Here is it, it took almost 2 hours to download iLinuxOS (blame my slow internet for that) and 40 minutes to "clone" it to an USB of mine (why not just an ISO file?)
This is a basic first impression of the OS. Please do note that this is not a detailed one as my experience with the OS is still limited.
First Impression
iLinuxOS is based on Debian 10 Buster, while the latest is Debian 12 Bookworm (it's missing some of the best packages updates!)
The size of the IMG file is too big (25GB! it's even larger than a vanilla installation of Windows 11), additionally, there's no direct download available (it is downloaded through torrents, I'm not complaining though.). People with slow internet will take eternity to successfully download this. Furthermore, ever after successfully downloading it, it still take a long time to clone it to a drive. An average user will probably not have patience for this.
Unlike other distro, you install iLinuxOS by cloning a full copy of the OS into your drive (basically, it's like restoring a backup.) which I find a bit weird.
Then after installation you also have to perform a bunch of post-installation steps that should have been done automatically in the first place (driver installation, user setup, etc...).
Usage
The UI resemble older versions of macOS (MacOS X to be more precise) though it's more clunky. Too much unnecessary programs are pinned in the dock (is this even necessary? Users could just pin them themselves.). The window design is weird. Normally, three basic buttons (minimize, maximize, and close) are located on the right size (right border of the window), but here it is located on the left (macOS) but it's order is really unpractical.
A lot of "easy" stuff are just a bunch of buttons which is very confusing. This is not easy, this is confusing for someone who is trying Linux for the first time. There's no consistent designs, it's like every "easy" UIs here are in reality a bunch of button that do stuff that normally are just one click of mouse.
Too bloated. There are so much unnecessary apps installed. What am I supposed to do with AnyDesk? An average user will probably only need a working web browser, file explorer, office suite and media player and that's it. They can install other professional tools if they wanted too. There are 4 browsers installed, 7 chat applications, 2 torrent clients, 14 development programs and so on. All of this are unnecessary. Who would want to use 4 different browsers at once? Who would want 14 different development program when they aren't even a developer? To make matters even worse, there's no separate IMG file for a "debloated" edition, so users are forced to install a system full of programs they don't even use/know.
Customization options are kind of okay I guess, I'm not too fussy about this.
The "control panel" or "settings" application is "overglorified". I'm not even joking, is a "settings" app a god send or something? It's just an app that allow you to change/customize your system. It has too much OPTIONS, it's confusing even to me. Like where am I supposed to go? I want to change a little settings yet right in front of my eyes are a bunch of settings that I either don't know what it does or unnecessary.
The "iLinux Adaptive User Interface" feels overall very unpolished and unprofessionally. It tries to copy macOS's design (similar to GNOME but when compared directly GNOME still wins because it's more mature and professional.). The icons are "old" and it's designs aren't consistent. The context menus are bloated with a bunch of options (what am I supposed to do with them? I just want to shutdown my PC!). There's an "open" dialog to open common directories which only takes like 2 clicks to do. Buttons are too "rounded" and the color scheme in my opinion does not blend well with the OS. Some icons appears to be from public online sources (not sure if they are used with appropriate credits though.). There's even a separate "exit" dialog which allow the user to logout, shutdown, restart, etc....? Can't they do that though the menu bar with like a click of button?
Oh, and there's the menu bar. Running programs are seen in the menu bar instead of on the dock, definitely "more convenient" and "professional design choices". There are additional icons in the menu bar which are definitely unnecessary.
iLinuxOS's Semantic Keyboard Shortcuts are confusing and hard to learn especially if you're already familiar with normal key shortcut (for example, Alt + F4 is normally used to close an app, but here it's Alt + Q to quit and Win + Shift + Q to force quit.).
The terminal interface is hard to use, at least to me. But that might be because I'm familiar with GNOME Terminal and Windows Terminal.
I haven't tried everything yet so will have to do that later.
The system overall (at least where I had experience) feels "unfinished" and "unpolished" compared to more mature mainstream distributions like Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Fedora, Gentoo Linux and so on. The iAUI consists of inconsistent icon designs (some are public online icons) and unpractical design choices. The semantic keyboard shortcuts are confusing for a new user to learn.
Good concept, bad execution.
That's all I can say.
