On this episode of DLN Xtend we discuss our week with elementary OS 15.1 Hera and Emby and home media servers. Our community segment converges with Linux for Everyone where @JasonEvangelho asks the question “What do you appreciate about Linux compared to Windows?”. Destination Linux interviewed Hilary Shohoney of FreeGeek. FreeGeek is the first charity chosen by the Destination Linux Network as part of our effort to give back to the Linux community. They also covered one of our favorite audio apps, PulseEffects. On This Week in Linux, Michael mentioned the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS survey and all of the effort going into the KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS release. Finally, we finish up on with KDE’s Discovery software center.
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To chime in on elementary os, I agree with Nate that it can be very annoying when you have two instances of the same program open to switch between the two. I have found two ways to do it different to what Nate said. The first is the obvious alt+tab and cycle through your open programmes. The second, is you can right click on the icon in the dock and the menu it brings up will include a list of the instances of the programme that are open.
To me, I think a lot of long term linux users and above average computer users do seem to miss the point of elementary sometimes. Many people talk about the desire for linux to be more widely used, well in my opinion a distribution like elementary os is the most likely way to do that. It being more locked down than other distributions is a good thing in that respect.
Your average user wants to it look nice and be easy to use immediately, and apart from a few niggles here and there (no minimise by default etc) elementary meets that need. I think average users aren’t too fussed about customisation beyond changing wallpapers, and if they do want to customise, they want it to be as easy as clicking a button, which for most distros is not that easy anyway. Once you want more control, you are probably above an average user at that point.
Thanks for the alternative means of switching open windows. I’m sure @CubicleNate will appreciate that.
I completely agree with you that we (Nate and I) are not the target audience and your assessment of newer users having a better experience is probably quite true.
I do miss the Google+ Going Linux page. I enjoyed that social media platform, but, alas it is gone. Glad to see you here too. I haven’t thought to join the MeWe social network because, well, I have a hard enough time staying connected to the ones that I do.
First, great show guys, very entertaining!
Second, in elementary OS you can, sort of, minimize with superkey+H
I don’t know if that is actually what the combination should do, but it works for me.
To my understanding, the philosophy behind the absence of a minimize button is about stopping to micromanage of memory. I believe they wrote a post talking about how apps should be fast and light and autosave the work you are on. That the user shouldn’t have to micro control how much memory is used. They make a comparison with how Android and iOS work.
Thanks @EricAdams and @CubicleNate! I’ve never tried Elementary OS or Pantheon though looking at some youtube videos now, it does look very Mac-like and might be a good way to get people into Linux. Also for new users, I think the better Software Centres become, the more accessible Linux will be for the average user so I’ll be pleased to hear of continued improvements in the likes of Discover. Like yourselves, I only ever use command line for installs (aptitude on debian, in particular) as I currently find these faster and offering me more control.
It can be a bit polarizing. I think it is a good fit for new users who don’t have preconceived ideas of what a Linux desktop is. My challenge was trying to bend it to my way of doing things which isn’t easily done.