I've set out on a journey to make my Ubuntu installation look and feel as close to Windows 2000 as possible, and I wonder if there are similarly minded people out there I could join efforts with.
I can understand those who will object strongly to this idea, and I see no point in arguing. I know my reasons: it's not possible for me to switch exclusively to Linux at this time, so I want to have a consistent look and feel everywhere, and I happen to like the Windows interface for the most part. I've used XP and previous of Windows for a long time so there's a tricks I use without thinking, and it freaks me out when things don't work I expect them to.
Here's what I started with:
- w2k [modified] Metacity theme, slightly tweaked for more faithfulness
- "Redmond", standard GTK2 theme
- Cursor XP mouse cursor theme
- GnomeXP icon theme
- XP on Vista Firefox theme
- TrueType fonts (notably Tahoma) from my Windows XP installation
- obvious customization of desktop appearance & behavior where possible
- some simple patches to metacity, nautilus, libwnck (I can code stuff, but unfortunately I'm very lazy)
Attached are screenshots of my current desktop highlighting some of the issues I want to address. Some things are relatively easy to fix; some are not. I welcome any help I can get with this project, especially from Ubuntu/GNOME developers!
I know there's XPDE, but they're focusing on XP themed look for KDE, whereas I want the simple Win2k style on top of GNOME. I'll see if there is anything from that (and other) projects I can use, though.
I suppose it would be a good idea to consolidate all files and patches in one place and provide detailed installation instructions. Ideally it would be a single installer that would grab the necessary files from your Windows installation and set everything up for you (I doubt I have the skills and persistence to achieve that though).
P.S. It looks like it was not the right category to post to, but what's the right one?
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