The majority of Linux distros are just forks of other major distros with swapped apps/DEs, so no need to expect magic.

Elementary definitely has a nicer software center UI and I personally love their terminal application more than others (even though I currently use Kubuntu). Many people like it because it reminds them of macOS, even though you don't.

And you're kind of right about GTK, but elementaryOS uses the Pantheon desktop environment built on top of GTK.

Elementary has the most gorgeous look for my taste.

Unfortunately, at least when I last tried during Loki, it's also extremely limited. I couldn't even install Firefox. Software in general seems to be limited solely to their bespoke storefront, which I'm not opposed to on principle, but (at the time anyway) it was pretty limited.

That’s odd. Have Firefox happily installed on Juno, and the latest version has Flatpack support built-in. Anything else has always been a PPA away.

You said it, the biggest difference is in the UI and UX, and while you do not like it, many do.

Like explaining to people who dislike veggie why veggie is delicious, it's difficult to explain why you like things to people who don't share the same view for something so subjective.

As a mac user and web developper, I really appreciate the attention to detail elementary tries to put into their UI/UX.

I'm not very found of Mac OS, and my next machine is most probably going to be a Thinkpad. I've tried several distros on VMs on my Windows PC, including Debian, Mint, Arch, MX Linux, and elementary. Out of all these, the two I liked the most were MX Linux and Elementary. I think I'm going to stick to Elementary though as it feels more premium and I like the slow update pace.

It's not running GNOME, they make their own Desktop Environment called Pantheon which is written in GTK+ and Vala.

I think it's worse than other Ubuntu distros as they lock it down "for my own safety". But for parents and other people not too good with computers it's a good windows alternative

This. When my FIL died he had about 10 versions of Thinkpads in his apartment of various ages and capabilities. I installed Juno and gave them to many of the family with limited computer experience (think 75-90 year olds). Their experience has been great!

Now the only problem is when they find out there's a new version I'll be spending Christmas week in NY updating a whole bunch of computers.

I've found Elementary to be much snappier and use less system resources than Ubuntu. Their native apps are written in Vala, which seem pretty good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vala_(programming_language)

I think this can be said about almost every distribution out of ~600:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Di...

I do wonder from time to time why Elementary can’t be an installable package rather than an OS...

It is:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:elementary-os/stable && sudo apt install elementary-desktop

Then, select elementary when you log in.

This did not work to me - I just got kicked back to the login screen. It changed my background picture though :)

Also tried running eOS in VirtualBox - after installing and reboot all I get is a black screen. I can get the live version running though, so not great, not terrible!

I didn’t realise. That’s great!

It is. On Fedora you can do

    sudo dnf group install 'pantheon desktop'

I've used Elementary for a while, beginning in it's beta, Luna and ending in Juno. These days, I just use Windows, as recent changes introduced quite a bit of instability and uncertainty into Desktop Linux environments.

Elementary does one thing and does it well: do UX right. Before getting to know Elementary, I've tried many Linux distros, you name it. I'd always have to spend quite a bit of time tweaking my new install, so it would actually look good and be useful. Elementary has good defaults, you can install a web browser, your favorite productivity tools, and call it a day.

The efforts of team behind the project have resulted into a quite consistent and coherent UI, something all other Linux distros lack. Distros maintainers have less control as they use DEs developed by other people. You can install Pantheon (Elementary's DE) into another distro but it wont feel as good as it does in Elementary. Finally, the other famous DEs, namely KDE and GNOME3, have awful design principles: GNOME3 with it's everything-big-tablet-like, lack of intuitiveness and excess of antifeatures; KDE with it's awful looks.

You could ask the same about pretty much ever Linux distro out there, each of which feels entitled to declare itself an "OS".

Sure, that's exactly what Mint is.

Debian but with things changed a bit to be Ubuntu but with things changed a bit to be Mint.

You just draw the line differently.

Personally I'm happy with Debian Stable and Arch, and I barely use the former lately. I don't see the point in creating an entirely new distribution that is effectively just a package change.

I use Ubuntu servers for work a decent amount because it's common, that's about it.

Ubuntu gave up unity and just use gnome. I would like to use a distro which actively improve its UX in the future. Gnome/KDE has a history of implementing all the fancy things(animation, customization,touch support) while ignoring the basics(performance, consistency), unity had the best desktop/laptop experience but it's gone, elementary at least have a good direction to go.

Mostly aesthetics over features. So if you think GNOME is “dumbed down”, well...

You should see the KDE greeter, then. It looks like a bad joke.

Appreciate their work but that greeter UI looks awful. Onboarding screens look well designed though.

It’s nicer to use.

Which parts are nicer? What makes them nicer?

Every single bit of the desktop is nicer than stock GNOME. Preferences, the terminal, the dock, window decorations, you name it. It’s just visually polished and _consistent_ to a degree I haven’t found in any other distro yet.

Consistency is the word. Elementary applications stick to the interface guidelines very well.

I agree. It's the tiniest things, like math operations in the search bar, autosaving in the text editor, terminal knowing that I want to copy something when I select the text and press Ctrl + C...

+ NO MENU BARS. I'm allergic to locating things in a drop down within a drop down within a drop down.

Also the preinstalled terminal has case-insensitive tab completion which is nice as well.

I've had some technical problems with past eOS versions but it's one of few distros where you get the feeling the developers are actually trying to make it more usable and polished. It starts with a consistent, nice-looking UI and doesn't stop with details like great default wallpapers.