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XPde Makes X11 Resemble Windows
Gentu writes "Here is another way of penetrating the Windows market, which might even prove more successful than the current efforts: XPde is a desktop environment that mimics the Windows 2000 look and feel and behavior. Currently on version 0.3, the team has re-created a number of applications from its Windows equivalents, including Explorer." T. cuts in: It looks like they've made a lot of progress since this project was last mentioned.
They screens look gorgeous. I don't know how they can use the copyrighted elements from Microsoft, but they look great.
Here is a real screenshot mirror with all the screem shots included. Thumbnails and full size:
Screen Shot Mirror
You've been able to do that for ages. The later versions of XFree86 build on Win2K / cygwin with no modification, and include xeyes. Anyone planning on using using XF86 on Win2K would be advised to compile gcc3.2 and then compile XF86 4.3.0 with this. It is noticable faster than the version shipped with cygwin, which is built using gcc2.95.
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This is all of them. Thumbnails and normal size.
Screen Shot Mirror
Get a
Directly from the site:
A common misconception. The IP laws have no concern were an effort is for profit are not - at least in the U.S. The monsters will argue that even non-profit efforts will diminish the value of their IP property. Now, as I dimly recall, Apple's look and feel lawsuit against Microsoft failed. Was that because Apple had copied it's look and feel from the Xerox PARC?
To be clear, I hate the tranny of these restrictive IP laws with all of the cells of my being. I know creators want and need to be rewarded but the megacorps have got beyond all reason.
FREEDOM!
"3) a solid network browser a la network neighborhood."
Sorry I'm too lazy to link (use Google), but what's wrong with LinNeighborhood? I find it extremely easy to use, particularly for what I want to do (finding ALL the file shares on my campus network quickly). It isn't an "all-in-one" solution, but it's perfectly capable of calling up Midnight Commander (which I love even in Xterm windows), or you can just use konquerer/nautilus once the share is mounted. Simple - not quite as easy as the windows Network Neighborhood, but arguably more powerful, particularly if your primary interest in the LAN is filesharing.
I'm the stranger...posting to
You can, there's a whole community of people making shells that replace Explorer in Windows. Some of the really nice ones are Serenade, LiteStep, GeoShell, Sharpe, the list goes on, they all remove the bloat of explorer, then if you want to change borders and such you add ShellWM or Windowblinds or if you've got XP StyleXP. My windows desktop doesn't look like any other OS, it has the great effect of making people say "Ummm, what's this?" when they sit down at my machine, and then a few minutes later, they're asking me how to make their interface the same. Those alternate shells are great because they free up memory(my XP machine went from using nearly 27mb of memory with explorer to under 8mb with serenade) and they eliminate explorer problems.
Links-
Serenade http://www.courtah.net
StyleXP http://www.tgtsoft.com
Just google for the others as I can't remember URLs for them.
The icons are not identical.
The dialogs are not identical. The spacing of components is ever-so-slightly different than that found in Windows.
Function can not be copyrighted.
I wonder whether Microsoft even has patents on things such as the system tray, taskbar, and start-menu. That would be interesting.
ROX is a desktop manager that isn't about mimicking any "desktop style", but focuses on usability issues - for example, it has (IMHO very good) solutions to the first two problems you mentioned.
In fact, I'd argue that it finally creates a Linux desktop that Joe Sixpack could be happy with. It doesn't spew an application's files all over the filesystem - instead it leaves them all inside the application's folder. In fact, double-clicking on the App's folder runs it! To delete a program, just delete that folder. Program preferences are stored in a Choices folder so that you can keep your preferences even if you delete a program.
And since you don't need to "Install" the program, you either move it to the system's "Apps" folder, or the "Apps" folder in the user's Home folder to install local or system apps. (BTW, as some may notice, it actually works very similarly to Mac OS X, which some people think is very easy to use. =) This makes managing the 'start menu' a non-issue. It also gives the user more power to manage their programs folder (i.e. create their own categories).
Check it out at:
http://rox.sourceforge.net
I've tried KDE and GNOME and while they look pretty enough, I never felt they were usable in the Mac or Windows sense. This desktop is definitely headed in the right direction... It may even convince me to put Linux on my PCs. I'm really surprised that most people haven't seen this yet!!
Sure, it requires apps to be modified (and it looks like many have already been), but sooner or later people are going to have to realize that this is far easier to understand for the desktop user. Linux (and Unix) were designed for server and terminal-based environments, not the desktop, so any solution will need to modify the current way of doing things. IMHO, this desktop addresses some of the most important issues and deserves more attention and support!
osnews mirror, XPde front page, and screenshots page.
The screen shots only are at this place
In that case, you don't know what "CMD.EXE" is; here's a free clue, it's NOT the same as COMMAND.COM. It's a real 32 bit process, which JUST HAPPENS to emulate some DOS commands.
CMD.EXE is a real CLI to Windows, in the same way that "bash" is a CLI to Linux; it's just that bash is more configurable and more powerful. CMD.EXE is most certainly NOT a virtual machine; start one up and compare the running processes to COMMAND.COM, which will start up an NTVDM.EXE process (which is actually the NT Virtual DOS Machine you have heard about).
NTVDM is also commonly found hanging out with WOWEXEC.EXE - this is the 16 bit Windows-on-Windows process which runs Win16 applications. Win64 on Itanium will use a similar mechanism to suport Win32, probably called WOWEXEC32 or similar.
Jon.
I agree with just about all of that. I use linux on servers, and would not consider anything else for myself. They just don't crash, and never give me a problem.
On the desktop however, it's much different. X is slow - it's slow to start up, it's slow to open new apps and it's slow when resizing windows (well, anything more than the terminal). Not just on slow machines either - my 2 workstations here have near identical specs (Athlon 2000XP, 768MB, GF4, different motherboards and HDs), but the XP machine is definitely snappier to use. It starts up in around 1/4 of the time of the Linux box (running RH8.0, modified quite a bit, and only desktop services running). Opening Explorer is instant, whereas Mozilla takes a good 10 seconds to load up the first time, and 3-4 on subsequent launches. And don't get me started with the Nvidia 3D accelerated driver crashing almost every day! The XP machine has yet to crash (though I have resinstalled it once as it started to become slow for some reason - maybe too much stuff installed).
Then there's apps that suddenly just quit and disappear - Konqueror under KDE is a favourite for this. The worst offender is my iMac with Yellow Dog Linux installed. It's an oldish machine now (400MHZ G3), and although the GUI is faster than when OSX was on there (I HAD to get something other than OSX on it, as it was too slow to be usable IMO) it takes 25 seconds to launch Mozilla, and Konqueror will often vanish or sieze up for no apparent reason! Oh yes, and Sawfish will occasionally quit, leaving me with a desktop full of borderless windows (the "fix" is to switch to TWM, then back to Sawfish).
Although I do keep trying with X every now and then (and I'll probably keep playing with the iMac as it's nice and quiet after my Athlons) I don't consider it close to Windows 2000/XP for the desktop user yet. For me desktop=windows and server=linux, and I can't see it changing any time soon...
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
If you haven't seen a BSOD under Windows 2000 OR XP, then you just haven't used Windows enough.
Not to say they are as prevalent as the 95/98 days, but anyone that truly believes they are gone is fooling themselves.
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;