I wish it had more adoption. Right now there are not a lot of apps written using it's UI guidelines/framework as most projects are worried about portability and/or have moved to Electron. It is slowly getting better though, and seems to be developing an ecosystem geared towards quality as OSX used to be: https://medium.com/elementaryos/appcenter-spotlight-2017-wra...
I’ve been using Elementary for a year straight[1] and like it a lot, but I see it as Ubuntu with the “right” UX.
(I also don’t see Linux developers flocking to it in droves, which is sad because it is a lot cleaner and easier to use than Gnome and KDE, IMHO, but then again Linux has always been more about diverging choices than unity—and I don’t mean the desktop environment here).
The only thing Elementary needs to do is allow for disabling all animations, to get rid of the perceived latency issues some folk complain about...
But I digress. It isn’t an OS, and you get all the Linux legacy underneath, so it’s understandable that Fuchsia is happening. Google seems to be attempting to lay a new foundation here, and I think it’s actually a good idea to do so, although the number of third-party packages and run times they’re bringing in makes it hard to peg it as “legacy-free”.
Nothing is legacy free, at least not yet, we haven't figured that out yet. Everything you touch is future legacy. It is hubris to think one has solved this, or made something so good it will last for so long. The only legacy free thing is a void, but even it will be filled by an inferior solution in the future.
1. A C720 Chromebook and an i7 desktop that is also a KVM host.
2. No. There isn’t anything I’d consider worth paying for in the store right now.
3 & 4. I work on Azure solutions, so these are my Linux machines. I do a lot of work on them, but need Office and Windows for the corporate bits, so my main desktop machine is... a Mac, and I carry a Surface to customers.
I wish more distros would start supplying packages for Pantheon. I'm not interested in a distro that forks Ubuntu LTS + specially patched packages (because Gnome3 refuses to merge changes that fix problems, but only really benefit non-Gnome3 desktops (completely against the spirit of open source and GNU + FDO)), but I would love it to be based on a distro that is kept up to date (such as Debian or Arch).
I actually like that it’s LTS underneath, because I know I can run the machine for a couple of years with stable packages and then upgrade to the next version.
I understand the appeal of more up-to-date stuff, but with Docker I can have my stable cake and swap toppings at will :)
Because operating systems and application cliches should be separate! Layers that slip smoothly past each other precisely via well defined protocols of interaction. Now() is an outdated concept if we are to build systems that can age with grace.
> because Gnome3 refuses to merge changes that fix problems, but only really benefit non-Gnome3 desktops (completely against the spirit of open source and GNU + FDO)
This is actually what I most like about Google's OS initiative. The fact we'll have ONE and ONLY ONE desktop environment and all the political infighting of the last 30 years won't matter any more.
That's all great and all, but why pick Gnome3 to rally behind? I literally know no one that can stand that desktop environment, and it has become part of this weird systemd/pulseaudio cult that is slowly destroying any chance of moving forward and producing a modern desktop environment for Linux that average people will accept, due to a constant (and ignorant) political war against pretty much anyone else that isn't part of that particular groupthink.
The irony here, I think, is Pantheon actually completed this goal with a much smaller team, with no political bullshit, and is a clearly superior product.
By virtue of this fact, and by your reasoning, Gnome3 has no reason to continue to exist at all and should end development if, truly, Linux is meant to have a One True Desktop Environment (tm).
I really wanted to love Elementary. But the UI lag and general clunkiness compared to OSX is just too much for me. I think the world can only benefit from new operating systems completely free of Linux influence.
Try installing Elementary Tweaks and turning off most animations (some, sadly, cannot be turned off yet, but I run it on an Acer C720 with 2GB of RAM, and it works beautifully).
(I also don’t see Linux developers flocking to it in droves, which is sad because it is a lot cleaner and easier to use than Gnome and KDE, IMHO, but then again Linux has always been more about diverging choices than unity—and I don’t mean the desktop environment here).
The only thing Elementary needs to do is allow for disabling all animations, to get rid of the perceived latency issues some folk complain about...
But I digress. It isn’t an OS, and you get all the Linux legacy underneath, so it’s understandable that Fuchsia is happening. Google seems to be attempting to lay a new foundation here, and I think it’s actually a good idea to do so, although the number of third-party packages and run times they’re bringing in makes it hard to peg it as “legacy-free”.
Time will tell, I guess.
1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12830761