elementary OS 6.0 Released For A Meticulously Crafted Linux Desktop

[pracedru]

This is exactly why Gnome 3 is fairly unusable and ugly.

Gnome 2 however had an actual usability study carried out (by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris 10 JDS fork). Gnome 3 never had this. It is just programmers hacking away at what they think is a novelty to use.

I can probably safely say that none of us on these forums would be qualified to design a usable UI system. We are programmers, sysadmins and tech guys. Not UI experts. They would likely be on a different forums and thinking about things more creative than desktop environments

I like gnome 3, Gnome 40 and Elementary OS.
If you feel so strongly about it, then why don't you find some "proper UI experts" and make something better?

[eggbert]

Every single comment on this thread is a complaint of Elementary OS or GNOME smh

That's because they are both garbage.

Also, wtf is an "inclusive" desktop? Frankly, I'm sick of inclusiveness. I actively avoid any product or organization that claims to be inclusive, equitable, or any other idiotic woke buzzword.

[kpedersen]

I like gnome 3, Gnome 40 and Elementary OS.
If you feel so strongly about it, then why don't you find some "proper UI experts" and make something better?

These days i suppose I am. Working on a commercial FreeBSD based DaaS system with a custom desktop. It is basically a clone of Gnome 2 (called Imp) but better encapsulated and portable. An old version can be seen here (https://www.thamessoftware.co.uk/ima...elock/logo.png). These days most things have been re-implemented and the entire desktop environment (incl all programs) can even be compiled into a single static executable because everything is light and small.

The project is not open-source but we have certainly carried out a number of usability tests at schools and universities.

But ultimately, for open-source there is no need to make something new. The older stuff is very maintainable. Open-source is good like that.

A while back I also did start the OpenCDE project. I was fairly happy with it. Then I was contacted by the Open Group, and ICS to help get the actual CDE released open-source and maintained. The rest is very much history.

[horizonbrave]

no COW filesystem
no Wayland
no 2021!

seriously, safety of data and security of the system should be paramount on any decent OS, more than cute factor.

[kpedersen]

Are you sure about that?

So far the data from our research isn’t publicly available, largely because it contains personal information about test participants which can’t be shared. However, we do plan on making a version of the data available, with any identifying information removed.

That is surprising. Did they ever release the data? Just mentioning it on their blog doesn't inspire much confidence to be fair.

This was the one carried out by Sun regarding Gnome 2. (JDS). https://people.gnome.org/~calum/usab...port_main.html

[You-]

I am glad they got this out the door - it will have been a massive effort for a small team.

I wasnt originally a fan of elementary team (they were too opinionated in ways I disliked), but I feel they have been growing into their role.

With the move to flatpak, they also have a major part of their software in order now - it would have been a massive effort moving their ecosystem over, but it should now make things easier for them.

For those who hate them, remember that Elementary have done something others have struggled with: making an app ecosystem that new developers can and do get into. This is huge (and has been helped y their focus on documentation and slimming down developer options).

In relation to Wayland, this release was based on 20.4 LTS, so before Ubuntu's move to Wayland by default. I would expect Wayland to be an option or default next release (which hopefully wont take as long).

Something less commented on that is IMO a huge thing is their release of the mail app. It is a rewrite based on Evolution Data Server. I havent tested it but if done right, it should work as another frontend to Evolution. That is huge.

(I do dislile the padding/margins inelementary. I dont know why, but they looked a little cramped.)

[xhustler]

no COW filesystem
no Wayland
no 2021!

seriously, safety of data and security of the system should be paramount on any decent OS, more than cute factor.

Then you would end up with something that almost no one uses. Remember Linus' dream of Linux as the premier desktop OS - it was crashed by kind of good looking, crappy internals Win 3.1, Win 95, and Win 2K.

[Mez']

I like that it allow users to more easily express themselves, and also make it easier to get and more inclusive.

Even if it's not a distro I'd use I think Flatpak was very good choice and also why I asked about Wayland. It's crucial for sandboxing. These things add up like they'll get full PipeWire when they release 7.0, a year after the next Ubuntu LTS release? I hope I'm wrong.

Real users don't care one bit about sandboxing.
They will just be irritated by the number of issues that come with it (whether it's theming, different folders for personal saves and screenshots, etc...).
I don't want sandboxing, there is only little extra security value to it compared to the drawbacks it comes with. I want consistency and pragmatism.

[r_a_trip]

For those who hate them, remember that Elementary have done something others have struggled with: making an app ecosystem that new developers can and do get into. This is huge (and has been helped y their focus on documentation and slimming down developer options).

I don't hate them, but they are definitely not on my radar as an option. When they were a lot smaller then they are now, they had the audacity to call their potential customers "freeloaders", because these "freeloaders" took them up on their offer to get Elementary for free. Yes I know. Old stuff and they profusely made half-arsed apologies and the damage control spin was a sight to behold.

I was at that time mildly interested and willing to check it out. Then the "freeloader" incident took place. So they are off the menu. I don't need my OS vendor to have disdain for me. If I want to feel lesser, I would be running Windows.

So app developers on Elementary have no impact on my computing. I will never look at Elementary for any use.

[botsAndRoses]

Nice! Not my cup of tea but looks like they've come a long way since 5.0. I think Flatpack makes a lot of sense for the ecosystem they're building. I wonder if they've entertained the idea of rebasing on Fedora Silverblue? Probably not -- would be a ton of work, I'm sure -- but would be cool.