What should you expect from elementary OS? Is it still around? I answer some of those questions here.

elementary OS may not be as much as popular as it used to be.

That being said, elementary OS 8 release is still on the horizon with some useful changes based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

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However, amidst disagreement between co-founders during the pandemic in 2022, co-founder Cassidy quit the elementary OS team.

Right after that, the development pace took a big hit, and we saw elementary OS 7 being released almost a year after Ubuntu 22.04 LTS came up.

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A good indicator about its development activity is its upcoming major release, elementary OS 8, based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

I took a sneak peek at it using the daily build, and elementary OS 8 is almost ready to have an RC release.

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You can expect things like:

  • The settings app handles system updates (instead of AppCenter)
  • AppCenter is now Flatpak only
  • New toggle menu icon giving you easy access to the screen reader, onscreen keyboard, font size, and other system settings
  • WireGuard VPN support
  • merthyr1831@lemmy.mlEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    Fucking hell you could cut the Reddit-tier snark with a knife.

    BSD is more binary compatible than Windows. The fact there’s less MacOS ports on Linux seems to me like a lack of resources, but if you have a reason beyond 🤓☝️ then I’m genuinely interested.

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      12·
      2 months ago

      In what way?

      The binary formats are not compatible, not even the format of the files themselves. Linux uses ELF. MacOS uses MachO.

      True, macOS is more or less POSIX at the base but the API Mac applications are written to is not that at all ( Cocoa ). GNUstep exists for a reason. Sadly, it is not very mature. It is certainly not a trivial undertaking though as there have been a number of attempts over decades and nobody has really pulled it off.

      The Win32 API on the other hand has largely been implanted on Linux. A few Win32 APIs are even being added to the kernel.

      Going the other way is easier. You can port POSIX stuff to macOS fairly easily.

  • Roopappy@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    2 months ago

    I’n using Elementary OS right now. It’s been my daily driver for several years on a low powered laptop as a Chromebook replacement. I run browser, messaging, and occasionally some light photo or audio editing.

    No complaints. Works great. Solid. Looks great. If you have a similar use case, I recommend it. All of the people ITT talking about what’s wrong with it have not changed my mind that it’s just what I need.

  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
    6·
    2 months ago

    They released their desktop environment publicly, which imo was the main reason to use it

    I never found elementary really worked that well for me, though pantheon is lovely

  • Raccoonn@lemmy.ml
    2·
    2 months ago

    I really want to love Elementary OS, however, its foundation on Ubuntu has me hesitating, as I’m not the biggest fan of Ubuntu lately. If it were built on something like Debian or Fedora, I’d definitely be more inclined to give it a serious try…