Review: elementary OS 8.0
Quoting: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. —
Let's talk about some of the aspects of elementary OS I liked. For me, the main draw of elementary is the combination of pretty desktop and simple applications. This is not ideal for me, personally, but I think the distribution is one I could show to people coming from other operating systems (especially macOS) and they'd be able to pick it up quickly. The applications are named based on their task (Web, Mail, Music, and Calendar), there are not a lot of options, settings, or menus immediately visible in most applications. It's a bit like running GNOME, but more streamlined and with better performance. It's not the sort of experience which appeals to me, but it is the sort of experience I think will appeal to my non-techie friends and family. I like that this approach exists for newcomers.
The main downside for me was the weird way in which software is managed on the system. It is the one aspect which is unusually complex, especially compared with other beginner-friendly distributions such as Linux Mint. On Mint there is one software centre for adding and removing applications and one update manager that, well, handles updates. elementary OS introduces the concept of official elementary applications (which all seem to be pulled from Flathub) along with unofficial "sideloaded" applications which also appear to all come from Flathub. The waters are further clouded by the system separating the "base OS" updates from applications. I think, in this instance, "base OS" refers to anything installed from a classic Deb package. And then there is another application for fetching drivers. In total, there are at least four different categories of packages (based on how elementary organizes them), but all the software can be managed using just two tools (AppCentre and APT). It just seems unnecessarily complicated with no benefit and at odds with the design of the rest of the distribution.
The other downside to running elementary is a bit more abstract. There are a lot of ways people can categorize Linux distributions: commercial vs community, KISS vs automated, full-featured vs minimal, RPM vs Deb, etc. In my mind there is a distinction that I rarely see discussed in Linux circles: projects where the developers use and design their software vs projects where the developers create the software for others to use. (In technology circles, organizations which use their own software are said to be "eating their own dog food" or "dog fooding".)