A Windowized-Linux or what? :D

[flapane]

That's my father's notebook...
He was too tired with tons of WindowsXP problems and continuous formats, so I told him to try Linux...
He asked me to emulate Classic-windows GUI, to avoid traumas... he's amazed :mrgreen:
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/1047/schermata2gr3.jpg

[plb]

use LinuxXP..much better at looking like windows ;]

[Old Pink]

Yeah, but LinuxXP is crap.

I would never want my desktop to look like Windows, but I can understand why some people would. You have done a great job with this project, well done. :)

[Albi]

yeah linuxxp is the most pointless thing ever... it just LOOKS like xp, it offers no functionality increase and it costs $100

[ComplexNumber]

when i use windows, i find it to be really ugly and clunky looking. it reminds me a lot of motif...and that was really ugly.
gnome has the attractive appearance of any GUI.

[flapane]

yes, that's the best way to switch, for a man like my father who's 57years old;)

[ComplexNumber]

yes, that's the best way to switch, for a man like my father who's 57years old;)

do you think he will ever make the leap into changing the appearence, or do you think he tends to be stuck in his ways? people tend to be stuck in their ways the older the get, although there are many oldies who like change.
the thing is, he probably hasn't always only used windows, so he had to make the leap from his previous GUI to the windows classic at some point. therefore, he may make the leap from windows classic when he feels ready.

[Quake]

Some "advanced in age" people just aren't familiar with technology so a big GUI leap may be too much for them. Of course, some like technology so it's not a big deal for them.

[v8YKxgHe]

when i use windows, i find it to be really ugly and clunky looking. it reminds me a lot of motif...and that was really ugly.
gnome has the attractive appearance of any GUI.

oooo I dunno, I personaly think my WinXP desktop/theme is quite clean, simple and nice to look at:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/5021/winxpdesktophh9.th.jpg (http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=winxpdesktophh9.jpg)

But everyone has their opinions, some like Tea some like Coffee =) I like both my WinXP and Ubuntu desktop, GNOME is a great DE :p

[Quake]

That's the most clean and organized Start menu I have seen in any windows XP!
You should see mine! The programs list just doesn't fit the screen.

[v8YKxgHe]

That's the most clean and organized Start menu I have seen in any windows XP!
You should see mine! The programs list just doesn't fit the screen.

Thanks, I see loads of people complaing about how WindowsXP just fills up your start menu - but if you actually know how to tweak it and organise things properly, that big old bulky start menu can actually be prety fast and easy to use :P

[Kateikyoushi]

I did not go that far, I reorganized the panels to imitate the windows setup and it was enough for my girlfriend's family.

[argie]

The XP look puts me off. I just don't like it. The standard old windows I can live with. Familiarity, I guess.

I really like the job you've done on KDE there. My dad, just a couple of weeks ago I told him, "Yeah, I guess you're right, Linux just won't work for you, it's too advanced." and now he insists on using Ubuntu just to prove me wrong (except for MS Word, and that, not much.).

[ago]

Yes all you have to do in most cases is:

1) Put 1 panel on the bottom, with the same elements of windows panel: 1 menu buttons, a few shortcuts, taskbar, systray and clock.
2) Add a few icons on desktop for common apps
3) Use only 1 virtual desktop

That is often enough... In fact I think there should be a "windows-like-style" option that will make the above changes for you in gnome/kde.

[Lord Illidan]

I like your XP wallpaper, what is it?

I don't like XP's theme, though.. I prefer Ubuntu's theme now.

[v8YKxgHe]

It's the one that is normaly shown with the Gnome Gentle themes, I think it's called Autumn:

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/24425611/

[plb]

You should get the bliss wallpaper to finish it off ;]

[flapane]

do you think he will ever make the leap into changing the appearence, or do you think he tends to be stuck in his ways? people tend to be stuck in their ways the older the get, although there are many oldies who like change.
the thing is, he probably hasn't always only used windows, so he had to make the leap from his previous GUI to the windows classic at some point. therefore, he may make the leap from windows classic when he feels ready.

exactly, there will be a time when he will feel ready to swith to a newer gui.
(Another priority to me is to set-up Office2000 under wine, as he uses Visual Basic macros under Excel which complain with OpenOffice)

[darkhatter]

oooo I dunno, I personaly think my WinXP desktop/theme is quite clean, simple and nice to look at:

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/5021/winxpdesktophh9.th.jpg (http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=winxpdesktophh9.jpg)

But everyone has their opinions, some like Tea some like Coffee =) I like both my WinXP and Ubuntu desktop, GNOME is a great DE :p

how did you get it that clean, my QEM windows was jam packed with crap the second I turned it on

[v8YKxgHe]

not sure what QEM is, but I just uninstall everything I don't need like the Games that come with it, MSN Explorer, Paint, Cursor Themes, Document Templates, Wallpapers etc - then chagne the number of Recent Applications to show to 3, hide a lot of the Icons on the Start Menu ( like Search, My Documents/Pictures, Help and Support ) then create a load of folders in C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Start Menu\Programs and move all program shortcuts you need into the relevant folder ( like Firefox goes in Internet, Photoshop in Productivity ) - you've just gotta know where to look to customize it to your needs :P

[Brunellus]

I'm a bit torn on whether "windows-izing" a Linux install is a good thing. While it does help people transition, they also bring with them all their bad Windows habits and demands as well.

If you give them something that is visually different, before long they also start to think differently.

[russell.h]

I don't see why people should be roped into using some GUI layout just because people think that it is "windows-izing" Linux. The whole point of open source is that you can have everything just how you want it. Trying to force people to use a more "Linux-like" layout would just as bad as Microsoft.

I would predict that the original poster's dad will at some point sit down at a computer running a more typical Linux layout, think to himself "hey, this all looks familiar", and he will realize that the difference between his "windows-ized" layout and a normal one is only a minor superficial one, and will probably switch over. Or better yet will try to switch over, and in the process will discover all the ways he can customize Linux, and will end up with something that serves him better than his windows layout or the default one. Thats the great thing about Linux.

[DoctorMO]

You are right there is in fact no such thing as a
"Linux-like" layout; it's just some layouts that people like.

If you want it to look like XP or win98 who am I to care. at least you kernel is open source and your supporting open formats.

[deepwave]

That Windows-like theme is neat still. Still prefer my KDE desktop with Beryl goodness.

[Brunellus]

I don't see why people should be roped into using some GUI layout just because people think that it is "windows-izing" Linux. The whole point of open source is that you can have everything just how you want it. Trying to force people to use a more "Linux-like" layout would just as bad as Microsoft.

I would predict that the original poster's dad will at some point sit down at a computer running a more typical Linux layout, think to himself "hey, this all looks familiar", and he will realize that the difference between his "windows-ized" layout and a normal one is only a minor superficial one, and will probably switch over. Or better yet will try to switch over, and in the process will discover all the ways he can customize Linux, and will end up with something that serves him better than his windows layout or the default one. Thats the great thing about Linux.
I don't necessarily disagree, but as the family sysadmin, my perspective is a little different.

My reasons for going for a visually-distinct desktop are more than aesthetic. I don't mind that a user should be *comfortable* with his desktop environment, but I would also like the user to understand that he is *not* in his old environment.

I personally don't like dealing with user complaints that such and such function is not EXACTLY like Windows. No matter how "windows-like" you make the interface, the back end and internals are NOT windows. Certain Windows habits--looking for .exe files, attempting to download & install random software from the internet, and so forth--will continue. The family sysad will them be met with an irate user complaining about a broken Windows setup.

If the user is confronted with something that is mostly familiar, and yet visually distinct, it is easier to tell them that certain things will NOT work, because their setup is NOT windows.

IN general, I am less and less happy with the whole notion that any linux distribution should be sold to users as suitably windows-like. It will NEVER be windows-like enough for windows users. It is pointless to try. The more we insist that Ubuntu is 'just like windows,' the more "Ubuntu is not ready for the desktop/screw you I'm going back to windows" posts we get.

[Virogenesis]

should make it look like windows, but add compiz effects.
Would be interesting to see the reactions on the faces of others.

[Foudre]

when i use windows, i find it to be really ugly and clunky looking. it reminds me a lot of motif...and that was really ugly.
gnome has the attractive appearance of any GUI.

nah, kde is the best looking or even vista's aero, it may be windows but its pretty, though with beryl i can get what looks best out of both worlds, on my kubuntu

[yman]

when i use windows, i find it to be really ugly and clunky looking. it reminds me a lot of motif...and that was really ugly.
gnome has the attractive appearance of any GUI.

windows XP, maybe even 98, look way better than motif.

for me it's the opposit: my dad is in computers and technology buisness, and it's his fault that when I hear "mac" I start drooling. he basically told me mac is always ahead of windows.

when I asked about linux, he told me it's an operating system that has different versions and that you could customize however you want. I imagined an orange wallpaper and a button in a start menu that opens something similar to a terminal where you can type in code to add/change functionality.

I always liked the command line. I used to go to for years to this house where they watched over little kids and play on the old PC that used 5" diskets and had DOS. I learned and freaquently used a few text commands. It gives me nostalgia, and besids, I always feel like I have real power when I use text commands.

maybe a year ago or more, I felt like trying out Linux. I already knew it could be obtained for free. I searched and reached a website that offered all kinds of versions of linux. It was very confusing, I saw red hat, suse, and others I can't remember, all listed there with reviews and links. I tried to find the "official" version of linux, but couldn't, so I decided to try suse. I went to they'r site, but it was a wiki, and that made me very uneasy. when I saw it requierd the download of 5 discs, I gave up.

then, a few months ago, I decided I had it with Windows. I had a personal folder with all my files and everything was all very messy. I decided I want a system that uses labels/tags instead of folders. when I saw there isn't such a thing, I downloaded solaris, but I couldn't install it on my dad's laptop. I read a year-old very favorable review from a guy who spent a week with ubuntu, and decided then and there to install it, but not befor I looked up fedora core (5 disks!) and slackware (looked unmaintained to me, and not enough up to date). I liked the liveCD feature, and that the whole thing was 1 disk. the extrem ease and speed of intallation was delightfull, especily compared with windows XP that I tried installing on very same muchine. it took maybe two hours for each failed attempt, and they failed becuase we wanted to partition it in two but 2 GB disapeared each time so in the end we didn't make a partition.

before I moved to ubuntu I tried out 7 browsers and loved firefox (IE7B3, FF2B1 opera9, netscape8.1, avant browser, slim browser, maxthon). funnily enough, my dad only got convinced to use firefox at home after using IE7 at work. he really liks IE7, but likes FF to, although less, I guess.

Did I forget to mention? when I decided to switch to ubuntu, I enjoyed my dads encouragement. He doesn't want to see his son growing up only on microsoft, quite the contrary. he would have made the switch himself years ago, but he needs windows for work.

He was kind of surprised that ubuntu has such a good GUI, because his information in things outside windows is quite out dated. He keep his information up-to-date with computers & technology because of his job, but he also just enjoys it and we had long disscussions about FOSS for the first few months. actually, it was more like me briefing him on all that he had missed. now we don't, maybe because he got tierd of the subject, or maybe because there is not much left to say.

[Fass]

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5703/thegogglesdonothingsy3.jpg

[%hMa@?b<C]

http://www.csg.is.titech.ac.jp/~kourai/qvwm/index-en.html

[flapane]

I don't see why people should be roped into using some GUI layout just because people think that it is "windows-izing" Linux. The whole point of open source is that you can have everything just how you want it. Trying to force people to use a more "Linux-like" layout would just as bad as Microsoft.

I would predict that the original poster's dad will at some point sit down at a computer running a more typical Linux layout, think to himself "hey, this all looks familiar", and he will realize that the difference between his "windows-ized" layout and a normal one is only a minor superficial one, and will probably switch over. Or better yet will try to switch over, and in the process will discover all the ways he can customize Linux, and will end up with something that serves him better than his windows layout or the default one. Thats the great thing about Linux.

I think so, too, because the power of Linux is CUSTOMIZE everything, from GUI to kernel ro somewhat stuff, and if a familiar Windows skin could help switching between Win and Linux, no matter

[flapane]

That Windows-like theme is neat still. Still prefer my KDE desktop with Beryl goodness.

my father wouldn't have been so happy, in this way ;)

[flapane]

after 2 years and several requests, now this is the look of that box
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9794/ksnapshotjn6.th.jpg (http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9794/ksnapshotjn6.jpg)

[crl0901]

Wow, most people wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

[nath2008uk]

Wow.
Only thing I can see that sets it apart is those little icons in the right hand window behind the command... terminal.
Yeah, changing from xp is hard..

Still tempted to put Kubuntu on, can I boot it from a usb device?

[flapane]

yeah I opened the terminal to show the statistics, but the person who uses that box can't use the terminal.

[mamamia88]

i really don't find ubuntu's gui to be much different than windows gui just i can tweak it alot more

[ajcham]

Very nicely done, but you may wish to do some more work on your screenshot - despite the blurring, the details you have tried to anonomise are still very readable. Luckily I'm a nice guy, and won't be doing anything untoward.:P

[K.Mandla]

I see no sin in making Linux look like Windows.

http://xs132.xs.to/xs132/08410/screenshot-2008-10-12-173933-642.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs132&d=08410&f=screenshot-2008-10-12-173933-642.jpg) http://xs233.xs.to/xs233/08470/fmv5100-875.jpg.xs.jpg (http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs233&d=08470&f=fmv5100-875.jpg)

Make it look like whatever you want. It's your computer. ;)

[ajcham]

As a test I tried installing the GnomeXP theme (there is a script knocking around somewhere that takes care of pretty much everything). This is how it looks:
98157

[flapane]

Very nicely done, but you may wish to do some more work on your screenshot - despite the blurring, the details you have tried to anonomise are still very readable. Luckily I'm a nice guy, and won't be doing anything untoward.:P

:p they are not very important ones, I masked them in 2 secs but of course I'd do better if they were personal datas

[jimi_hendrix]

@flapane

i am guessing from the screenshot il tuo famiglia é italiano?

[flapane]

yep ;)