rewrite this title elementary OS

Elementary OS is a Linux distribution that offers a sleek, accessible alternative to Windows and macOS. Its signature interface, Pantheon, is designed with simplicity and consistency in mind. Unlike many Linux setups, which emphasize heavy customization, elementary focuses on a curated, cohesive user experience.

Under the hood, elementary OS is based on Ubuntu LTS, giving it a stable foundation and access to a large software ecosystem.

The platform is fully open source, built on a foundation of free and open source software such as GNU/Linux. It is developed in collaboration with the wider ecosystem to continuously improve and benefit all users. From the community side, praise often goes to its design consistency and ease of use.

Users can access both free and paid apps through AppCenter, an open, pay-what-you-can app store for indie developers. Every app is reviewed and curated by elementary to provide a native experience that is secure, privacy-respecting, and consistent with the system’s design. Stay productive and focused with Multitasking View, Picture-in-Picture, Do Not Disturb, and more. Or keep work out of sight when watching videos or playing games.

How often does elementary OS get major updates or upgrades?

elementary OS follows Ubuntu’s LTS schedule underneath, so major upgrades are spaced out. You will continue to receive Ubuntu updates plus limited Elementary-specific patches even if you don’t immediately upgrade. Older versions are often supported until Ubuntu’s LTS support ends.

Is elementary OS free to use?

Yes, elementary OS is completely free to use, but the project suggests a donation to support ongoing development.

Is elementary OS good for beginners?

Yes. It’s one of the most beginner-friendly Linux distributions thanks to its intuitive design, easy-to-use AppCenter, and focus on a distraction-free experience. It’s especially appealing to users who want a simple and polished alternative to Windows or macOS.

Can I customize the desktop environment in elementary OS?

Yes, but customization is intentionally more limited compared to other Linux distributions. Pantheon prioritizes consistency and design guidelines. That said, you can tweak settings with third-party tools, install additional desktop themes, and use standard Linux configuration methods if you’re comfortable with the terminal.

Is elementary OS secure?

Elementary OS provides rolling updates for apps and system components through the AppCenter and Ubuntu repositories. Security patches are delivered promptly, and because it’s based on Ubuntu LTS, it benefits from long-term support and stability.

Features

Multitasking View

Workspaces help organize your work by task. Keep work and play separate, but just one swipe or tap away.

Picture-in-Picture

Whether you’re watching a movie, game, or terminal process, Picture-in-Picture helps keep tabs on one thing while working on another.

Do Not Disturb

Tune everything else out to stay focused on your work, or keep notifications at bay while watching a movie. Do Not Disturb stops notifications in their tracks.

Apps You Need, Without Ones You Don’t.

elementary OS comes with a carefully considered set of apps that cater to everyday needs so you can spend more time using your computer and less time cleaning up bloatware.

Screen Time & Limits

Set per-user time limits for weekdays, weekends, or both.

Internet Use

Manage allowed websites. Rules affect all apps for the chosen user, even if they use a different web browser.

Manage Apps

Choose just which apps are safe for you or your child to access. Plus, optionally allow access with your password.

Secure & Privacy-respecting

When source code is available to audit, anyone—a security researcher, a concerned user, or an OEM shipping the OS on their hardware—can verify that the software is secure and not collecting or leaking personal information.

Built for Developers

Whether your app could benefit from a new system feature or API or you’re curious as to how an existing feature or design pattern was built, you have complete access to our source code. Copy it, learn from it, remix it, modify it, and redistribute it.

User Friendly. And Keyboard Friendly.

elementary OS is designed to be easy to understand and pick up as a new user. But that doesn’t mean it’s dumbed down; powerful, customizable keyboard shortcuts ensure you’ll stay productive whether it’s your first day or your thousandth.

Privacy-respecting. Through and through.

Your data always belongs to you, and only you. We don’t make advertising deals or collect sensitive personal data. We’re funded directly by our users paying what they want for elementary OS and apps on AppCenter. And that’s how it should be.

Tattle-Tale

elementary OS helps you keep tabs on what apps are up to. When an app is using your microphone, we display an indicator to let you know. When an app is using a lot of energy, we tell you in your power indicator.

Permissions

When an app wants access to your data or devices, it has to ask up front. We review all AppCenter apps to ensure they’re properly using permissions—and you can always revoke them yourself in System Settings.

Housekeeping

elementary OS automatically keeps your temporary and trashed files tidied up. Not only does this keep your device’s storage free, it can help ensure your private data doesn’t come back to haunt you.

What’s New

It’s been about 6 months since our last minor release and the team has been busy! For all of the details about what’s new since OS 8.0.1, make sure to check out our posts from May until now. In this post I’ll just be covering our progress over the last month up until the release of OS 8.0.2. OS 8.1 is due to be released before year end and that post will be The Big One™ that wraps up every change since OS 8.0. So without further delay, let’s dive into what we did last month that made it in OS 8.0.2!

Installer & Initial Setup

The latest Installer incorporates fixes for a number of issues raised during accessibility testing. The “Before Installing”, “Try or Install”, “Choose a Disk”, and “Encryption” views should all have much improved accessible labels, things like password quality feedback will now be read aloud by the screen reader, and we fixed a couple instances where the screen reader would announce text style markup. Plus, Leo added a few more safety checks for the custom install view that should prevent crashes with certain complex partition layouts, and the Installer should now always appear centered on screen.

Initial Setup also includes the same password quality feedback improvements for screen readers and it will always appear centered on screen. Plus trailing hyphens and underscores are now allowed in usernames and we use a more reliable source of information for keyboard layouts, thanks to Ryo.

Music

The latest release of Music includes a number of important new features for managing the queue, including performance improvements for large queues. You can now remove individual track from a track’s context menu or clear the entire queue thanks to Oowoosh0. Jeremy and Leonhard implemented searching by track name. The queue and the last played track will be saved and restored thanks to Stella, and she added the keyboard shortcut + to add new files. Ryan added the + shortcut to quit, and album art will now show in media controls in the panel and elsewhere. Plus Oowoosh0 fixed a couple of issues with long artists names or when using large system fonts.

Terminal

Leo Fixed an issue that caused keyboard focus to not be inside the first tab when opening a new window, and he fixed an issue where dropping in text that contain # would be cut off. Jeremy also fixed an issue with incorrect line breaks when pasting or dropping text while a process is running, made sure to always clear process finished icons when a tab is selected, and removed an old misfeature that would cause window sizes to be odd on certain display sizes.

Hardware Enablement

OS 8.0.2 includes the latest long-term support Hardware Enablement stack from Ubuntu, including Linux 6.14. This new version of the Linux kernel brings improved performance – especially while gaming, reduced power consumption for certain AMD and Intel chipsets and GPUs, new security features, and support for more gamepads, wifi devices, microphones, and more.

And More

Main menus are now properly marked in Camera, and Videos and can be opened with the keyboard shortcut . In Calculator, Alain replaced the “Del” button with an icon, and the “New Window” action now shows in icon in places like keyboard shortcut settings. Trevor fixed a crash with screenshots which are much taller than they are wide and Ryo fixed an issue that caused screenshots not to be saved to custom locations.

Read the complete release notes