eOS - The start of something great?

Within distributions based on Ubuntu, a star with its own light has been born. And this system has a lot going for it.

Elementary OS, just a rumor

Even before someone talked about the Moon or Jupiter, there was a work team that carried out a set of icons that had a large group of followers, who understood in their conversations with advanced and experienced Linux users, that one of the main pitfalls for new Linux users it was how unpolished the user interface was.

From there the Nautilus-Elementary project was born, which was nothing more than a patch that included very interesting options for the GNOME file explorer, which became very popular and ended up inspiring the development of Marlin.

9 months with elementary OS luna

I have tried many Linux environments and their distributions since 2008, and honestly when I used eOS Luna beta1 in the now so distant December 2012, I felt instantly at home.

A nice, homely, friendly and intuitive place. It first became my distro on my compaq515 notebook and now it's on all my machines, my i7 desktop, my girlfriend's netbook, a few relatives' PCs, and the occasional keen Linux customer.

Based on Ubuntu 12.04, it differs greatly from this in so many ways that it surprises those who are fed up with Ubuntu distros. I have always loved Debian, I love and would love for the eOS team to integrate their desktop into the Debian foundation. But for now I am not going to deprive myself of using eOS.

Starting with the elementary OS boot screen, it remains consistent and amazes you from the first impression. Its level of refinement sets it apart from any other distro. The session login is LightDM and it looks good like this, very similar to Ubuntu (I think it is the same). Its startup speed is average and fluctuating,

Aseptic, Minimalist, the desk that always looks good

Is there something simpler and usable today?

Interface design and user experience

The menu is simple, it allows us to search for applications, see categories, it is designed so that the mouse travels less on the screen, it has classic concepts from the world of mobile operating systems, I prefer it to the old GNOME menu, to the GNOME Shell, to the den from Unity, to the Windows menu, to the Mac applications folder or your modern Launchpad, and to the Mint Menu. It does its job and only the famous Synapse or Gnome-Do style launchers beat it.

Luna's Dock is apparently simpler, but it is only responsible for adjusting the size of the icons so that they fit on the screen, it has some themes based on CSS which makes it very easy to modify or create a new one, I personally have put a little hand ...

It also has Quicklist support, loading bar, notification number, which makes it feel robust, well integrated, complete and sophisticated, it lacks some keyboard shortcuts. That is if by doing Alt + Tab we can see that it is well integrated into the system.

Hot corners are also a good feature, I used to use them for my clients to discover beneficial features in their workflow. By default they come without configuring but it is very easy to find their configuration and configure it, you can find them in System Preferences> Desktop

One of the most beautiful additions to this desktop is the dynamic handling of the work areas, very fluid and easy to understand. It seems consistent to me but not very surprising compared to the Gnome Shell dynamic handler. However, it maintains the same essence of look and feel of the entire system.

Default application selection

Marlin, ... I mean Files

Here all the look and feel of OSx thick shot, if there is anything to applaud the eOS team is that they implemented the tabs first, I still do not know what the "little piece" of garbage in the corner is for.

I have never dared to press it ... For users who are used to using a single click (that is, not double click) it is the glory. Fast functional, great design, I didn't know how much I liked the column view, I didn't even use it in KDE.

What has bothered me is the impossibility of connecting to external servers or to my cell phone via SSH as I always do, but that I suppose, these are necessary for more advanced users and it always has a more transparent handling from the terminal. Otherwise this is a 10 point app. Very attentive to details, with smooth animations and even fun. A whole box of surprises.

Midori

This web browser is too green to be used by someone who knows Firefox, Chrome or Opera, perhaps it is something useful for someone who comes from a cell phone or a tablet or Internet Explorer, which if you notice that it is integrated, because at finishing a download notifies you using the desktop system and shows you its progress in the Dock, but it's too poor.

He means well, maybe one day he will shine with his own light. The interesting thing is that it is based on Webkit and is lightweight, ideal for low-performance machines, although I don't know if it is for this environment. But nevertheless I have never criticized an environment or a distro for its browser, Windows has its IE, OSx its Safari, KDE its Reqonk, and I always end up downloading Firefox on all systems.

Geary

Geary is a thin mail client, and when I say thin it is really light, it doesn't have POP support! However, for someone who uses Gmail as their preferred service, they will be more than happy to not have to load the heavy Gmail interface in their web browser every time they want to check an email.

I have entrusted Geary with my Gmail accounts, it is more comfortable and effective and integrated than Mozilla Thunderbird.

Maya

Maya is perhaps one of the most useless applications, it does not synchronize, it does not print my calendars well, a great interface that is only that, the least polished piece of eOS.

Music

My second favorite application is undoubtedly Noise (now I think it's called music) it works really well, it's completely integrated into the system, in the sound menu, it has a great design, automatic lists, equalizer (something very rare in Linux), compatibility with last.fm, which allows us to discover which of our library are similar.

And by the way it recommends new themes, list view, album view, search, in short it passes the rag to all gtk-based music applications.

scratch

Scratch is undoubtedly the darling of eOS, at first it seems simple and bland, but its full compatibility with Gedit plugins and the battery of plugins that it includes makes it a suitable environment for development, nothing to envy to proprietary options such as SublimeText I recommend it with its plugins activated.

It also recognizes all the most common programming languages, you save a file only once and it is saved as you write, it is quite cool.

And well, any environment can be good or bad, there are people who can live only with the tty, luckily we have Linux that gave us freedom and elementary OS moon.