I have been a developer for elementary for 3 years, and I am part of the elementary core team. I am also personally close friends with much of the design and development team, including the project's founder and lead designer, Daniel Foré.
There seems to be a lot of feedback here which basically says "this trying to rip off OS X". I would like to offer you some insight into our internal assessment of these claims.
Is elementary OS reminiscent of OS X? I can't disagree. Did we actively intend for it to be reminiscent of OS X? Absolutely not.
We build upon good ideas from all sources. We don't have a dock and silver window chrome because OS X does. We made those design choices because they work (Windows has slowly made its task bar more and more like the OS X dock) and because they look good.
Could we have changed the window chrome to be, say, green, just to try to make ourselves stand out from OS X? Sure, but frankly, we don't feel we have to. I think there is a strong sense in our design team that we shouldn't change things simply for the sake of being "different" -- we should change things to actually improve them.
Disclaimer: I wrote this post myself and it reflects my own personal opinions, though I'd be happy to ask other core team members to back me up here -- I think they'd agree.
FWIW I don't think it is a bad thing [1]. KDE's look was clearly inspired by Windows XP. But I'm a user.
Designers, people who make their living giving life to a "look" or a "user experience" feel pretty strongly about their work (this is typical of many artists, programmers, architects, musicians, Etc.) In part because they often see their own work as a reflection of them, and in part, and I speculate here, because the creative process is mysterious and it is easy to feel like a fraud when you don't really know how you come up with something, you just do.
So designers look at Elementary OS and they evaluate its look, its theme, its "presence." And what they see seems to remind them strongly of Apple's OS. I completely understand that because that was my first thought as well and I'm not a designer, I thought "Oh, this looks like they put an OS X shell on top of Linux."
I happen to think the other stuff you did, the performance tuning, the application integration, the "fit and finish" if you will is very impressive and it reminds me of how Ubuntu took something mashed up and made it more cohesive.
How ever the design elements always dominate product discussions, even if they shouldn't. Look at the discussion around the Honda Element (car) are they about its innovations in how it converts its internal spaces? Its motor design? No, people talk about how stupid it looks to them (which completely misses the point of the car).
What I'm saying is the Elementary team is going to get razzed a lot about the design elements. Try not to take it personally. The correct response is the one you've latched on to, "We built an OS we wanted to use based on technology we wanted to use, we built it this way." Own the vision.
[1] "rip off" sounds bad "homage" sounds good, both mean "it looks like."
It's got the same left-aligned, bolded categories, in the same order, with almost identical text. It even senselessly copied the choice of the Apple Magic Mouse as the mouse icon. That tiny smudge at the bottom represents the Apple logo!
I don't mean to suggest that an ElementaryOS designer is responsible for this instance. A similar layout and icon is used in Xubuntu. But Linux is clearly doing more than "building on ideas" in its relation to OS X.
Speaking as a user, the problem is one of marketing and first impressions. In the video, the guy shows a laptop that looks a lot like a MacBook and shows an OS that looks a lot like MacOS. This gives me the impression that Elementary is the equivalent of Adibas-branded shoes - some cheap knockoff aping some of the look, a little bit of the feel and not being anywhere near the functionality.
Personally, if I wanted to make an OS look like MacOS, I'd advertise it as "We wanted MacOS on the PC, but Apple don't give it. So we made an OS based on Linux that follows the same attention to design."
Or better yet - change the look. I doubt that stylish grey is the only possible colour. I can see that it's not MacOS, but it feels dirty when it looks a lot like MacOS, down to using a Mac look-alike laptop in the ad, and you claim to have made something original.
Perhaps you should change the background image in the demo video away from a photo of a galaxy. I'm sure there's many images (e.g. http://archive.org/download/313253main_moon_landscape_HI_ful...) that don't so directly evoke the OS X default wallpaper.
I am a bit confused. A lot of it looks like Ubuntu, but with slightly different GUI. At first I thought it was just a variant of Ubuntu(like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc)...is it? How does it differ from it? Sorry if this seems like a naive question. I am really interested in trying it out...will do so shortly after I am done my exams :P
I don't have nearly the problem of an OSX-lookalike as some. I used OSX for years because it was basically the prettiest POSIX system available.
And like you say, a lot is simply good design. Apple didn't invent nearly as much as their marketing department (and legal) would have us believe.
Tangentially, I've fallen in love with tiling WMs, but they all seem mediocre at best. @aroman it'd be awesome if you guys made an alternative tiling WM that was as sleek as your windowing manager.
I was really interested in developing something like this. But I see you have made a ton more progress. I am working on plans to design a Linux Laptop(and I mean a very sweet laptop), but I had plans of trying to make it accessible to people like my mom and basically everyone. I would love to collaborate on such a product. I am really glad I'm not the only one thinking about these things.
Can we work on making optimized hardware in the same way Apple products are. Can we work on optimizing power consumption, apparent load time etc etc. I can't wait to give this OS a shot.
Looks great, nice work. But where can we find a more technical overview? I wasn't even sure whether it was Linux or BSD based or something else until halfway down the front page, and had to check the Developers section to find out it's based on Ubuntu. But which version, and what big changes did you make under the hood?
There are a million and one themes for GTK. I wish they had picked one - anything except the OSX clone.
What they don't realize is that there are a bunch of howtos out there around customizing Ubuntu to "look like OSX" and this looks like one more.
I wish this discussion could be around performance enhancements and innovations in usability, but I cannot get past the OSX clone-ness.
In an admittedly egoistic sense, I am a loner Latitude/Ubuntu user in a world of Air/OSX all around me. This is not something I will be able to explain off. And this is in India. I assume it will be much worse in the US.
"Did we actively intend for it to be reminiscent of OS X? Absolutely not."
I don't think you will find many people able to believe that. I have no opinion formed on the OS, but claiming for the similarities to be "coincidence" is not going to fly.
If the you guys get into Apple's radar I think it's pretty safe to assume you will get sued. Which is why I understand this kind of public statement. Otherwise it wouldn't make any sense to me.
Anyway, regardless of superficial concerns it looks like you are doing a good job, according to some reviews I've read.
I can agree with this to some extent, and I don't have a solid answer as far as a different approach. However, knock-offs feel cheap, and because elementary feels like a knock-off, it's having trouble gaining some mindshare.
Taking steps to differentiate from OS X a bit more would (arguably, perhaps) be an improvement, albeit not a technical one.
Hello. I'm super late to this party, it looks like. I only have one question: will my retina display (on a MacBook Pro) do all the right things, just as it does under MacOS and MacOS programs?
I'd like to nudge in one thing: option flexibility. I'm still downloading and about to try it out; but I hope that the setting does allow the user to tweak everything they can tweak and not hide options away for the sake of hiding things. My personal thing, but it's shared with many, is that flexibility can lead to a personally complete design.
I never heard of elementaryOS but it looks great at first glance. I have a specific question I was wondering: how will distributions using non-Unity DEs/WMs such as elementary handle the replacement of X with Mir? I'm not familiar with how child distros handle divergent dependencies in general so I'd love to hear what elementary is doing.
Firstly, this is really impressive and a great idea. Thanks for starting this project, as Linux badly needs some new ideas for UI design. I've had a look at the video.
Unfortunately, my first impression from the video was that this is a direct copy of OS X, down to the apps, and in terms of UI and experience, not in terms of skin-deep chrome. The reasons for that were:
General window chrome - toolbars, buttons
Dock on bottom (why not sides, our screens typically have too much horizontal real-estate?), bouncing icons in dock, similar 3D shelf feel to earlier Mac OS dock.
iTunes app demonstrated has a UI which is almost exactly like the iTunes in Mac OS - there's plenty of room for innovation here, why present things in the same way?
Finder app again presents exactly like Finder in Mac OS, but with tabs
System preferences again has a layout very reminiscent of Mac OS - in isolation this doesn't mean much, it's cumulative
Exploded windows view is very like Mission control, X symbols on top left look like iOS
Spinning progress indicator is similar to the style introduced by Mac OS
Typography is reminiscent of iOS7 because of use of Raleway which is reminiscent of Helvetica Neue - not a big deal and it is a nice font.
Window chrome is a close match to the current Mac OS grey, fullscreen buttons top right, titles centred etc. Again, in isolation this means nothing.
So those are some reasons people might think you are copying from Mac OS X - NB the grey window chrome is the least of your problems. Individually they don't mean much, but cumulatively they give the impression you haven't spent enough time rethinking the way these apps and OS services work and have by default chosen the Mac OS way - I think if you want to call it an OS (built on Linux) it should provide a different experience, which is different enough to be new and interesting. One other tip on your video was that to me it feels like you're rehashing the discussions you had in making a video for the first 20 seconds - I don't care about all that meta stuff, I just want to see the OS in action. Just jump in with something impressive.
So all that negativity out of the way (and I thought it necessary because you don't acknowledge that you did intend it to be reminiscent of OS X), this is a great effort, and I might even try it out sometime (like most people I have a very high resistance to switching OS, but this one is intriguing). You have clearly put a lot of work and polish into this, so congratulations on the effort, and I think it's a really worthwhile project, but be wary of sticking too close to existing designs.
Mac OS X is not the apotheosis of interface design, far from it, it's just one of a million possible pathways, and is probably at a local maximum where you can't easily escape without trying things which are radically different.
Personally I'd put some effort into differentiating yourself visually from other OS's, not just for the sake of it, but because there are so many other possibilities to explore - there are tons of areas you could improve - launchers, overlapping windows, window chrome (do we need toolbars there all the time), as that's an important part of the first impression, and if you have something sufficiently different it can really help people remember you and be tempted to try it out. Think for example of the tabbed windows in BeOS, it immediately gives it a different identity and makes it stand out, without sacrificing usability.
I clearly tought of Steve Jobs while watching the video. But not in a copy-print way. You took elements and added yours.
Also I know you were using Vala to develop, is it a good part of your productivity ? It seems you were free to think about solving the problem the best way. Or maybe you're just all very good..
Just downloaded the (64 bit) iso and tried a live session. Looks very nice. Works fine on Thinkpad X200s.
How do I make the terminal background solid? I can't read the terminal when open over another window. I could not discover any way of changing the settings in the terminal application.
I was on a beta version of elementary OS a couple months ago, and it was like a breath of fresh air.
elementary OS sets out to settle the number one complaint casual users have of other Linux distributions: design. Other Linux distributions look like a mish-mash of a bunch of different designs by many different people. elementary OS has a beautiful, striking, and (most importantly) consistent vision driving the look and feel of all its applications.
The only thing that previously kept me suggesting elementary OS to people who don't normally use Linux was its instability as a beta release. If this release is as stable as I hope it is, then elementary OS is without a doubt the best distribution to introduce new people to Linux.
I think the following quote pulled from an update on elementary's website defending some unconventional decisions they've made[0] illustrates best what they're trying to do:
We know there are many traditional Linux users out there exclaiming that Linux is all about choices and we should make everything configurable because that’s freedom. But that isn’t why most of you are here in the first place. You’re here because we’ve been making choices for you. Lots of them. We always have and always will. We’re the open source OS with opinionated design. That’s what makes elementary so good. We trim the fat. We optimize. We organize. We rethink.
That's an attitude that's sorely missing in the Linux community. elementary is tackling hard problems and succeeding.
I look forward to the the success of elementary OS.
Background: have been using the early (read: 'unstable') betas of eOS for quite sometime now (almost 1 year in fact!)
I have gone so far as having installed it onto actual live / production (networked) environments (who were previosly running M$ junk).
Apart from a few minor quibbles (most of which were easily fixed) it has been absolutely flawless!!
The biggest testament to the design philosophy / directions that these guys have taken is, in my opinion, the simple fact that I was able to transition non-technical end users from using Windows to using eOS (and therefore Linux) in a live SME environment without any downtime and very, very minimal training! Try doing that with some other OS's or distros!! And this was with the beta/unfinished version!!
Given how well that went, I have also now managed to get it installed successfully on at least 4 Macs (iMacs, MacBook Pros and a recent MacBook Air). And I didn't even bother with rEFIT or any dual booting shenanigans.....I literally downloaded the ISO....burnt it to a CD ....booted the Mac from the CD ans clicked "Install Elementarty OS"..... and in about 10 mins flat I have brand new, screaming FAST, lightweight and beautifully thought-out Linux OS running perfectly!
Oh, and just for the record....as someone with a background in design and who has used every flavour of Apple hardware and software since the AppleII 'Euro Plus' (the one with Steve W's signature on the box!;) .....this is NOT a simple 'knock off' of OSX or anything else. The people who say this I would wager have either not used it so are basing it off a few screen grabs which tell you nothing..or, just have no idea about UI/UX whatsoever. As someone who has been using this day-in day-out now for quite some time.....this already is way ahead of Apple in a lot of respects (and wherever it isn't yet, I have total confidence that the eOS team will keep improving it!).
This is not a paid advert, I have absolutely no affiliation with this project, I just thought I should put my 2 cents in so hopefully some others can benefit from my experiences with this GREAT project!!!
This is cool. Finally, a Linux distro that I could set my less-than-technical friends and family with.
(Why not Ubuntu, you might ask? Simple: Ubuntu ships off their users' desktop search results to Amazon by default. I know it can be disabled and all that, but that's besides the point. I can't recommend software from people who don't respect their users' privacy.)
I really like a lot of the stuff Elementary is doing, but I loathe the way they're mimicking OS X. It's a complete deal breaker for me. It feels like a knock-off.
As someone who just watched the video but hasn't used it yet, that was my thought as well. Are they doing things design-wise and interface-wise that are different than OSX? Or are they simply aiming to re-implement OSX's GUI in Linux? (This is meant as an honest, non-sarcastic question, my curiosity is piqued but I'm genuinely wondering what their goal is)
I used the desktop environment for a little bit and they even took the icon bounce from OS X. I hope Elementary succeeds but that was just meh. Especially since the physics of the bounce were off.
* The side-swipe at Apple in the video for doing "one thing well" is a misleading statement. Apple build computers that do a lot of things, not just to enjoy music.
* The sly dig at Apple product videos at the beginning gets more and more ironic as the video slowly transforms into the Apple product video style towards the end.
* And the side-swipe is just poor form considering the OS does look OSX-inspired. I know this is an old argument about eOS but it's worth mentioning when the sly digs in the video bring it up.
I only intend this criticism as constructive because I know you guys are on to a great thing here, I just don't think you need the hints towards other OS's to put yourselves ahead of the game, you are better than that!
Further points:
* I commend you guys for the hard work you have put into this OS. Elementary was my distro of choice when I was a Linux user, it's fast, beautiful and task orientated, so keep up the good work
* It's fantastic to see the base install apps conforming to a visual style whereas on other distros the theming can look quite disjointed.
I haven't used a Mac since a bit after the introduction of quadro or whatever it was, so I don't have a dog in most of the discussion above. I also don't own a mobile device. Those facts probably date me as a Linux user.
Here's a suggestion for designers: the age of the Linux user base is aging at a rate of one year per year. That doesn't mean there are no young ones, only that we are going where no Linux user has gone before (I joined various Linux projects back in 1992.)
Every human on earth, after there mid 40s, experiences changes in the geometric optics of their vision system. As my eye doctor says, the denial rate is 100% and the participation rate is 100% -- if you are lucky enough to reach that age.
Please design an accessible operating system we can still use in our 80s. This is a very big opportunity. How old will you be in 2038 is maybe a good design target. ;)
Accessible on a mobile device, a desktop, and able to function smoothly with presbyteropia is the basic design spec.
Get your team an old geek geezer or two to tell what works and what doesn't. When I forget my reading glasses at work, I have to use the Magnify app on Win7. Go ahead and try this, and see what the experience is like and if it's so perfect it can't be improved on you are done. Otherwise, work on that aspect of your design.
Even if you are young and not 'there' yet, try out the Magnify app, and try whatever Linux has to offer on your distro of choice for the same thing. It completely changes how you size windows and operated effectively. It will give you insight into important principles of design such as navigating windows, scrolling, keyboard usage, etc.
There is no need to make the very best of what exists today -- make the very best that will be needed tomorrow.
Congratulations to the ElementaryOs team, I recognize the effort you have put developing your own tools in a great language like Vala.
I don't believe that you try to mimic OSX because I have used it and they are not as similar, I think the people say it because they see the elegance you have put on it.
Can anyone provide some specific examples of how this is a "copy" of OSX? I am someone who sparsely used Os X and is admittedly anti-Apple.
I'm trying hard not to assume the people in the thread saying it's a copy are more than just Apple zealots but it's difficult when no one provides any evidence.
2 windows are white-themed, with rounded corners, and minimalistic buttons/scrollbars.
3 music player is reminiscent of iTunes with time bar and track info top-and-center, and large album art pane.
4 system settings window has radio-buttons-like-normal-buttons reminiscent of OSX system settings. Also has a search bar in the upper-right of the window, with minimalistic magnifying glass.
5 windows have no visual border on sides and bottom.
6 Dock.
7 Expose-style viewing of all windows.
8 top-of-screen menu, with system icons in upper-right.
As I said in a previous comment, Apple didn't invent many of these, if any. Many, perhaps all, of these points are simply good design. However, they all combine to make the GUI "feel" like OSX to me.
Furthermore, it isn't a "copy." You can certainly identify as many differences as similarities. It simply shares a certain design aesthetic.
The galaxy login pic at the beginning didn't help :P
I showed ElementaryOS to my art-student sister and she loved it! She wants me to install it alongside her Windows OS so she can dual-boot.
She loves the simplicity and says that what she does on the net and her PC is completely covered by Elementary. Document writing, web browsing, text chat, email, video viewing, audio listening - all can be done easily and user-friendly.
Elementary is not enough for my advanced needs (I don't like docks, I prefer taskbars), but looks like Elementary might have some traction in the regular-user market.
Here I am stuck on "pretty" OS X because of the support for sexy hardware and all I really want is awesome window manager, chrome and some terminals. If only there was a haswell ultrabook with a huge trackpad, nice backlit keyboard, hd screen and out of box linux support with drivers that gave windows graphics performance and os x battery life. Anyone who wants a dumbed down UI has got an iPad already.
Luna is built on the rock-solid foundation of Linux (the same software that powers the US Department of Defense, the Bank of China, and more). It has no known viruses, which means no pesky anti-virus software to slow down your system.
Was there a reason to start with Ubuntu and not go upstream a bit and use Debian? I associate Unity and the UI of Ubuntu as the biggest differentiator between Debian and Ubuntu, and if they pulled that out, why not go upstream a bit and knock out more of the cruft?
It looks like this might be an interesting competitor/test ground wrt Gnome 3 (and beyond). They're using Vala heavily, and they don't have any strong committed user base yet -- and therefore no need for backwards comparability.
Also nice to see a project that goes beyond simply building on top of Linux -- rethinking how apps are open/closed/minimized is a great example of this.
I doubt I'll ever use it for anything other than fun, though. I need my legacy apps, I can't work with a mouse (due to RSI and efficiency -- I've become addicted to xmonad like tiling wms, and vim/vimperator keybindings).
But if they can provide a solid alternative desktop experience, that's great!
It's a linux distribution that's based on Ubuntu but replaces Unity and some other applications. Some of the replacements are developed by the Elementary OS team themselves.
It looks like it's a Darwin/GTK3 open source OS and desktop environment. Previous release "Jupiter" of 2011 was based on Linux. Has its own development library, "Granite". I'm surprised I haven't heard of it before, it does look interesting.
From their blog post about window controls [0], it sounds like they are taking the iOS approach to application close / minimize, but I can't find any technical description of how they plan to accomplish that without forcing applications to implement additional event handlers, or something fancy with preserving memory and file handles.
I've been using Elementary OS since beta 1 and I have found it to be the most usable Linux distribution. Don't get hanged up about them copying mac os. Even a novice user would find it easy to use. Let's not forget the soothing feel of the UI. It feels light.
Even android has some parts copied from ios, and yet you don't want to complain about it because it lets you get similar experience within your budget. It gives you a likeable option, copy or not.
Just give it a try. Don't judge from the video alone.
This is cool but I'm not really sure if I like the "opinionated" design aspect of it all. The terminal application is drawn with a slight level of transparency that you can't seem to (easily) turn off. I like my terminals like my coffee in the morning.
Also my first port of call was to remove Midori and install firefox.
I must admit though, the interface is a lot lighterweight than unity and much better in my opinon. Whenever I install Ubuntu on anything I immediately remove unity and install gnome-classic.
[+] [-] aroman|12 years ago|reply
There seems to be a lot of feedback here which basically says "this trying to rip off OS X". I would like to offer you some insight into our internal assessment of these claims.
Is elementary OS reminiscent of OS X? I can't disagree. Did we actively intend for it to be reminiscent of OS X? Absolutely not.
We build upon good ideas from all sources. We don't have a dock and silver window chrome because OS X does. We made those design choices because they work (Windows has slowly made its task bar more and more like the OS X dock) and because they look good.
Could we have changed the window chrome to be, say, green, just to try to make ourselves stand out from OS X? Sure, but frankly, we don't feel we have to. I think there is a strong sense in our design team that we shouldn't change things simply for the sake of being "different" -- we should change things to actually improve them.
Disclaimer: I wrote this post myself and it reflects my own personal opinions, though I'd be happy to ask other core team members to back me up here -- I think they'd agree.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|12 years ago|reply
Designers, people who make their living giving life to a "look" or a "user experience" feel pretty strongly about their work (this is typical of many artists, programmers, architects, musicians, Etc.) In part because they often see their own work as a reflection of them, and in part, and I speculate here, because the creative process is mysterious and it is easy to feel like a fraud when you don't really know how you come up with something, you just do.
So designers look at Elementary OS and they evaluate its look, its theme, its "presence." And what they see seems to remind them strongly of Apple's OS. I completely understand that because that was my first thought as well and I'm not a designer, I thought "Oh, this looks like they put an OS X shell on top of Linux."
I happen to think the other stuff you did, the performance tuning, the application integration, the "fit and finish" if you will is very impressive and it reminds me of how Ubuntu took something mashed up and made it more cohesive.
How ever the design elements always dominate product discussions, even if they shouldn't. Look at the discussion around the Honda Element (car) are they about its innovations in how it converts its internal spaces? Its motor design? No, people talk about how stupid it looks to them (which completely misses the point of the car).
What I'm saying is the Elementary team is going to get razzed a lot about the design elements. Try not to take it personally. The correct response is the one you've latched on to, "We built an OS we wanted to use based on technology we wanted to use, we built it this way." Own the vision.
[1] "rip off" sounds bad "homage" sounds good, both mean "it looks like."
[+] [-] millstone|12 years ago|reply
ElementaryOS settings screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/vnjmHrQ.png
It's got the same left-aligned, bolded categories, in the same order, with almost identical text. It even senselessly copied the choice of the Apple Magic Mouse as the mouse icon. That tiny smudge at the bottom represents the Apple logo!
I don't mean to suggest that an ElementaryOS designer is responsible for this instance. A similar layout and icon is used in Xubuntu. But Linux is clearly doing more than "building on ideas" in its relation to OS X.
[+] [-] anonymous|12 years ago|reply
Personally, if I wanted to make an OS look like MacOS, I'd advertise it as "We wanted MacOS on the PC, but Apple don't give it. So we made an OS based on Linux that follows the same attention to design."
Or better yet - change the look. I doubt that stylish grey is the only possible colour. I can see that it's not MacOS, but it feels dirty when it looks a lot like MacOS, down to using a Mac look-alike laptop in the ad, and you claim to have made something original.
It may be. But it doesn't feel like it.
[+] [-] fizx|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clockwork_189|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rob05c|12 years ago|reply
And like you say, a lot is simply good design. Apple didn't invent nearly as much as their marketing department (and legal) would have us believe.
Tangentially, I've fallen in love with tiling WMs, but they all seem mediocre at best. @aroman it'd be awesome if you guys made an alternative tiling WM that was as sleek as your windowing manager.
[+] [-] TheLegace|12 years ago|reply
Can we work on making optimized hardware in the same way Apple products are. Can we work on optimizing power consumption, apparent load time etc etc. I can't wait to give this OS a shot.
[+] [-] SkyMarshal|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandGorgon|12 years ago|reply
What they don't realize is that there are a bunch of howtos out there around customizing Ubuntu to "look like OSX" and this looks like one more.
I wish this discussion could be around performance enhancements and innovations in usability, but I cannot get past the OSX clone-ness.
In an admittedly egoistic sense, I am a loner Latitude/Ubuntu user in a world of Air/OSX all around me. This is not something I will be able to explain off. And this is in India. I assume it will be much worse in the US.
[+] [-] muyuu|12 years ago|reply
I don't think you will find many people able to believe that. I have no opinion formed on the OS, but claiming for the similarities to be "coincidence" is not going to fly.
If the you guys get into Apple's radar I think it's pretty safe to assume you will get sued. Which is why I understand this kind of public statement. Otherwise it wouldn't make any sense to me.
Anyway, regardless of superficial concerns it looks like you are doing a good job, according to some reviews I've read.
[+] [-] nsmartt|12 years ago|reply
Taking steps to differentiate from OS X a bit more would (arguably, perhaps) be an improvement, albeit not a technical one.
[+] [-] joel_perl_prog|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jalcine|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pilgrim689|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grey-area|12 years ago|reply
Unfortunately, my first impression from the video was that this is a direct copy of OS X, down to the apps, and in terms of UI and experience, not in terms of skin-deep chrome. The reasons for that were:
General window chrome - toolbars, buttons
Dock on bottom (why not sides, our screens typically have too much horizontal real-estate?), bouncing icons in dock, similar 3D shelf feel to earlier Mac OS dock.
iTunes app demonstrated has a UI which is almost exactly like the iTunes in Mac OS - there's plenty of room for innovation here, why present things in the same way?
Finder app again presents exactly like Finder in Mac OS, but with tabs
System preferences again has a layout very reminiscent of Mac OS - in isolation this doesn't mean much, it's cumulative
Exploded windows view is very like Mission control, X symbols on top left look like iOS
Spinning progress indicator is similar to the style introduced by Mac OS
Typography is reminiscent of iOS7 because of use of Raleway which is reminiscent of Helvetica Neue - not a big deal and it is a nice font.
Window chrome is a close match to the current Mac OS grey, fullscreen buttons top right, titles centred etc. Again, in isolation this means nothing.
So those are some reasons people might think you are copying from Mac OS X - NB the grey window chrome is the least of your problems. Individually they don't mean much, but cumulatively they give the impression you haven't spent enough time rethinking the way these apps and OS services work and have by default chosen the Mac OS way - I think if you want to call it an OS (built on Linux) it should provide a different experience, which is different enough to be new and interesting. One other tip on your video was that to me it feels like you're rehashing the discussions you had in making a video for the first 20 seconds - I don't care about all that meta stuff, I just want to see the OS in action. Just jump in with something impressive.
So all that negativity out of the way (and I thought it necessary because you don't acknowledge that you did intend it to be reminiscent of OS X), this is a great effort, and I might even try it out sometime (like most people I have a very high resistance to switching OS, but this one is intriguing). You have clearly put a lot of work and polish into this, so congratulations on the effort, and I think it's a really worthwhile project, but be wary of sticking too close to existing designs.
Mac OS X is not the apotheosis of interface design, far from it, it's just one of a million possible pathways, and is probably at a local maximum where you can't easily escape without trying things which are radically different.
Personally I'd put some effort into differentiating yourself visually from other OS's, not just for the sake of it, but because there are so many other possibilities to explore - there are tons of areas you could improve - launchers, overlapping windows, window chrome (do we need toolbars there all the time), as that's an important part of the first impression, and if you have something sufficiently different it can really help people remember you and be tempted to try it out. Think for example of the tabbed windows in BeOS, it immediately gives it a different identity and makes it stand out, without sacrificing usability.
[+] [-] agumonkey|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithpeter|12 years ago|reply
How do I make the terminal background solid? I can't read the terminal when open over another window. I could not discover any way of changing the settings in the terminal application.
[+] [-] jetaylor|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asiekierka|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] workbench|12 years ago|reply
Sorry but this is pure BS
[+] [-] nosefrog|12 years ago|reply
I was on a beta version of elementary OS a couple months ago, and it was like a breath of fresh air.
elementary OS sets out to settle the number one complaint casual users have of other Linux distributions: design. Other Linux distributions look like a mish-mash of a bunch of different designs by many different people. elementary OS has a beautiful, striking, and (most importantly) consistent vision driving the look and feel of all its applications.
The only thing that previously kept me suggesting elementary OS to people who don't normally use Linux was its instability as a beta release. If this release is as stable as I hope it is, then elementary OS is without a doubt the best distribution to introduce new people to Linux.
I think the following quote pulled from an update on elementary's website defending some unconventional decisions they've made[0] illustrates best what they're trying to do:
We know there are many traditional Linux users out there exclaiming that Linux is all about choices and we should make everything configurable because that’s freedom. But that isn’t why most of you are here in the first place. You’re here because we’ve been making choices for you. Lots of them. We always have and always will. We’re the open source OS with opinionated design. That’s what makes elementary so good. We trim the fat. We optimize. We organize. We rethink.
That's an attitude that's sorely missing in the Linux community. elementary is tackling hard problems and succeeding.
I look forward to the the success of elementary OS.
[0] http://elementaryos.org/journal/we-moved-cheese
[+] [-] wellementary|12 years ago|reply
I have gone so far as having installed it onto actual live / production (networked) environments (who were previosly running M$ junk).
Apart from a few minor quibbles (most of which were easily fixed) it has been absolutely flawless!!
The biggest testament to the design philosophy / directions that these guys have taken is, in my opinion, the simple fact that I was able to transition non-technical end users from using Windows to using eOS (and therefore Linux) in a live SME environment without any downtime and very, very minimal training! Try doing that with some other OS's or distros!! And this was with the beta/unfinished version!!
Given how well that went, I have also now managed to get it installed successfully on at least 4 Macs (iMacs, MacBook Pros and a recent MacBook Air). And I didn't even bother with rEFIT or any dual booting shenanigans.....I literally downloaded the ISO....burnt it to a CD ....booted the Mac from the CD ans clicked "Install Elementarty OS"..... and in about 10 mins flat I have brand new, screaming FAST, lightweight and beautifully thought-out Linux OS running perfectly!
Oh, and just for the record....as someone with a background in design and who has used every flavour of Apple hardware and software since the AppleII 'Euro Plus' (the one with Steve W's signature on the box!;) .....this is NOT a simple 'knock off' of OSX or anything else. The people who say this I would wager have either not used it so are basing it off a few screen grabs which tell you nothing..or, just have no idea about UI/UX whatsoever. As someone who has been using this day-in day-out now for quite some time.....this already is way ahead of Apple in a lot of respects (and wherever it isn't yet, I have total confidence that the eOS team will keep improving it!).
This is not a paid advert, I have absolutely no affiliation with this project, I just thought I should put my 2 cents in so hopefully some others can benefit from my experiences with this GREAT project!!!
Keep it up guys
E
[+] [-] u2328|12 years ago|reply
(Why not Ubuntu, you might ask? Simple: Ubuntu ships off their users' desktop search results to Amazon by default. I know it can be disabled and all that, but that's besides the point. I can't recommend software from people who don't respect their users' privacy.)
[+] [-] Sven7|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nsmartt|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] silverlight|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknownian|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fcmeneg|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jordanmoore_|12 years ago|reply
* The side-swipe at Apple in the video for doing "one thing well" is a misleading statement. Apple build computers that do a lot of things, not just to enjoy music.
* The sly dig at Apple product videos at the beginning gets more and more ironic as the video slowly transforms into the Apple product video style towards the end.
* And the side-swipe is just poor form considering the OS does look OSX-inspired. I know this is an old argument about eOS but it's worth mentioning when the sly digs in the video bring it up.
I only intend this criticism as constructive because I know you guys are on to a great thing here, I just don't think you need the hints towards other OS's to put yourselves ahead of the game, you are better than that!
Further points:
* I commend you guys for the hard work you have put into this OS. Elementary was my distro of choice when I was a Linux user, it's fast, beautiful and task orientated, so keep up the good work
* It's fantastic to see the base install apps conforming to a visual style whereas on other distros the theming can look quite disjointed.
[+] [-] jgoodwin|12 years ago|reply
Here's a suggestion for designers: the age of the Linux user base is aging at a rate of one year per year. That doesn't mean there are no young ones, only that we are going where no Linux user has gone before (I joined various Linux projects back in 1992.)
Every human on earth, after there mid 40s, experiences changes in the geometric optics of their vision system. As my eye doctor says, the denial rate is 100% and the participation rate is 100% -- if you are lucky enough to reach that age.
Please design an accessible operating system we can still use in our 80s. This is a very big opportunity. How old will you be in 2038 is maybe a good design target. ;)
Accessible on a mobile device, a desktop, and able to function smoothly with presbyteropia is the basic design spec.
Get your team an old geek geezer or two to tell what works and what doesn't. When I forget my reading glasses at work, I have to use the Magnify app on Win7. Go ahead and try this, and see what the experience is like and if it's so perfect it can't be improved on you are done. Otherwise, work on that aspect of your design.
Even if you are young and not 'there' yet, try out the Magnify app, and try whatever Linux has to offer on your distro of choice for the same thing. It completely changes how you size windows and operated effectively. It will give you insight into important principles of design such as navigating windows, scrolling, keyboard usage, etc.
There is no need to make the very best of what exists today -- make the very best that will be needed tomorrow.
You will appreciate this advice one day.
[+] [-] adrianlmm|12 years ago|reply
I don't believe that you try to mimic OSX because I have used it and they are not as similar, I think the people say it because they see the elegance you have put on it.
[+] [-] adamnemecek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] harveycabaguio|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] codebeard|12 years ago|reply
I'm trying hard not to assume the people in the thread saying it's a copy are more than just Apple zealots but it's difficult when no one provides any evidence.
[+] [-] rob05c|12 years ago|reply
1 login screen has a picture of a galaxy.
2 windows are white-themed, with rounded corners, and minimalistic buttons/scrollbars.
3 music player is reminiscent of iTunes with time bar and track info top-and-center, and large album art pane.
4 system settings window has radio-buttons-like-normal-buttons reminiscent of OSX system settings. Also has a search bar in the upper-right of the window, with minimalistic magnifying glass.
5 windows have no visual border on sides and bottom.
6 Dock.
7 Expose-style viewing of all windows.
8 top-of-screen menu, with system icons in upper-right.
As I said in a previous comment, Apple didn't invent many of these, if any. Many, perhaps all, of these points are simply good design. However, they all combine to make the GUI "feel" like OSX to me.
Furthermore, it isn't a "copy." You can certainly identify as many differences as similarities. It simply shares a certain design aesthetic.
The galaxy login pic at the beginning didn't help :P
[+] [-] afita|12 years ago|reply
She loves the simplicity and says that what she does on the net and her PC is completely covered by Elementary. Document writing, web browsing, text chat, email, video viewing, audio listening - all can be done easily and user-friendly.
Elementary is not enough for my advanced needs (I don't like docks, I prefer taskbars), but looks like Elementary might have some traction in the regular-user market.
Keep up the good work guys!
[+] [-] reidrac|12 years ago|reply
Wikipedia to the rescue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_(operating_system)
Also, worth reading: http://elementaryos.org/docs/user-guide/technical-specificat...
It's based in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Linux kernel 3.2.0).
[+] [-] shirro|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] miles|12 years ago|reply
Luna is built on the rock-solid foundation of Linux (the same software that powers the US Department of Defense, the Bank of China, and more). It has no known viruses, which means no pesky anti-virus software to slow down your system.
Linux has "no known viruses"?!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_malware
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/284124-myth-busting-is...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Linuxvirus
http://www.zdnet.com/linux-desktop-trojan-hand-of-thief-stea...
[+] [-] eddieroger|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] e12e|12 years ago|reply
Also nice to see a project that goes beyond simply building on top of Linux -- rethinking how apps are open/closed/minimized is a great example of this.
I doubt I'll ever use it for anything other than fun, though. I need my legacy apps, I can't work with a mouse (due to RSI and efficiency -- I've become addicted to xmonad like tiling wms, and vim/vimperator keybindings).
But if they can provide a solid alternative desktop experience, that's great!
[+] [-] StavrosK|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sciurus|12 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_os
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] sixbrx|12 years ago|reply
About the move from Linux to Darwin: http://elementaryos.org/journal/changes-coming-elementary-os
[+] [-] jared314|12 years ago|reply
[0] http://elementaryos.org/journal/whats-still-window-controls
[+] [-] anandpdoshi|12 years ago|reply
Even android has some parts copied from ios, and yet you don't want to complain about it because it lets you get similar experience within your budget. It gives you a likeable option, copy or not.
Just give it a try. Don't judge from the video alone.
[+] [-] djhworld|12 years ago|reply
Also my first port of call was to remove Midori and install firefox.
I must admit though, the interface is a lot lighterweight than unity and much better in my opinon. Whenever I install Ubuntu on anything I immediately remove unity and install gnome-classic.
[+] [-] munchor|12 years ago|reply
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor dconf-editor
Go on org>pantheon>terminal>settings and you'll find plenty to configure. Feel free to report any bug on bugs.launchpad.net/pantheon-terminal.
We just don't have a GUI for the settings, but they're there.