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Imagine there’s a really nicely arranged screenshot of elementary OS here. You know, browser arranged just so, dock showing shiny icons, and a coy little dropdown showing that I’m playing music that’s faaaar hipper than you’ll ever be. Got that image? Good. ‘Cos I just spent a ½-hour setting it up, then deleted it in a second of unthought when I cleaned up the elementary OS VM from VirtualBox. Aargh!

elementary OS is a very pretty Ubuntu/Debian distro. It has a very strong visual identity, and is designed and managed by a very small group. This rigidity may annoy the seasoned Linux user,  but will likely work in a more logical way if you’re used other OSs. You won’t face jarringly mismatched user interface elements, as still happens with Ubunty/Unity. Linux UX allows too much choice, so you’re never sure which options do what at any given time.
(F’rinstance: Ctrl+Q used to quit programs. Now, Ubuntu wants us to use Ctrl+W, the old close-the-window command. Some programs no longer quit with Ctrl+Q, so you’re left with an awksmash of Ctrl+Q_no-I-meant_W. Don’t make me think!)

A couple of things put me off elementary OS:

1. You can’t put files on the desktop. In an effort to be tidy, eOS forbids you putting the stuff you’re working on in the place you’ll see it. This is a major annoyance, but worse things are coming.
2. It expects you to pay for it. No, really. They want $10 from you, right from the get-go. While you can get around this (click the “Download” button; it only looks like it’s linked to the payment button), they do something far, far worse:
   They use a PayPal pop–under.
   Srsly. Gahh. Eww. Pop-unders are the web equivalent of taking a 💩 on an art gallery floor. If they’re low enough to pull that kind of stunt, who knows what leakage lurks under their pretty graphics?