Elementary OS Jupiter Review
So!.. you probably have heard of the news about the first release of Elementary OS, which is what everyone is talking about around the Linux community, yup! what used to be an iconset / theme is now it's own Linux distro. Based on Ubuntu, featuring Gnome 2.32.0 . So I decided to give it a try, and share the experience.
I booted Elementary OS using a USB drive on my Samsung N148 netbook. At the very first look the interface is quite simplistic ; you notice Docky 2.1.2 at the bottom (which is a nice touch), gnome-panel at the top and Elementary iconset / theme installed and applied.
I opened the Appearance Settings from the menu (which is unaccessible by right clicking on the desktop as I expected) and found a nice set of wallpapers which appear to be picked with care. But the theme tab is surprisingly empty.
The distro seems to focus on simplicity and minimalism more than anything else, which shows obviously in the amount of applications that are installed by default; you only find in it what you would Really need in a desktop OS; Midori 0.3.2 as the internet browser, Shotwell 0.7.2 as the image viewer, Empathy 2.32.1 as the instant messaging program, Abiword 2.8.6 as the word processor, Nautilus Elementary 2.32.2 (which is a patched version of Nautilus to match its simplistic interface) as the file manager. You'd also find Elementary tools such as DeXster and Lingo 11.03.2 the online dictionary. Luckily enough, Ubuntu Software Center 3.0.7 is installed by default so you can grab and install the programs that you need in few clicks.
The Multimedia codecs in this distro are not installed by default. On the other hand, when you're installing the system , the installer suggests the option of installing MP3 codecs. better than having no codecs at all.
generally the distro is designed avoiding any complexes in its interface which is suitable for a netbook OS with limited resolution (a bit too simple actually , on the account of utility) , but is it any deferent than any Gnome powered distro? Frankly, no. Elementary OS was a big disappointment for many,I think of it as showcase of Elementary stuff not an OS that I'd actually use on my machine. So, I'm better off installing Ubuntu and having Elementary installed installed on top of that.
However, it's too early to judge on it yet, as it's still a young distro. and it will probably gain more attention and have many developers join the project as time goes by. So, we'll see what those guys are going to come up with in future releases, because the concept behind it is quite great, they only need to set distinct borders between their distro and Ubuntu, and have their unique way of doing things.
Se7en aka Archangel
