beginner or a user with an NVIDIA graphics card. I’d only recommend Elementary OS if you love the Mac OS aesthetic of the desktop and you don’t mind spending the extra time configuring additional software/repositories on a fresh install.
Recommended alternatives:
1. Ubuntu Mate with the Pantheon desktop layout
2. Ubuntu Budgie
Version: 7.0 Rating: 7 Date: 2023-06-04 Votes: 2
Been using ElementaryOS for a few months now. It's not an out of the box experience as it once was but the foundation is still there and if you enjoy tweaking linux systems via setting up bash scripts and tinkering with system files etc, every distro would feel roughly the same really. After some tweaks, I've been happy enough to rely on it as a daily driver for my projects but probably wouldn't recommend it to beginner users or people wanting an OS ready for work out of the box.
I do hope Elementary can gradually pick itself back up again as I feel the passion is still there for this project and the community is still active.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-05-30 Votes: 5
Are you into straight jackets? Then this distribution is for you!
Not only is it restrictive, it will drive you crazy attempting to use it.
Reality check, if you're expecting a MacOS experience this is very far off from that.
Out of the box it is very odd and quirky... but not in a good way. I feel like I need to be an entomologist to deal with all the bugs that come with elementary OS.
Stock apps kinda/sorta work? With as basic as they are I was anticipating rock solid stability. o_O
App Center for me was pretty useless. Crashed a few times. Froze when running updates. CLI was a better experience but was extremely slow.
WiFi was intermittent (full bars to half bars to disconnect and repeat). Basic navigation and animations had a lot of stuttering. and was not smooth.
Overall I just don't get it. There are so many issues with this distribution out of the box. I'm a, install and use it right away, person. elementary OS does not provide that for me.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 2 Date: 2023-05-30 Votes: 1
Not going to lie I was drawn in by the screenshot. Every couple years I search around trying to find a new distro to love and I saw this on a YouTube video so I thought I'd give it a go. Very restrictive, very quirky. Weird bugs here and there. Not a huge fan of the App Center at all, which isn't a deal breaker for me since I've been using Linux long enough to know what I use and have all of the installs scripted from the command line, but it's still nice to go in and poke around to find new things every once in a while. There are enough issues with this distro to the point where it's not worth messing with anymore just to get it working as well as something like Mint does out of the box, so it's not for me. I'm all about tinkering and exploring to get something to work for fun, but not on a production machine when I just need something that's solid and works so I can get things done. Full pass.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-05-11 Votes: 1
Installed on an Imac13.1, late 2012 and it works perfectly. Current distros such as Ubuntu 23.04 and Fedora 38 with 6.2 kernels have regressions. In these, screen brightness controls do not work on the Imac in question. Therefore, it must have its value recognized.
Strengths: Simplicity, works out of the box, light, safe and stable, ubuntu 22.04 base, excellent driver support, very suitable distro for older machines.
OBS.: Installation of nvidia video driver and broadcom wi-fi are installed by the distro in a friendly way.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-05-04 Votes: 2
Been using 6.1 since it was first announced, on hardware that was so advanced at the time that I had to manually backport drivers.
Still my best option for a polished distro that gets out of my way and lets me get work done. I honestly don't understand what others are complaining about. Granted, I don't do discrete graphics and I'm not a gamer. I use the computer for work, research and also to play movies and TV shows. That's it. I haven't found any quirks that stand out above and beyond other distros. Just different quirks, is all. It is speedy and responsive, the design is excellent, and the roadmap is worthy of long term commitment. I love its seamless integration of Flatpak (not sure what others are complaining about there). No issues with hardware compatibility bc I a. use linux-compatible hardware and support hardware mfrs who support open source driver development and b. look before I leap.
I get the sense that people who complain about eOS are used to using their computers as toys that they play with and tweak incessantly, or expect everything to work just because it does on a parent distro. admittedly, elementary OS doesn't do well with 3rd party tweaks. It's a fairly "rigid" system in that respect. Which is fine for me, because I hate doing that anyway. I install the OS, install my apps, configure a few settings, and go on my merry way. Also, the OS is in a strange divergent space where it has evolved pretty far beyond being merely an Ubuntu derivative, just as (though not quite as much as) Ubuntu has evolved beyond merely being a Debian derivative. There's going to be a little awkwardness there, but it hasn't been anything I couldn't work with as of yet.
I may change my mind when I start to use the computer for music production work. We shall see, there. But I'm about to upgrade to 7.0. We'll see what that offers. I never upgrade immediately, but wait several months for others to work out the kinks for me. Those who upgrade immediately and complain about bugs...well, that's on you, bud. You volunteered for the public beta (which is what every first round public release is, everywhere...it is completely unrealistic to expect that devs work out all the bugs without releasing a version or two into the wild).
The main area where I believe elementary OS falls flat is that community support is lacking for how to do anything that is elementary OS specific (vs something that I can accomplish by searching for Ubuntu). These are niche cases and fairly rare, but they do exist.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 3 Date: 2023-04-20 Votes: 5
After spending about three weeks with elementary o.s. 7, I am afraid it's another release with a show stopping bug. I am not going to beat the proverbial dead horse here. I made the decision to embrace the e o.s. way of doing things so I'm not going to list the usual stuff most complain about. Instead, I will list a few things I have noticed that make this release and the project questionable.
First and most important is... Nvidia is completely busted on this distro. It will not install at all through the app center. It says it does but when you reboot you will find it hasn't. If you try alternate methods like via the terminal or synaptic. you will end up with a borked system. Why? This time it's not Nvidia's fault when every other Debian and Ubuntu based distro it installs and works fine. This is specific to elementary o.s. which brings me to the second. Bug reporting. Say I wanted to file a bug about this. I found that the bug reporting is their GitHub. I was asked to make a GitHub account. Just to file a bug? I'm not a dev. I'm a user that really just want's to file a bug and hope it gets fixed. That brings me to the third point. Where is the forum and community? I found their Reddit page. Which is fine but does the developer of the distro still check there. I used to see the name pop up in threads answering some of the users questions. That was quite a long time ago. Also, the reddit is nearly like a ghost town. As polarizing as e o.s. is, you would think there would be much more activity. I could only find one other forum where many questions go unanswered. Maybe it's just me and I have been in Debian too long where things are logical. The community forums are where problems are solved. If the forums are slow or dead where does one go get answers? There is also not much if any documentation either. One final thing and this plagues many distros is reliance on Flatpaks. I like flatpaks just fine. However, I noticed that on e o.s. that about every two days I would get prompted to install anywhere from 1 to 2 GB of flatpak updates. At that rate it's not going to be long before your hard drive fills up. Maybe e o.s. should reconsider shipping a store with debs and flatpaks, letting the user choose like Linux Mint does. Just a thought, and with that the journey ends.
I gave three stars because I find Pantheon a nice D.E. It might be more advantageous for the elementary project to do something similar to what Budgie is now and just make a good Desktop Environment for other distros to ship. That way we can have the best of both worlds and maybe less bugs. That's just my opinion though. Thanks for reading.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-04-13 Votes: 7
I'm very curious as to how many people actually use this as a daily driver. Meaning this is exclusively the distribution they use for production, gaming and/or just general use. Cause for the life of me I have a hard time imagining this is a thing.
elementary OS seems to be more of something people dabble in out of shear curiosity or are just looking for a challenge.
The out of the box experience, for me, was a myriad of emotion. Confusion and frustration washed over me pretty quickly. Sadness and denial popped in at one point as well.
How can something with so many issues be considered as a stable release? Luckily I don't have an nVidia GPU. So I can't blame it on that. Bundled apps are very inconsistent with stability. App Center by far was the worst. Dark mode was not respected system wide.
This is not something I would use for anything. Nor would I trust it lasting for the foreseeable future. It just doesn't have the force or backing to drive it successfully. While I do admire its attempt to be different, I don't with its execution.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-04-03 Votes: 10
I don't mean to laugh but this distribution is quite funny. Got it installed and it couldn't even get my local time correct.
After a few minutes of simply looking around, it stuttered then froze. Had to hard reboot.
Tried to surf the Internet with the stock browser. It was sooooo slow. Page would start to load, then stop, load a little more then stop. Reminded me of the old dial-up days. Turned out to be an issue with the wireless. I attempted to resolve the issue but I could only get connected solid by plugging into Ethernet.
OK so... seems to be in the reviews very bad experiences with the App Center. This too was my experience. Using the App Center GUI was really bad. It would stall, freeze and just seem to freak out. Running updates through the CLI was better but still very slow.
If you absolutely have to use Pantheon DE, there ARE other distributions that offer it up as an option. I suspect you'll have a much better experience using an alternative.
I have to be honest, I really didn't like this. The default setup is very odd. Pantheon tweaks helps but not enough for me to keep using this. The bundled apps too are very odd. Super generic and flaky. Just not good. You also have to manually kick of Flathub software. It does not come per-configured.
Nope sorry not a fan.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 5 Date: 2023-04-03 Votes: 1
As someone who has used quite a few distros lately trying to find one that meets my current goals. I can say without a shadow of a doubt this one was my worst experience.
With the Nvidia drivers that it gave by default my screen had a green tint, this is probably not entirely their fault as I have seen this behavior in Ubuntu before. But once you install the correct Nvidia drivers to correct this issue NETWORKING stops working.
It did this twice, the first time I thought I may have done something stupid and reinstalled the OS to try again and it did it again.
I know there are things to like about this distro but I feel they need to put some more work out especially for Nvidia drivers. I have had no real issues with any other distro.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 3 Date: 2023-03-08 Votes: 29
I'm probing elementaryOS 7 since a couple of weeks. I came across due to the release announcement on distrowatch.com.
For downloading the ISO, the developer team asks for a donation. While it seems at the beginning, it cannot be downloaded without a donation, putting 0 (zero) amount allows to download it for free.
I was willing to give a donation to support the development, but wanted to try it before. Which turned out as a wise decision.
Pro's:
- Very beautiful and intiutive Pantheon desktop environment.
- Smooth installation process.
- Lean initial setup with small number of pre-installed applications.
Con's:
- Many pre-installed applications are buggy:
- AppCenter crashes when trying to click a specific category, e.g. "Office".
- Video player plays video sound, but doesn't show the picture.
- Mail doesn't work at all. Crashes with every second click. I needed to replace this with Geary.
- Some strange default settings, e.g. mouse middle click (to paste in the terminal) is disabled.
- While the desktop environment is nice as mentioned above, the window manager misses some controls, e.g. to minimize a window. Right-click on the window title and select 'Hide' or press Cmd+H keys will do the job. That's cumbersome. And there is no option to configure this.
- Most of the system updates running via AppCenter require a restart. Why? It's not Windows.
- A few basic tools are missing in the initial setup, e.g. system monitor.
Conclusion:
It was worth to try it, but for many daily tasks it's not suitable because of the mentioned con's.
I see a lot of potential for the development, and I hope upcoming releases will improve. I'll keep monitoring this.
I will return to Mint.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-27 Votes: 10
Sorry but this is a garbage operating system. Way too many issues ranging from hardware to software.
They have made zero improvements in the nVidia realm. Screen tearing galore. WiFi issues have plagued this distribution for years for whatever reason and continue to be on issue. Same goes with Bluetooth.
Pile this on top of an already troubled, stuttery user interface and buggy, lackluster default applications. There is just no way to take this seriously. App Store kinda sorta works when it wants. And if you're lucky enough to not take your system down you're met with very limited software.
For beginners this is not. Be honest here... the out of the box experience is trash. You're going to have to spend some time to get it to a place of usability, functionality and if you're lucky, stability. Just too much work required for this one.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-02-24 Votes: 1
Elementary OS has some ups and downs, but mostly I find myself enjoying the default experience and I'll probably stick with it for quite some time.
The "AppCenter" is a flatpak "app store" style application that has a decent variety of software designed specifically to fit the design they're going for in elementary, and there's usually at least 1 of each type of application you could want readily available. Since these are flatpaks you can go to the flathub website and download a flatpak from there, which will cause AppCenter to begin to show the full Flathub library on top of its own library. I found this to be kind of necessary when all was said and done, since popular applications like Firefox, Steam, Discord (yuck) aren't available anywhere in the default AppCenter library. I understand why they have only a limited selection of applications, as it provides a more curated experience, but I can't say I'm a huge fan of the decision not to provide something as simple as Firefox (it it was a decision, at all). I have been using some of their own AppCenter programs as an alternative to the ones I'm used to and they have worked very well and looked very nice for the most part, so I'm pretty happy with a lot of the software they do provide, regardless. If required, you can also install software through apt on the command line since behind the scenes it's based on Ubuntu, but if you're here, you're probably wanting something a little less reliant on using the command line to begin with.
The Pantheon desktop environment looks, feels, and sounds really nice. Touchpad gestures feel great and the animations are nice and smooth on my 2017 gaming laptop. I've had no issues with hardware support, either. The choice to have the Close button on the left and the Maximize button on the right and Minimise button to be just clicking the application icon on the dock took a little getting used to, and I think it could be a tripping up point for some people, but it's not really an objectively bad decision when it comes down to it, and if you really hate it you can install "Pantheon Tweaks" to add a new set of options to the System Settings application that can change it to Mac style, Windows style, whatever you need.
There are, however, some features completely missing from the Settings application that I hope are implemented in a future edition of elementary. The VPN settings only offers OpenVPN as an option, so configuring Wireguard or some other type of VPN directly in the settings application is out. Also missing is Bluetooth PAN connection settings, so while you can access the menu for regular old Bluetooth pairing, connecting to and disconnecting from a Bluetooth network is not an option in the settings app. Thankfully, because elementary is using Network Manager in the background, you can still configure or activate these networking options on the command line or with nmtui if you prefer (slightly more) graphical ways to do it. There are issues for both of these missing features already on their Github repository, but time will only tell if these are implemented in time for the next version.
All-in-all, despite some trip ups that require usage of the command line (it is Linux, after all), elementary is a distribution that feels like the small team of developers really care about providing something outside of the status quo. Pantheon being developed right alongside the distribution makes things feel tight and clean in a way that many distributions don't achieve.
There's a vision here, and despite some clouds, the developers are well on their way to realising it.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 7 Date: 2023-02-19 Votes: 0
Two elementary OS installs yesterday.....one on a newish HP laptop and one on a no name Mini-PC.
PLUS: both installs ran to completion and rebooted into the desktop.
MINUS: All of these minuses are relatively minor.....but in my opinion none of these minuses should have occurred:
(1) The update pacifier would run forever, then stop. When the pacifier stopped the progress bar (embedded in the Cancel button) also stopped. My next step was to reboot. This performance occurred multiple times. I'm still not certain that all the updates have been implemented.
(2) Firefox NEVER turned up in the "Internet" category of available applications. Really? I fixed this in a VERY inappropriate way:
$ sudo apt-get install firefox
(3) A little research at this point revealed that Snap and/or Flatpak might have been more appropriate. So I'm now confused: how are packages supposed to be managed in version 7???
At the end of all this, both machines got updated and configured. But it appears that elementary OS v7 provided LESS functionality than v6. It appears that v7 needs MUCH more terminal fiddling (apt-get etc) than version 6 ever needed. Is this progress?
Version: 7.0 Rating: 8 Date: 2023-02-09 Votes: 1
Elementary OS 6 had many small problems but it seems the devs are back on track with version 7. Finally I can upgrade my 5.1 - which I'm using on a daily basis with flatpak apps because underlying Ubuntu 18.04 LTS repos are outdated.
Well technically it's gonna be a clean install because there's no upgrade functionality... The installer introduced in version 6 isn't perfect yet - the user can't skip the installation of a grub bootloader for example - but some quirks are already addressed, like the ability to choose an existing encrypted volume as a the destination.
The Pantheon is the best desktop out there - if you like it, you'll easily tweak the rest of the system to your needs. I recommend adding flathub.org as the source of apps. Ubuntu repos are available through apt.
And you can download it for free by putting 0 in the pay what you can box - I don't get the previous negative review. Nevertheless it's a distro worth supporting.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-09 Votes: 1
The pictures and visuals of a free MacOS look alike draws its unsuspecting victims in (me being one of them). It was very clear once installed this is something I would never use or recommend in a million years to anybody.
Frustrating is the most PG rated thing I can say.
Close button on the left side of the window bar, minimize on the right? So... I can't have them both on the same side? Trying to understand the logic behind that one. The single click for some things and double click for another? Some programs respect dark mode and others don't? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the user interface.
Weird, uncomfortable and unnatural interface aside, I seemed to keep running into problems. App Store crashed my system or rather it froze. Same thing I guess. The performance seemed jenky (animation stuttering). My understanding was there was access to a ton of software. Seemed pretty limited to me.
I am new to Linux and go between Windows for work and MacOS for play. I got laptop from a friend and thought this would be a good opportunity to explore a whole new world. I saw elementary OS on YouTube once a long time ago which got me curious. Once installed the WiFi didn't work so I plugged in an old USB 2.4GHz WiFi adapter I found in my desk drawer.
Basically, the overall impression of the OS is just bad, bad and bad... I told someone and work about this and they directed me to Kubuntu to start off. It's very cool!
Anyway... as the old saying goes, don't judge an OS by its cover. Maybe this works for someone but just not for me.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-06 Votes: 1
Cannot even test the new version because the "trick" of paying 0 in order to download the image doesn't seem to be working at all and instead I'm getting transferred to the site that asks for $20 ISO purchase. I don't think there's any other distro that "offers" their image in such way.
Definitely a shady tactic for me but hey, it always been like that in elementary - the constant attempt to condition people that software is only available as paid goods and there no other options unless you look very closely.
I always liked the UI they made (heavily "inspired" by macOS) but rest and above stuff - not so much.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 9 Date: 2023-02-05 Votes: 0
The distro is not perfect, but with a little knowledge of Linux you can adapt everything to your needs. The Pantheon desktop is well done. Since I'm using this version for the first time, I can't say much about the predecessors. But the best distro for a 13.3 inch monitor. Great scalability. However, the hard disk partitioning is a bit strange (to pack everything in LVM) Due to the post-installations, it is not very suitable for beginners. Great for my needs though.
I wish the project all the best, it would be a shame to lose this distro.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-02 Votes: 8
elementaryOS 7.0 is horusable...The very name of this distribution, elementary, seems to contradict itself.
This is not a good replacement for Windows or MacOS. This is abundantly clear when you actually start using it. This is not for beginners which is also abundantly clear when you start using it.
In typical elementary OS fashion the tradition of being frustrating continues.
Split window close / maximize buttons with no minimize, basic/buggy stock applications and an App Center that semi works when it doesn’t decide to lock up your system instead.
Hardware continues to be an issue. Other distributions work on my same laptop but elementary struggles with wireless, bluetooth and nVidia I don’t even try anymore.
Perhaps my expectations where too high. But this is the same old elementary OS plain and simple.
PROS
-Nice Wallpaper
-Pantheon-tweaks works in 7.0
-Easy to replace with a distribution of your choice.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 11
elementary OS 7.0
Installed just fine so no issues there.
The welcome / setup window was interesting. Not really sure how I feel about it to be honest. I get the idea but the execution feels off.
System icons appear to have gotten a slight refreshment.
Right out the gate there was 18 updates. Opened up the App Center to perform the update and it froze... Had to do a full on hard restart holding down the power button. Second time, déjà vu... another freeze, crash.
Third boot I tried to update via the command line and it stalled out. So I decided to skip the update for now. At least it didn't take my whole machine down that way.
Failed updates aside, elementary OS is still restrictive with shoddy performance. My wireless connection was intermittent. I tried looking at power management settings but wasn't able to resolve the issue. For the sake of stability I plugged directly into my switch.
Default apps are semi hit and miss with quality. I replaced them all with known usable alternatives.
I'm really unclear as to what their mission is here. It feels and performs the same as 6.1 which is an unsavory experience.
Would not recommend for beginners and something to use for production work or just normal day to day use. But if you like a challenge and like to play around with things, hey, enjoy!
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 2
NOT recommended for use. However, this distribution suffers from problems. The standard applications presented contain errors and problems periodically arise. The app store is even more so with periodic freezes and complete failure. As already mentioned, there are problems with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well. nVidia GPU is prone to screen breaks and interface stuttering. Leaving the standard interface, navigation and the location of window buttons (close, max and without min) is just weird. The dark mode is not observed throughout the system... mainly due to the Flatpack and Snap packages. Security issues due to heavy usage and dependence on Flatpack and Snap packages. The repository basically does not exist, and the Flatpack and Snap packages are used to fill it.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 10
unfortunately, elementary OS has a lot of problems. The distribution is developing very slowly, it is quite overloaded and there are many flaws, such as, for example, the inability to update from release to release. In general, as always, the idea is good and the design has been well done, but unfortunately the insufficient number of developers and money affects the quality. Would not recommend for something to use for production work or just normal day to day use.
But unfortunately the distribution is developing very slowly and there are too many bugs in it. Outwardly, it looks very good and beautiful, but it is difficult to use this as the main system, because there are a lot of bugs, outdated software.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 0
Elementary OS has been around for 10 years, and, unfortunately, with each new version, things only get worse. Very poor work and worse and worse with each release. This has always surprised me - they create some kind of unnecessary thing that no one uses. And for beginners this is a terrible start as the window layout and overall navigation is very disorienting. The theme has a dated and soft faded look. Not all apps follow the system theme. If you're looking for a Mac like experience, this is not it. The app store has some issues. Performance has some issues. Need to install on hardware that has some backbone. Very disappointing.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 3 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 0
This doesn't feel like Linux but more of an awkward version of macOS. It tries to be it's own operating system. It's too dumbed down and limited for my taste.
I didn't notice any immediate performance or stability issues though.
If you wan't to learn Linux I don't think this distribution is the right choice.
Also, being based on Ubuntu it uses systemd.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 1
Best version of elementary os .What I like about elementaryOS is that you get a feeling of tight integration and cohesive applications and the system. It seems like they put lots of efforts into making it work by paying attentions to details. Thanks elementary team,keep going.
for beginners to make it easy just.sudo apt install(firefox,libreoffice,........)sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras,sudo apt install nvidia-driver-525 ((all from terminal)).do not recommend using default app for beginners.
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-02-01 Votes: 1
elementary 7 is quite possibly the worst distro release / update I've ever seen.
-Alarmingly and immediately out of date software for a "new release"
-The most kernel and systemd related journalctl errors I've ever seen on a clean linux distro installation
-Unstable/unpredictable future/management- literally posting "we can die any day guys sorry there's drama going on" type updates. Why would one install an operating system in which the bus factor is hanging by a loose thread constantly toting being on the verge of death? The opposite of assuring or professional or trustworthy
-Even slower boot time and worse performance than previous versions, somehow
-Nothing in the App Store installs. Everything gives me dependency errors even when I'm fully updated and rebooted on a system that hasn't even installed any additional packages yet. Their centerpiece feature doesn't even work, I need to use Synaptic or apt via terminal
-The UI has been the same since the conception of Pantheon and despite having similarities to MacOS the aesthetics just are not there, it looks like a knock off mock operating system you see on computer screens in movies by now, and it has no signs of advancing with the times
-Steam doesn't launch (Fatal Error: Failed to load steamui so)
-OBS shows no working sources unless you get xdg desktop portal and flatpak via flathub (which will also require Steam Flathub if you intend on recording games)
-There is no option for Variable Refresh Rate in the display settings menu despite being an xorg distro that is fully capable of it. Yet another purportedly preconfigured desktop distro leaving an important hardware feature in the dark
-Also no option added to disable Mouse Acceleration which comes enabled by default meaning gamers will have to tweak to disable it
-VAAPI disabled
-No Wayland
Version: 7.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-01-31 Votes: 5
This was a very long wait for an operating system that's already out of date.
Additionally, on the surface, there has been little to no improvements. It's still plagued with the many many issues that has been dragging this down for the past few releases.
Hardware is still a problem. WiFi and Bluetooth are a struggle for some reason or another still. And nVidia... forget about it.
I'm really trying to see what the difference is here from 6.1 and I'm just not finding it. Sure, there's back end stuff. But performance and overall experience is STILL and issue.
eOS and MacOS but done very very poorly...
Version: 7.0 Rating: 3 Date: 2023-01-31 Votes: 0
Unfortunately, it's terrible. There is no performance. The visual part has not changed. nVidia does not switch to hybrid graphics mode, at least not out of the box and not in the official documentation. I consider this project to be at the end of its existence, but the work done on it is colossal. It's a pity. Highly.
Pros:
- Flatpack perfectly integrated
- Only the necessary software
Minuses:
- Absolutely unsuitable system for the work of a programmer and tester.
p.s. This is my subjective value judgment and should not be taken as final. You can try to install on vbox and test. And I wish prosperity to the Elementary OS team and change the development vector.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2023-01-14 Votes: 1
It's a dead project at this stage!
Software is doesn't work with anything: Outlook, Gmail, iCloud
Installing software is a nightmare.
The workflow is broken, from the last versions.
I believe the team is no longer working towards one mission, but everyone is working alone, without direction.
Monitor usage is also not working properly. Any new monitor you buy won't work properly.
Kernel is old and it's outdated. Working from Ubuntu LTS version from the previous LTS isn't a good plan either.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-12-29 Votes: 0
elementary OS is nothing short of a hot mess.
Part of the issue is it's so incredibly slow to develop. Financial and company restructuring can't be too much to blame as its been like this for some time. This is one reason I don't use it. Haven't for a long time. But I do check in on it every now and then. Each time I do, it only reinforces I've made the right decision to move on from it.
The integration of Flatpaks into the operating system removes the freedom of choice other than just using another distribution.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-12-22 Votes: 26
elementary OS is nothing short of a hot mess.
Part of the issue is it's so incredibly slow to develop. Financial and company restructuring can't be too much to blame as its been like this for some time. This is one reason I don't use it. Haven't for a long time. But I do check in on it every now and then. Each time I do, it only reinforces I've made the right decision to move on from it.
The integration of Flatpaks into the operating system removes the freedom of choice other than just using another distribution.
Old and dated Ubuntu base.
Old and dated kernel.
Old and dated interface and icon set.
Terrible nVidia support.
Prone to WiFi and Bluetooth issues.
App Center crashes and/or freezing.
Very poor overall performance.
Unstable and not reliable.
Restrictive and unbending.
Even though version 7 is close to release (most likely sometime next year at the rate it's going) it will still be over a year or two behind the more popular and well supported distributions.
With everything negative I have to say about it, I still root for its success.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2022-12-19 Votes: 2
This is one of the prettier distros out there, maybe THE prettiest that I've seen (along with Zorin). And if you're familiar with the look and feel of macOS, Elementary is a particularly familiar environment (though it has a different workflow in many places).
Personally, I tend to remove some of the bespoke software forks and substitute my own favorites, which is certainly easy to do. In general, my main wish for the dev team is for them to pick up the cadence of releases. We know where the rough edges still are. Squash them bugs!
Version: 6.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-12-10 Votes: 0
What I like about elementaryOS is that you get a feeling of tight integration and cohesive applications and the system. It seems like they put lots of efforts into making it work by paying attentions to details.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-10-13 Votes: 1
Elementary OS is a strange Linux Distro, it isn't too beginners friendly but neither is too difficult to adjust too from a Windows / MacOS / Linux user, the Pantheon desktop is simple, elegant and beautiful and with a little tweaks with Pantheon Tweaks it became one of my favourite DE
IMO Elementary is an acquired taste compared to most Linux distros, at least for me everything was strange and didn't like it that much on my backup PC but after a while I ended up liking the system a lot because it is responsive, stable and very easy to develop a workflow after you get used to everything, then it can easily became your daily driver, my biggest gripe so far is that it is too outdated and it's development is very slow but currently OS 7 is apparently coming out soon and honestly I'm excited for it
The OS isn't perfect but it doesn't deserve the low rating or bad rep, IMO Elementary does more things right than wrong and gained another user, I currently daily drive it on my backup PC and no problems so far
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-09-20 Votes: 32
I'll sum elementary OS up in one word. And that word is OUCH!
Much like Zorin OS, Flatpaks are interwoven in the the operating system itself. So you're stuck with them whether you like it or not. Start removing things and you'll most certainly run into troubles.
I can mostly see the bigger picture they are going for but it's far from where it needs to be. Out of the box, there's a few inconsistencies. Such as single click for some stuff, double click for other. The system wide dark theme setting also does not work
Updates are very slow to install both via the app center and terminal.
A few must haves are elementary OS tweaks, synaptic and a real web browser to replace the stock one.
It's going to take some effort to normalize things. That is if you have the patience.
This is not something I would recommend for serious users. Or as a daily driver. Or for anything really.
It will be interesting to see what 7 brings. Hopefully it will break the downward spiral that has been happening with past releases.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-09-16 Votes: 10
To be fair, I used elementary OS exclusively on both my personal machines for just a little over 2 weeks. No customizations, no tweaks, just base install with a couple Flatpak and Snap packages installed from the App Center.
Elementary OS is certainly a unique… well, I’m not really certain what I’d call it. To me, it looks and feels like a shell or overlay for installing Flatpaks and Snap packages.
The interface itself is reminiscent of MacOS. There’s no denying that. But the experience is far from it.
Stock apps and buggy and lack luster. The App Center is very prone to freezing and crashes. Using terminal is a much better way to go… but that doesn’t quite fit the “beginners” category they are trying to portray.
Wireless and Bluetooth is very hit or miss. Works for the most part on my desktop, but my laptop… not so much.
Elementary OS is based off an old Ubuntu LTS distribution. Which from that, I’d expect a great deal of stability.
Unfortunately, this has not been the case for me.
Overall, my experience was very very poor. I would not recommend this for anyone as there are far too many better choices out there in my opinion.
Perhaps one day this will get to the very basics one would expect from an OS. But that certainly isn’t now.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 3 Date: 2022-09-16 Votes: 2
Elementary OS refuses to install on a drive with an EFI partition of 200 MB. It says it's too small.
Since I have other OSes on that drive (OSX, Windows, other Linux distros) and I multiboot between them, I don't fancy reinstalling everything because elementary OS can't deal with a 200 MB EFI partition when every other OS has no problem with it.
It's a shame because that problem didn't exist with older versions (and they had a much more standard installation process, comparable to Ubuntu.
It's another case of breaking something that didn't need fixing, just to be different.
Goodbye elementary OS.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-08-16 Votes: 0
An almost perfect score since I use it every day, the bad thing is that its updates between versions are very slow, that is, it takes about a year and I understand it, possibly because of the few personnel that are developing this distribution and it is because that it takes to get out its version based on the new ubuntu LTS. In a matter of its official site, asking for a salary is fine because any programmer would like to work for free, although in the world of Linux you don't earn much, but you can make important attributions like that of including the picture and picture screen in the system, it seemed great to me now no need to install any extension in the browser I look forward to elementary os 7
stable enough to carry out day-to-day tasks. the interface is beautiful and well polished. looks like mac os. the best alternative to mac os with a feel of linux. however, the app center is a bit falling short of what is expected with only a few useless apps. you have to make a number of tweaks to get the final touch. you have to search the google for confronting issues if there are some. still i recommend elementary all those noobs who wanna give a try to linux. because linux is just love and is awesome.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-07-08 Votes: 0
Nice Distro OS for daily driver Computing, it's so light for my 10th year old laptop with Dual Core Processor with 2 Gb RAM HP Compaq Presario V3700, light too for my midle laptop Lenovo Ideapad Slim V14 with core i3 and 4 Gb RAM or my office laptop for working everyday Dell Latitude 3420 core i3 with 8 Gb RAM.
All I need for my daily driver application it's available on Elemantary OS 5 Hera or Elamantary OS 6.1 Jolnr
Elementary OS is the best and light for All I need on My everyday Computing, work fine, entertain fine, browsing fine too........
Version: 6.1 Rating: 5 Date: 2022-06-28 Votes: 7
elementary OS is a solid distro that is based on Ubuntu. It's Pantheon Desktop is very pleasing to watch and simply looks stunning. However, I believe it is a distro that is 'Over-Engineered' as they spent so much time refining the user interface and thinking literally everything inside. However, the user experience is simply incompetent. The flatpaks must be sideloaded at first, it would confuse both the people who used Linux for a long time and simply would use apt instead while the newcomers do not understand at all. Another con is that many people come to Linux to customised, however, elementary OS would like to follow the path of proprietary Operating Systems and not allowing people to change stuff at all. There are also minor bugs here and there so to be honest, the only thing good about elementary OS is it's looks. Nothing Else.
Recommended to : People who does not like to customise their desktop and people who does not want their system to break.
Not Recommended to : Power Users, Newcomers
Version: 6.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2022-06-26 Votes: 0
For me who is a long time user of Linux for more than 20 years I have found elementary OS to be a breath of fresh air. I'm in love with the gorgeous desktop pantheon and what excites me the most is the integrated apps like notes and tasks.
The use of flatpaks is definitely a good move but I would like to see the debian or core Ubuntu apps in the already nice looking app centre.
I am certainly eager to see what version 7.0 will bring to the table but for now this definitely deserves a solid 9.
To make this distro a perfect 10 it would need the debian and Ubuntu apps ready in there software Centre rather than isolating you to there only hand picked flatpaks (currently about 90), also the pantheon tweak tool should be installed as standard and a selection of themes would be nice as I find myself adding gtk3 themes myself to enhance the pantheon desktop even more.
Libre office needs to be pre installed too and I would like to see a simple gui welcome screen app that gives you the option to install popular apps such ass Google chrome, Spotify and so on.
To get my Google drive to sync I end up having to install and trigger gnomes online accounts app as the provided one is hit n miss.
Nemo should also be the default file manager and this is mainly due to its ability to do greater things such as root access to a folder etc.
Although snaps are mainly for Ubuntu this is an Ubuntu based distro so the snap store gui would be a welcome site too or better still have snaps appear in the elementary os app centre and let the end user decide if they prefer the flatpak, snap or deb version.
All in all its my daily driver on my macbook and I am keen to see this turn in to a great OS.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-06-20 Votes: 7
Elementary has never been a good choice for a desktop OS. It's pretty but functionally useless.
The most horrible file manager imaginable. One of the most important pieces of software on a PC and Elementary completely screws it up. App center is hit or miss if it will work. Very poor performance. Unstable. A nightmare to customize. problematic networking issues and doesn't work well at all with VPN's. Just no longer worth the download. It is a complete waste of time. The developers have absolutely ZERO interest in making it better or listening to users feedback.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2022-06-20 Votes: 0
8 because the installer scared me so much, and never got to the end, but Supergrub2 found it and the installer faithfully put a line on my boot options screen, like I would have done had I know how.I asked for putting it on '/boot/efi/EFI, like one should. Third party software, my bread and butter, it complained about, but finally gave in to my demands. It's like that critical day at boot camp, Parris Island,
where a lot of ambition counts, with a heaping spoonful of muscle. I'm going to love Elementary, especially since I have its own grub and the one I installed on a USB stick. So I recommend this to intermediate level and above Linux users, but please fasten your seat belt.
Love the Pantheon desktop. Whenever I have the Mate-desktop, I add a Panther-launcher, virtually the same thing as Elementary's Pantheon. This is a UI for 2022. I believe it's at Rastersoft. I recommend it, but don't break your system. And the cooperating computer is:
I really like this distribution with its minimalistic Pantheon desktop. I also enjoy the standart app selection from the app store to the settings-app. But I would like if there would be an option in the app center to integrate flathub automaticly. I know that the applications from flathub are not perfect integrated in the desktop enviromnet but I think - especially for beginners - it would be very helpful to make less complicated. All in all I think, elementaryOS is a really good distro. I wish good luck to the devolopers for improve elementary further in the next years!
Sorry for my bad English!
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-05-27 Votes: 4
Once a Visually and functionally beautiful OS, but has deteriorated overtime.
even with stable Ubuntu/Debian base most of the apps are very unstable.
the very basic thing like wireless does not work, always shows low signal and disconnects frequently.
encouraging to use Flathub is very good move but how does it help if the Plank or Pantheon DE does not support out of the box.
File manager crashes frequently,especially when copying >5 GB files.
there are huge number of open issues in stackexchange which remains still unanswered.
so had to uninstall it.
maybe next release all these issues will be fixed.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-05-14 Votes: 24
elementary OS has steadily gone downhill since Loki. I'm not sure what's going on but it it's way behind the pack.
The look and design is dated and navigation cumbersome to use. Not only is it restrictive, performance is very poor.
Stability is all over the place. Sometimes good for about 15 minutes, then things start to happen. Loss of WiFi or poor connectivity is very common. App Center, if you want to call it that, crashes and/or stalls out.
Overall, a very poor experience. Would not recommend.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-04-25 Votes: 0
Best Linux distro I have ever used.
I think it's very important to use a system that looks good. Elementary is beautiful. Visual is harmonic and apps follow the visual patterns.
It uses flatpak as default package manager and makes easy to install applications in a few clicks.
The pay what you want model used in AppCenter is an interesting model to finance application developers.
The gestures feature present since version 6 makes easy to handle windows.
It's stable and ready to use out of the box.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-04-21 Votes: 0
User friendly once you install flathub.
More apps than other distros since flathub supports pay for apps which insentivises creators to do apps for elementary. In return, you get not only debian based apps but also, elementary focused apps.
Some people remark the lack of being able to use the desktop as a weak point, but true to its name, elementarily there is an app at the app centre for you to be able to use the desktop if you want.
Easy to use
Debian
More than only debian apps.
Nice to the eye
Very stable
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-03-30 Votes: 0
I come from MacOS, Windows and XFCE/Mate Ubuntu/Debian based distributions.
This OS differs significantly from other GNU/Linux distributions based on Ubuntu/Debian. And it is necessary to distinguish here between "differences" and "malfunctions".
In reality, although under VirtualBox and despite the warnings of the installation program, I did not experience any major problems. Everything is functional if you spend time reading the documentation and in the application preferences. In short, the good old RTFM.
Indeed, the proposal of eOS is not to sell us yet another version of Ubuntu with a dedicated desktop environment like XFCE, KDE, etc., but to build a "thoughtful" alternative to Windows and MacOS (you'll probably tell me that this is the case for all Linux disbtribs). This implies some minor ergonomic changes (keyboard shortcuts, app management, etc.) but once you've spent some time understanding how it works, you're faced with an efficient and elegant (very) OS.
The only negative point concerns the Epiphany browser which seems a bit crashy. For the rest I can work with all my daily stuff fluently and flawlessly.
To conclude with an orange flag, this OS is to be tested with SSD because the swap is optimized for it (a cat /proc/vm/swappinness will tell you a lot about it).
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-03-24 Votes: 0
Well, this distro is more well polished than ever, fast, elegant and with a good selection of curated apps, the only few cons are easily solved adding support to PPA's and a .deb GUI installer.
The new features on this release are impressive!
The redesigned installer can be a dividing point for some, but i've liked the simplicity of the process, but the unecessary checks during boot of the live ISO are kinda useless...
I still have to try using the MATCHA gtk theme with it, but the default theme is well polished all around, with a great dark mode.
And maybe replace plank with docky? =P
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-03-18 Votes: 64
elementary OS is a cartoon distribution that feels more like an experiment rather something to use in a production environment. That being said, a fresh install out of the box is a bit confusing for a Linux beginner such as myself (coming from Windows and MacOS). At first glance, it looks very MacOS like. Using it however is a very different experience… and not a pleasant one in my opinion. I have since moved on to a different distribution but prior to tried elementary OS for 2 weeks. Performance and stability were my main two issues. I do not have those problems with what I’m running now on the same hardware. The other thing I struggled with was the interface. Even after using it for 2 weeks it just doesn’t feel natural. For beginners there are other distribution that will be way easier dipping your toes into the Linux world. Thank you.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-03-16 Votes: 0
No issue at all with this version, nor with odin or hera. My cpu is actually at 46°c.
I remember to have cpu issue and fan issue then screen issue and graphical issue under windows 7 and the fault was the laptop and the hardware itself because it's a s*** asus machine from a garbage company called asus, not the OS. So i don' t complain about the os if any issue happen with jolnir but rather to change the machine.
It's for begginer but if you are more involved into linux and know how it works, you can do more with jolnir. I do office, design and play windows games on steam as if i was on ms-windows. But for this type of thing like gaming, it's not for begginers no matter which OS on linux you are running on your machine, that's not an eos fault.
Bluetooth, wifi works perfectly.
Recommended for anyone who want to switch from Windows because i did it and Im still on EOS since Hera.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-03-15 Votes: 11
NOT recommended for beginners. That being said, this distribution is plagued with issues. The furnished stock apps are buggy and prone to intermittent issues. The app store is even more so with intermittent freezing and all out crashing. As others have mentioned, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity problems as well. nVidia GPU is prone to screen tearing and stuttered interface.
Leaving the interface as stock, navigation and window button placement (close, max, and no min) is just odd. Dark mode is not respected throughout the system… mostly due to Flatpak and Snap packages. Security issues due to heavy use and reliance on Flatpak and Snap packages. Repository is mostly non-existent and relies on Flatpak and Snap packages to populate it.
This distribution requires a system with some muscle.
Version: 6.0 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-03-05 Votes: 0
I tried a lot of distros. But, found for me elementaryOS best of all, especially on laptops. It has beautiful design, pure, clear, easy to use, everything is on the hand. Easy of use, install new apps and setting up the system made me to chose it for me, my parents, wife and friends. Pantheon is wonderful, beautiful, multi-gestures support on touchpad make the work more efficient, creative and fast. The system requires 8gb ram and more, fast ssd (m2 Nvme) and modern CPU for smooth work. Only in this way you could feel all benefits the elementaryOS could offer.
I recommend the elementaryOS as for beginners as for experienced users. You use the system to work, not to tweak it. In this way the system is great!
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-02-17 Votes: 24
If you have an nVidia or Hybrid GPU expect a ton of screen tearing and glitching out. Also had a ton of issues with WiFi/Bluetooth such as intermittent connectivity and devices not showing up. Had times where my fans kicked in for high CPU usage just at idle. Not exactly sure what process it was causing this. And finally the App Center... it would stall out mostly and crash sometimes. Not sure if it's how it connects to Flathub and Snapcraft site or what.
elementory OS does not offer much choice in making it your own. If it's the looks that attracts you, this is simple enough to replicate in GNOME or KDE.
My overall experience with eOS has been very negative. And I strongly suggest beginners avoid this one till they are more familiar in the Linux world.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 4 Date: 2022-02-16 Votes: 5
I am a new user of this distro and I found it minimalistic and beautiful. But it has flaws that made my life difficult when, in theory, the system is supposed to be aimed at novice users. In this case, the installation of an nvidia driver started in a tortuous way, and got worse when I wanted to perform an update of the operating system, denied by a conflict of versions of the driver itself. When trying to boot from 0, it managed to update... however, on reboot the system went to command line. This is a "hello and goodbye" for the users that elementary os is intended for. I will try to fix it, but I hope this kind of inconvenience will be solved. Likewise with the calculator that for a simple percentage operation, it performs it as if it were a decimal operation.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2022-02-12 Votes: 1
Elementary OS for me was a bit hit or miss. Pantheon uses a LOT less RAM than Gnome in my experience. I was able to install a custom kernel (TKG) and install system76 software for my Darter Pro by adding their PPA. It is very configurable, but simple by default. It is based on Ubuntu LTS so anything you can do in Ubuntu can be done here, minus the Canonical telemetry as far as I can tell. Plus, Pantheon has the absolute best flatpak permissions manager implementation that I have seen by far, and it is integrated into system settings. It basically looks like Flatseal, but with more human-readable settings.
Now for the bad. This is more of an issue with Ubuntu LTS, but the LTS Intel drivers cause screen tearing in games on my tigerlake CPU. pantheon-files doesn't allow you to navigate an MTP device, such as an android phone, which I do for rooting and custom rom stuff. I am able to get around this via a terminal, but man does it slow me down. I'd imagine this could be overwhelming for new Linux users and I hope they fix it.
Overall, I really love Pantheon's interface, I would add a minimize button and a system tray, but this can be done with additional software such as pantheon-tweaks and lafydev.wingpanel-indicator. I really look forward to seeing what they do in the future and I hope that the Pantheon DE will become more and more system agnostic as development progresses because I really do enjoy using it. Keep up the great work devs!
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-01-23 Votes: 25
Awful Mac OS clone without any of the ease of use positives that Mac honestly has. The UI for elementary looks poor and is pretty buggy. System resource usage is heavy and I found at times applications like Firefox and LibreOffice would freeze and also crash because elementary would use so much ram. Basically bloated and developers have an awful closed sense mentality and thought-process of making it nearly impossible to change things to make the distro more preferable to individual users’ look and feel.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2022-01-15 Votes: 0
I installed elementary OS 6.1 yesterday, on my Dell laptop Inspiron 3583 and I'm impressed with the performance, the UX is fantastic and the stability (based on Ubuntu 20.04). Great work from elementary team. I recommend!
Felippe HD
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-01-07 Votes: 26
Finally decided to try this to see what all the fuss was about. From the reviews, it's either loved or hated. I grossly dislike it.
This is so restrictive out of the box. And for beginners this is a terrible start as the window layout and overall navigation is very disorienting. The theme has a dated and soft faded look. Not all apps follow the system theme. If you're looking for a Mac like experience, this is not it. The app store has some issues. Performance has some issues. Need to install on hardware that has some backbone. Very disappointing.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-01-05 Votes: 24
It is clearly not for beginners as stated.
The stock web browser is useless. The first thing you need in any distro is a good and reliable browser, I installed Chrome using the .deb provided by Google. But Gdebi is not installed by default so I had to do it via terminal, for a beginner this could be frustrating.
The File manager only works with single click and there's no option to switch to double click.
The stock terminal emulator does not support paste with central mouse wheel-key
Elementary theme and icons used to be nice but nowadays are a little outdated and you cannot change themes, icons or modify windows aspect (like adding minimize button). Kind of like Gnome, but at least in any Gnome distro, Gnome-Tweaks is easily available and provided by Gnome, whereas Pantheon-Tweaks (or whatever it is called) is provided by a third party and I could not install the .deb because of some errors I had no time to investigate, so I compiled it. it works, but it is buggy and has no many options.
Developers have this mentality that "this is how it should be and you cannot modify it". This is a very wrong approach IMHO.
In the end it can become a nice and stable OS, after all it is based on Ubuntu, but to make it usable it must be heavily modified.
So there is absolutely no need to install this OS, you can easily achieve the very same look but tweaking Gnome and adding Plank or some cool extension.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2022-01-04 Votes: 14
The app store intermittently freezes. When the app store works I find its just a frontend for Flathub and Snapcraft store. The environment isnt very smooth. A lot of click delays when moving around in it. The wireless shows its connected but I cant surf sometimes or get my email. A reboot fixes it for a little bit. The close and maximize buttons are split at the top of a window rather one side or the other which I find odd. And there is no minimize button. All in all I found it frustrating to use as it has so many negative quirks.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 3 Date: 2022-01-03 Votes: 3
pros
feels Mac like
some nice themes
fast install
dock is at bottom and dock position selection is made easy
downoad iso by torrent is possible
simple installation process (maybe too simple)
cons
feels Mac like
no synaptic package manager
had some occasional issues updating packages felt buggy
limited app store
no tweaks app preintsalled
no gnome extensions
need go through a donation page to download iso, but you dont need to pay
you dont have the large community support like Ubuntu community has
Version: 6.1 Rating: 10 Date: 2021-12-29 Votes: 0
best distro for linux user in 2022 easy to install , app store contains big varity of flatbak apps elementary os 6.1 will be one of the best linux disto on 2022 thanks to the grate elementary team
Version: 6.1 Rating: 9 Date: 2021-12-24 Votes: 0
The system ISO image can be downloaded from the official website by direct link or torrent. Payment is not mandatory.
The system installation is very easy for novice users. But if you're going to do a Dual-boot installation, you'll have to switch to advanced mode, Gparted.
The AppCenter is well organized and intuitive. Applications that are cured for the system, you can get paid for any amount, only if you want to pay. It's not mandatory! Although AppCenter still has few native apps, a link to Flathub.org is offered and after downloading the desired app, it's just a two-click installation and the Flathub repository will be available on AppCenter with all the apps.
A positive point of using Flatpaks is that applications come with codecs included by default. So you don't need to look for commands to install extra codecs.
Other things I like:
- automatic dark mode;
- night light mode;
- touchpad gestures;
- picture to picture mode
- multitasking view
- the Dock
The minimize button that doesn't exist in the system actually doesn't do anything for me, although there are two ways to minimize the windows - through the Dock or the keyboard Meta+H. If the user accepts to use the system's workflow, it will be a smooth relationship.
Of course, it's not all flowers. There are still some minor bugs that are being fixed. elementary comes standard with a driver and firmware verification tool. Although it is common to find people having problems with Nvidia drivers.
elementary is quite different from any Linux Distro. If you like to solve everything through the terminal, modifying the whole system appearance, elementary is not for you.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-12-24 Votes: 15
IMO, Loki was the best out of the bunch with this project as it had promise.
Each release seems to be 1 step forward, a few steps back. Stability and performance continue to be an issue. Like some have mentioned, and from my experience, WiFi and Bluetooth can be troublesome. nVidia GPU causes a great deal of screen tearing.
The deal breaker was it's full on adaptation of Snap and Flatpak as their repository solution.
Looks is nice but isn't everything. I'm not willing to put flash over function.
Would not recommend especially for beginners.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 3 Date: 2021-12-22 Votes: 8
Installation on existing hard drive ie partisan not smooth ( had to use Gparted, at least it was available on the installer ISO )
The App center is very disappointing , a lot of apps come at a $ cost, also the app center not offering other web browsers like Firefox - Chrome or Chromium , but these can be installed thru Terminal, not an action for new users to Linux.
The builtin Video app Did Not play my MP4 , I had to resort to again to Terminal and download free VLC player.
The builtin File Manager, wow , it has no options .. to select single or double click on items , the default is single click , but you can use a command line in Terminal to activate or select that option , again not an action for new users of Linux.
The Display selection is not intuitive, for selecting screen size or resolution. Also there is no indication on hardware update for Video driver ( Open source driver comes installed) . You can however go to App Center and scroll until you find drivers , Nvidia as in my case had six selections , to a New User this could be very confusing ie no recommended video driver and hit and miss ...on which driver to install.
As a positive , the desktop looks pleasing.
The elementary OS Team should look into some of these , since some are also paying $$ to download this ISO and also If the user is $$ purchasing applications on this distro.
Version: 6.1 Rating: 8 Date: 2021-12-21 Votes: 0
Easy install. Very good looking out of the box. Very user-friendly / beginner-friendly. I love everything about it. But, the reason I gave it 8 is because 1) It doesn't include a basic application, Office-Suite and 2) It's not that easy to Install applications from Vendor's website or Install .deb packages through GUI. Although that was achieved by installing "gdebi" which in my opinion should be available out of the box. However, that's my opinion and I totally support the developers if they don't want to include these things by default.
Version: 6.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-12-10 Votes: 33
I have a lot to say about this however I'll share just the bullet points.
1) Stock apps are mostly unstable.
2) Extremely limited to almost non-existent repository. It's supplemented by 3rd party Flatpaks and Snaps.
3) Not secure... due to Flatpaks and Snaps.
4) Hardware issues. Does not play well with nVidia, WiFi and Bluetooth.
5) Performace is subpar.
6) Not recommended for beginners. Those new to linux may have a jaded experience after using this OS.
Version: 6.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-12-07 Votes: 17
Unstable, bloated and heavyweight desktop environment and unprofessional looking themes. Heavily relies on snap which is a huge negative.
Version: 6.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-11-24 Votes: 21
Minimalism is dated and a resource hog and that’s what this distro is about. Developers focus only on the looks which they try to make it look like the skeuomorphic Mac OS X days, but fail horribly. Apps crash a lot and then this distro broke my boot loader. AVOID!
Installed it for a friend on a Thinkpad about 2 or 3 years ago, it worked so far for him, as he doesn't use the laptop very often or exessive.
Recently he could not log in anymore. I found out, that elementary never deleted old linux-kernels, therefore no space was left on the harddisk. Managed to clean up with autoremove in the terminal, afterwards there was 10Gb free Space again.
This is surely NOT beginner friendly!
Version: 6.0 Rating: 1 Date: 2021-11-09 Votes: 22
Struggling to understand who is this really for... beginners?
After a week of using this, that doesn't make sense.
Out of the box, this "OS" is wrapped in a straight jacket. Meaning it's very restrictive with it's interface and overall work flow.
Yet on the flip side, it's the Wild Wild West with its heavy dependency on Snaps, Flatpaks and with zero oversight. There is just nothing in their own repository. Very strange. This also creates an inconsistent dark mode throughout.
Hardware... this is where it really falls apart. Does not play well with Nvidia. Just a ton of screen tearing and performance problems. Strange oddities with bluetooth and wireless. Ethernet connection seemed to be fine.
IMO, has a long way to go to catch up with most distributions.
So far so good. I installed 7.0 first and donated as well. The 7.0 was buggy and laggy so I even had to patch the kernel to fix the realtek wifi probs. Luckily by the time there was already the 7.1 update available which fixed all my problems with the hardware and with appearance. I like minimalism and tidy look of eos and with numix themes it looks nice. All in all I was able to config my one just as I like it on my hp probook g9 with ryzen 5, radeon 12 and ati barcello on board. Nine is given for the burden of the 7.0 though I've read that most of the problems descend to Ubuntu.
With the 7.1 release, Elementary OS has made some additional improvements via updates: The Appcenter is now fast and has Flathub by default. The installation of the distro is exemplary: printer and scanner are included out of the box, like everything else. The in-house GUI Pantheon is a pleasure compared to Gnome and KDE and is well thought out. For example, installed applications can be easily removed from the software overview with a left click (similar to Linux Mint). Everything runs super fast and well.
Strange on the other hand: Among the few included programs are Mail and Web - two weak Gnome programs. The online accounts are limited to IMAP and calendar data - there is nothing else. This is not very helpful.
Conclusion: If you are looking for an uncomplicated, nicely designed and fast Linux distribution for everyday use, this is a good choice. And since Elementary OS is based on LTS Ubuntu, you are spared constant updates.
Frustrating .
Close button on the left side of the window bar, minimize on the right? So... I can't have them both on the same side? Trying to understand the logic behind that one. The single click for some things and double click for another? Some programs respect dark mode and others don't? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the user interface.
Weird, uncomfortable and unnatural interface aside, I seemed to keep running into problems. App Store crashed my system or rather it froze. Same thing I guess. The performance seemed jenky (animation stuttering). My understanding was there was access to a ton of software. Seemed pretty limited to me.
I am new to Linux and go between Windows for work and MacOS for play. I got laptop from a friend and thought this would be a good opportunity to explore a whole new world. I saw elementary OS on YouTube once a long time ago which got me curious. Once installed the WiFi didn't work so I plugged in an old USB 2.4GHz WiFi adapter I found in my desk drawer.
Pile this on top of an already troubled, stuttery user interface and buggy, lackluster default applications. There is just no way to take this seriously. App Store kinda sorta works when it wants. And if you're lucky enough to not take your system down you're met with very limited software.
For beginners this is not. Be honest here... the out of the box experience is trash. You're going to have to spend some time to get it to a place of usability, functionality and if you're lucky, stability. Just too much work required for this one.
I wont talk about the backend system. It is a Debian-based -> Ubuntu-based distro. As a Debian-based distro you have access to A LOT of official supported installation packages, good support and endless documentation.
The big advantage here is the graphical part (windows).
The desktop environment (Pantheon) is deeply designed. When you find your way and all the elements you need to work, it will always feel like home. It is compact and consistent. Feature wise it is better than Gnome but not as feature-rich as Plasma.
Pantheon is a smooth, fast and full featured desktop. It is easily customizable with the tweak application included in the AppStore. The AppStore provide applications as native packages or flatpacks so you can find almost everything in there.
What I dont like is the "modern" Linux thing of not including desktop-icon and system-tray functionality.
The desktop-icons and the top bar system-tray are easy to install using 3d party free apps.
Overall, ElementaryOS is one of the best options for an "everyday" convenient working environment.
I have been looking for a distro for my primary computer needs for a while now.
A distro that appears very quiet. Beautiful, quiet so not loud. So not those 1001 settings (MXLinux, especially the KDE version, pffffffffff). I have reasonable experience with Linux. I can use the terminal well and know how to install software via the terminal.
Ok, I installed Elementary OS 7.1 Horus. After the first boat there was still work to be done. You get the first time
the impression that the system does not allow much, but that is not too bad. I already had some experience with older versions of this distro; I thought it was worthless.
First impression:
-Very nice.
-Seems ideal for the inexperienced user, but the actual imposed choice of software is absolutely outdated.
-You feel trapped in this distro.
As I said, I have quite a bit of experience with Linux. You need that to want a little more than what this OS offers you;
but I actually don't want that much because that is my goal.
What have I done:
Installed Synaptic via terminal (sudo apt-get install synaptic)
Installed as much as possible via Synaptic software.
My choice fell on:
Firefox (not installed by default.) Search for Firefox and your country of choice via Synaptic, and install it.
Gnumeric (quiet)
Abiword (quiet)
Homebank (quiet)
Check the firewall Ufw (installed via Synaptic) and via terminal (sudo ufw enable) (sudo ufw status verbose).
I adjusted the font using gnome-tweaks (I think that's the only option that Elementary accepts through this program, but give it a try.
You install gnome tweaks via Synaptic. After installation you need to start this program via terminal, "gnome-tweaks"
And for my collections and databases Tellico (Very nice and quiet) and Sqlitebrowser.
So I use this Laptop with Elementary for my daily office needs. If you want more, you have to look for apps. This can be done via the Appcenter. I prefer to do it via Synaptic, because these packages are simply more stable. But everyone has to know that for themselves.
I can imagine that the real Linux terminal user (MR Robot) does not want to use this system, but it is not designed for that. It was made for the "stupid" user. But this "dumb" user has to do a little more to bend Elementary to his will, and that's really not difficult. If you delve a little more in Terminal and Synaptic then you can get a very nice OS with Elementary on your computer.
I also have a Desktop Computer with Ubuntu that I use to learn Python, to delve deeper into Terminal commands and everything that makes Linux fun.
This is of course also possible with Elemntary, but you have to do something for it. Now I have the Laptop that I use for my daily "serious" activities. Quick and easy.
Conclusion:
I'm very happy with Elementary. It's really beautiful and it works very well, but you have to put in a little effort and not give up.
I don't think a ranking of 10 exists for an OS (Every distro has its shortcomings) but Elementary OS 7.1 Horus gets a 9 from me.
I have achieved my goal of finding an ideal distro for my Laptop that meets the needs I mentioned above.
Is this still a non thing? I'm very curious who actually uses it for serious work. Every iteration leaves a lot to be desired.
Wireless, Bluetooth and nVidia have always been a problem and nothing has changed in this area.
The base OS and stock apps feel and perform as if it's a Beta version.
It's Ubuntu and MacOS marinated in wrong sauce with lots of missing ingredients.
At this time, and for a long time still, not something I'd use or recommend.
1 out of 10.
I don't think any other Linux distros come even close to the highly polished and consistent looks provided by eOS. Also, I think that#s the only good think about it too!
Lacks customisation in almost every app/system setting. Opinionated settings are good if you're a novice installing Linux for the first time. But, for an advanced/power user, the lack of simple customisation options is very limiting and, at times, even discouraging to consider the eOS as a daily driver.
As others have already pointed out, lack of common apps/tools is still a major issue. If you just rely on a browser, file manager and terminal, you're in for a treat with eOS. Over the years, I've been in a love-hate relationship with eOS. Install and try to make it work for me and then replace it after a while with Fedora or Ubuntu. That's a constant for me. I'm eagerly waiting for an eOS release to address at least some, if not all of these shortcomings soon...
This is an impressive operating system. It is stable and predictable. The desktop environment is one of the best out there. Why I rate 9 instead of 10:
1. The App Store should include common Linux applications. If not, there should be a second "software center" to find more apps. However, the need for a terminal is more than just a window manager...
2. Disk is missing. Many desktop applications use the system tray to provide easily accessible menus for background services.
3. Lack of desktop. Come on guys, I know you can do better than an image preview as a desktop!!!!! Many desktop environments like MacOS or Deepin even organize automatically your desktop icons.
Nvidia is still busted. Will not install at all despite acting as if it does. Trying alternate methods can cause you serious issues. No other Ubuntu base has this problem. Store is incredibly buggy. Suspend is hit and miss. Calendar claims to connect to "accounts" but only shows two rare known services. No Google, Outlook, or Proton Calendar. Seems way too much focus on looks and not function. I'm not a dev or I would be happy to help fix these issues. I did pay for the download so I feel I have a right to complain.
I had been a Windows user for 15 years. In 2018, I switched to Elementary OS and never looked back.
First off, what do I LOVE about the distro?
1.Files app. It's so awesome to create web-browser-like tabs and transfer files and folders between those tabs. Having as many different tabs as you'd like and going back and forth between them.
2.MULTITASKING. With a literal press of a button or a swipe on a touchpad, you create new workspaces, transfer applications between said workspaces, go back and forth between active apps and workspaces, or see all the apps open at the moment and choose the window you want to go to. Again, all of that with the press of a button or a swipe on a touchpad.
Too bad that the project is drawing dead. Updates are too slow (even by FOSS standarts). A key founder left the team, and the company is loosing money as we speak. And there’s one key concept that devs refuse to understand:
1.Most people who don’t know how computers work want a GUI for everything. They want to click icons with their mouse. For them, if a function in your app has no icon to click on, that function doesn’t exist.
2.Most people are never going to use Terminal.
There are a lot of must-have utilities that should be preinstalled by default but aren’t:
Eddy (GUI.deb file installer)
Monitor (Task Manager from Windows)
Mixer (a Windows-like sound panel to control multiple sources of sound separately)
AppEditor (GUI editor for the Applications menu)
Desktopius (put files and folders on your desktop)
wingpanel-indicator-ayatana (System Tray-like icons from Windows for apps that run in the background)
Warehouse (GUI Flatpak manager)
Synaptic or Apper (GUI package manager)
AppCenter...
1.Is completely unreliable (buggy, unstable, fails to fetch updates, fails to see installed apps and/or drivers).
2. Updating Nvidia drivers with it results in having conflicting packages. AppCenter doesn’t actually delete your Nvidia drivers; it puts one on top of the other. You are forced to use Terminal if you want your drivers to work.
3. It has no packages to begin with because, in OS 6, support for both Ubuntu and Flatpak repositories was removed from the utility. You can still install everything manually in the Terminal, but no Lunux noob is going to do that. Your average user is going to enter AppCenter, see that there are no apps, and bail.
If you love Mac OS looks and functionality and you know how to use Linux (or are willing to learn), Elementary OS looks like the best distro out there. It’s beautiful and cohesive. It’s fast and capable. It gives you what you want out of it. It saves you time.
But nowadays, I would suggest using OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with GNOME 45. It’s better in almost every way, has actual support from the devs, has an Elementary OS founder working for them (GNOME), and is not going to die.
And if you like Windows and/or want to have a great experience out of the box, or to do things only by clicking things with a mouse... Try Linux Mint Cinnamon. Or OpenSUSE with KDE Plasma.
To elaborate a little, this is a very pleasant and beautiful OS with a unique ("Pantheon") interface. It looks Mac-like and has similar usability. But for some, it's too simple. Just add apps, you say? The app store is slow, buggy, and may need restarting to work at all. That's the most half-baked part of this distro.
In any case, it's worth a try. If I was setting up something for an aging relative this might be it. But I've also used it myself for months at a time and enjoyed the experience.
I've been using the eos since the introduction of Freya and didn't have any problem switching to 7.1, but I also skipped the 6* after trying it as I didn't like that changes wrt to Freya already in the 5-th one, so it was kind of easy to change to 7.1 for me personally and the interface was like nothing changed. I don't use most of the native tools like calender of music and use the CLI for the most of my tasks, that is why I like the philosophy of asceticism of the eos and don't need to spend much time to get rid of the bloatware which I would do in other distros. On my HP laptops it works well, except for minor problems with the Realtek WiFi and the toughpads of the newest hardware. Realtek is known to be Linux unfriendly, although in the last updates that problem has already been fixed. Still I give 8 for initial problems and broken dependencies right after the installation. But one needs to say that many of those problems descend to the native distro of Ubuntu and to the version of the kernel specifically, so I had to patch. I also don't like that the semitransparency of the terminal which was nice and useful was abandoned and that you can't paste commands into the command line.
I tried so hard to use it - it's a great concept, cohesive and beautiful; but unfortunately it's too buggy, and the team has very little resources to tackle the issues. I've tried every release so far on a Dell laptop.
Issues
- When you resume from suspend, the unlocked desktop appears for a second. This is a long-standing lightdm-greeter issue that affected multiple DEs like Xfce and MATE. It's at least a decade old, or older.
- Email and calendar apps don't yet support Google Sign In, or Microsoft Account.
- Overall, apps crash often, screen flickers and so on. Interactions don't feel so responsive, and animations are a little slow.
If only they had the resources and commercial support GNOME has...
I'll give it another try in the future, after the wayland transition. I always do.
Takes forever to start, six times longer than windows.
They still arrogantly refer to Flatpak as sideloading to their system, and its not populated by default.
Could have provided an empty catalogue that could then be populated as soon as the AppCenter connected to the internet. No just their paid apps, no one elses.
It claimed there were updates (Chime ...) but never showed them, just kept "Checking for Updates" over and over again.
In the end I had to resort to using the terminal to force it to update. (As one does)
I think that 5.1 was as good as it ever got then went down hill and never recovered.
It's a shame because I like the interface.
If I had to summarize Elementary OS in one sentence, I'd describe it as an unusable version of Mac OS High Sierra. By today's standards, this distro looks like an outdated version of Mac OS from 2016. Furthermore, Elementary OS is unusable out of the box. The web browser is extremely slow, the software center has no apps, and the app updates constantly fail to finish. This is easily the buggiest Ubuntu distro I've ever used.
If you're looking for a Mac OS clone distro, you'll be much better off using the Whitesur GTK theme in Ubuntu Budgie. You'll have a more stable and modern looking Mac OS clone experience than Elementary OS.
There are a few minor improvements in the 7.1 release. First and foremost, updates no longer get stuck on the "waiting for headers" message. This problem used to drive me crazy in the 7.0 release. Additionally, updating flatpaks and runtimes in the appcenter no longer results in error messages (based on my experience). Finally, the installer now allows users to include proprietary drivers with their installation. In theory, this should make installing NVIDIA drivers easier, right?
Unfortunately, installing NVIDIA drivers is still an unpleasant experience in Elementary OS. Even after selecting the checkbox for proprietary drivers, this distro failed to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver for my graphics card. To make matters worse, when I tried to install the NVIDIA 535 driver through the appcenter, it resulted in repeated installation failures. Therefore, I still cannot recommend Elementary OS for NVIDIA users.
My previous criticisms of Elementary OS 7.0 also applies to version 7.1 as well. Users still have to manually sideload flatpaks into the app center, which is far from beginner friendly. The default web browser, Gnome Web, is still unusable for most people due to its slow performance and lack of extensions. Also, Elementary OS lacks a package installer by default, meaning that new users won't be able to install deb files from the web, such as Google Chrome or Steam.
In conclusion, Elementary OS is a distro I cannot recommend. While some of the annoying bugs from the previous release have been fixed in the latest version, the NVIDIA driver issue is a deal-breaker for me.
Totally outdated. And if you want to update it, it breaks and is totally broken and useless, and leaving it as it is is useless. Not recommended to install
- Outdated
- Totally broken and useless
- Leaving it as it is is useless
- Not recommended to install
- It has no plus points other than it's "pretty" everything else is garbage.
- I would put more things against it because it has everything against it and nothing for it.
- You can't have a distro so outdated and so broken.
- Maybe they can improve in the future, for now I doubt it with the amount of competition out there is to try it, delete it and install a distro that is worth it.
Flatpaks are interwoven in the the operating system itself. So you're stuck with them whether you like it or not. Start removing things and you'll most certainly run into troubles.
I can mostly see the bigger picture they are going for but it's far from where it needs to be. Out of the box, there's a few inconsistencies. Such as single click for some stuff, double click for other. The system wide dark theme setting also does not work
Updates are very slow to install both via the app center and terminal.
A few must haves are elementary OS tweaks, synaptic and a real web browser to replace the stock one.
It's going to take some effort to normalize things. That is if you have the patience.
This is not something I would recommend for serious users. Or as a daily driver. Or for anything really.
Not the worst of bad distributions but definitely bad.
Post Loki, elementaryOS has been in a continuous downward spiral. If you like Pantheon, you can have it on other distributions. You can even replicate it in GNOME (if you're into GNOME that is).
The amount of bugs, performance issues and overall experience feels like an experiment that's gotten out of hand.
Loki was great at the time. But these days eOS is just too far far behind the pack. Not certain what it's purpose is anymore. Certainly not for production or everyday use.
It's really too bad.
Elementary OS is actually one of my favorite distributions. I have installed it on a 2012 Macbook Air and it works great, right out of the box, even the wifi.
What I particularly like about it is the general operation. The multi-finger gestures on the trackpad work grea, specially the swapping between the Workspaces.
I did find that a couple of the Flatpak applications that I needed didn't work well, so I removed them, installed Snapd and installed the Snap version of the applications I needed (Nextcloud, Mailspring) and they have been working great every since.
One thing that I don't like is the lack of System Tray. I like to have Nextcloud Desktop running in the System Tray so that I can see if the Nextcloud sync has completed successfully.
Elementary has never been a good choice for a desktop OS. It's pretty but functionally useless.
The most horrible file manager imaginable. One of the most important pieces of software on a PC and Elementary completely screws it up. App center is hit or miss if it will work. Very poor performance. Unstable. A nightmare to customize. problematic networking issues and doesn't work well at all with VPN's. Just no longer worth the download. It is a complete waste of time. The developers have absolutely 0 interest in making it better or listening to users feedback.
Very restrictive, very quirky. Weird bugs here and there. Not a huge fan of the App Center at all, which isn't a deal breaker for me since I've been using Linux long enough to know what I use and have all of the installs scripted from the command line, but it's still nice to go in and poke around to find new things every once in a while. There are enough issues with this distro to the point where it's not worth messing with anymore just to get it working as well as something like Mint does out of the box, so it's not for me.
* Worked out of the box (If you have nvidia graphics and are fine with nouveau).
* A pretty good looking distro with soothing colors that you might prefer light theme instead of dark one.
* Installation was smooth, nothing broke or froze.
* I have not checked the fonts on the system but I love it.
* For nvidia drivers, just installed it from store and everything working smoothly.
* Keyboard shortcuts are very easy to remember. I use it for development and gaming.
I wish the project all the best, it would be a shame to lose this distro. A rating of 9/10, removed 1 because I have to side load the first flatpak, after that I could see all flatpak apps in App Center.
I am disappointed with the current version of Elementary. Spent 4 hrs. running in circles. The flatpak didn't install right (side loader didn't work). Updates stalled...took a long time. What is offered free is not what I wanted. It looks pretty but that isn't the most important part of a linux os. I see others had similar views of Elementary. It is going downhill unnecessarily. Perhaps later, I will give it another shot, but not today. I deleted it off the drive I had installed it on with sadness.
Probably the painful experience I've had with a Linux distro. As an out-of-the-box distro it was practically unusable.
It looks great and Pantheon is well-made and easy to learn, and the emphasis on keyboard shortcuts is great since I was looking for a distro to install on my laptop, but I gave up trying to use it.
Live USB takes unusually long time to load, and very frequently hangs before it could even load into the desktop environment. Even when I get to the desktop environment the installer and greeter would randomly freeze and buttons randomly stop being responsive.
I had trouble getting custom install to work as the installer just stops working, and I only found out that there was a mistake partitioning the drive and I only found that out because I tried installing Debian instead and received an error there.
After I managed to find out the correct partition size and install the OS, I log into the live environment, only to find out that none of the softwares launch properly and the login menu stuck on the screen. Couldn't even install .deb packages for some reason. After that, it just gets stuck at the boot logo and straight up wont even reach the login screen.
This system is the opposite of the idea of linux. Paid applications, choosing colors for folders instead of decent utility programs, and many other unnecessary features. System updates work like windows. In general, this system should be forgotten by Linux users. Neither mac os nor windows nor tm more linux. I advise against this system to everyone. This system is an anti-advertisement for the open source movement. This system is a paywall. It doesn't even deserve 1/10. Less than zero is, in my opinion, the only correct rating for this distro.
Elementary OS is essentially a walled-garden operating system like Apple without any useful apps included. Beginners will find this distro frustrating to use since the AppCenter only contains a small number of curated apps; this distro by default doesn’t even include an office-suite or an alternative web-browser that isn’t gnome web (which is one of the worst web browsers I’ve ever used). Users are required to manually sideload Flatpaks into the AppCenter in order to have access to any useful applications at all. Manually side-loading Flatpaks is a poor design choice and it only adds more hoops that a new user needs to jump through.
Elementary OS does have a few positives. It is the most visually appealing Linux distro that I’ve ever used. I also found the Pantheon desktop environment to be very intuitive with the easy-to-learn keyboard shortcuts and the multi-touch gestures for window management. If I didn’t mind spending the extra time configuring additional software and repositories, then I wouldn’t mind using this distro as my daily driver.
However, as others pointed out, NVIDIA drivers do not cooperate well with Elementary. Installing the NVIDIA 515 driver completely borked my desktop environment, resulting in my computer booting into a command line. This is an issue that I haven’t experienced with other Ubuntu-based distros on my System76 laptop.
In summary, I’d avoid Elementary OS if you’re a Linux beginner or a user with an NVIDIA graphics card. I’d only recommend Elementary OS if you love the Mac OS aesthetic of the desktop and you don’t mind spending the extra time configuring additional software/repositories on a fresh install.
Recommended alternatives:
1. Ubuntu Mate with the Pantheon desktop layout
2. Ubuntu Budgie
Been using ElementaryOS for a few months now. It's not an out of the box experience as it once was but the foundation is still there and if you enjoy tweaking linux systems via setting up bash scripts and tinkering with system files etc, every distro would feel roughly the same really. After some tweaks, I've been happy enough to rely on it as a daily driver for my projects but probably wouldn't recommend it to beginner users or people wanting an OS ready for work out of the box.
I do hope Elementary can gradually pick itself back up again as I feel the passion is still there for this project and the community is still active.
Not going to lie I was drawn in by the screenshot. Every couple years I search around trying to find a new distro to love and I saw this on a YouTube video so I thought I'd give it a go. Very restrictive, very quirky. Weird bugs here and there. Not a huge fan of the App Center at all, which isn't a deal breaker for me since I've been using Linux long enough to know what I use and have all of the installs scripted from the command line, but it's still nice to go in and poke around to find new things every once in a while. There are enough issues with this distro to the point where it's not worth messing with anymore just to get it working as well as something like Mint does out of the box, so it's not for me. I'm all about tinkering and exploring to get something to work for fun, but not on a production machine when I just need something that's solid and works so I can get things done. Full pass.
Are you into straight jackets? Then this distribution is for you!
Not only is it restrictive, it will drive you crazy attempting to use it.
Reality check, if you're expecting a MacOS experience this is very far off from that.
Out of the box it is very odd and quirky... but not in a good way. I feel like I need to be an entomologist to deal with all the bugs that come with elementary OS.
Stock apps kinda/sorta work? With as basic as they are I was anticipating rock solid stability. o_O
App Center for me was pretty useless. Crashed a few times. Froze when running updates. CLI was a better experience but was extremely slow.
WiFi was intermittent (full bars to half bars to disconnect and repeat). Basic navigation and animations had a lot of stuttering. and was not smooth.
Overall I just don't get it. There are so many issues with this distribution out of the box. I'm a, install and use it right away, person. elementary OS does not provide that for me.
Installed on an Imac13.1, late 2012 and it works perfectly. Current distros such as Ubuntu 23.04 and Fedora 38 with 6.2 kernels have regressions. In these, screen brightness controls do not work on the Imac in question. Therefore, it must have its value recognized.
Strengths: Simplicity, works out of the box, light, safe and stable, ubuntu 22.04 base, excellent driver support, very suitable distro for older machines.
OBS.: Installation of nvidia video driver and broadcom wi-fi are installed by the distro in a friendly way.
Been using 6.1 since it was first announced, on hardware that was so advanced at the time that I had to manually backport drivers.
Still my best option for a polished distro that gets out of my way and lets me get work done. I honestly don't understand what others are complaining about. Granted, I don't do discrete graphics and I'm not a gamer. I use the computer for work, research and also to play movies and TV shows. That's it. I haven't found any quirks that stand out above and beyond other distros. Just different quirks, is all. It is speedy and responsive, the design is excellent, and the roadmap is worthy of long term commitment. I love its seamless integration of Flatpak (not sure what others are complaining about there). No issues with hardware compatibility bc I a. use linux-compatible hardware and support hardware mfrs who support open source driver development and b. look before I leap.
I get the sense that people who complain about eOS are used to using their computers as toys that they play with and tweak incessantly, or expect everything to work just because it does on a parent distro. admittedly, elementary OS doesn't do well with 3rd party tweaks. It's a fairly "rigid" system in that respect. Which is fine for me, because I hate doing that anyway. I install the OS, install my apps, configure a few settings, and go on my merry way. Also, the OS is in a strange divergent space where it has evolved pretty far beyond being merely an Ubuntu derivative, just as (though not quite as much as) Ubuntu has evolved beyond merely being a Debian derivative. There's going to be a little awkwardness there, but it hasn't been anything I couldn't work with as of yet.
I may change my mind when I start to use the computer for music production work. We shall see, there. But I'm about to upgrade to 7.0. We'll see what that offers. I never upgrade immediately, but wait several months for others to work out the kinks for me. Those who upgrade immediately and complain about bugs...well, that's on you, bud. You volunteered for the public beta (which is what every first round public release is, everywhere...it is completely unrealistic to expect that devs work out all the bugs without releasing a version or two into the wild).
The main area where I believe elementary OS falls flat is that community support is lacking for how to do anything that is elementary OS specific (vs something that I can accomplish by searching for Ubuntu). These are niche cases and fairly rare, but they do exist.
After spending about three weeks with elementary o.s. 7, I am afraid it's another release with a show stopping bug. I am not going to beat the proverbial dead horse here. I made the decision to embrace the e o.s. way of doing things so I'm not going to list the usual stuff most complain about. Instead, I will list a few things I have noticed that make this release and the project questionable.
First and most important is... Nvidia is completely busted on this distro. It will not install at all through the app center. It says it does but when you reboot you will find it hasn't. If you try alternate methods like via the terminal or synaptic. you will end up with a borked system. Why? This time it's not Nvidia's fault when every other Debian and Ubuntu based distro it installs and works fine. This is specific to elementary o.s. which brings me to the second. Bug reporting. Say I wanted to file a bug about this. I found that the bug reporting is their GitHub. I was asked to make a GitHub account. Just to file a bug? I'm not a dev. I'm a user that really just want's to file a bug and hope it gets fixed. That brings me to the third point. Where is the forum and community? I found their Reddit page. Which is fine but does the developer of the distro still check there. I used to see the name pop up in threads answering some of the users questions. That was quite a long time ago. Also, the reddit is nearly like a ghost town. As polarizing as e o.s. is, you would think there would be much more activity. I could only find one other forum where many questions go unanswered. Maybe it's just me and I have been in Debian too long where things are logical. The community forums are where problems are solved. If the forums are slow or dead where does one go get answers? There is also not much if any documentation either. One final thing and this plagues many distros is reliance on Flatpaks. I like flatpaks just fine. However, I noticed that on e o.s. that about every two days I would get prompted to install anywhere from 1 to 2 GB of flatpak updates. At that rate it's not going to be long before your hard drive fills up. Maybe e o.s. should reconsider shipping a store with debs and flatpaks, letting the user choose like Linux Mint does. Just a thought, and with that the journey ends.
I gave three stars because I find Pantheon a nice D.E. It might be more advantageous for the elementary project to do something similar to what Budgie is now and just make a good Desktop Environment for other distros to ship. That way we can have the best of both worlds and maybe less bugs. That's just my opinion though. Thanks for reading.
I'm very curious as to how many people actually use this as a daily driver. Meaning this is exclusively the distribution they use for production, gaming and/or just general use. Cause for the life of me I have a hard time imagining this is a thing.
elementary OS seems to be more of something people dabble in out of shear curiosity or are just looking for a challenge.
The out of the box experience, for me, was a myriad of emotion. Confusion and frustration washed over me pretty quickly. Sadness and denial popped in at one point as well.
How can something with so many issues be considered as a stable release? Luckily I don't have an nVidia GPU. So I can't blame it on that. Bundled apps are very inconsistent with stability. App Center by far was the worst. Dark mode was not respected system wide.
This is not something I would use for anything. Nor would I trust it lasting for the foreseeable future. It just doesn't have the force or backing to drive it successfully. While I do admire its attempt to be different, I don't with its execution.
As someone who has used quite a few distros lately trying to find one that meets my current goals. I can say without a shadow of a doubt this one was my worst experience.
With the Nvidia drivers that it gave by default my screen had a green tint, this is probably not entirely their fault as I have seen this behavior in Ubuntu before. But once you install the correct Nvidia drivers to correct this issue NETWORKING stops working.
It did this twice, the first time I thought I may have done something stupid and reinstalled the OS to try again and it did it again.
I know there are things to like about this distro but I feel they need to put some more work out especially for Nvidia drivers. I have had no real issues with any other distro.
I don't mean to laugh but this distribution is quite funny. Got it installed and it couldn't even get my local time correct.
After a few minutes of simply looking around, it stuttered then froze. Had to hard reboot.
Tried to surf the Internet with the stock browser. It was sooooo slow. Page would start to load, then stop, load a little more then stop. Reminded me of the old dial-up days. Turned out to be an issue with the wireless. I attempted to resolve the issue but I could only get connected solid by plugging into Ethernet.
OK so... seems to be in the reviews very bad experiences with the App Center. This too was my experience. Using the App Center GUI was really bad. It would stall, freeze and just seem to freak out. Running updates through the CLI was better but still very slow.
If you absolutely have to use Pantheon DE, there ARE other distributions that offer it up as an option. I suspect you'll have a much better experience using an alternative.
I have to be honest, I really didn't like this. The default setup is very odd. Pantheon tweaks helps but not enough for me to keep using this. The bundled apps too are very odd. Super generic and flaky. Just not good. You also have to manually kick of Flathub software. It does not come per-configured.
I'm probing elementaryOS 7 since a couple of weeks. I came across due to the release announcement on distrowatch.com.
For downloading the ISO, the developer team asks for a donation. While it seems at the beginning, it cannot be downloaded without a donation, putting 0 (zero) amount allows to download it for free.
I was willing to give a donation to support the development, but wanted to try it before. Which turned out as a wise decision.
Pro's:
- Very beautiful and intiutive Pantheon desktop environment.
- Smooth installation process.
- Lean initial setup with small number of pre-installed applications.
Con's:
- Many pre-installed applications are buggy:
- AppCenter crashes when trying to click a specific category, e.g. "Office".
- Video player plays video sound, but doesn't show the picture.
- Mail doesn't work at all. Crashes with every second click. I needed to replace this with Geary.
- Some strange default settings, e.g. mouse middle click (to paste in the terminal) is disabled.
- While the desktop environment is nice as mentioned above, the window manager misses some controls, e.g. to minimize a window. Right-click on the window title and select 'Hide' or press Cmd+H keys will do the job. That's cumbersome. And there is no option to configure this.
- Most of the system updates running via AppCenter require a restart. Why? It's not Windows.
- A few basic tools are missing in the initial setup, e.g. system monitor.
Conclusion:
It was worth to try it, but for many daily tasks it's not suitable because of the mentioned con's.
I see a lot of potential for the development, and I hope upcoming releases will improve. I'll keep monitoring this.
Sorry but this is a garbage operating system. Way too many issues ranging from hardware to software.
They have made zero improvements in the nVidia realm. Screen tearing galore. WiFi issues have plagued this distribution for years for whatever reason and continue to be on issue. Same goes with Bluetooth.
Pile this on top of an already troubled, stuttery user interface and buggy, lackluster default applications. There is just no way to take this seriously. App Store kinda sorta works when it wants. And if you're lucky enough to not take your system down you're met with very limited software.
For beginners this is not. Be honest here... the out of the box experience is trash. You're going to have to spend some time to get it to a place of usability, functionality and if you're lucky, stability. Just too much work required for this one.
Elementary OS has some ups and downs, but mostly I find myself enjoying the default experience and I'll probably stick with it for quite some time.
The "AppCenter" is a flatpak "app store" style application that has a decent variety of software designed specifically to fit the design they're going for in elementary, and there's usually at least 1 of each type of application you could want readily available. Since these are flatpaks you can go to the flathub website and download a flatpak from there, which will cause AppCenter to begin to show the full Flathub library on top of its own library. I found this to be kind of necessary when all was said and done, since popular applications like Firefox, Steam, Discord (yuck) aren't available anywhere in the default AppCenter library. I understand why they have only a limited selection of applications, as it provides a more curated experience, but I can't say I'm a huge fan of the decision not to provide something as simple as Firefox (it it was a decision, at all). I have been using some of their own AppCenter programs as an alternative to the ones I'm used to and they have worked very well and looked very nice for the most part, so I'm pretty happy with a lot of the software they do provide, regardless. If required, you can also install software through apt on the command line since behind the scenes it's based on Ubuntu, but if you're here, you're probably wanting something a little less reliant on using the command line to begin with.
The Pantheon desktop environment looks, feels, and sounds really nice. Touchpad gestures feel great and the animations are nice and smooth on my 2017 gaming laptop. I've had no issues with hardware support, either. The choice to have the Close button on the left and the Maximize button on the right and Minimise button to be just clicking the application icon on the dock took a little getting used to, and I think it could be a tripping up point for some people, but it's not really an objectively bad decision when it comes down to it, and if you really hate it you can install "Pantheon Tweaks" to add a new set of options to the System Settings application that can change it to Mac style, Windows style, whatever you need.
There are, however, some features completely missing from the Settings application that I hope are implemented in a future edition of elementary. The VPN settings only offers OpenVPN as an option, so configuring Wireguard or some other type of VPN directly in the settings application is out. Also missing is Bluetooth PAN connection settings, so while you can access the menu for regular old Bluetooth pairing, connecting to and disconnecting from a Bluetooth network is not an option in the settings app. Thankfully, because elementary is using Network Manager in the background, you can still configure or activate these networking options on the command line or with nmtui if you prefer (slightly more) graphical ways to do it. There are issues for both of these missing features already on their Github repository, but time will only tell if these are implemented in time for the next version.
All-in-all, despite some trip ups that require usage of the command line (it is Linux, after all), elementary is a distribution that feels like the small team of developers really care about providing something outside of the status quo. Pantheon being developed right alongside the distribution makes things feel tight and clean in a way that many distributions don't achieve.
There's a vision here, and despite some clouds, the developers are well on their way to realising it.
Two elementary OS installs yesterday.....one on a newish HP laptop and one on a no name Mini-PC.
PLUS: both installs ran to completion and rebooted into the desktop.
MINUS: All of these minuses are relatively minor.....but in my opinion none of these minuses should have occurred:
(1) The update pacifier would run forever, then stop. When the pacifier stopped the progress bar (embedded in the Cancel button) also stopped. My next step was to reboot. This performance occurred multiple times. I'm still not certain that all the updates have been implemented.
(2) Firefox NEVER turned up in the "Internet" category of available applications. Really? I fixed this in a VERY inappropriate way:
$ sudo apt-get install firefox
(3) A little research at this point revealed that Snap and/or Flatpak might have been more appropriate. So I'm now confused: how are packages supposed to be managed in version 7???
At the end of all this, both machines got updated and configured. But it appears that elementary OS v7 provided LESS functionality than v6. It appears that v7 needs MUCH more terminal fiddling (apt-get etc) than version 6 ever needed. Is this progress?
The pictures and visuals of a free MacOS look alike draws its unsuspecting victims in (me being one of them). It was very clear once installed this is something I would never use or recommend in a million years to anybody.
Frustrating is the most PG rated thing I can say.
Close button on the left side of the window bar, minimize on the right? So... I can't have them both on the same side? Trying to understand the logic behind that one. The single click for some things and double click for another? Some programs respect dark mode and others don't? There seems to be a lot of inconsistency in the user interface.
Weird, uncomfortable and unnatural interface aside, I seemed to keep running into problems. App Store crashed my system or rather it froze. Same thing I guess. The performance seemed jenky (animation stuttering). My understanding was there was access to a ton of software. Seemed pretty limited to me.
I am new to Linux and go between Windows for work and MacOS for play. I got laptop from a friend and thought this would be a good opportunity to explore a whole new world. I saw elementary OS on YouTube once a long time ago which got me curious. Once installed the WiFi didn't work so I plugged in an old USB 2.4GHz WiFi adapter I found in my desk drawer.
Basically, the overall impression of the OS is just bad, bad and bad... I told someone and work about this and they directed me to Kubuntu to start off. It's very cool!
Anyway... as the old saying goes, don't judge an OS by its cover. Maybe this works for someone but just not for me.
Elementary OS 6 had many small problems but it seems the devs are back on track with version 7. Finally I can upgrade my 5.1 - which I'm using on a daily basis with flatpak apps because underlying Ubuntu 18.04 LTS repos are outdated.
Well technically it's gonna be a clean install because there's no upgrade functionality... The installer introduced in version 6 isn't perfect yet - the user can't skip the installation of a grub bootloader for example - but some quirks are already addressed, like the ability to choose an existing encrypted volume as a the destination.
The Pantheon is the best desktop out there - if you like it, you'll easily tweak the rest of the system to your needs. I recommend adding flathub.org as the source of apps. Ubuntu repos are available through apt.
And you can download it for free by putting 0 in the pay what you can box - I don't get the previous negative review. Nevertheless it's a distro worth supporting.
Cannot even test the new version because the "trick" of paying 0 in order to download the image doesn't seem to be working at all and instead I'm getting transferred to the site that asks for $20 ISO purchase. I don't think there's any other distro that "offers" their image in such way.
Definitely a shady tactic for me but hey, it always been like that in elementary - the constant attempt to condition people that software is only available as paid goods and there no other options unless you look very closely.
I always liked the UI they made (heavily "inspired" by macOS) but rest and above stuff - not so much.
The distro is not perfect, but with a little knowledge of Linux you can adapt everything to your needs. The Pantheon desktop is well done. Since I'm using this version for the first time, I can't say much about the predecessors. But the best distro for a 13.3 inch monitor. Great scalability. However, the hard disk partitioning is a bit strange (to pack everything in LVM) Due to the post-installations, it is not very suitable for beginners. Great for my needs though.
I wish the project all the best, it would be a shame to lose this distro.
elementaryOS 7.0 is horusable...The very name of this distribution, elementary, seems to contradict itself.
This is not a good replacement for Windows or MacOS. This is abundantly clear when you actually start using it. This is not for beginners which is also abundantly clear when you start using it.
In typical elementary OS fashion the tradition of being frustrating continues.
Split window close / maximize buttons with no minimize, basic/buggy stock applications and an App Center that semi works when it doesn’t decide to lock up your system instead.
Hardware continues to be an issue. Other distributions work on my same laptop but elementary struggles with wireless, bluetooth and nVidia I don’t even try anymore.
Perhaps my expectations where too high. But this is the same old elementary OS plain and simple.
PROS
-Nice Wallpaper
-Pantheon-tweaks works in 7.0
-Easy to replace with a distribution of your choice.
elementary 7 is quite possibly the worst distro release / update I've ever seen.
-Alarmingly and immediately out of date software for a "new release"
-The most kernel and systemd related journalctl errors I've ever seen on a clean linux distro installation
-Unstable/unpredictable future/management- literally posting "we can die any day guys sorry there's drama going on" type updates. Why would one install an operating system in which the bus factor is hanging by a loose thread constantly toting being on the verge of death? The opposite of assuring or professional or trustworthy
-Even slower boot time and worse performance than previous versions, somehow
-Nothing in the App Store installs. Everything gives me dependency errors even when I'm fully updated and rebooted on a system that hasn't even installed any additional packages yet. Their centerpiece feature doesn't even work, I need to use Synaptic or apt via terminal
-The UI has been the same since the conception of Pantheon and despite having similarities to MacOS the aesthetics just are not there, it looks like a knock off mock operating system you see on computer screens in movies by now, and it has no signs of advancing with the times
-Steam doesn't launch (Fatal Error: Failed to load steamui so)
-OBS shows no working sources unless you get xdg desktop portal and flatpak via flathub (which will also require Steam Flathub if you intend on recording games)
-There is no option for Variable Refresh Rate in the display settings menu despite being an xorg distro that is fully capable of it. Yet another purportedly preconfigured desktop distro leaving an important hardware feature in the dark
-Also no option added to disable Mouse Acceleration which comes enabled by default meaning gamers will have to tweak to disable it
-VAAPI disabled
-No Wayland
Best version of elementary os .What I like about elementaryOS is that you get a feeling of tight integration and cohesive applications and the system. It seems like they put lots of efforts into making it work by paying attentions to details. Thanks elementary team,keep going.
for beginners to make it easy just.sudo apt install(firefox,libreoffice,........)sudo apt install ubuntu-restricted-extras,sudo apt install nvidia-driver-525 ((all from terminal)).do not recommend using default app for beginners.
This doesn't feel like Linux but more of an awkward version of macOS. It tries to be it's own operating system. It's too dumbed down and limited for my taste.
I didn't notice any immediate performance or stability issues though.
If you wan't to learn Linux I don't think this distribution is the right choice.
Elementary OS has been around for 10 years, and, unfortunately, with each new version, things only get worse. Very poor work and worse and worse with each release. This has always surprised me - they create some kind of unnecessary thing that no one uses. And for beginners this is a terrible start as the window layout and overall navigation is very disorienting. The theme has a dated and soft faded look. Not all apps follow the system theme. If you're looking for a Mac like experience, this is not it. The app store has some issues. Performance has some issues. Need to install on hardware that has some backbone. Very disappointing.
unfortunately, elementary OS has a lot of problems. The distribution is developing very slowly, it is quite overloaded and there are many flaws, such as, for example, the inability to update from release to release. In general, as always, the idea is good and the design has been well done, but unfortunately the insufficient number of developers and money affects the quality. Would not recommend for something to use for production work or just normal day to day use.
But unfortunately the distribution is developing very slowly and there are too many bugs in it. Outwardly, it looks very good and beautiful, but it is difficult to use this as the main system, because there are a lot of bugs, outdated software.
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