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Comment by cdcarter | Hacker News Reader

What is the target market for this OS? I can't figure out from their website.

It took some digging, but I found an introduction page: http://www.elementaryos.org/journal/elementary-101

I think the target market is people disillusioned with Ubuntu. I was a long time user of the Elementary GTK theme which probably facilitated this transition. Basically, I don't agree with Ubuntu's new default personality and how it basically forces it down your throat. I feel like with ElementaryOS, you install the packages you need as opposed to having to remove the ones you don't. It's really Ubuntu with a different philosophy

A reasonable observation. I suspect (but can't confirm because as you note they don't actually say it) that they are going after the 'ChromeOS' / WebStart market.

It look like yet-another-linux-reskinning, it has a bit of JoliCloud feel to it. And the downloads don't have ARM builds so I'm guessing its not a tablet OS.

it's just a over ambitious project that spawned off the elementary-gtk-theme

It's not a simple reskin. The Elementary folk have patched Nautilus quite a bit to make it more usable, and some of the changes have made it back to Ubuntu. They've also written several of the default apps from scratch.

Can't figure out the internals of the project either (how is it powered ? web based ? etc.) Plus it keeps on giving HTTP 500 errors :(

About the browser:

"But unlike many of its peers, Midori is also fully native to elementary, using the same GTK toolkit that ensures the perfect desktop compatibility and integration found in our other apps."

So apparently it's GTK-based.

Wow GTK. People are still using that ?

looks like plain gnome + docky with a clean theme, that's about it.. Another linux distro which tries to have a simple and clean interface.

I will install the mail program postler on ubuntu and give it a try, though.

Sourceforge repo: http://sourceforge.net/projects/elementaryos/

it's just Ubuntu with a new theme and some new default apps.

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