elementary OS is MORE than a Linux distribution...

hey guys this is nick and welcome to my linux experiment it's no secret that i'm a big fan of elementor aos and it's not just because i think it's a beautiful desktop that is slick and simple but it's also because i think the team behind this distro is trying to build something more than just yet another take on the linux desktop so i think it's time we take a look at what makes elementary os more than just another linux distribution let's start right after this skillshare is an online learning community that gets you access to thousands of classes to learn a new skill master a new hobby or just improve on something that you already know real world skills are otherwise learning about linux for example is easy thanks to a bunch of courses on improving your skills on the command line becoming a sysadmin or just generally learning more about linux's internals personally i'm taking these classes on color correction in davinci resolve skillshare is affordable with free account creation and your access to skillshare premium being only eight dollars a month this gives you access to all the chapters in all the classes and offline viewing now the first thousand subscribers that click the link in the description below will get a free trial of skillshare premium so head over there and start learning okay the first reason is the pantheon desktop pantheon is the desktop environment for elementor ios contrary to popular belief it is not a spin on gnome 3 with a few extensions it is built out of gdk for sure but it is not based on gnome shell and the default programs that ship with elementary os are custom made for elementary in the most part there are some exceptions like epiphany like the document viewer and some other bits and pieces out there but generally most applications that ship by default as well as the panel and the dock are custom built for elementary os that's they form the desktop environment called pantheon so at first glance it looks very similar to what mac os 10 would do but in use you notice a ton of small differences that make pantheon really its own spin on the dark and top panel set of rules and the interesting thing about pantheon is that it is mostly exclusive to elementary os the code is open source of course anyone could compile it and try to run it on another distro but no other distro really does shape a version of pantheon which is complete with all the bells and whistles and the app center that elementary os offers more on that later this is a very peculiar place to be in for a desktop environment because you've got your gnome kde cinnamon like mate xfc whatever all of these other desktop environments are generally easy to install on other distributions but pantheon is not something that other distros ship and i think there's something about the library versions that they use to build their desktop and they're building it on older versions of gdk and as such it would be a problem a compatibility problem to ship that on other distributions i think there's an issue like that but it still puts elementary os in its own category because it's virtually the only distro that ships pantheon in a complete state now the fact that elementor os has its own desktop environment also means that they have their own set of guidelines and sure these are super close to what gnome offers in terms of guidelines to create an application that looks and feels native to the desktop environment there's mostly header bars buttons in the header bars it's it's a simple thing there are a few little differences between the gnome apps and the elementor ios apps in terms of icon design and in terms of symbolic icons or not but generally they are very similar which means that gnome applications will mostly look at home on elementor os and elementor us design apps will look mostly at home on gnome as well now the second reason why elementor os stands apart is its app center and in and of itself the app center is just another graphical way to install applications it's not a package manager because you can't search for libraries through it but you can install drivers and every single graphical app that you might want is available in there now since elementor os is based on ubuntu the latest ubuntu lts it means that you can install virtually any single piece of software that is available for ubuntu through the app center but it also offers applications specifically designed for elementor ios and we'll talk about them in the next point but where the app center is really interesting on elementor ios and where it's really different from other desktop installers software like like the gnome software all the kde applications what's his name discover that's it discover yes okay so compared to discover or gnome software the app center offers a payment method this is something that has been controversial because lots of people seem to think that open source equals free as in free beer like everything should be free and not paid for and that's a huge misconception there is nothing preventing somebody from doing an open source application and asking people to pay for it and that's exactly what elementary os allows developers to do with a specific twist on it and it's the pay what you want model this model allows the developer to set an asking price let's say for example five dollars but a user can decide to give the developer whatever it wants it can be zero dollars it can be a hundred dollars there's no limit you could say i want to pay this app a thousand dollars if you want you could or you could just say i don't know if i'm gonna like this app i'm gonna give zero dollars for now and if i like it i can always pay for it later this model is very interesting because it works within the open source development thing like generally if you're creating an open source app the convenience of having the package is what you're paying for like having a pre-compiled package to download and install is generally what you're paying for because if you don't want to buy the package you can always compile the code yourself it can be tricky not every single user will be able to do it and elementor os allows users to kind of breach that barrier like hey okay developers you want some money for your hard work it's normal but i also want to make sure that the application suits a purpose for me before i buy it elementor ios is the only distribution where you can do that and it's virtually the only distribution where you can actually buy software from a developer every other distro doesn't have something that you can pay for and it's really strange to me now the third reason why elementor us is specifically positioned in terms of being a platform more than a distribution is with its own app ecosystem and sdk having its own guidelines and its own desktop environment elementor os also has its own application ecosystem and you might think well you can just use any other app so why would you bother developing specifically for elementary os and that question has an answer 173 i think or 178 apps have been specifically made for elementor os with their design guidelines in mind so sure these are simple one purpose apps in true unix philosophy but they are awesome they look good they work well and they fill their purpose really handily so you're not getting anything as complex as or kryta or only office or open office libreoffice whatever there's no super complex programs in there but some ideas are big like for example akira which aims to be a competitor to sketch and sure it's still in alpha but it's super promising and you also have some really well-designed applications like planner which is basically the best to-do list management or project management application that you can get on linux period these all emanated from the elementor ios app center and the elementor os guidelines and now these apps can be developed using the elementor os sdk sdk is a big word it's basically a meta package you can install that installs all the libraries that you could use to develop an elementor ios app elementary apps are developed mostly using vala which is the language that they recommend and also using gtk and the granite library which is something that the elementor ios team has added on top of the gdk widgets to offer more possibilities and more integration with the elementary os look and feel now the fourth reason why elementary os is kind of specific in the linux distribution world is its semi-rolling release method and elementary os is not the only distribution working like that the most simple example is also kde neon these distributions work with a stable base that only gets security patches and some hardware enablement updates to support more newer hardware like later on but generally they get their desktop and the desktop environment gets updates in a rolling release fashion that's what elementor us does it's based on the ubuntu lts base which is for now 18.04 but will be 20.04 when elementary was six odin releases and on top of that they add regular updates generally monthly to the desktop environment so as soon as it's ready you get the update you get the new features you get the improvements to the applications bit by bit and through the lifetime of the distro you get updates to the features this is interesting because you don't have to change a complete version to get some new features you just wait until they're ready and then you get them compare that to for example ubuntu where you only get updates to the desktop environment when there's a new release coming out so for example using 20.04 to go to the next version of gnome you'll have to move to 20.10 fully rolling releases like arch or manjaro for example do the same thing but they also add the updates to the base itself which can create stability issues and problems that you wouldn't have if you had been using an lts base so sure there's a trade-off in terms of hardware support and in terms of the newer features that the linux kernel will support but generally if an lts works on your hardware right now and you're not buying any new hardware you don't really need to upgrade your base apart from the security updates that you get using a semi-rolling release like eddie neo on all elementary ones the newer features in the natives kernel are generally small incremental improvements and won't bring your computer to new heights of performance so unless you're changing hardware like graphics hardware stuff like that you're not really going to need to update your base that often and that's where the semi-rolling release model of elementor os or kd neon comes into play okay so elementor os has its own desktop environment it has its own app center well app store the software distribution method at least it has its own payment model it has its own app ecosystem and sdk and it's got a semi-rolling release model where users can get the latest features every time that they do a system update what does that mean how is that different from other distros well it means that elementor ios is uniquely positioned to not be just another linux desktop distro it's actually a platform it's a platform for developers to develop applications it's a platform for users to keep using that system and the desktop getting updates not having to wait too long and having some specific features that you cannot find elsewhere and the best thing is this platform is open developers that decide to code their application for elementor os can also distribute them and they do on other software distribution platforms most of the elementor-specific apps are also available on flat hub or through app images you can get these applications without using elementor os but the best experience with these applications and the best system integration will be on elementor ios it's a win-win situation for users and for developers but there's still a bit of an issue elementary os is not independent they are based on ubuntu and on the ubuntu lts basis this means that if ubuntu makes a decision for example to completely remove all 32-bit packages from the repos elementor os will have to follow suit because they don't have their own repos they don't have their own base that they completely customize they don't build their own packages they're going to be dependent on what ubuntu does and they could always move to another base but it's going to be tricky and it's going to imply a lot of underlying changes to be completely independent as a platform elementor os should have its own base its own base made from scratch its own packages system its own repositories but i really don't see them doing that anytime soon it's a lot of work the team is still pretty small in terms of employees for the elementorius company and it would bring no benefit apart from not suffering dire consequences if ubuntu ever makes a decision that the elementary team doesn't agree with now apart from that the elementary os team has it in the back they have their own app center their own app ecosystem which is growing they have their own platform as an sdk they have their own desktop experience which is in my opinion the best for any kind of beginner or beginner user and the most simple to use so generally elementary os is at a unique position to become something more than just another linux desktop distro they can exist on the margins of what other distributions are doing and i think that's super important and that's it for this video guys i hope you enjoyed if you did don't mistake to like or dislike if you didn't if you really did like the video you can always subscribe and turn on notifications so you can receive more videos like this one and if you want to help support the channel you can join my amazing patreon subscribers and youtube members and get access to a weekly exclusive patreon cast and the right to vote on the next topics i'll cover thank you guys for watching i'll see you in the next one bye [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Linux Experiment

Views: 93,635

Keywords: linux, elementary os, open source, distribution, linux distro, linux help, linux tutorial 2019, Linux 2019, linux 2020, elementary OS 6, elementary OS odin, elementary OS 6 odin, elementary OS 6 early access, elementary OS new theme, elementary odin, elementary 6, elementary OS new tasks app, elementary OS 6 review, elementary OS 6 alpha, elementary OS distro, elementary distribution, mac os elementary OS, elementary OS 6 download, elementary OS 6 release date

Id: FuVN6YGGmDo

Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021