I recently had to install Linux on my parents’ computer. They’ve been running Ubuntu with LXDE and were NOT happy with it. The desktop configuration kept breaking and sometimes, it wasn’t usable at all. I laid down some basic criteria for the operating system I was going to install:

1. It must be intuitive and easy to use even for non-technical folks.
2. No terminal. If I have to use the terminal to set things up, the distribution loses points.
3. The distro must work out of the box without a problem. Basic applications included should be useful.
4. Good hardware support.
5. No trying to optimize performance for hardware. I decided to buy more hardware for better performance.

The fight was between Manjaro, Elementary OS, and Debian(For some Reason). Ubuntu desktop broke far too often for me to even consider it. I eventually settled on ElementaryOS because I’ve been hearing really rave reviews about it and I was unsure about Manjaro because I wasn’t confident enough that my parents could troubleshoot any problems that might crop up.

Continue reading “ElementaryOS: An evaluation” →