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Regardless to how much you just 'say' to the contrary, people know and are comfortable with Windows, Linux desktops don't act or feel the same and that costs a lot of man hours. Not for people like you who can transition to a new OS rather easy, but for all the low level grunts who don't 'know how to use computers', but 'remember the series of clicks' to get their job done.

Haha hahaha heehee hahaaaa...

Oh! Sorry, I was momentarily distracted. You were saying...?

I agree that Ubuntu and/or Linux Mint (which is based on Ubuntu) are both great, strong, popular distributions. Also, Xandros is an interesting choice for Windows converts in that it has a GUI interface with designed with those kinds of users in mind. PClinuxos is also a simple distrobution which could work well. There is also a piece of software called XPDE - http://www.xpde.com/ - which stands for XP desktop environment. XPDE is a linux desxtop environment which mimics the look and feel of windows XP. So perhaps if you installed Ubuntu or Linux Mint plus xpde, the xpde could act like training wheels for windows users in the world of linux. Good luck, and enjoy this FOSS consecration!

Sounds like the XPde http://www.xpde.com/index.php

No, it's not.

"It's a complete desktop environment for Linux on x86. It tries to make easier for Windows XP users to use a Linux box. Nothing more, no clipboard compatibility between Gtk and Qt applications, no emulation of Windows applications, no unification on the widgets of X applications, just a desktop environment."

But thanks for the post - interesting. I'll take a deeper look; should be relatively straightforward to get WINE running on this, for example. Also, interesting legal advice on their main page on copying Windows 'look & feel' (PDF): http://www.xpde.com/docs/Windows_Linux_Lookalikes_v02.pdf

Is this close enough?
http://www.xpde.com/shots.php

Funny that. The windows GUI was one of the things I hated the most about windows, I found it inflexible, illogical and such a pain to get anything simpler then the usual done that I used to rip my hair out.

But hey, different people have different things they look for in a GUI, that is why I like choice. You might want to look at XPDE (XP Desktop Environment). A work in progress to give an XP-like desktop to Linux machines. So far it has been very good for long-time XP users to switch to linux (I have switched a lot of "normal" people to linux thanks to this DE), but I have no idea what it is like for power-users. You might want to give it a go before you put money down for a Mac

Along with their readers' experience of computing. Think about it, saying "you can get the code that builds the program, and change it if you want" is going to mean nothing to the general public, other than that all Linux users are computer geeks because they all understand the source code. However, saying "where the source code can be modified upon the request of users or other developers" makes more sense to a member of the public, since it means they can get features added without being able to program, they just have to ask someone who CAN program (such as the developers) and explain their idea, or report their bug. That is a true advantage to non-techie end users who don't get very far into Microsoft HQ with their sketches of the "next big thing" for Microsoft Office, because all they need to do is join a mailing list, send an email, enter a chat room, edit a Wiki, etc. and their ideas will at least be considered by Open Source projects.
I think the writers of this article are trying to convey the community nature of Free Software compared to the "Microsoft knows what you want" subservience of proprietary software, but without scaring or alienating the readers into thinking that 'getting involved' requires at least a Computer Science degree.

Anyway, at least it doesn't just focus on GNU/Linux systems as a cost-free version of Microsoft Windows (thus encouraging the likes of http://www.xpde.com/ )

The Linux Gods have heard your call and bring to you this.

You didn't address my comment on the Spotlight rip off. Pursuade me that Gnome coders didn't see Spotlight and think, "That's great - we should reimplement it in Gnome".

*sighs*

I think it would have been obvious from my previous comment what I think about "x is ripping off x" in GUI design. It just doens't happen.

Anyway, hard Drive indexing is not new. Web-style search interfaces are not new. Spotlight was not the first to combine the two. I think the gnome coders have been exposed to a hell of alot more software ideas & concepts then you have - just because os x is the first place you saw a particular concept doesn't mean its the first place that concept appeared.

At least Gnome is taking ideas from OS X, and not being a total clone of Windows like KDE is.

Uh huh. KDE is not a total (or even partial) clone of Windows. It is tremendously more useful.

You're thinking of xpde I think (note that project does not use anything copyrighted so isn't 'ripping off' either)

windows ultimate:

isn't this also know as xpde?
it already leaked.

maybe try XPde, a linux desktop interface that is made to look and feel more like windows XP. You can download an iso for Clusterix, which has this environment included if you want to try it out.

for your converts, you might want to check out XPde, it is a desktop environment that was created to make it easier for windows users to acclimate to using linux. They try to make it similar enough to XP for people to know where to look if they know how to configure anything in windows.

Seek and ye shall find.

from the screenshots, it looks like mandrake is starting to look more and more like WinXP, especially the system "control panel". Wasn't the point of moving to linux to move away from windows? Ah well at least it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as XPde

consistantly great UI's that come out of the OSS movement.

You mean like fluxbox? Or I guess you'd like xpde... or gnome. or kde. Well...when you really get down to it there are tons of them all focused on different groups of people with different desires.

So how about some constructive criticism?

Think about it this way if I told you I had created the most amazing thing, and that I'm willing to give you just a tiny sample of what to expect... then I handed you something that was warm, brown, squishy, and smelled bad, would you offer me constructive critisim, or would you ask me why the fuck I handed you a turd?

"Unless the Linux interface dupicates another OS *exactly*"

You mean this? Been there, done that.

For your second wish, it's already possible : http://www.xpde.com/

What I really need, is a firefox theme that looks like IE...

and a desktop theme that looks like XP.

Enjoy.

if you want an XP look/feel check out http://www.xpde.com (if you use Gentoo it is in portage). It has some obvious bugs, but hey, it is still not version 1 yet.

http://www.xpde.com/

Though I have no experience with it myself I know that xpde, a desktop environment for Linux that mimics Windows XP, is being written with Kylix. According to the xpde FAQ, the project can be compiled with Kylix Open Edition. So at least some people are still getting use out of it.

XPDE anyone?? (http://www.xpde.com/)

1. The default window manager needs to REALLY emulate the GUI of Windows, or be resonably close for someone who has memorized the route to get to things that they know. Use more familar looking GUI widgets for example. Use a splash screen when the system is coming up instead of outputting alot of cryptic data that only old-timers and linux hackers even know what it means.

XPDE, for one.

Mind, it's got the uncanny valley problem after a fashion. It looks, sometimes a lot, like WinXP. But it's decidedly different in subtle (and not so subtle) ways. In balance, I'd think the result is more unsettling rather than less. You're better off with an environment that uses familiar motifs, but doesn't just ape another model.

There are a large number of desktops for Linux, and most of them are highly themable. KDE and GNOME are probably the leaders, and both are highly themeable. I found XFCE4 is really popular among kids (6-18), and prefer WindowMaker myself: clean, configurable, light, stable, and out of my face.

No. They want you to be an early-adopter and buy the paid version to quench your curiosity. Also, the free version doesn't have any of the features of either paid version. It's a cut down version (though a good one). On a side note, I've been using Xandros off and on for quite a while and I must say it is one of the best "migration" distro for weening Windows users onto Linux. With earlier versions, you could simply plug in your favorite Debian repository and you'd have access to any programs they weren't offering. They wouldn't guarantee they would work, but I don't recall ever having problems. This is the kind of thing you put your parents/grandparents on. They will be pretty familiar with it since it's so similar to Windows and you won't have to go over every Saturday to remove spyware and viruses. On another side note, there is a project called XPde (XP Destkop Environment) that is working on copying the EXACT look and feel of Windows. I believe Barnix Linux is the first distro to actually use XPde. It's worth looking into. Here are some screenshots of it.

...is force microsoft to actually patch most of the stupid holes in IE (the ones that even the stupidest of the stupid spyware prevention programs knows how to patch). once this is done, people will no longer bother again to install, reinstall and maintain a "Mozilla Firefox" on their new Windows YP Ultra-Professional Home Edition II SP5 ("now with 5GB worth of drivers!")

IE and Office will only fall when Windows falls, OR when a REAL alternative shows up -- one that actually lets you get rid of IE and/or Office _completely_ (that is, a perfect clone). And since the Mozilla browsers will always refuse to emulate all of IE's "nonstandard" features, "Mozilla Firefox" and all the browser alternatives combined will never beat IE in usage while Windows is still standing.

so you want to beat IE, and Office, and Microsoft? maybe you should start by supporting a project like XPde.

Instead of fighting all the carefully laid down UI metaphors that microsoft has developed throughout the years (and installed on the minds of the users), why not hijack them?

microsoft always stole other people's code and ideas. this is what can kill them too. once they are dead, we will finally be free to dictate our own bad metaphors upon users.

Lets see here is a brief list of some of the main software that I saw on that page. You can find information on those peaces of software at these sites.

Enlightenment Project: http://enlightenment.org/pages/main.html
Evolution: http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution/
Gnome 2.8:http://www.gnome.org/start/2.8/
KDE 3.3:http://www.kde.org/
Thunderbird 0.8:http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/re leases/
XPDE 5.1:http://www.xpde.com/
YaST:http://www.suse.de/en/private/products/suse_l inux/prof/yast.html

I have an idea...

Buahahahahahahahahahaha!

Once someone learns to use a computer with {Win/Mac/Linux OS}, they will likely never change.

Bung on a copy of xpde and Windows users will hardly notice the difference. Linux users are used to using different display managers.

Phillip.

I also helped a customer past a BSAA audit threat (got the notice mid-afternoon, got inspected mid the following morning) by counting their holo stickers and hastily Linuxifying some of their generic workstations to make up the difference, and slapping the OpenOffice.org suite (and Mozilla for good measure) on all of the machines.

Highlights of the visit were the BSAA dudes (local agents, I think, rather than BSAA proper) trying hard not to ask why nobody was using MS-Office (they eventually broke down and asked, I told them it was because it helped to avoid licence hassles like this one - IRL everyone was ostentatiously using OOo and Mozilla not MSO and MSIE because they'd been told to for that day :-) and the allegedly technical dude shoving a diagnostic CD into the reception machine, which was at the time running Mandrake Linux (I think 9.2) and XPDE and - after a few minutes - asking where "My Computer" was so he could run the nice diagnostics.

IIRC, we'd renamed the XPDE equivalent "Not Bill's Computer". Said dude's look of disbelief upon being appraised of the truth was worth framing; it took the Mandrake Control Centre to half-convince him. I don't think he was ever quite sure.

Well, "Open Source stuff" is doing exactly that. Witness xpde, a group dedicated to re-creating the XP desktop. And of course the gnome and KDE groups are hard at work replicating a great deal of Windows.

Man, this is a great idea. I can't wait to try out XPDE. Crap, it takes me to a page that cannot be displayed. Linux sucks! Oh well, back to Windows. Dislexya is a bicth XPDE

For users like the ones you mention there is XPDE (I'm not affiliated with the project and have only tried it out, but it looks promising..)
ScreenShots....

Have you tried using an IE theme for firefox?
Have you tried using firefox and using the IE icon on the desktop?
Have you customized the toolbars to look exactly the same as in IE.
Have you tried using firesomething to rename Firefox to Internet explorer

Have you XPDE?. My brother, who has sevre reading difficulties can use Firefox and GNOME because he find it easy for his needs. Have you tried GNOME 2.6 with her yet. Its been getting countless praises on how easy it is to use.

And since your a gamer, try these games.

With an attitude like that, heaven help us if GNOME turns out to be the only defense Linux has on the desktop against a Microsoft hegemony.

Well, that's the beauty of Linux, isn't it? GNOME is not its only defense. KDE is at least equal to GNOME. Or you could try something really funky, like XPde, and really confuse people.

What's more, you can still use gnome/KDE applications, no matter what desktop environment you use.

The only thing that could possibly make your Linux TCO high now is perhaps re-training your tech staff who have undoubtedly been brought up on MS Windows if they went to college in the US, and that's not terribly expensive in the long run...

If they run xpde they won't even notice the difference.

Phillip.

Well, xPde look and feel is similar to XP, but I have not heard of Microsoft going after them...

Source, top of p6

Linus admitted it in an e-mail, July 1991,

"I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu)... (My emphasis)
I'd like to know what features most people want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)"

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

Bad luck, fanbois

Isn't this similar to the reason why Apple took Microsoft to court over the similarities between Mac OS and Windows? Or similar to the reason why Apple took some folks to court because they copied the look and feel of their Aqua GUI?

I don't mean to piss in anyone's Corn Flakes, but damn ... look at a screenshot ... Start button is named Start, My Desktop is My Desktop, etc. Watch the headlines here in a week to a month for the cease-and-desist letter from MS to the XPde folks. Makes me glad I have a friend going through law school ... heh.

Give a linux box with XPde to a ms-windows user and tell him/her it's XP Reloaded...

Install Blackbox as the WM instead of Explorer! :) www.bb4win.org

wrong... use XPde on your linux and they won't spot the difference...

I think you're getting KDE mixed up with XPde.

XPux is a Linux designed to emulate windows on Linux! It is based on XPde, a Linux "port" of Windows XP, it then uses a script to load the User's Windows Drivers , desktop icons and Applications (using wine) into the environment. Then it uses the gimp command line tool to slap a Linux Penguin on the Wallpaper! By giving the user the power of Linux with the Familar environment of Windows XP it is ideal for those who want Linux but need their Winapps!
It has had over 5000 downloads already, with more everyday! Whats more, its in 5 different languages!

Download now!
English Version (530Mb)
French Version (525Mb)
German Version (532Mb)
Spanish Version (531Mb)
Italian Version (528Mb)

N00bz Linux is a Linux designed especially for newbies to Linux! It is based on XPde, a Linux "port" of Windows XP, it then uses a script to load the User's Windows Drivers, desktop icons and Applications into the environment. Then it uses the gimp command line tool to slap a Linux Penguin on the Wallpaper! By giving the user the power of Linux with the Familar environment of Windows XP it is ideal for anyone!

It has had over 5000 downloads already, with more everyday! Whats more, its in 5 different languages, for Newbies around the world!

Download now!
English Version (530Mb)
French Version (525Mb)
German Version (532Mb)
Spanish Version (531Mb)
Italian Version (528Mb)

They did a series about it on Userfriendly.org a bit ago.

did you see the screenshots?

That's a lawsuit just waiting to happen... All the sub-apps like the Task Manager and all the Properties windows are a perfect copy! Very impressive.

This is what XPDE is trying to do (clone the Windows XP interface). Except for the applications part...it provides a shell that looks like the Windows XP one along with a control panel and some other stuff (at least I seem to remember it having that stuff).

Personally, you can pry Window Maker out of my cold dead fingers...but I've been using GNU/Linux on the desktop full time for nearly four years. All the software I use works fine on GNU/Linux so I have no need for Windows. I just need a few games (Frozen-Bubble, LBreakout2, Legacy Doom, Quake2), Emacs, a web browser, and a simple DAW for my occasional audio work (Ardour is awesome for this). I'm not a "desktop user" I guess.

May I suggest you take a butchers' at XPDE? It aims to be a more-or-less exact emulation of Windows XP.

Windows fanboy: "When will Linux look and behave exactly like WindowsXP and therefore be ready for the desktop?"

Yes you will have to ring up each time you want to activate it now that you have exceeded your quota of un mediated activations.

The question is: what are you going to do when MS cranks the activation challenge/response strings up to 300 characters, and makes you input it text message style into your phone keypad?

One answer is to get Corporate Edition that doesn't require activation.

Another one is dump XP on a couple of boxes, and install Linux. Install XPde so that peole are at home. Then advertise a discount for people who use your Linu x machines. You could even tie it to an offer, like the first time you use a linux machine for half an hour you get a free can of Coke(tm).