Elementary, my dear watson

General Linux Question
1

Just noticed…

elementary 8.1.1 is out - and - you don’t have to jump through ridiculous hoops ($10 monthly github subscrtion) to get the arm64 version (for Pi4 / Pi5 etc).

Downloading both x86_64 and arm64 versions now…

Will probably test drive it on my Pi5 which has been powered off for a couple months now (was running Ubuntu 24.04 on it).

Apparently “tweaks” is now Pantheon-Tweaks and available as a flatpak…

So - I may end up back on elementary (I used to run 6.x on a gaming laptop - worked quite well - that was 10+ years ago now)…

elementary really needs some tweaks to bypass its locked down nature… that might have been one of the reasons I switched back to Ubuntu LTS… I think you need tweaks for things like transparence (compositor) and move the Window Control Widgets to the left (I’m also a Mac user).

And - while elementary defaults to Wayland - but - you can still choose X11 at the DM greeter/login, unlike Ubuntu 26.04 or Pop!_OS 24.04 “Cosmic” (I think there are workarounds - but I’d rather they kept it simple stupid).

Hmmm : the arm64 download is also an ISO - I’m used to getting an IMG file and flashing to the Pi3/4/5 storage… I’ll check it out anyway… The only installation guide assumes x86_64…

I also haven’t used my ThinkPad for a while… If I like it the Pi5 - I might give it a go on the ThinkPad (AMD Ryzen 5, AMD Vega 8 graphics, 1 TB NVMe SSD, 16 GB RAM) before risking it on my daily driver desktop machine…

There’s a few apps I need and if they’re problematic on elementary - I will probably stick with Ubuntu 24.04 for the time being…
Sayonara
ResilioSync
Synergy KVM

I’ve had problems with above before… but most other stuff that I use is fine : ffmpeg, mpv, vlc, libre-office, probably a bunch more… Oh yeah - Inkscape 1.2…

Hmmm - the arm64 download is an ISO file - not sure how to install on a Pi4/5…

Also - elementary linux is all lower-case - and Discourse won’t let me start my subject as “elementary”…

2

I thought it was free or is that limited access ?

3

elementary has nearly always been “name your own price”…

I actually paid about $25 (AUD) around 2015/2016 out of “honesty”… and I used it… IT was an honour system…

But arm64 version of elementary was previously hideously complex to try out - you had to have a subscription to GitHub or GitLab or something with a minimum spend of $10 a month…

I NEVER EVER commit to services with a montly bill (other than my ISP and simcard provider)…

The arm64 version of elementary indicates that it’s also targeted at “Apple Silicon” (i.e. M1, M2 and so forth)…

If I was going to run Linux on either of my M1 Macs - I’d probably go Asahi… But I can’t see the point - FFS - MacOS is UNIX… It’s classed as UNIX, where-as Linux can only claim “UNIX like”…

I can see the point in running Linux on Intel Mac devices - ones that have reached EOL with no more MacOS updates… If I had an intel mac - I’d wait till it was EOL before abandoing Apple UNIX :smiley: - but - I never saw the point in Intel Macs in the first place… PowerPC was RISC - IMHO superior to Intel’s (and AMD’s) CISC offerings… I suspect Steve Jobs hated having to negotiate with IBM and Motorola for CPU…

Apple and IBM (with Motorola) worked on a hardware and operating system “ecosystem” they internally code-named “taligent” it was going to incorporate bits of UNIX, bits of OS/2 and bits of Apple System 6/7… But it fell flat and never delivered anything… And of course - Apple rehired Steve Jobs in 1996 (helped by a 150,000,000 investment from Microsoft) and he brought his own UNIX from NeXT (BSD based)…

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He was a great guy but liked his own way, or no way. Part of his departure from apple was about having to listen to others and follow the board especially when they brought outsiders in who did not understand his leadership. I joined apple just after he left but moved on myself before he came back. But not for the same reasons.