PIXEL represents our best guess as to what the majority of users are looking for in a desktop environment: a clean, modern user interface; a curated suite of productivity software and programming tools, both free and proprietary; and the Chromium web browser with useful plugins, including Adobe Flash, preinstalled. And all of this is built on top of Debian, providing instant access to thousands of free applications.
Put simply, it’s the GNU/Linux we would want to use.
The Raspberry Pi’s “own” Linux distribution is now also available for Windows and Mac – i.e., a live image you can run on your PC.
That UI looks ugly as sin, and regardless of what some think that DOES affect what people think of your system. Particularly kids and teenagers, the students who this is partically aimed at. Now it doesn’t need to look like an iPhone, but a little better than what they currently got is pretty easy
Edited 2016-12-28 01:45 UTC
It’s a really lightweight DE, so I can understand it also looking ugly as sin, but…I don’t understand why I’d want to run it on a PC. In fact, I don’t want to run it on my RPi, either — I use Ubuntu with Mate on my RPi2 and it works perfectly fine, while also looking and feeling a whole damn lot better.
I like lightweight DEs&/WMs but I don’t think being lightweight justifies it being a mish-mash of flat and non-flat design. Pick one and stick with it. (But pleeeease don’t pick flat!)
“Really lightweight” and “adobe flash preinstalled” do not mix.
The Debian+PIXEL system is intended mostly for students (or other Pi uses) who want a consistent desktop experience across multiple devices. The idea is a student can learn computing/programming on a Pi at school, then go home and plug a live Debian+PIXEL thumb drive into their computer and they will have the same computing/learning environment. It’s about making things familiar and easy for students.
If you’re not a student or someone using Linux via a RPi, then you probably wouldn’t use this.
I don’t think that it looks that bad. It looks like MATE to me. Plenty of people seem to like that 2002 look:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME#/media/File:Gnome-screenshot-ful…
Reminds me of OS/2 Warp 4– without Presentation Manager, a drag-n-drop extensible object-oriented desktop that actually worked.
So really, it’s 1996 that’s calling.
I loaded PIXEL on a Raspberry PI 3 and was very impressed. Sure, it’s not the snazziest looking system, but for an itty-bitty $35 computer, it’s darn good. I can see using this on an older desktop as a development platform for the Raspberry PI. I think it would be great for that.
However, it is not quite ready for prime-time. Over Christmas I tested the beta release on an old Acer TravelMate laptop. It ran pretty well, but it did not deal well with the built-in wireless. Maybe once it reaches a full release, I will try it again.
I would love to have a really light-weight OS on this older laptop. I’m currently running Lubuntu, which is good, but for this vintage computer less is definitely more.
Oh, just like every Linux distro in the world then.
The only major reason I see it looking “ugly as sin” is the choice of icon theme.
Even assuming it’s a matter of personal taste (someone had to like those icons enough to make them), you don’t use icons with strong black shape outlines and a subtle glassy gloss on the folders in a desktop where the widget and titlebar themes are flat, matte, and completely without outlines.
…though a couple of minor reasons do also stick out:
1. The clock widget needs more padding on the left
2. The thin scrollbar on the terminal makes the larger close button above it look a bit misaligned.
Edited 2016-12-28 04:49 UTC
But the choice of an icon theme is what they add on top of LXDE to make their “new” desktop
Well, Lubuntu did it much better.
if you ask me, even the stock LXDE looks more professional than this childish PIXEL theme
Does anybody have an idea of the reasoning for the multiple use of the word “Pixel” as name for products?
Its use for the Pixel notebook and convertible alluded to the high resolution of their displays.
I am somewhat uncertain about its use for phones.
And now we have this GUI/OS for the Raspberry Pi.
No wonder one can be confused when it comes to technology!
The latest buzzword is the explanation. One uses it, so they all have to.
Much like putting a i in front of everything for last few years.
Shouldn’t think it will be long before the new buzzword comes along!
But, it is still GNU/Linux. Which means I still have to deal with X.org and with non-support for switchable graphics.
Pass.
This is really a confusing announcement: PIXEL is not a new desktop environment, is just the old LXDE with a new theme. Also, to increase confusion, when they talk about what’s new in PIXEL (the desktop environment), they list mostly features of the distro, Raspbian.
Just going by their screenshot, it seems an uncomfortable mish-mash of flat design (e.g. application windows, menu) and non-flat (shadows and reflections on taskbar buttons).
They need to pick one aesthetic and stick with it. (And please don’t pick flat!)
They have confirmed that it works only as a live USB. As it depends on debian, I cannot understand why they didn’t includes a basic installer
I don’t have time to track it down, but I believe I saw mention that it was a “during this beta phase, we don’t want to be responsible for hard drive installs” sort of thing.