Pantheon Files, like most apps developed by the team for Elementary OS Luna, trades customizability and in-depth settings for a clean user experience. Pantheon Filesįor an example of Elementary OS Luna’s approach to applications, let’s take a look at Luna’s file manager, Pantheon Files. Since Luna is based on Ubuntu, there’s a large number of applications to choose from that should fulfill any user’s needs. Users with more specific needs will have to turn to the Software Center. This might seem overly minimal, but it keeps to the design ethos: concise, consistent and minimal. It doesn’t, however, include an office suite such as LibreOffice.
Much like Mac OS applications, these pre-installed applications save upon exit and will restore to state when they’re relaunched.Įlementary OS Luna also comes with the requisite software center, system settings ( Switchboard) and file manager ( Pantheon Files) applications. Elementary OS Luna comes with only the most basic applications pre-installed. The Elementary OS team’s focus on minimalism extends beyond Luna’s user interface. It looks great, is smooth and responsive, and manages to be minimal without being too bare bones. This feature is not enabled by default, but can be, in the Desktop section within the System Settings application.Īll in all, Elementary OS Luna’s user interface is a delight to use. Hot Corners allow you to execute commands such as triggering the workspace overview screen or opening Slingshot when your cursor enters one of the display’s corners. In addition, you also have access to window and workspace overview screens. Pantheon also has support for Hot Corners and Workspaces. In keeping with the Elementary OS ethos, Plank fulfills its role adequately, without extraneous customization and configuration options. Plank, like OS X’s dock, highlights the application currently in focus, and has indicators to tell you which apps are currently open. The Elementary OS Luna dock, codenamed Plank, works exactly like the dock you get in OS X. Of course, Wingpanel will show icons if apps require it, but it’s fundamentally a minimalist and clean top panel. Wingpanel is as minimalistic as they come: the aforementioned application launcher on the left, a clock in the middle, and power and connectivity options to the right. Slingshot can display installed applications as both unsorted and categorised grids. Getting AroundĮlementary OS Luna’s application launcher is called Slingshot, and is accessible from the left of the top panel. Elementary OS Luna is still a Linux distro at heart.
However, while the visual similarities are remarkable, they’re mostly skin deep.
Luna uses an in-house desktop environment called Pantheon, and at first glance it’s impossible to overlook its similarities to Mac OS X.įrom the dock, to the top bar, to the subtle gradients and monochrome window design, it’s clear that Mac OS X was a big influence on the Elementary OS team’s design philosophy. The first thing you’ll notice when you boot into Elementary OS Luna is its user interface.
The installer will even help you install Elementary OS Luna alongside your current OS or replace it entirely. The installer will guide you through the process, so it is a simple, fuss-free process. If you find that you like it, and want to install it, run the Ubiquity installer from the dock and follow the step-by-step installation process. In other words, you can burn it onto a CDr (or create a bootable thumb drive) and boot directly from it for a trial run. Like Ubuntu and its derivatives, Elementary OS Luna is packaged as a live distro.
Recommended Reading: 9 Cloud Operating System You Can Try Out For Free Installing Elementary OS Luna For us, Elementary OS is as close to a Mac OS as you can get on a PC. The Elementary OS team was motivated by a "desire to create a Linux-based OS that championed consistency and great design", and their design ethos focuses on providing a concise and consistent user experience with minimal need for configuration and documentation. It’s the second OS developed by the Elementary OS team after Elementary OS Jupiter (which was based on Ubuntu 10.10). If you work on a Windows PC and don’t want to build a Hackintosh, you can try this alternative: Elementary OS Luna.Įlementary OS Luna is a Linux distro based on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. MacOS is definitely one of, if not the most, consistent and aesthetically pleasing desktop OS on the market to date but in order to use it, you still need to get a Mac.