VM Installed-Love What I see, But Have Some Questions Before Native Install

Question

I've been running Kubuntu Linux for some time(years). I check www.DistroWatch.com occasionally to see if any super new distro's are released. I see that Elementary OS Linux version 5 was recently released and it is now ranked #3 on DistroWatch site. I decided then to buy Elementary OS 5 and installed it to VirtualBox VM. Everything looks super great but I have a couple of questions below:

(1) What is the life expectancy of current Elementary OS 5 ?
(it's based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, so would 2 years be a safe time?)

(2) I need an indicator in (wing)panel that shows:
- CPU use % graph
- RAM use % graph
- Network use graph
- BONUS: CPU temperature display
SOLVED: How can I show performance graphs in Wingpanel?
(ISSUE: Adding PPA not supported for security reasons?)

(3) What is the story behind not allowing folders and/or files on the desktop?
(find it a little strange and awkward to be honest - some option to allow?)

(4) If something is made for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is it going to work with Elementary OS?

Those are my initial questions just based on 1 hour of use in a VM. If someone can answer the above 4 questions then I would probably install it...

Thanks!

Jesse

Answer 1

(1) elementary OS is build on Ubuntu LTS versions, there will only be a major update if there is a new LTS version of Ubuntu. So as long as Canonical keeps their update cycle two years should be a good estimation.

(2) To add a custom PPA in elementary OS, you need to install the package software-properties-common, probably not installed by default for the stated security reasons.

(3) It's just a way elementary handles things, maybe to make a more sleek appearence. This post is a bit older, but might help you achive what you want.

(4) Generally i would say, it depends. Mostly probably yes, but there are maybe some packages not compatible with Pantheon or Gtk, so you would have to add the dependencies by yourself.

Answer 2

Ad (2): You can show performance in the wingpanel with the Monitor app (https://appcenter.elementary.io/com.github.stsdc.monitor)

Ad (3): There's an app for that as well: (https://appcenter.elementary.io/com.github.spheras.desktopfolder)