What should you expect from elementary OS? Is it still around? I answer some of those questions here.

elementary OS may not be as much as popular as it used to be.

That being said, elementary OS 8 release is still on the horizon with some useful changes based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

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However, amidst disagreement between co-founders during the pandemic in 2022, co-founder Cassidy quit the elementary OS team.

Right after that, the development pace took a big hit, and we saw elementary OS 7 being released almost a year after Ubuntu 22.04 LTS came up.

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A good indicator about its development activity is its upcoming major release, elementary OS 8, based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

I took a sneak peek at it using the daily build, and elementary OS 8 is almost ready to have an RC release.

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You can expect things like:

  • The settings app handles system updates (instead of AppCenter)
  • AppCenter is now Flatpak only
  • New toggle menu icon giving you easy access to the screen reader, onscreen keyboard, font size, and other system settings
  • WireGuard VPN support
  • Telorand@reddthat.com
    12·
    2 months ago

    TBH, they should put all their effort into making Pantheon better. NixOS’s installer has Pantheon, and it feels pretty much the same; that’s clearly 90% of what makes elementaryOS unique.

    Trying to make a walled garden in Linux with their software choices was what turned me off to the project, and you’ll never attract Linux-minded people by forcing them into a box.

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
      2·
      2 months ago

      Totally agree.

      I think they had or have commercial aspirations. That along with the strong desire to curate the experience are likely what lead to the walled garden effect.

      The problem with walled gardens ( well, I hate them always ) is that they only work if you have the resources to pull off the full experience by yourself. Elementary really never had that and, before they could get there, they stumbled internally and killed their execution. It is going to be really hard to get it back.

      Whatever their original aspirations, salvaging what they have into a distro agnostic DE is probably their best hope for relevance and survival. With a curated Flatpak store, they may even be able to someday pull off their walled garden in a cross-distro way. If it ever became big enough, they could take another run at being a full distro.

      As it is, Elementary is on borrowed time. That would be the case even if the Wayland clock was not ticking but ticking it is.