The review can be found here.

I'm very interesting in using Elementry OS as my daily driver on my desktop mounted behemoth of a laptop.

I know I have to prepare my expectations for using linux. I know there is a lot more self trouble shooting than compared to windows when something goes awry. However, after reading this review of elementry OS I don't understand what a so-called "poweruser" of linux performs on his or her laptop.

I've watched a couple hours of online courses of familiarizing myself with basic terminal command lines. Just the basics -- synaptic, installing .deb files and moving and relocating files via the command line.

When I think of a poweruser I'm thinking of someone who does their job on their computer. For example has 20+ tabs open on chrome because they are researching for a an article they are writing, preparing to make a youtube video, looking up reference images for drawing digital art, ect.

Then on top of just general web browsing they are using photoshop, or video editing, while listing to music or watching youtube videos.

However, according to the review general web browsing and media consumption doesn't constitute a linux poweruser. So, then what does? Using the command line, I understand it is much faster to move around files but even myself as a content creator I only spend maybe 5 minutes a day juggling files from place to place on my physical computer.

So, I ask the question, for those who are content creators, any distro would fit them all the same provided they the program and software required to their job. GIMP comes to mind for those photography and digital art enthusiasts.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

Maybe your are confusing a power user with the systems admin or superuser(root); Super user on a Gnu/Linux based system are required to admin or maintain that system. A normal user can and sometimes assumes the rights as root via 'sudo' or 'su -' to do system level functions or maintenance. That normal user had better know what they are doing or damage can be done to the system by becoming root. Very dangerous for the un-informed or newbie to assume root rights. One reason the hold your hand distro are so popular.
Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

The article/review you linked to does not contain the word "poweruser" so I'm a bit confused by your question.

I never know what "power user" is supposed to mean. Two definitions from the Urban Dictionary:

1. A person who is familiar with the advanced, uncommon functions of a system.

2. What business people who don't actually know anything about computers call themselves when they can make spreadsheets in Excel.

The other day I had a WP document, 2 spreadsheets, 3 websites, and a 75 MB PDF in use: does that count? Or that I've written some of my software and all 3 keyboard drivers?

Sorry, it never specifically states poweruser but here are a couple quotes that confused me

I just don't understand what this OS is lacking compared to the competition. I'm a linux noob.

one thing you have to understand about gnu/linux, if you come from a different OS, is that there are so many permutations of it.
you simply have to try some out.
imho, the biggest problem is seperating the chaff from the wheat.
that is why i recommend sticking to one of the major players.

If it's any comfort to you, I don't understand the quote either. But then I've never used Elementary OS.

Most people recognise two kinds of desktop:

1) The big all-singing-all-dancing ones like gnome, kde and cinnamon
2) Simple window managers like fluxbox and icewm.

The former need a big computer to run on with a fast processor and a good modern graphics card. They also have all sorts of bells and whistles which most users never get to master. The advantages are that they let you do things easily and have loads of eye-candy. The smaller desktops are sleek and fast, and run well on old hardware, but you have to do more for yourself. For example, you usually won't have a trashcan, and you may not have any desktop icons at all, just a menu. You may need to configure the thing by hand-editing a configuration file.

Whether that make you a "power-user" is a matter of opinion.

I tend to think that people who complain about desktop environments "dumbing things down" tend to mean one of two things:
1) The DE is too restrictive in what it allows the user to do -- for example in Unity (Ubuntu's default DE) there's very little about the appearance and layout that you can change.
2) The DE is either lacking in tools for changing system settings or they're in some way lacking.
The first is solved by installing another desktop environment or using a window manager and creating one's own DE.
The second is resolved by modifying things on the command line -- which for better or worse is usually the best way to go anyhow. In many cases this could also be true of Windows, I suppose.
To me "power user" is a Windows term for somebody who knows how to troubleshoot issues and tweak things like the registry to make things work better. It is one of those terms though tat if somebody calls themselves a power user they're probably not one (meant slightly tongue-in-cheek as myself and colleagues have been known to at least imply that we are power users though, in my defence, I was a Windows admin for a while and have worked a little in tech support for Windows also.).

How does anyone know how to troubleshoot problems in Windows? The internals are almost completely undocumented and I've never met anyone who understands the registry. People who use registry hacks nearly always get them from magazines or websites and have to just follow them blindly or risk making their system unbootable.

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One can usually track issues down to, say, a particular document or a particular application, for example, and take it from there. The answer is usually something like re-create the document or reinstall the application but not always as files can be edited and application settings changed. Remember that to most Linux users applications are just binaries too and the same troubleshooting applies. Same goes for determining a hardware versus a software error.
As to the registry, it's true that most edits are found in magazines and the like but not true that people don't understand them. Most registry changes make perfect sense and a read through the registry even leads to discovering some things which can be changed. The only people who cause issues by editing the registry are those who change settings they don't understand and that is equally true of people editing Linux configuration files.

On the whole Linux does lead itself to troubleshooting more, as long as one knows that one is doing, but for day-to-day issues as a user who knows how to troubleshoot they're not as different as you might think.

Have to agree with hazel, when W95 came out I started using regedit right away, but lack of documentation was frustrating.

I get hives just thinking about the registry.

i think it's just one of those guys dreaming of that out-of-the-box perfect desktop environment, and then write articles about how it doesn't fulfil their personal needs.

i mean hell, who writes sentences like this:
"It's a hybrid, inspired by Apple's OS X but based on Debian Ubuntu."
...

that said, i've been following a few articles here on LQ that led me to believe that the beauty of elementary os is really just on the surface.


QFT


http://www.virtualplastic.net/ - online since 1999!
i got some good advice from there, back in the days of win xp...

You can get a happy medium. If you want functionality and flexibility, but without the overhead of eye-candy, the best bets are XFCE and Mate. An XFCE developer once said their goal was for it to do the job without being in your face or getting under your feet.

It really depends on what you need: the sort of data swapping between applications I mentioned in a previous post would not be easy in Unity or Gnome. On the other hand, although I like Icewm (the first GUI I ever encountered) it won't enable me to have different keyboard drivers in different programs at the same time.

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I agree -- as a long-time XFCE user it does most things that the bigger desktops do, allows a lot of customisation, and just lets one get on with things. There are also "fancy" things like compositing, auto-mount and the like.

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