It’s been a month since I’m running elementary Luna on my main laptop, an Acer Aspire 4741. I was tempted to have a look initially when I heard about it’s sleek UI. I thought I should give it a try & see if elementary could be enlisted among distro-suggestions. Usually when people ask me about a simple-to-use Linux distribution, I refer them to Linux Mint. With a simplistic design, Linux Mint Cinnamon helps Windows users migrate smoothly.
elementary OS has been built on the robust Ubuntu 12.04. It thus inherits the stability and vast hardware support available from the Ubuntu base.
Installation was painless as it’s based on Ubuntu’s Ubiquity. Hardware recognition & installation was flawless.
Once installed, my jaw dropped at the UI. You don’t often see such a sleek user interface all while preserving speed. Yeah baby! elementary rocks! It comes with a modified Gnome Shell called Pantheon. It’s beautiful. In the beginning the team developed a couple of applications targeted at Ubuntu. They ended rolling their own distribution.
So far I haven’t had any trouble or bug encounter. I like the simplicity & speed. Oh! I need to say elementary does not come with heavy applications. You might not see Firefox, LibreOffice etc. Instead you’ll find lightweight applications such as Midori Browser, Scratch (instead of Gedit), Geary Mail etc. Installing your favorite apps shouldn’t be a pain though. Just fire up a terminal session & apt-get your stuffs. You may also install through the Software Center, it’s graphical & should be easier if you want to wander around for a while.
Software center
Applications developed by the team are :
- Pantheon Greeter: Session manager based on LightDM.
- Wingpanel: Top panel, similar in function to GNOME Shell’s top panel.
- Slingshot: Application launcher located in WingPanel.
- Plank: Dock based on Docky.
- Switchboard: Settings application (or control panel)
- Midori: Web browser based on WebKit.
- Geary: Email client.
- Calendar (a.k.a. Maya): Desktop calendar.
- Music (a.k.a. Noise): Audio player.
- Scratch: Simple text editor, comparable to gedit or Notepad
- Pantheon Terminal: Terminal emulator.
- Pantheon Files: File manager.