elementaryOS Sucks

I bought a used HP DC7900 small form factor tower the other day. While I was waiting to get a new 2TB drive, I tossed in an older 80GB drive to play around with. I knew that the drive had a dual boot setup, but when I booted I found out it had a triple boot setup: Windows XP, CrunchBang Linux, and elementaryOS.

I have fond, distant memories of elementaryOS, so I booted that up first. When the login screen popped up, I thought "Wow, this looks great." It had an amazing wallpaper and a Mac OS X feel to it. But once I opened Slingshot, eOS' application launcher, I remembered why I switched to a different distro: app poverty. After you install elementaryOS, there are very few applications. You get a file manager (Files), a browser (Midori), a simple text editor (Scratch), an audio player (Noise), email client (Geary), and a few other odds and ends. No office suite. No torrent program. No image editor. How's a guy gonna get any work done if he has to spend a bunch of time downloading the apps he needs?

Design Over Function
One of the guiding goals of eOS is create a distro that is beautiful and has a unified UI (User Interface) across applications. According to the eOS site: "elementary is crafted by designers and developers who believe that computers can be easy, fun, and gorgeous. By putting design first, we ensure we're not compromising on quality or usability." In order to create a united UI, they created some basic programs from scratch: Files, Scratch, Noise, and Calculator to name a few. Unfortunately, these beautiful apps are empty and lack features that are incorporated with popular alternatives. For example, VLC media player may not fit eOS' UI design scheme, but it has more features that Noise. The same is true for Midori, which is the default browser. It might be lighter than Firefox, but it is also light on features. (One thing that worries me about Midori is when I opened it, instead of showing me the eOS homepage, it should me an obvious scam page telling me that my computer had a virus.) You're better off installing other apps to replace the default ones. They won't be as pretty, but they will be functional.

Ancient technology

Old Tech
Another promise that the eOS developers make is that if you use eOS you will be on the cutting edge. RIGHT. The latest version of eOS is Luna, which was released roughly 17 months ago is based on Ubuntu 12.04. SO this version is a year old and is running on 2 year old tech? Not so cutting edge. At least, they used a Long-Term Support release, which get supported for 7-9 years instead of 18 months. On top of that the applications in the eOS repositories are old. The latest version of Libreoffice available is 3.5 and Libreoffice just released 4.4. I know you can use a PPA to get the latest version of the software you want, but I think if a distro is going to claim that they are cutting edge, they had better keep their packages up-to-date.

Whenever It's Done
This more of an observation than anything else. If you asked any of the eOS developers when the next version will be done, they all have the same answer "When It's Done." You know, I've heard that phrase before. That was 3DRealms' standard answer for years while they worked on Duke Nukem Forever before they went bankrupt. I've heard of rolling release and timed release, but this is ridiculous. There is such a thing as too much tinkering and too much perfecting.

Nobody Home
After I explored eOS for awhile, I went to the IRC to talk to the users. You know that I found? Nothing. No one was on the distro's IRC chat on a Saturday. To me that is a bad sign. I've logged onto other IRC chats and found at least a few devs ready to help if not a bunch of users arguing. Nope. the eOS IRC chat was a ghost town.

Conclusion
elementaryOS is a very beautiful Linux distro, but it seems to be missing quick a few pieces. It is more of a facade than anything else. The eOS devs released beta 2 for the next version yesterday and I've seen quite a few complaints about lack of features on Google+. I know it's still a beta, but its the third release already. I would not recommend eOS for production use, just for fun and on a backup computer.

Do you agree with me? Do you hate me for attacking your favorite distro? Comment below and share. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to hit the Flattr button. For more tach news, sign up for my weekly tech newletter.

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Linux on a iMac G4

Last year, I bought a iMac G4 at a rummage sale. Because it ran Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” and very few programs are available for it, I decided to install Linux. Since the G4 is powered by a PowerPC chip, I had to find a Linux distro with PPC support. Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems getting the display to work. The distros would install, but after reboot the screen would only showed black and yellow lines. Finally, I tried Debian 6 PPC. The thing worked right away. It booted into a usable, albeit slow, desktop. Now, all I need to do is fix the color, which looks like 256 color. Below is a video of a boot. I may upload a better video later.

Another One Bites the Dust

It's amazing how fast companies can come and go. They seem to be going even faster. It seems just like yesterday I was telling you that Pears OS,  a Mac OS X clone based on Linux, was bought by an unknown and closed down. The same has just happened to what was intended to be a spiritual successor to Pear OS. Brenden Gonzalez recently started work on Clementine OS, which had the same goal as Pear OS. Unfortunately, before he could begin work, Brenden was contacted by the still known company that bought Pear OS and threatened with legal action if he did not desist. Whoever is planning to use the Pear OS name is already doing all they can to squash all copiers. Sounds a lot like Apple.

Pear OS dies on the vine, but not for long

Yesterday afternoon, David Tavares (creator of the Pear OS distro) announced he halting development of the OS. From a statement he has released, it appears that Tavares came to an agreement with an unnamed company to hand the distro over to them. Whether money was involved or how much is unknown at this time. The full statement can be found at the end of this post.

Pear OS´ main claim to fame is that it brings the look and feel of Mac OS and iOS to Linux. While other Linux distros, such as Ubuntu, can have the mac OS look and feel it required the installation of multiple themes and applications. Pear OS was one of the few distros that delivered it in one package. Another such distro is elementary OS.

Tavares´ announcement has been met by much outcry and anger. People have suggested that Tavares was pressured by Apple who did not like someone copying their look and feel. Others suggested that Tavares was just creating an excuse to end development. Almost everyone seems to fear that this news means the end of Pear OS in much the same way that Palm bought BeOS only to close down the project.

Several people responded to the announcement by calling for a fork to be created to keep the project alive. Pear OS user Brenden Gonzalez has already begun efforts to create a fork of pear OS, which will be based on Ubuntu 13.04 until 14.04 becomes available. If you are interested in giving Brenden a hand, drop him an email.

Below is the official statement on the Pear OS website.

Pear OS and Pear Cloud are no longer available for download.
 Its future is now in hands of a company who wants to remain anonymous for the moment. The concept has pleased them it and now wants to continue and improve the system for their own products. I can not give a name but it is a very large company well known ...
 I want to thank all users, moderators and other developers who have made Pear OS it is today, that without this adventure would not have been possible.
 I'm going in another direction.
 Pear Cloud users must recover their files on Pear Cloud servers. In 10 days, the files will be deleted and the server will be offline. 
 Another big thank you to all and I hope to return to the scene of open source very quickly.
 Cordially.
 David

We will continue to report on this story as more information comes in.

Update: You can check out the new Clementine OS here.