elementary OS was officially updated to version 0.3.1 a few days ago, and it looks like the project has settled in a status quo, which brings good news and bad news. Stability is always something to be desired, but the project is no longer exciting.
I have recently installed elementary OS and it took quite a lot to get it to work, which is not encouraging. It’s a common “nomodeset” problem, but I managed to get passed it. New Linux users might not be able to do that. In any case, I’m currently reviewing the new version, and I’ve noticed that it sort of lost some of its appeal.
The team behind elementary OS has done a great job with the distribution, and they managed to produce something unique, easily recognizable, and fun to use. Sure, you can make other distros look like this one, but it won’t be the same. There are all kinds of small tweaks and small features that make it stand out.
elementary OS is no longer exciting
The thing that attracted everyone to elementary OS at first was the exciting desktop, the cool features, and the general attitude of the system. Even if users called it a Mac OS clone at the beginning, it’s now standing on its own two feet.
The thing that struck me the most with elementary OS was the fact that I don’t feel like it’s all that exciting anymore. Beautiful? Sure, it’s still one of the best in this regard, but the other ones are starting to catch up.
The 0.3 branch was an evolution over 0.2, but the overall design remained pretty much the same. Maybe this is the look they want to give to their OS, and that’s fine, but elementary OS is not going to get a lot more users unless one of two things happen. Either they start to make something with it that no one else is doing, like they used to, or if they seriously pick up the pace for their releases.
We’ll have a full review of elementary OS 0.3.1 up by the end of the week.
Via Softpedia