Elementary OS 5.0 Juno with improvements for desktop and apps

The elementary OS project announced the expected release of the fifth version of its Linux distribution: elementary OS 5.0 Juno. The new version has brought with it news on all fronts, starting from the base Ubuntu 18.04 up to the applications and the desktop environment.

elementary OS uses the Pantheon environment, which closely resembles macOS, and has long worked on creating its own suite of applications. Among the main innovations in the latter area, we point out:

• The AppCenter application manager allows you to purchase paid applications with a ” free donation ” model that allows you to fund software development. In Juno, the payment process has become clearer and now allows us to pay again with each update, in order to finance development over time.
• The Scratch code editor has become Code, with a revised graphic interface that includes a dark mode and a strong integration with Git.
• The file manager sees mostly changes ” under the hood ” and now relies more heavily on the functions of the operating system without reinventing the wheel.
• The Music application sees the introduction of a sidebar where the album cover and details of the song being played are shown.
• The Photo application now has a dark theme.
• The terminal has two new themes (solarized and white) and a menu to change the theme and the size of the characters on the fly, in addition to the ” open position in the file manager ” element in the context menu.
• The Epiphany browser supports Firefox Sync and has an improved user interface.

Pantheon sees, instead, general improvements in usability:

• The ” night light ” mode has been introduced, which turns all the colors towards the orange so as not to strain the eyes in the evening.
• It is possible to divide the screen between two maximized applications moving the division at will.
• Like macOS, also elementary OS now supports ” picture in picture ” applications.
• Many icons have been redesigned to be more consistent.

The changes are still very many, as explained in the piece published on the blog elementary project. You can download the ISO to install the distribution on the project site.