- #Elementary os desktop for free#
- #Elementary os desktop install#
- #Elementary os desktop software#
- #Elementary os desktop iso#
- #Elementary os desktop plus#
Initially I had some problems with the icons due to using my home area from a previous desktop environment.
Pictures are worth a thousand words, so I'll start with a screenshot of my Pantheon desktop: elementary comes with some nice background images. After booting the new environment for the first time I added my home drive to fstab and crypttab, rebooted and I was good to go. It then sat running in the background and all was well.
#Elementary os desktop plus#
This was a painless process and involved specifying my destination disk (The M.2 SATA drive in my laptop), a username plus a couple of options.
#Elementary os desktop iso#
I burnt the elementary OS 5.1 "Hera" (based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS) installation ISO to DVD and booted from it to run the installer. My home area is on a separate encrypted disk so I wasn't concerned about data loss.
#Elementary os desktop software#
The most important thing for me was taking a list of my installed software ( apt list -installed), and backing up /etc/fstab and /etc/crypttab so I could put everything back quickly. I'd installed Ubuntu on the laptop previously when I moved away from NixOS and I wasn't worried about hardware compatibility because elementary is based on Ubuntu.
#Elementary os desktop install#
Having tried elementary in a virtual machine I didn't feel I was getting the best experience of it, so decided to install the OS on my laptop. My main reason for wanting to try elementary was to try Pantheon, which is based on Gnome software libraries such as GTK. Whereas Gnome 3 is a staple of the Linux world, and seems to have overtaken KDE, elementary shuns the Gnome Desktop Manager and Gnome Desktop Environment in favour of their own: Pantheon. One of the most obvious differences with elementary OS is the desktop environment. Note though that payment is not mandatory, and the organisation does acknowledge that not everyone can afford to pay. Initially I only wanted to test this Linux version so I think I paid a whole $10 for a perpetual licence. They encourage payment because it helps developers of both the OS and their curated apps have the time to spend on development. elementary offer the operating system on a pay what you want basis, which has attracted some criticism as it's not immediately clear you can specify $0. What is elementary OS?Įlementary OS is Linux distribution based on Ubuntu's Long Term Support branch and brands itself as a "fast, open, and privacy-respecting replacement for Windows and macOS". In this post I'll cover my first impressions of the environment but I'll dive into more detail in future posts. elementary uses a different desktop environment to I'm used to (Gnome 3 was my previous) and I wanted to check it out. So if that matters to you, Pantheon is more than worth a look.I've been following the progress of elementary OS (yes, their brand is to use a lower case e) for some time, ever since Cassidy James Blaede crossed my Twitter feed. macOS is the only operating system you will find in a big box store where all the interface elements fit together this well. Chrome OS has little impact on how web apps are made. This degree of focus doesn't merely stand out compared to other Linux distributions, but to mainstream commercial operating systems as well. The Elementary team put heavy emphasis on their human interface guidelines, and this provides for a consistent and attractive experience throughout. This minimalist design is great if you don't want to give much thought to anything other than the task at hand.Īnd frankly, many people simply find Pantheon nice to look at. The experience takes mere seconds to figure out. Like the bulk of Elementary OS, Pantheon is simple. Pantheon is ideal for people who want a desktop environment to be as straightforward as possible. Their creation, Pantheon, is written in GTK+ and Vala. Elementary OS founder Daniel Fore and others knew they couldn't shift GNOME in the direction they were interested in, so they used many of the same building blocks to create something of their own.
#Elementary os desktop for free#
Pantheon was less of an alternative to Unity than it was to GNOME, one of the oldest and most established desktop environments for free and open source desktops. The design encouraged people to find and open software by searching. That interface had a panel across the top and a distinctive dock of icons down the left side of the screen.
At the time, it used a desktop environment known as Unity. If that name is unfamiliar, Ubuntu is widely considered the most popular version of Linux for personal computers.
Pantheon began as an alternative interface that people could install for Ubuntu. The developers behind Elementary OS are the same people behind Pantheon. Unlike most other desktop environments, Pantheon is closely tied to a specific Linux operating system (more commonly known as a "distribution" or "distro").