4 Ways elementary OS Still Falls Short

elementary OS is an ideal distro for Linux newbies, but on the other side of the coin, it also has some weak points the developers need to work on.

elementary OS has come a long way since its humble beginnings. It's not only a free and open-source operating system but a full platform. There's a desktop to use apps, an app store to find them, along with all the tools and instructions you need to make them.

But as good as elementary OS has become, there are still some major areas where it needs work. You may want to take them into consideration before deciding whether to put elementary OS on your PC.

1. AppCenter Is Relatively Empty

AppCenter is the name of the elementary OS app store. When you launch the app store for the first time, you will only see apps designed specifically for elementary OS.

In some ways, this is a great experience. It means unlike other Linux app stores, you don't have to weed through dozens of options that may work but don't integrate with your desktop environment at all. The downside is that there aren't yet all that many apps available. Searching for a writing app may only yield a handful of results.

Plus, many elementary OS apps are small, hyper-focused tools. For more powerful general-purpose software, you will still need to turn to more well-known apps. Think LibreOffice, GIMP, VLC, or Kdenlive. These apps can run on elementary OS just fine, but you will need to turn to third-party sources of Linux apps to get them.

Does this mean elementary OS should preinstall a third-party resource like Flathub, rather than point users toward it? Not necessarily.

At the end of the day, people are accustomed to the company providing an app store to perform quality control over the apps inside it, and the elementary team has no influence or control over the software in Flathub. This is one of the reasons elementary has provided for not doing so.

But until the AppCenter fills up, the initial experience can feel jarring, especially if you're coming from an older version of elementary OS.

2. Most Apps Have Not Been Updated for "Odin"

New versions of elementary OS have traditionally required app developers to update and resubmit their apps to support the latest release. elementary OS 6.0 "Odin" uses the Flatpak format instead of DEBs in order to solve this problem. Going forward, apps will continue to work even if they aren't updated for each release.

But right now there is still a large catalog of older elementary OS apps that aren't yet available as a Flatpak for Odin. So long-time elementary OS users may have an app they love but will have to sacrifice to transition to the latest version of the operating system, with no guarantee that their app will eventually get updated.

It's up to the original app developers, not the elementary team, to update each app. Some developers have simply moved on to other things.

Some apps were released for "Loki" (version 0.4) and never saw an update to "Juno" (5.0) or "Hera" (5.1). It's great seeing new apps made for Odin, but it still hurts to see some great software in the back catalog that just won't run anymore.

3. Full OS Upgrades Require a Clean Install

Most elementary OS updates come as notifications in AppCenter. You open AppCenter, click the "Installed" tab, and tap the "Update" button. But when a new version of elementary OS comes out, you can't simply install the update. Instead, you must back up all your data, wipe your computer, and replace the entire operating system with the new version.

The elementary team says this is because there are so many moving parts that they are unable to guarantee a smooth upgrade to users.

Since people install different configurations of software and sometimes make personal customizations, any number of bugs could arrive in an upgrade that people would request help with. Without their desktops being configured in the exact same way, developers would have no ability to replicate the bugs.

There's a certain truth to this, but at the same time, other Linux distributions have offered the ability to upgrade to new versions for many years. At this point, elementary OS is the oddball out, an exception to the rule. But other distros also tend to be clear that system upgrades can introduce quirks over time and clean installs offer the most predictable experience.

4. Too Few Hands for Too Much Work

elementary is a very small team of paid individuals joined by a team of volunteers. Like other free software projects, including larger ones like GNOME and KDE, most of the software development is dependent on volunteer contributions.

This can mean bugs that stick around for a long time because the staff doesn't have the expertise and a volunteer hasn't stepped up yet to fix it. It can mean new versions of elementary OS take longer to roll out than they might from a larger company.

It can also mean elementary may have changes it wants to make, such as transitioning over to OSTree but hasn't done yet due to a lack of the necessary skillset or manpower.

On the other hand, small teams often offer a passion that you don't get from big corporate entities. The elementary team is easy to contact, and if they can't fix or change something yet, they're very transparent in explaining why. Being small isn't a con, but it can require patience.

Should You Use elementary OS?

elementary OS is a great desktop operating system. Keep in mind that some of the above issues are also present in the major commercial desktops, if not worse. The Windows Store frankly isn't overflowing with software. Chromebooks come with an expiration date before you simply cannot upgrade them to newer versions of Chrome OS. Some great apps don't work on newer versions of Android.

Thanks to the nature of free and open-source software, the elementary team doesn't need to be big or heavily financed to deliver one of the best computer experiences around. That the above list is so short is a testament to how great an option elementary OS has become.

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