Polished Elementary, neon Goes Wayland, Most Popular OS
Bertel King, Jr. tried to accentuate the positive over at MakeUseOf today in his review of Elementary OS, but rough edges did show through. Elsewhere, Jesse Smith liked SimpleMEPIS-based MX Linux 16, even if it isn't recommended for newbies, and Neil Rickert found Solus OS to be "congenial." Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols discussed operating system market share based on Website usage and Gary Newell summarized the top distros of 2016.
Gary Newell posted a "look back at the top 10 Linux distributions of 2016 in order to analyse their suitability for the everyday Linux user." His criteria included easy to install and use, intuitive desktop, complete app stack, descent package manager and healthy repositories, and ready out of the box. He didn't really pick a winner per say, but he did seem to like Ubuntu very much, but found frustration in obtaining Debian media. He said it's nice one you get it downloaded and installed. Mint of course received praise as did Manjaro. He said its KDE is "brilliant." (I may have to try that one myself.) Elementary OS scored as high as Mint Newell said and several others earned his accolades. So, check that out, especially if you've been thinking of trying out a new distro lately.
Speaking of Elementary OS, Bertel King, Jr. said Elementary OS is "as polished as Linux gets" and it made a "large impression" on him. He liked how the apps seemed to "fit together" and the system as a whole is easy for anyone to use out of the box. Yet his "is it perfect?" section sure takes the wind out of the ole sails. There are issues with the software installer and application availability as well as several default application crashes. In the end he had to admit, "Elementary OS is by no means ideal for everyone."
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols today looked at the reported market share of major operating systems and found Windows is still the king. While it may still be on top it no longer represents 98% market share. In fact, for 2016 Windows share was 49.2%. Less than half the computers out there run Windows. iOS and Mac enjoyed 32.1% and the Linuxes were at 18.8%. That Linux number is actually Android, Chrome OS and Other, but who's quibbling? Actually, smartphones have skewed the numbers in recent years and accounted for over 35% of Website visits in 2016. GamingOnLinux looked at Linux market share today as well.
In other news:
* Neil Rickert: Solus is congenial but lacks software
* Jesse Smith liked MX Linux 16 although it did have a few rough spots
* neon Plasma ISO available with Wayland - might be default in future