Elementary OS 6.1 released

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crosscourt
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Elementary OS 6.1 released

Post by crosscourt »

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wove
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Re: Elementary OS 6.1 released

Post by wove »

I have always like Elementary OS. I have supported the project in the past. The one thing that keeps me from using it, is the lack of global file search. It is my main method of getting anything open and going through application menus to find an app, then opening a document from the app, is just a longer process than it needs to be. Elementary does keep adding bits and bobs to the application menu search function. They added doing math functions, which is fine I guess, but why would a user open the application menu to do math functions?

The software center is as nice as you will find. However by default it only shows Elementary Apps, and to use flatpaks you need to manually install the system. To install the general Ubuntu software you will need to add repositories, then either use the command line to install software or install Synaptic for a GUI.

Working in Elementary is very nice. It uses Granite as a window manager. It follows gnome with dynamic workspace that can be easily swiped between via touch or trackpad or there are keyboard shortcuts as well. Applications have an easy affinity for going full screen and have simple clean title bars, with menus hiding behind the "hamburger" icon. Contrast is very good, and accessibility settings make it easy to adjust for failing eye sight.

It is based on Ubuntu LTS releases and usually lags far behind Ubuntu in releases. It took Elementary ~9 months to get their V6 out based on 20.04. Their DE is rolling (slowly) as new features are push out as they become available. It uses Epiphany as the default browser, which does not seem to be appreciated by anybody. Code is their text editor and it is a forked version of Gedit. They have created their own Mail, Photos and other apps, which are forked from Geary(Mail), Photos(Shotwell), Calendar(Gnome-Calendar). Some of their apps seem quite good. Mail for instance is a very nice email client, others like Code strike me as a bother to use.

It is solid and stable. It has a very consistent UI, whose behaviors are well documented, with Elementary Apps from the App Center vetted to insure they follow the UI guide lines. That makes it easy to sort it out getting started, but if you wish to customize it, that can be somewhere between hard and impossible. I read a review of Elementary the other day saying it was probably the finest example of Linux distro designed specifically to make the casual computer user comfortable and competent.
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