Elementary OS, MacOS Alternative!

Elementary OS, is a polished and refined take on Linux. It’s devoid of the cryptic lines of code that are required to get everything to work properly. In fact, even during installation, you are shielded from the complex wizardry that goes on behind the scenes.

If you’ve installed Windows or MacOS on your computer, the experience with Elementary OS, is just as simple. Just tell it where to install and it will do the rest. This process isn’t very time consuming either, it’s on par with a Windows 10 installation.

Once it boots up, you are greeted by the polished interface. It’s similar to that of a Mac, down to the window borders and App Dock. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The desktop is free of clutter, allowing you to get to work quickly, and as efficiently as possible.

Elemenary OS system requirements:

• Recent Intel i3 or comparable dual-core 64-bit processor
• 4 GB of system memory (RAM)
• Solid state drive (SSD) with 15 GB of free space
• Internet access
• 1024×768 display

The applications, which are very useful, are located in a single and easily accessible place. If you can’t find what you are looking for, then browse through the entire app catalog of it’s AppCenter. And unlike other distros, Elementary OS combines paid and free apps under one roof.

Photo Credit: Elementary.io

It’s a remarkable piece of software, that not only looks like MacOS but provides the same, no frills, user experience. An example of this is the detection of my network printer. I didn’t have to configure it, because Elementary OS found it on my network – and added it to the system!

This allowed me to skip the tedium of having to sift through the various plugins to make everything work, as I would on other Linux distros. It’s slightly less complicated to accomplish this on Windows 10, but on Elementary OS, there’s no work involved at all.

Photo Credit: Elementary.io

From the get-go, I’ve been skeptical of Elementary OS. The idea of a polished version of Linux seemed too far-fetched. Despite reading multiple rave reviews about it, my mind was set. Mind, this was true until a week ago, when I decided to dust off a discarded laptop and install a Linux distro on it.

In my defense, I had valid reasons for the way I felt. I’ve been an avid Linux user since 2007. Those were very dark times (2007-2014), because nothing worked without a good grasp of the Linux syntax. You would need to seek the advice of the counsel of Linux elders for probable solutions.

And that, in a nutshell, is the reason for my skepticism. Linux is complicated to setup and use. Admittedly, over the years, it has become progressively less burdensome to operate. That said, only seasoned sadists would be able to put up with this level of work for years.

Out of the box, regardless of the distro, some of your stuff, just won’t work. You’ll need to sudo this and sudo that….to get your hardware up and running. And sometimes, solutions that work on some PCs, won’t work on others.

But Elementary OS, it’s in a different league. It only requires modest hardware to run, and the vivid user interface, window transitions and minimalist menus are unmatched by any Linux distro. If you don’t believe me, you should try it for yourself. Check out Elementary OS‘s HOW TO page here.

Photo Credit: Elementary.io