What does elementaryOS do differently apart from the looks?

[RexGrammer]

First of all hi!

I'm a seasoned C# developer. Being a C# developer, I was mostly tied to Windows due to the nature of my work. Recently I've taken interest in really learning C and C++ (I have a basic to intermediate understanding of them, but want to improve on this), and thought it would be a great idea to pick up some linux skills as well (another thing to add to my resume, but also really like the advantages linux has over windows). I made the decision to dual-boot Linux and Windows. So I started researching about which distro I wanted and came to dilemma with either Ubuntu or eOS. I like eOS' UI, while I really like Ubuntu's community (which is really useful when you're new to an OS! And the Ubuntu community is awesome!). Another eOS downside / Ubuntu advantage is that Ubuntu gets new updates at a faster rate. Next I found out DE are easily switchable in Linux (sweeeeeet). So finally I have two questions for you guys.

Can you install the Pantheon DE in Ubuntu? Any known bugs, downsides? Does it work great?

I know Freya is based on 14.04 LTS Ubuntu, so I'm wondering if there's anything different from Ubuntu other than the looks eOS provides? Is it basically an Ubuntu with fresh looks and some applications to supplement that design?

[d-cosner]

In my opinion you would be better off using Ubuntu because it is so well supported.

[RexGrammer]

My thought exactly. I just dislike the UI, but it's changeable by changing the DE, right? But I've had another thought, since eOS is based on Ubuntu, all Ubuntu specific support forums (issues already answered) apply to eOS (excluding those related to the DE?).

[tom-bellas3rd]

eOS Freya may look great, but I found it very fragile. I felt like I had to tip-toe around the OS before it broke.

[d-cosner]

There were changes to pantheon for the 14.04 base, at this time I would not try installing it on Ubuntu. I saw problems in the latest elementary release, screen flicker, clock disappearing, running the top command there was missing information, etc. The default set of applications was lacking too in my opinion.

If you do not like the Unity interface of Ubuntu there are other flavors, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, Ubuntu Mate, these are all well supported. There is also Linux Mint that also offers Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce and KDE editions that are based on Ubuntu 14.04.

Elementary OS looks really nice but does not offer anywhere near the level of support Ubuntu or Linux Mint offer. There are a few that claim to have no problems with elementary OS but I found a lot of bugs in my brief time with it.

[RexGrammer]

Writing from a fresh installation of Ubuntu!

I've had some hurdles while installing, but nothing I couldn't overcome. First off, the partitioning took a little info and time to do. Apart from the standard swap and root partitions I've also added a EFI boot partition, since what I wanted wasn't possible to do automatically. The installation was pretty straightforward, then I had to reconfigure my keyboard layout, which I did with xmodmap, only to find out, xkb is the current way of keyboard management. I learned some things just by installing the system. I like this.

One additional question. Now that I've installed Ubuntu with Unity, I'm guessing it's possible to change the DE? Any resource on available DEs, and how do they look on Ubuntu, and if they're stable?

[d-cosner]

Nice work! Since you installed Ubuntu you can get a quicker response to this question in the "Desktop Environments" section of the form. I usually stick with just one DE but there are plenty of community members that have multiple DEs installed. Looks like you are doing great so far! :D

[d-cosner]

Just saw this thread about pantheon in Ubuntu.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2124220

Try this at your own risk! :)