The latest version of elementary os (Luna) is based on Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS) and it has taken over 2 years of heavy development to get to the stable final release. Much effort has been put in to ensure that it is both elegant and user-friendly. Elementary OS doesn’t promote itself as a Linux distro. In fact, if you visit its homepage, you will only find the mention of “Linux” at the very end of the page and it is only mentioned once. Other than that, it has been promoting itself as a beautiful, open and speedy alternative OS to Windows and Mac OS X. Downloading elementary os is free, but it will prompt you to donate $10 (or more) to support its development. Unlike Ubuntu or Linux Mint, you don’t get many “favour” of the OS. There is only one Elementary OS, available for both 32 and 64 bit.

The desktop environment used in elementary os is a custom-built DE known as Pantheon. It comes with a top panel (Wingpanel) with beautifully designed app icons. The date/time applet is in the center and the Application menu is on the left corner. At the bottom is a dock (Plank) with applications.

The application menu, when clicked, show a popup window of your apps icons. You can either click the page number to scroll through the apps, or search for the app in the search bar. You can also click the menu icon to display the app category.

Unlike most distro that come with many applications pre-installed, elementary os only comes with a basic necessary apps. The apps include:

Midori – browser Files – file manager Software Center Noise – Music player Totem – Movie Player Empathy – IM client Geary – Email client Shotwell – image viewer and editor

Yes, missing from the list is a proper Office suite. LibreOffice, or Abiword, is not installed by default. This is not a big deal though, since you can easily install it from the Software Center. To configure Elementary OS, most of its settings are centrally located at the System Settings (also known as the Switchboard). Here is where you can configure anything from keyboard, Desktop, network to startup applications.

While using Elementary OS, there are some controversies which you might be happy, or annoyed with. First of all, you won’t be able to place anything on the desktop. You won’t even find a “Desktop” folder in the file manager. Yes, you can create a “Desktop” folder manually, but placing files in it won’t make them show up on the Desktop. For those who love a clean desktop, this is useful, but for those who use the desktop extensively to store temporary files, this will not go well with you. Secondly, there is no maximize and minimize button for every app window. All you have is a close button at the left corner and a Full screen toggle button at the right corner. While they have a reason to do so, many will still be bothered by the lack of option to bring the buttons back.

Thirdly, the file manager (Files) is heavily stripped down to provide only the essential stuff. You won’t find any menu or Preferences to configure it. No “Delete” option (only “Move to Trash”), no status bar and no Desktop. There is also no options to bring them back.

Fourthly, it is pretty obvious that Workspace is not an emphasis of the OS as it is not visible and easily accessible anywhere in the OS. It is not even mentioned anywhere in the OS or the site. And if you try to use the default keyboard shortcut to switch workspace (Ctrl + Alt + arrow), you will find that it won’t work at all. The keyboard shortcuts have been remapped for WorkSpace to resemble how Expose in Mac OS X works.

Also, instead of “Super” key, elementary os is using the “Command” symbol in Mac OS X in place of the Super/Windows key. Using the unfamiliar shortcut key or the hot corner is the best way to work with Workspace.

Conclusion

It is obvious that the developers of elementary os is not keen to create a distro that can please everyone. Just by looking at the changes they made to the OS, it is clear that they have put in a lot of thoughts into it and implement the stuff that they think will benefit the users. You may not agree with all the changes they implemented, but there is no denying that the result is a beautiful, minimal and yet functional OS. One thing though, I still prefer to have icons on my Desktop. What about you?