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elementary OS RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: elementary OS

elementary OS


Last Update: 2026-02-28 00:43 UTC


elementary-8.0.2 (more screenshots in our gallery)  
elementary OS is an Ubuntu-based desktop distribution. Some of its more interesting features include a custom desktop environment called Pantheon and many custom apps including Photos, Music, Videos, Calendar, Terminal, Files, and more. It also comes with some familiar apps like the Epiphany web browser and a fork of Geary mail.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 20 (500), 6 months: 25 (403), 3 months: 28 (333), 4 weeks: 34 (325), 1 week: 41 (342)

Average visitor rating: 5.2/10 from 181 review(s).


elementary Summary
Distribution elementary OS
Home Page https://elementary.io/
Mailing Lists --
User Forums --
Alternative User Forums MastodonDiscord
Documentation https://elementary.io/docs/learning-the-basics
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors https://elementary.io/DistroWatch Torrent Archive
Bug Tracker https://bugs.launchpad.net/elementary
Related Websites GitHub
Reviews 8.x: Diolinux (Portuguese) • FOSS ForceLinux JournalDistroWatchFOSS Force
7.x: MichlFranken (German) • DistroWatchMichlFranken (German)
6.x: DistroWatchHeise (German)
5.x: DistroWatchCMS CriticLinux JournalDistroWatchHeise (German)
0.4: DedoimedoDistroWatchThe Tao of MacDedoimedo
0.3: DistroWatchLinux.com
0.2: Pro-Linux (German) • derStandard (German) • BinaryTidesWordpressLWNLinux Za Sve (Croatian) • WEB UP8LinuxBSDosWordpress
0.1: DedoimedoLWNBlogspotTech Drive-inMuyComputer (Spanish) • OMG! Ubuntu!
Where To Donate, Buy or Try https://store.elementary.io/The Linux Shop

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2025-12-22: Distribution Release: elementary OS 8.1
 • 2025-03-19: Distribution Release: elementary OS 8.0.1
 • 2024-11-26: Distribution Release: elementary OS 8.0
 • 2023-10-03: Distribution Release: elementary OS 7.1
 • 2023-01-31: Distribution Release: elementary OS 7.0
 • 2021-12-20: Distribution Release: elementary OS 6.1
 • 2021-08-10: Distribution Release: elementary OS 6.0
 • 2021-06-16: Development Release: elementary OS 6.0 Beta 2
 • 2021-05-01: Development Release: elementary OS 6.0 Beta
 • 2020-05-02: Distribution Release: elementary OS 5.1.4
 • 2020-02-07: Distribution Release: elementary OS 5.1.2
 • 2019-12-03: Distribution Release: elementary OS 5.1
 • More elementary releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2025-02-26 elementary seeks new ideas
 • 2024-02-07 elementary OS 8 to split system and application updates
 • 2023-11-07 elementary OS outlines plans for version 8
 • 2023-07-07 elementary OS introduces new warnings in software centre to protect privacy
 • 2023-04-06 elementary OS improves sideloading experience
 • 2023-03-06 elementary OS offers new file manager and network widget improvements
 • 2022-12-02 elementary OS team fixes delta updates
 • 2022-11-04 elementary provides Flatpak, GNOME updates
 • 2022-10-06 elementary OS fixes Gala regressions, introduces software centre features
 • 2022-09-07 elementary OS explores responsive designs
 • More elementary headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 8.1.1
circe
7.1
horus
6.1
jolnir
6.0
odin
5.1.7
hera
5.0
juno
0.4.1
loki
0.3.2
freya
0.2
luna
0.1
jupiter
Feature
Release Date 2026-02-27 2023-10-03 2021-12-20 2021-08-10 2020-08-14 2018-10-16 2017-05-17 2015-12-09 2013-08-11 2011-04-01 Release Date
End Of Life                     End Of Life
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Price (US$)
Image Size (MB) 3100-3200 2600-2700 2200-2300 2200-2300 1400-1500 1400-1500 1000-1100       Image Size (MB)
Free Download ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO Free Download
Installation elementary Installer elementary Installer elementary Installer elementary Installer Ubiquity Ubiquity Ubiquity Ubiquity Ubiquity Ubiquity Installation
Default Desktop Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon Pantheon GNOME Default Desktop
Default Browser Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Epiphany Default Browser
Package Format deb, flatpak deb, flatpak deb, flatpak deb, flatpak deb, flatpak deb deb deb deb deb Package Format
Package Management apt apt apt apt apt apt apt apt apt apt Package Management
Release Model Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Release Model
Office Suite -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- GOffice Office Suite
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 i386, x86_64 i386, x86_64 i386 Processor Architecture
Init Software systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd systemd Upstart Upstart Upstart Init Software
Journaled File Systems Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Btrfs, ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS ext4, JFS, ReiserFS, XFS Journaled File Systems
Multilingual Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes         Multilingual
Full Package List 8.1.1 7.1 6.1 6.0 5.1.7 5.0 0.4.1 0.3.2 0.2 0.1 Full Package List
Package 8.1.1
circe
7.1
horus
6.1
jolnir
6.0
odin
5.1.7
hera
5.0
juno
0.4.1
loki
0.3.2
freya
0.2
luna
0.1
jupiter
Package
alsa-lib (1.2.16.1) 1.2.11 1.2.6 1.2.2 1.2.2 1.1.3 1.1.3 1.1.0 1.0.27.2 1.0.25 1.0.23 alsa-lib (1.2.16.1)
amdgpu (25.0.0) 23.0.0 22.0.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 18.0.1 -- -- -- 8.780 amdgpu (25.0.0)
apparmor (5.0.2) 4.0.1 3.0.4 2.13.3 2.13.3 2.12 2.12 2.10.95 2.8.95 2.7.102 -- apparmor (5.0.2)
apt (3.3.3) 2.8.3 2.4.10 2.0.6 2.0.6 1.6.12 1.6.3 1.2.20 1.0.1 0.8.16 0.8.3 apt (3.3.3)
bash (5.3) 5.2.21 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.4.18 4.4.18 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.1 bash (5.3)
bind (9.20.27) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- bind (9.20.27)
chromium (152.0.7977.64) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- chromium (152.0.7977.64)
cinnamon (6.6.9) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- cinnamon (6.6.9)
cups (2.4.19) 2.4.7 2.4.1 2.3.1 2.3.1 2.2.7 2.2.7 2.1.3 1.7.2 1.5.3 1.4.4 cups (2.4.19)
e2fsprogs (1.47.4) 1.47.0 1.46.5 1.45.5 1.45.5 1.44.1 1.44.1 1.42.13 1.42.9 1.42 1.41.12 e2fsprogs (1.47.4)
ffmpeg (9.0.1) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ffmpeg (9.0.1)
firefox (155.0) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 42.0 -- -- firefox (155.0)
flatpak (1.18.2) 1.14.6 1.12.7 1.12.2 1.10.2 1.6.3 -- -- -- -- -- flatpak (1.18.2)
freetype (2.14.3) 2.13.2 2.11.1 2.10.1 2.10.1 2.8.1 2.8.1 2.6.1 2.5.2 2.4.8 2.4.2 freetype (2.14.3)
gcc (16.2.0) -- -- -- -- -- 7.3.0 5.3.1 4.8.2 4.6.3 4.4.4 gcc (16.2.0)
gimp (3.2.4) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- gimp (3.2.4)
git (2.55.0) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- git (2.55.0)
glibc (2.44) 2.39 2.35 2.31 2.31 2.27 2.27 2.23 2.19 2.15 2.12.1 glibc (2.44)
gnome-shell (50.4) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- gnome-shell (50.4)
grub (2.14) 2.12 2.06 2.04 2.04 2.02 2.02 2.02beta2 2.02beta2 1.99 1.98 grub (2.14)
gtk (4.22.4) 4.14.5 4.6.9 3.24.20 3.24.20 3.22.30 3.22.30 3.18.9 3.14.15 3.4.2 2.22.0 gtk (4.22.4)
httpd (2.4.68) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- httpd (2.4.68)
hyprland (0.56.2) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- hyprland (0.56.2)
inkscape (1.4.4) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- inkscape (1.4.4)
kmod (34.2) 31 29 27 27 24 24 22 15 -- -- kmod (34.2)
krita (6.0.3) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- krita (6.0.3)
Package 8.1.1
circe
7.1
horus
6.1
jolnir
6.0
odin
5.1.7
hera
5.0
juno
0.4.1
loki
0.3.2
freya
0.2
luna
0.1
jupiter
Package
LibreOffice (26.8.0) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- LibreOffice (26.8.0)
libselinux (3.11) 3.5 3.3 3.0 3.0 2.7 2.7 2.4 2.2.2 2.1.0 2.0.94 libselinux (3.11)
linux (7.2.2) 6.17 6.2 5.11 5.11 5.4 4.15 4.8 3.19 3.2 2.6.35 linux (7.2.2)
mariadb (12.3.3) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- mariadb (12.3.3)
mate-desktop (1.28.2) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- mate-desktop (1.28.2)
mesa (26.2.1) 25.2.8 23.0.4 21.0.3 21.0.3 20.0.8 18.0.5 12.0.6 10.5.9 9.0.3 7.9git mesa (26.2.1)
nautilus (50.3) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 2.32.2 nautilus (50.3)
NVIDIA (610.57.04) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 260.19.06 NVIDIA (610.57.04)
openjdk (26.0.2.1) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- openjdk (26.0.2.1)
openssh (10.5p1) 9.6p1 8.9p1 8.2p1 8.2p1 7.6p1 7.6p1 7.2p2 6.6p1 5.9p1 5.5p1 openssh (10.5p1)
openssl (4.0.2) 3.0.13 3.0.2 1.1.1f 1.1.1f 1.1.1 1.1.0g 1.0.2g 1.0.1f 1.0.1 0.9.8o openssl (4.0.2)
perl (5.44.0) 5.38.2 5.34.0 5.30.0 5.30.0 5.26.1 5.26.1 5.22.1 5.18.2 5.14.2 5.10.1 perl (5.44.0)
php (8.5.10) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- php (8.5.10)
plasma-desktop (6.7.4) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- plasma-desktop (6.7.4)
postfix (3.11.6) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- postfix (3.11.6)
postgresql (18.6) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- postgresql (18.6)
Python (3.14.7) 3.12.3 3.10.6 3.8.2 3.8.2 3.6.7 3.6.7 2.7.11 2.7.5 2.7.3 2.6.6 Python (3.14.7)
qt (6.11.2) 5.15.13 5.15.3 5.12.8 5.12.8 5.9.5 5.9.5 5.5.1 -- -- -- qt (6.11.2)
samba (4.24.6) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 4.1.6 3.6.3 3.5.4 samba (4.24.6)
systemd (261.2) 255.4 249.11 245.4 245.4 237 237 229 -- -- -- systemd (261.2)
thunderbird (154.0) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- thunderbird (154.0)
vim (9.2) 9.1 8.2 8.1 8.1 8.0 8.0 7.4 7.4 7.3 -- vim (9.2)
vlc (3.0.23) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- vlc (3.0.23)
wayland (1.26.0) 1.22.0 1.20.0 1.18.0 1.18.0 1.16.0 1.14.0 1.9.0 1.6.0 -- -- wayland (1.26.0)
xfdesktop (4.20.2) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- xfdesktop (4.20.2)
xorg-server (21.1.24) 21.1.12 21.1.4 1.20.13 1.20.11 1.20.8 1.19.6 1.18.4 1.15.1 1.11.4 1.9.0 xorg-server (21.1.24)

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for elementary OS

Average rating
5.2
from 181 review(s)



What are your thoughts on elementary OS?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review.

Version:

Rating:    out of 10

Your review (minimum 250 words):




Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 8.1.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2026-08-29
Country: United States
Votes: 2


This is one of very few distros (Alpine and Gentoo are other notable ones) to comprehensively ban AI in its code on ethical and environmental grounds. This is also perhaps the premier distro for people needing assistive technologies. Version 8 in particular has been redesigned with the help of and focus on blind users. And (as has long been notied) elementaryOS is really beautiful.

Why the low ratings here on Distrowatch? I suspect that a number of tech bros find the emphasis on inclusivity a personal affront. (They are sad people.) On technical grounds, writing one's own desktop environment (Pantheon) is a monumental task. Getting programs and widgets designed to play better with Gnome or KDE (or whatever) to work well with Pantheon is not trivial and some tweaking may be needed. (Pop!_OS's COSMIC desktop also suffers from some of these growing pains.) But I have found all these issues readily fixable.

elementaryOS is free (just put $0 in the pay-what-you-want download dialog) but if you can spare a tenner (or more) it is appreciated, and helps support an ethical and accessible operating system for everyone.




Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 8.1.1
Rating: 8
Date: 2026-08-22
Country: Poland
Votes: 0


I've used Elementary for half a year on an old Asus laptop (512K I believe it is) and while I absolutely love what they are doing with their DE (which should get more recognition in the Linux community, it is very impressive what they managed to achieve!) I do also see that the OS is less stable than Ubuntu and Open Suse which I tried on the same laptop. I have decided to donate monthly to them, hoping that with some extra funds (not much, but every little bit helps I hope) perhaps they will have more resources to polish this one of a kind distro.

It is most definitely one of the easiest to understand distros out there (or I guess the DE - Pantheon - is) and it comes with a nice out of the box experience. Somebody below asked why do they include music, calendar, photos, etc. apps, claiming they are all in the browser, therefore not needed. I used them all, and on my Gnome desktop I also use dedicated apps. Browser is a browser, and a music app is a music app, same with calendar, mail and gallery. It's even better if those apps integrate with the system, so you can click on the calendar on the top bar and see your events. Or get native notifications for email. Or listen to your local music. There is something calm, intentional and frankly, premium feeling about dedicated apps for those things that come with the system. It shows that Elementary team cares. And I hope they don't change this approach.

Over all, I'm giving it an 8. -1 point for overall stability, but not more because there is a chance my laptop is just kinda a struggle machine (since on Ubuntu and Open Suse it also struggles, just less). And -1 point for kinda outdated packages and kernel, making it not perfect for gaming. Wish they used regular Ubuntu or Debian releases, instead of LTS. If they address this, Elementary would be 10/10 best distro for me, no competition.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 8.1.1
Rating: 6
Date: 2026-08-20
Country: Poland
Votes: 2


When I started my Linux journey 10 years ago, elementaryOS was a big deal. It was undiscutably the best looking distro and it was unanimously praised as the perfect bridge to Linux for users coming from Windows and especially MacOS. The Pantheon desktop environment looked so polished and reactive, it felt like it was in advance.

10 years later, the desktop environment has almost not changed, meaning it now feels vintage. Pretty vintage, but still vintage, not necessarily something that you want to use as a daily driver.
The fact that it still ships natively apps for music, video, a calendar, an email software, even a map app, when most people use browser apps for that purpose, further pushes this vintage feeling.
It's nice, in a way, but in 2026 who needs those?

This distro tries to be a lot of things at once:
- easy to use for beginners, with little to no terminal use necessary
- usable by people with vision impairment
- its own ecosystem of software (some of them paid) through its own app center

This last point is interesting. After more than a decade of trying, it's not a success. Props to the developing team to following up on their dream, but are they really making money out of the app store? And from donations of users?
I can understand the will to live out of your lifework, but then why not aim it to follow what users really want?

Modern elementaryOS is beautiful to look at, as it was 10 years ago because it barely changed, but using it isn't fun or really practical. Under the hood, it's still Ubuntu.

I wish the devs would drop the distro and focus on the desktop environment, further on. It's great, even now that it qualifies as vintage, it has massive potential to hit hard on the GNOME userbase. I don't think the distro is going anywhere, unfortunately. Especially with the dev team saying they were against AI, which I respect, but if you're not using a tool that accelerates work and others do, well, your get less done than the others.

I don't think I'd recommend this distro to anyone, in its current state. Maybe on an old laptop to be given to a slightly tech savvy teenager? Not even sure.
I respect the hustle of the dev team, but this great distro has fallen behind already a while ago and it is not getting better. Please, drop the distro, focus on the DE.


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