Elementary OS


Recommended Posts

The project that started as a theme and icon set for GNOME is becoming a full fledged OS. It's based on Ubuntu, but unlike most other derivatives, these guys have put a lot of work into the project and differentiating themselves.

The default DE is GNOME based, but it's neither GNOME 2, GNOME 3 nor Ubuntu's Unity -- they've developed their own dock, panel, application launcher. They also have a lot of their own software which aims to simplify the interface of the current solutions (email application, spell checker, file manager; all menu-less and simple).

The first release is scheduled for March, you can preorder it now for $10, or just wait and download it when it gets released.

http://elementaryos.org/

Personally I'm not so crazy about it, but I thought someone might be interested. Looks nice either way.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/
Share on other sites

Those Linux distros these days copy just about anything they can from Mac OS X huh? All the way down to the default desktop picture. It's starting to become kind of sad now...

The sad part is they're trying to copy it, but fail to do so.

Would be nice for them to take some kind of original direction. Gnome 3 looks like a bad copy as well.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593711940
Share on other sites

The sad part is they're trying to copy it, but fail to do so.

Would be nice for them to take some kind of original direction. Gnome 3 looks like a bad copy as well.

Of course they fail. With Gnome 3 they actually went as far as copying certain Mac OS X interface elements 1:1 such as the Dashboard close button.

Mac OS X

screenshotci.png

GNOME 3

screenshot2ug.png

The really fun part is when you confront the developers with stuff like this they claim it's purely a coincidence and deny everything. At least be a man about it and admit you're blatantly copying everything you can left and right from existing operating systems. Saddening really...

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593711980
Share on other sites

^ that's because Mint 10 uses the elementary theme.

And I disagree about Gnome 3/distros and Mac. Sure, some elements are clearly inspired by Mac/Win, but what's wrong with that? And they have enough of their own to make it stand out. Elementary is a poor example because they lend more than the others (had they put a global menu in the top panel it would look exactly like a mash of various mac/ios concepts) but some things just evolve on their own and it's pointless arguing about it - each major os has a dock nowadays, each browser de-emphasized menus in favor of buttons and less clutter. Gnome3 has activities which is nothing like the start menu or a dock and offers something completely new, even though it has elements of both. Sure, the button looks the same, but if that's the biggest gripe you have with it, then wow.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593712516
Share on other sites

Who cares? For example my Mint looks better than Mac OSX (modified it), it's much faster, uses way less resources and it's more reliable and secure than a Mac. Nothing wrong with that imho.

Whether it looks better is a matter of opinion and the rest of your story probably is as well.

And not Apple invented GUIs, Xerox did.

I'm not talking about where the GUI originated from. I'm talking about the fact that Apple developed a certain look for Mac OS X you now see being ripped off left and right by Linux distros to great extent. The above distro is a perfect example of that.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593712854
Share on other sites

The "Apple did it first" crowd never miss a chance to get their $0.02 in huh?

Gnome, in general is unoriginal and boring IMO. If you want to see innovation in Linux, get a KDE powered distro.

As the Apple basher crowd does too... Your avatar says it all.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593712888
Share on other sites

The "Apple did it first" crowd never miss a chance to get their $0.02 in huh?

There's such blatant evidence of copying that it's not even correct to say "inspired". Look at the Dock and the Launchpad of apps in the video, or look at the icons for the Address Book and Midori browser on their website. Don't let your anti-Apple sentiments cloud your vision.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593712936
Share on other sites

Honestly, I'm getting sick of the OS X rip-offs too. I don't know if it's because the Linux crowd is out of ideas, it's an easy target to copy, or because it's really that hard to come up with a decent Linux theme. Nevertheless, I think I'm the only one that actually prefers simple, clean, ORIGINAL themes these days. ;)

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593713500
Share on other sites

There's such blatant evidence of copying that it's not even correct to say "inspired". Look at the Dock and the Launchpad of apps in the video, or look at the icons for the Address Book and Midori browser on their website. Don't let your anti-Apple sentiments cloud your vision.

Exactly.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593714432
Share on other sites

^ that's because Mint 10 uses the elementary theme.

And I disagree about Gnome 3/distros and Mac. Sure, some elements are clearly inspired by Mac/Win, but what's wrong with that?

So which is it, you disagree or you agree and there is nothing wrong with it. You can't have it both ways, pick a position and stick to it.

To me if they are going to spin off Ubuntu to make their own operating system then forget it. They should have just stuck to making it a theme.

We need developers to work together towards common goals. Strength in unity. Instead every single month/week a new distro pops up that simply takes the source of a more popular distro adds a few features (which could have been applications / themes for the more popular OS) and package it as a whole new operating system.

Meanwhile consumers who try to use these offshoots get very little support if any at all. It takes a lot of work to do an operating system and just because the source is available doesn't mean you should fork it.

Son, I am disappoint.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593714442
Share on other sites

(...) but some things just evolve on their own and it's pointless arguing about it. (...)

Funny you should say that btw, because for some reason these things in the Linux landscape have a tendency to "evolve on their own" only after Apple introduced it to the public.

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593714474
Share on other sites

I wonder if they'll ever consider making a KDE-based DE.

KDE is too glossy to be a Mac clone. If anything, they'll rip off Windows 7 since a lot of the wanna-be Aero work is already there. If you're going

to copy someone else's design, might as well make it easy on yourself!

I kid, I kid.

I don't know what the Elementary team could do with KDE, but I hope they decide to try anyway. I'm getting sick of the only decent theme being

Air/Oxygen (the default!).

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593718376
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFwHTcSZjAk

the iconset changing via upper menu click. who did that 1st?

other than that, the oversize icons distributed on centered grid reminds me of win3.11

obsnark

but that bgrd music... one of the instruments sounds like a guitar.

And, i'm getting tired of everyone using the ionian mode.

Can't somebody be more original?

Link to comment
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/976602-elementary-os/#findComment-593763976
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Microsoft had to shut down 70+ GitHub repos after getting hacked, brings back some by Aditya Tiwari The self-replicating malware campaign known as Miasma took the open-source world by storm. It was reported that almost 73 Microsoft GitHub repositories were infected by the worm and had to be temporarily shut down to determine how attackers compromised projects and stuffed password-stealing malware in the code. These GitHub repos span across different organizations, including Microsoft Azure, Azure-Samples, Microsoft, and MicrosoftDocs. The malware enabled attackers to steal passwords and credentials when compromised tools were opened in popular AI coding apps, including Claude Code, Gemini CLI, VS Code, and Cursor. The security firm Cloudsmith, malware analysis site OpenSourceMalware, and 404 Media were among the first to report the hack. For background, Miasma is a variant of the Mini Shai-Hulud worm, open-sourced by the threat group TeamPCP. It started its journey by compromising a Red Hat employee's GitHub account to attack the @redhat-cloud-services npm namespace. Earlier this month, Microsoft Threat Intelligence reported that the Miasma attackers published 32 malicious packages across more than 90 versions under the @redhat-cloud-services npm scope to steal cloud credentials. The worm didn't take long to start attacking source repos directly rather than package registries. It is known to skip the npm registry entirely for several targets and plant malicious code straight into public repos like "icflorescu/mantine-datatable." The delivery approach was designed to weaponize AI coding tools. Miasma's malicious payload embedded into projects can trigger automatic code execution when the infected repo is opened in an AI coding tool or IDE. The list of affected projects includes "durabletask", a Python package compromised by TeamPCP a month earlier to deliver an information stealer designed for Linux systems. That said, Microsoft has begun restoring some repos affected by the malware campaign, The Hacker News reports. A company spokesperson stated the following: Microsoft will continue to investigate the attack. It has notified a small number of customers who may have removed their content from the affected repos. The company will reach out to customers again through established support channels "if anything further is identified that requires customer action."
    • Why is Opera doing this notification at all? They have their own extension store. They don't have to obey anything dictated by Google. Others like Brave and Vivaldi that rely on Chrome's extension store, not so much. Firefox is entirely separate as well with its own extensions store. I honestly don't understand why entire world is just insisting on Chrome. Like, why? It's a stupid fat browser with barely any functionality. But sure, it's installed on everything by default. I don't understand how people even use web that's filled with tracking garbage and ads all over the place.
    • Just for anyone reading, AdGuard (the free, standalone MV3 extension) is quite good now, a direct competitor to uBlock Origin Lite and much more built-out than it.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      rubentuben8 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      ARaclen earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      jojodbn earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Month Later
      jojodbn earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      jojodbn earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      531
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      231
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      130
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      88
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      83
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!