Review of the Basic Operating System – Criticism of CMS

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The basic operating system is an Ubuntu variant that integrates the custom-built Pantheon desktop environment. In addition to the unique appearance, custom coded applications and the paid app store are available with Elementary. Today, let's take a look at the whole of this basic review of the operating system.

I will not go into the installation process here because it is almost identical to all other Linux distributions and there is not much to see. It worked without any problems in all my tests on several devices, so I will call it stable and solid.

Elementary Operating System Review – The Office

At startup, we welcome the office Elementary OS Pantheon, inspired by Mac OS. This is not a bad thing, however, many people are fond of appearance and it works.

At the top, we have the Applications menu on the left, the date in the center on the top panel and the system tray on the right. At the bottom, the dock where you can launch and pin the applications you use most often.

Applications

With respect to default applications, developers tend to choose applications that are simplicity and minimalism. For example, the default Web browser installed is Epiphany.

While this is not a terrible web browser, it's certainly not something that is commonly used or comparable to standard Firefox and Chrome / Chromium browsers. Of course, you can install different from the App Store, but I think it is a waste to install something that most new users will find less than enough. Epiphany is not in the same league as the big boys and will probably not be able to display complex sites properly.

E-mail

First created from Geary, Mail is now developed under the Elementary banner and is being rewritten to allow more robust features (source), but it is suitable for most users.

Other applications included are: video, music, files, calendar, terminal and photos. All of these elements are customized for the basic operating system.

System settings

By examining the system settings, we see that there are many icons to help you set up your new environment:

In my opinion, there are a few key things to remember, including parental control and online accounts.

Online accounts only integrate the operating system integration for FastMail, Last.fm and Email.

I'm not sure why they chose to limit that much, but I guess this is due to the fact that the integration would require the addition of more third-party applications to the operating system. , which they clearly do not offer by default. I would like to see Google account integration at least in future releases.

As a parent, I particularly like the simple parental control that provides basic functionality to those with children who use your computer.

You can define specific times during which a user can use the system, as well as block specific applications and websites. It's simple and you can not block keywords or specific types of content, but at least that's better than nothing and I appreciate their efforts to provide some form of control.

Application Center

AppCenter is the answer of the basic operating system to a software store. This is one of the few I have ever seen working on a pay-per-view model.

This worked very well for the Elementary OS team and many developers now offer paid apps in the store. Of course, you can also download free files, everything is not paid (just to be clear).

Here's what the team had to say about the AppCenter:

AppCenter is our integrated application store where users can download free and paid apps specifically designed for basic operating systems. With AppCenter, we do things a little differently than our competitors. First of all, every app in AppCenter is open source because we strongly believe in the power of open source code and source code software that is changing globally. Second, all paid apps come with a suggested price provided by the developer, but ultimately pay off. Users choose what to pay – if at all – when they download paid apps.

Elementary Operating System Review – My Findings

There is not much you can actually Personalize in elementary OS. Although they offer easy-to-use applications and a simple and easy-to-use interface, I found that it significantly limited capabilities without replacing major applications with better and more classic AppCenter options. Epiphany seemed to be doing a good job but does not support extensions. It does, however, offer synchronization features with Firefox, but in my opinion it is not enough.

I have almost felt that the Elementary team has been a bit too restrictive with respect to the operating system, but at the same time, limiting things is has become a successful experience for Apple and since Elémentary seems to be inspired by Apple; it may not be a bad thing. I would not recommend trying to use Elementary if you are like me and like to personalize things because you will not be satisfied. If you want a "working only" operating system and that does not worry you, it's a decent option.

I give it a 3/5 because it's a bit too constraining for new users. I would rather recommend something like Ubuntu Mate, MX Linux or Solus.

Interested to try for yourself? Take it from here. What do you like about Elementary OS? Let us know in the comments below.