I found a new Linux distro that's a productivity powerhouse right out of the box

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ZDNET key takeaways

• Elegance is a Linux distribution based on Manjaro.
• This rolling-release distro comes with tons of pre-installed apps.
• You can download and install Elegance for free.

Manjaro is a sweet Arch-based Linux distribution, and it has the fans to prove it. Manjaro is designed to take Arch to new heights of user-friendliness, and it succeeds quite well.

Of course, there are always those who believe everything can be improved, which is why a small team of developers decided to fork Manjaro and create Elegance.

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The beauty of Elegance isn’t in the UI, although the developers have made Cinnamon look pretty good. What’s really appealing (at least to me) is the collection of software that comes preinstalled.

Before I get into that, it’s important to know that Manjaro provides the core of the OS, the Cinnamon desktop, the package manager, and the basic software. Beyond that, everything is Elegance.

And it really is a pretty elegant distro. Usually, when I think of Cinnamon, I think of Linux Mint. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Linux Mint. In fact, my esteemed colleague who covers Linux and open source, Steven Vaughan-Nicols, is a huge fan of Linux Mint.

That being said, I’ve always found the basic Cinnamon layout to be a bit, shall I say, boring? Yes, I shall. It’s boring.

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Elegance takes Cinnamon and gives it a makeover that elevates it to a more modern state, and I’m all for it.

Of course, out of the box, you get the dark theme (why is dark theme so often the default?), but that can be easily changed.

If you’ve ever used Cinnamon for any length of time, you understand that it’s not exactly the most flexible desktop environment available to Linux. 

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For instance, if you want to change the bottom panel to a dock, you’d need to install something like Plank Reloaded. Sure, you can twist and bend Cinnamon to your liking, but it might take a bit of effort.

That’s beside the point. One of the reasons why people choose Cinnamon is that it makes things incredibly easy. 

And what really sets Elegance apart is not the form, but the function.

Preinstalled apps

If there is any aspect of Elegance that impressed me the most, it’s the curated apps that are pre-installed. Once you’ve installed the OS (which is as simple as any other Linux distribution, apart from the fact that you might need to switch from the default French language), you’ll find everything you need, ready to go.

There are apps for Ardour, Audacity, Avidemux, Brasero, Camera, Aegisub, amsynth, Ciano, Drumstick Virtual Piano, Easy Effects, Element sequencer, Hydrogen, Kdenlive, Geonkick, Kodi, LMMS, Mixx, MusE… and that’s just in the Sound & Video menu. 

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In other words, a lot of software is pre-installed on this distribution. What’s more impressive is that you won’t find a ton of bloatware or apps that are so old-school as to have little use in the modern world. The developers who chose the included software did a brilliant job. There’s even FreeCAD and LeoCAD. 

Given the vast amount of software included with this distribution, the one thing that surprised me was the limited options for desktop wallpapers. I know you can always find more, but many Linux distributions take pride in the collection of wallpapers they offer. Some distributions, such as Pop!_OS, go out of their way to create special images.

Who is Elegance Linux for?

With the combination of the Cinnamon desktop environment and the vast array of preinstalled software, I could easily say that Elegance is for just about anyone. However, if I had to select one type of user who would be best suited for this Linux distribution, I’d have to say multimedia creators. 

If music, video, or graphics are your jam, Elegance is an outstanding option. I would offer this one bit of advice: if you are a creator, you might want to consider installing a low-latency kernel, so you’re not dealing with performance issues. Other than that, Elegance will have you recording music, editing videos, and creating your digital masterpieces in no time.

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If you’re not a creator, I would say that Elegance is still a very viable option for office, multimedia, and gaming. Speaking of which, Elegance comes with Lutris and Steam pre-installed, so you can easily game with this distribution.

If you’re interested in Elegance, download an ISO from the official download site and install it on a spare machine or as a virtual machine to see if it could be your next favorite operating system.