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elementary OS Review

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I came across elementary OS on LifeHacker I think and thought it looked pretty interesting. I've been looking for a lightweight operating system that's reliable and fairly full featured (I accept it won't be totally featured - that's the cost of lightweight) for use on various older laptops and the like.

elementary OS is a free download with donations as optional. I downloaded it and burned it to a CD. Alas my favourite test laptop has gone the way of the dodo and is never to return (much like the dodo). I found a HP Pavilion D6 floating around, replaced the hard disk (it was toast) and the RAM (also toast) with 6GB. It's an i3 which doesn't really qualify as a lower end machine, but what the hey.

elementary is based on Ubuntu linux and is quite heavily customised running a lightweight desktop called Pantheon. The current version of elementary is called Luna and it's nice to see they are in development of new versions and it seems like an active development environment. Midori is available for Internet access - I installed Chromium as that's my preferred web browser. There is a calendar app, Geary Mail (which I haven't used), Shotwell for photo organisation and Empathy to tie in with Jabber, Facebook etc.

The interface is slick and looks good and the laptop boots a rocket. All the apps are fast and updates etc are easy as pie. There is an application for updates which is simple and straightforward and the whole thing is well organised and designed. It's quite a joy to use actually. The application install package - Software Center - looks good and is straightforward to use, offering a large range of packages. All the stuff I like to use I was able to install and get on with the job. I have a pretty small requirement list though, in the interests of full disclosure. Chromium has to work, I have to be able to burn CDs and DVD's and I need terminal to be fully functional. Pretty, fast and stable are the other three musts for any OS and I find elementary to check all those boxed.

I now run Mint and elementary side by side on laptops and desktops - the speed difference is quite noticeably between the two, and with their ultra stable Ubuntu (Debian) ancestry it's lovely to use. I've enjoyed using elementary OS Luna and I'll be keeping it on my Pavilion for the future - well as long as the Pavilion holds together!
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