4 ms·

Talk about a terribly designed website. If someone had no idea what Elementary OS is, the website does absolutely nothing to tell them. No list of even basic fe

Talk about a terribly designed website. If someone had no idea what Elementary OS is, the website does absolutely nothing to tell them. No list of even basic features. No explanation of compatibility or how to install it. Only a single screenshot. Why is this the case?

sshb 12y ago
The donation money buttons are also confusing
jamestomasino 12y ago
As someone who knows nothing about Elementary OS, you are correct. I dug into the blog a bit and all I can tell is that it's Ubuntu with some Gnome skins. Why would I pay money for a free OS? What's the purpose? What need is this designed to fill? The site failed to inform.
- wz1000 12y ago
  I agree that the website it poorly designed, but you can download Elementary OS for free. Just enter 0 in the "Custom Amount" box. > I dug into the blog a bit and all I can tell is that it's Ubuntu with some Gnome skins. Not really. The eOS developers wrote a whole DE(Pantheon) and the included applications from scratch. The website does a very poor job of explaining that.
  - wlesieutre 12y ago
    They used to have a better website. I think it was the victim of "upgrades".
    - amk_ 12y ago
      https://web.archive.org/web/20130302134643/http://elementaryos.org/journal/luna-beta-1-released https://web.archive.org/web/20130302134643/http://elementary... Release notes from a previous beta that explains more about the underlying infrastructure.
  - mintplant 12y ago
    Their old developer website also explained some of the new technologies that Elementary OS exposes to applications: - Contractor (like Android's Intents): https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024115/http://elementaryos.org/docs/contractor https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024115/http://elementary... - Switchboard (unified, pluggable system settings): https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024137/http://elementaryos.org/docs/apis/switchboard https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024137/http://elementary... - Granite (GTK+ widget collection): https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024129/http://elementaryos.org/docs/apis/granite https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024129/http://elementary...
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
- djschnei 12y ago
  Totally agree. Especially since this is far from Ubuntu with GNOME skins. In fact it doesn't use GNOME at all. It's a completely custom built desktop environment.
  - mdadm 12y ago
    As I remember, elementaryOS originally was a customized GNOME, but they've since made everything their own.
dakoon2003 12y ago
While true its not clear you can click "Custom Price" and input $0 dollars.
dag11 12y ago
Even as someone familiar with Elementary OS in the past, I can't figure out what's new with this release.
reactor 12y ago
Agree, its buried. http://blog.elementary.io/post/116134677986/freya-is-here http://blog.elementary.io/post/116134677986/freya-is-here in case if interested.
sudioStudio64 12y ago
Designers take themselves so seriously... sometimes they need to be reminded about usability.
wanda 12y ago
elementary OS have a similar mentality to the Vivaldi browser -- it's just for our friends. Despite leading with donation panhandling. Still, I'm using it now because I am tired of Slackware. I love Slack to bits but the amount of work involved in making my setup look and play nice is just silly. I'm looking for something like a one-click-pretty-usable Linux for random laptops/PCs I've accumulated. PapyrOS might be nice if it's ever finished.
- amk_ 12y ago
  Good pointer. I have an old laptop with Arch that basically only runs Chromium apps and terminal programs -- PapyrOS looks like the logical step up from there, when it's ready.
- jqm 12y ago
  I've never seen making Slackware look nice as a burden. Especially since I can generally just copy over config files. I love Slackware for the simplicity and that's why I use it. So many of these feature filled pretty systems work nice.. until they don't. Unneeded features are just more stuff to learn and more stuff to break in my opinion. Slackware is a rock solid work horse and I know right where everything is and can change it if I need to. But to tell the truth, just give me a nice Unix terminal and a web browser and I don't really care that much what it's sitting on.
- morbius 12y ago
  I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but if you really, honestly want a no-frills, easy to set up UNIX for your personal computer, there really is no better machine than a Macintosh.
  - erokar 12y ago
    I have to agree. As ridiculous and disgusting Apple is as a company, OSX still offers the best UNIX experience. But I applaud any attemt to change that fact.
    - tormeh 12y ago
forscha 12y ago
Yes! I looked at it, like, "Is this elementary the linux distribution that I have at least heard of by name or is this some completely different thing?" That's a serious failure on their part.
sbuk 12y ago
Ironic really, especially give the teams focus on usability!

sshb 12y ago

The donation money buttons are also confusing

jamestomasino 12y ago

As someone who knows nothing about Elementary OS, you are correct. I dug into the blog a bit and all I can tell is that it's Ubuntu with some Gnome skins. Why would I pay money for a free OS? What's the purpose? What need is this designed to fill? The site failed to inform.

wz1000 12y ago
I agree that the website it poorly designed, but you can download Elementary OS for free. Just enter 0 in the "Custom Amount" box. > I dug into the blog a bit and all I can tell is that it's Ubuntu with some Gnome skins. Not really. The eOS developers wrote a whole DE(Pantheon) and the included applications from scratch. The website does a very poor job of explaining that.
- wlesieutre 12y ago
  They used to have a better website. I think it was the victim of "upgrades".
  - amk_ 12y ago
    https://web.archive.org/web/20130302134643/http://elementaryos.org/journal/luna-beta-1-released https://web.archive.org/web/20130302134643/http://elementary... Release notes from a previous beta that explains more about the underlying infrastructure.
- mintplant 12y ago
  Their old developer website also explained some of the new technologies that Elementary OS exposes to applications: - Contractor (like Android's Intents): https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024115/http://elementaryos.org/docs/contractor https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024115/http://elementary... - Switchboard (unified, pluggable system settings): https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024137/http://elementaryos.org/docs/apis/switchboard https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024137/http://elementary... - Granite (GTK+ widget collection): https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024129/http://elementaryos.org/docs/apis/granite https://web.archive.org/web/20130314024129/http://elementary...
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
djschnei 12y ago
Totally agree. Especially since this is far from Ubuntu with GNOME skins. In fact it doesn't use GNOME at all. It's a completely custom built desktop environment.
- mdadm 12y ago
  As I remember, elementaryOS originally was a customized GNOME, but they've since made everything their own.

dakoon2003 12y ago

While true its not clear you can click "Custom Price" and input $0 dollars.

dag11 12y ago

Even as someone familiar with Elementary OS in the past, I can't figure out what's new with this release.

reactor 12y ago

Agree, its buried. http://blog.elementary.io/post/116134677986/freya-is-here http://blog.elementary.io/post/116134677986/freya-is-here in case if interested.

sudioStudio64 12y ago

Designers take themselves so seriously... sometimes they need to be reminded about usability.

wanda 12y ago

elementary OS have a similar mentality to the Vivaldi browser -- it's just for our friends. Despite leading with donation panhandling. Still, I'm using it now because I am tired of Slackware. I love Slack to bits but the amount of work involved in making my setup look and play nice is just silly. I'm looking for something like a one-click-pretty-usable Linux for random laptops/PCs I've accumulated. PapyrOS might be nice if it's ever finished.

amk_ 12y ago
Good pointer. I have an old laptop with Arch that basically only runs Chromium apps and terminal programs -- PapyrOS looks like the logical step up from there, when it's ready.
jqm 12y ago
I've never seen making Slackware look nice as a burden. Especially since I can generally just copy over config files. I love Slackware for the simplicity and that's why I use it. So many of these feature filled pretty systems work nice.. until they don't. Unneeded features are just more stuff to learn and more stuff to break in my opinion. Slackware is a rock solid work horse and I know right where everything is and can change it if I need to. But to tell the truth, just give me a nice Unix terminal and a web browser and I don't really care that much what it's sitting on.
morbius 12y ago
I'm going to get a lot of hate for this but if you really, honestly want a no-frills, easy to set up UNIX for your personal computer, there really is no better machine than a Macintosh.
- erokar 12y ago
  I have to agree. As ridiculous and disgusting Apple is as a company, OSX still offers the best UNIX experience. But I applaud any attemt to change that fact.
  - tormeh 12y ago

forscha 12y ago

Yes! I looked at it, like, "Is this elementary the linux distribution that I have at least heard of by name or is this some completely different thing?" That's a serious failure on their part.

sbuk 12y ago

Ironic really, especially give the teams focus on usability!