I'm Finally Home
Anyone that follows me on any social networks, or the sparse updates I add to this blog will know that I have been on the hunt for the perfect operating system for my needs over the last few months.
I’ve hopped from Linux Distro, to Linux Distro including Ubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, PinguyOS, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Bhodi, and a few others. They are all great and capable operating systems. But all of them had at least one niggle that I didn’t like, or that slowed me down – in their own ways they all just do too much.
I also considered Google’s ChromeOS, but decided against it in the end as I really need the flexibility and power that comes with normal applications, as opposed to web apps.
For some time I settled on Windows 8 with a custom Start menu installed from StartIsBack. But I really wanted the freedom and joy that comes with using FOSS, so although Windows 8 is great, it couldn’t scratch my itch either. I then heard that the Elementary team had announced the release of Luna Beta 2 – and oh what a game changer that was!
I’m back!
I had already tried Luna Beta 1, but it was lacking some features and it was still a little buggy on my machine. But Beta 2 is a completely different animal. I’ve been using it for around a week and a half now and it’s a complete joy to use. It’s stable, beautiful and most importantly, it gets out of my way and let’s me get on with my work. Which is exactly what I want from an operating system.
I am officially back in love with Linux!
Elementary Luna is an operating system that is very loosely based on Ubuntu. However, they have re-developed many of the core features of the OS. It isn’t a hacked version of Gnome, or Unity, or XFCE, or any of the other UI’s. It’s their own UI built from the ground up called Gala.
Elementary OS Luna Beta 2 is so stable that I think if it were an Ubuntu release, the Canonical team would have no problem in calling this a stable, or even LTS release. It’s a great operating system and I can’t recommend it enough. I’ve migrated all of my machines over to it and I will be here for a long time to come yet I think!
Long live Linux!
NOTE: Even though Luna is extremely stable and awesome. It’s still a development release. Just because I’ve had positive experiences of Luna doesn’t mean that yours will be the same. So if you install this OS and your machine blows up, you cannot blame anyone but yourself.