6 ms·

At first glance, I thought this was another Linux distro with a custom window manager, not a new operating system. But it is its own operating system! It's go

At first glance, I thought this was another Linux distro with a custom window manager, not a new operating system. But it is its own operating system! It's got a custom kernel and everything. Built from scratch, indeed. I'm always impressed when people build their own operating systems or browsers from scratch. Few of them will attain widespread adoption. That doesn't mean they aren't valuable though. Kudos to the developers.

giancarlostoro 3y ago
On that note I really appreciate distros like ElementaryOS purely because they maintain their own software that is specifically modified / created with the intent to making their distro feel really integrated. Other distros put in loads of work too, but it just feels more consistent, like a KDE distro with all the KDE bells and whistles (KDE is a good example of what I'd like to see, an OS with default apps that all really blend together and feel like a part of one OS). Funnily enough, you don't get this "unity" or whatever you want to call it that I'm describing with Windows at all. They have random legacy ways of doing things, Windows is starting to look like a hacked together Linux OS with how inconsistent the main OS apps tend to be. Edit: Maybe if Microsoft stopped letting Marketing Teams dictate what goes on Windows, and focused more on polishing their OS. They would have an insanely fantastic OS offering.
- packetlost 3y ago
  The problem is Windows has tendencies to break in opaque ways that make it extremely frustrating to deal with. The quality of drivers is, on average, lower as well.
  - giancarlostoro 3y ago
    I get this, but its already broken in some areas, I detail this in a prior comment I've written, something as simple as creating a Windows User is completely broken in the latest of Windows 11 if you have "Home" edition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37322167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37322167
    - hutzlibu 3y ago
      But this is by design as they want to push people into a microsoft account.
      - giancarlostoro 3y ago
        Two programs saying to go to each other to add literally any account? Including additional Microsoft accounts? I don't think that's the case.
        hutzlibu 3y ago
        Well, if adding a microsoft account would have worked, then they would have succeeded into convincing you to use one. Most people just give in, before they use linux.
- Andrex 3y ago
  It's a shame Elementary imploded, and more a shame their funding model was very publicly debunked. I'm not sure how the ideals for Elementary can exist without a unified, well-funded vision behind them.
  - RamRodification 3y ago
    News to me. Can I read up on this somewhere?
    - 2143 3y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30611748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30611748
      - RamRodification 3y ago
        Thanks
      - LanternLight83 3y ago
        The linked article didn't use Danielle's name (which was well known at the time), giving the impression that the author either didn't do his research or was being intentionally malicious (existing beef? but def. bias). For what it's worth, eOS appears to be alive and well to me[1]. Please let me know if you have any other sources regarding the project's status, and I hope they keep sailing; love their work. 1: https://github.com/elementary/os/commits/master https://github.com/elementary/os/commits/master
  - digi59404 3y ago
    > more a shame their funding model was very publicly debunked It wasn't just that, both the founders were very big socialist/communist people who didn't really understand how to run a business. They still don't. Elementary OS turned down numerous funding opportunities, numerous partnership opportunities. They made a really really great OS. But the business aspect was just atrocious. The "Pay what you want" model could have worked for their store. But just having a store in the beginning they didn't want one and then they pivoted to having one way late. There was big internal strife in the eOS Community amongst the developers for years, and very little conflict resolution on their part. I wouldn't say they're an example of a failed funding model. Rather, I'd say they're an example of people who have amazing talent and ideas, but refused business help and refused to admit their failures.
- WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
  It's likely that the last version of Windows where it all was consistent through and through was Windows 2000. Someone may correct me by bringing up an exe that ships with the currentest Windows and which looks unchanged from Windows NT 4.0. I remember an article showing the UI of Windows system apps, and as you go deeper and deeper into %SYSTEM% or whatever, you get UI from progressively older and older versions that are sort of left behind. You get an incentive to polish all the immediately user-visible stuff, but there's so much of it anyway so if the deeper-hidden stuff that a handful of people is using is still working, nobody will touch it. Look, the WMI console was probably unchanged since Windows 2000 at the time of Windows 10.
  - kastden 3y ago
    There are still some 3.1 dialogs in Windows 11 https://ntdotdev.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/state-of-the-windows-how-many-layers-of-ui-inconsistencies-are-in-windows-11/ https://ntdotdev.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/state-of-the-windo...
    - WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
      My point exactly. Since it's the ODBC Data Source selection dialog, I think the actual users of it would be old enough to work with Win3.x/WinNT 3.x back when it was new, so maybe it counts both as penny-saving and a fan service for the greybeards? On the other hand, how many kinds of first-party file copy dialogs and file open dialogs do you need? :-)
  - M95D 3y ago
    Try the font import dialog box. Last time I checked it was the exact same as Win95.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
supertron 3y ago
> At first glance, I thought this was another Linux distro with a custom window manager, not a new operating system. But it is its own operating system! Indeed, these "reskinned"* Linux distros seem to be so common, it's easy just to make assumptions. This (Essence) looks pretty impressive - to be built from scratch and have a nice clean (dare I say it... "non-linuxy looking") UI is even more impressive. * "Reskinned" is probably a bit of a lazy term here - many of them are a lot more than that - but still, the point is that the value prop. is often the nicer more user-friendly aesthetics layered on top of an existing distro. What we're looking at here seems a lot rarer. Snapping at the heels of ChromeOS?
webmobdev 3y ago
This reminded me a bit of Oberon OS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(operating_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(operating_system) ...
benj111 3y ago
Funny, I was clicking ready to rant about the opposite, claiming it's built from scratch, when it's just another Linux.

giancarlostoro 3y ago

On that note I really appreciate distros like ElementaryOS purely because they maintain their own software that is specifically modified / created with the intent to making their distro feel really integrated. Other distros put in loads of work too, but it just feels more consistent, like a KDE distro with all the KDE bells and whistles (KDE is a good example of what I'd like to see, an OS with default apps that all really blend together and feel like a part of one OS). Funnily enough, you don't get this "unity" or whatever you want to call it that I'm describing with Windows at all. They have random legacy ways of doing things, Windows is starting to look like a hacked together Linux OS with how inconsistent the main OS apps tend to be. Edit: Maybe if Microsoft stopped letting Marketing Teams dictate what goes on Windows, and focused more on polishing their OS. They would have an insanely fantastic OS offering.

packetlost 3y ago
The problem is Windows has tendencies to break in opaque ways that make it extremely frustrating to deal with. The quality of drivers is, on average, lower as well.
- giancarlostoro 3y ago
  I get this, but its already broken in some areas, I detail this in a prior comment I've written, something as simple as creating a Windows User is completely broken in the latest of Windows 11 if you have "Home" edition: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37322167 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37322167
  - hutzlibu 3y ago
    But this is by design as they want to push people into a microsoft account.
    - giancarlostoro 3y ago
      Two programs saying to go to each other to add literally any account? Including additional Microsoft accounts? I don't think that's the case.
      - hutzlibu 3y ago
        Well, if adding a microsoft account would have worked, then they would have succeeded into convincing you to use one. Most people just give in, before they use linux.
Andrex 3y ago
It's a shame Elementary imploded, and more a shame their funding model was very publicly debunked. I'm not sure how the ideals for Elementary can exist without a unified, well-funded vision behind them.
- RamRodification 3y ago
  News to me. Can I read up on this somewhere?
  - 2143 3y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30611748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30611748
    - RamRodification 3y ago
      Thanks
    - LanternLight83 3y ago
      The linked article didn't use Danielle's name (which was well known at the time), giving the impression that the author either didn't do his research or was being intentionally malicious (existing beef? but def. bias). For what it's worth, eOS appears to be alive and well to me[1]. Please let me know if you have any other sources regarding the project's status, and I hope they keep sailing; love their work. 1: https://github.com/elementary/os/commits/master https://github.com/elementary/os/commits/master
- digi59404 3y ago
  > more a shame their funding model was very publicly debunked It wasn't just that, both the founders were very big socialist/communist people who didn't really understand how to run a business. They still don't. Elementary OS turned down numerous funding opportunities, numerous partnership opportunities. They made a really really great OS. But the business aspect was just atrocious. The "Pay what you want" model could have worked for their store. But just having a store in the beginning they didn't want one and then they pivoted to having one way late. There was big internal strife in the eOS Community amongst the developers for years, and very little conflict resolution on their part. I wouldn't say they're an example of a failed funding model. Rather, I'd say they're an example of people who have amazing talent and ideas, but refused business help and refused to admit their failures.
WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
It's likely that the last version of Windows where it all was consistent through and through was Windows 2000. Someone may correct me by bringing up an exe that ships with the currentest Windows and which looks unchanged from Windows NT 4.0. I remember an article showing the UI of Windows system apps, and as you go deeper and deeper into %SYSTEM% or whatever, you get UI from progressively older and older versions that are sort of left behind. You get an incentive to polish all the immediately user-visible stuff, but there's so much of it anyway so if the deeper-hidden stuff that a handful of people is using is still working, nobody will touch it. Look, the WMI console was probably unchanged since Windows 2000 at the time of Windows 10.
- kastden 3y ago
  There are still some 3.1 dialogs in Windows 11 https://ntdotdev.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/state-of-the-windows-how-many-layers-of-ui-inconsistencies-are-in-windows-11/ https://ntdotdev.wordpress.com/2023/01/01/state-of-the-windo...
  - WesolyKubeczek 3y ago
    My point exactly. Since it's the ODBC Data Source selection dialog, I think the actual users of it would be old enough to work with Win3.x/WinNT 3.x back when it was new, so maybe it counts both as penny-saving and a fan service for the greybeards? On the other hand, how many kinds of first-party file copy dialogs and file open dialogs do you need? :-)
- M95D 3y ago
  Try the font import dialog box. Last time I checked it was the exact same as Win95.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

supertron 3y ago

> At first glance, I thought this was another Linux distro with a custom window manager, not a new operating system. But it is its own operating system! Indeed, these "reskinned"* Linux distros seem to be so common, it's easy just to make assumptions. This (Essence) looks pretty impressive - to be built from scratch and have a nice clean (dare I say it... "non-linuxy looking") UI is even more impressive. * "Reskinned" is probably a bit of a lazy term here - many of them are a lot more than that - but still, the point is that the value prop. is often the nicer more user-friendly aesthetics layered on top of an existing distro. What we're looking at here seems a lot rarer. Snapping at the heels of ChromeOS?

webmobdev 3y ago

This reminded me a bit of Oberon OS - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(operating_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberon_(operating_system) ...

benj111 3y ago

Funny, I was clicking ready to rant about the opposite, claiming it's built from scratch, when it's just another Linux.