elementaryOS 7: Still Not Good

Today I talk about elementaryOS 7 and why they still have a big problem and why I can't recommend it to anyone.
👇 PULL IT DOWN FOR THE GOOD STUFF 👇

===== Follow us 🐧🐧 ======

==== Special Thanks to Our Patrons! ====

==== Referenced ====

#rant #elementaryos #thelinuxcast

[ArniesTech]

THANK YOU. Finally someone mentions it. No matter how easy of a one click it is to enable some repository... If the user has to do it, it's a fail. The user doesnt know what a repository is, what Flathub is, and he doesnt have to. 99, 999% of all users Just want their system to work and to do what they want it to do. No tinkering, no Wiki, nothing. 🙏

[modelkitbeginner]

No distro should try to stop users to install any software they want, be it open source or not. This is a societal issue where it is accepted that people are forced to do "what is good". This decision should not be up to social networks, tech giants or Linux. The power should be in the hands of the user and if your values are valid they will be followed. If there are legal issues or if you are a test bed for a commercial Linux distro, ie Fedora, I understand. Otherwise, leave it to the users.

[cejannuzi]

They should take a look at how Zorin integrates both Snap and Flatpak into its software center, such that the noob doesn't really need to know even what they are.

[donaldmickunas]

Bottom line, Elementary OS isn’t elementary. IF its target is new Linux users, then it should just work out of the box with a suite of pre-installed packages like a browser and an office suite. As it is, it’s a fail. The developers are shooting themselves in their collective feet. You cannot monetize an OS that doesn’t attract and keep users. Their reputation in the Linux community is no longer a good one. They need to rethink their approach quickly.

[ShaneSemler]

I really liked ElementaryOS but it was just too restrictive. It wasn't long after that I switched to Manjaro. I've been using Manjaro for years, and I'm happy with it. I much prefer the rolling release model. I suspect once a new Linux user becomes familiar with the Linux world, they'll get annoyed with eOS and look for something with more options. And it's a shame because their DE is really nice.

[MartinEvans]

That's a good opinion of it, a few seem to be questioning the choice not to enable flathub by default. Thanks for all the vids Matt!

[jamiedrinkell]

I've been using elementaryOS for a week, coming from Ubuntu and Linux Mint.

It's absolutely beautiful, but like the other Linux OSes I've used it's not all plain sailing. I had weird issues with Plank, when I did install Firefox it wouldn't match the OS layout, and other niggles. All fixable with google-fu and basic Linux knowledge, but I agree it's not "beginner friendly". Gnome Web as a default browser sucks, but I do actually like "light mode"...

The thing is, I had to learn said google-fu with Mint and Ubuntu for fixing their niggles. Coming with that experience which makes such issues easy to fix, the OS is beautiful. I'm hopeful for it's future.

[guymerritt]

I like Elementary but I can't even install newer versions. I get the dreaded message about not being able to read from the media, although, in reality that is some ancient, stock message and the problems have nothing to do with the media. It's just some kind of hardware compatibility thing.

[phonewithoutquestion]

It's a shame ElementaryOS can't seem to catch onto the importance of discoverability, because Pantheon is a pretty excellent desktop.

As someone who is taking a break from (extensive) customization, only changing the accent color automatic to your wallpaper choice is a simple but nice touch. All in all the discoverability issue remains at large, so I wouldn't consider this a "big improvement" for that quirk alone. Sad, because other applications legitimately got improved with less incentive to outright replace them.

[chairman]

Matt, your thoughts on E-OS are exactly what I wanted to hear ! Delivering the truth !!.. thanks :)

[DashieTM]

I 100% agree with you, the entire "we do not enable it by default" pisses me off on so many distros. Just do it.

[lohroc]

I think the reason it's not enabled by default is because the Flathub applications don't conform to the design guidelines of Elementary OS.

[handdarahanddara-nrfu]

Bro only 6 minutes in but this is so well articulated, yeah this may be easy for me because I’ve been in the Linux ecosystem for a while but I’m looking at elementary OS to put on my partners old Mac, and it’s these sorts of issues with Linux distributions that really make me frustrated when trying to recommend a new user to Linux because I know that it’ll just halt my friends progress during the switch, and even if it’s not for long or it’s easy it still kills momentum

[miljantrajkovic]

GNOME 40+ basically destroyed all need for Pantheon and eOS. AppCenter was great, back then, but now with Gnome Software and Discovery slowing improving, they aren't providing anything new.

[tabletaccountforyoutube]

I don't know if this is still the case, but last time I tried Elementary OS the default browser was Epiphany which is IMO just an unacceptable choice. Obviously you can install whatever browser you want but when a distro doesn't make good choices for sane defaults then it really doesn't inspire confidence in the developers.

[sagichdirdochnicht]

The reason they do this, as far as I know, is to only have curated apps on the store by default, to keep the look coherent.

Still a poor argument, if you don't have enough apps for a complete ecosystem.

[tticoat]

Did You say "Manpower" in minute 9 ?

[Xmetalfanx]

I have never cared for it but I always tried to do Elementary "their way" when i tried it (I probably will try E 7 ) the app center especially on a fresh install kept having issue and while i am a "CLI guy" ... other app centers like in Neon, Linux Mint or just Gnome Software on distros ... I have had never had the issues that Elenentary's Software Center has had like the last 3+ versions

[Xmetalfanx]

at the very LEAST I'd say put an option in the installer to enable flathub and let the user decide (*** fully explaining wtf Flathub is to the user).

I admit I haven't used Fedora in a bit but i respect the way they do things and before it was EOL (i think it was a one guy team) even Fedora kept giving credit and "Congrats on the new release" to the one Fedora spin I know of ... Korora ... basically Fedora with at the time Numix themes and icons and RPMFusion by default ...BASICALLY Fedora with what most Fedora users do to Fedora after a fresh install anyway. I am not sure i like the theming but Gecko Linux is the same sort of thing for OpenSUSE... it's the base distro (Leap or Tumbleweed) with what users typically do to it by default like add the packman repo

[EverydayLinuxUser]

I did a review of Elementary OS 6 on my channel and said virtually the same as what you just said.

They don't make it obvious enough to new users how to obtain popular software packages.

It is the complete opposite to Ubuntu which has a different version of hell where their repositories contain so many junk snap packages that don't work.

If they flicked the switch to enable flathub or made that button big and bright to make it obvious then it would be one of the most usable out of the box experiences available because the desktop is just beautiful.

Check out how MX Linux deals with package management. that is how it should be done