Need A Win Looking Distro

[thelonegunmen]

Hey guys, I guess this is the best place to post this at. I'm trying to convert some friends to Linux and was wondering if there's a linux distro that has the look and feel (I guess not really the feel) of windows, preferably Windows 7. What's the best one?

[woodsmoke]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

The simplest way to make an Ubu that LOOKS like WinXP might be using this script:

http://ubuntu.online02.com/node/14

However for functionality and "close" in look I'd recommend SuperOS:

SuperOS.
There is a default config screen at login where one chooses appearances of things and there is a Windows looking theme.
One can easily with one click, setup the login screen with the users image if one desires, very easy.
Find some wallpapers on the net that mimic Hasta La Vista or something and add them in.
Unless the other hardware is way out of line it should find everythings, codecs for audio or video are included, and if they get way off the farm the distro asks for permission to install stuff.
Video hardware installer is included in the menu under additional drivers.
Flash has to be installed of course through the repos.
There is an LTS or a yearly release version and as of the LAST iteration it would be very close to Win, however, I assume that the next version will look like Unity so don't know about what might happen in the future.

However, there is no forum for it, it is basically a revved up Ubu variant.

There is, however, a linux that was designed to specifically look like windows but I don't know how well it is maintained: LXP: the last release was in 2007 and there is a deb.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/lxp/

There is also a Chineese version of Linux that looks like XP, it was updated last year, I think:

http://www.neoseeker.com/news/12888-...ke-windows-xp/

In fact.... if the script DOES work, then plop it on top of SuperOS and they have a completely functional OS and the appearance!

woodsmoke

[de_koraco]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

http://zorin-os.com/gallery.html

[GreyGeek]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

http://zorin-os.com/gallery.html

That REALLY looks interesting!
The premium version costs only a $15 US donation to access a download.

EDIT:
Took a look at a video preview of the Zorin OS 5 Ultimate release (premium) shown here. I noticed that when the VBox installation rebooted the grub menu showed "ubuntu" as the first and second options. If you are familiar with installing Ubuntu or Kubuntu (using the Unity Installer) then you know what Zorin looks and behaves like when it is installed. Frankly, I'd call it Gnome, but with different window dressing, obviously. It is built on top of Ubuntu, just like Linux Mint, which is the reviewer's second favorite Linux distro. His first choice for an OS is Win7, "by a hair". Zorin has the KDE compatibility library, so it can run KDE4 apps. It even uses some of the icons that KDE4 uses for System Settings, but that program is not like KDE4's System Settings.

A history of the Zorin OS is given here. The first beta of Zorin OS was released on the 5th of May 2009. It is on a six month release schedule.

One turn off: Mono is part of the installation. How it would run if I stripped Mono off is a guess. That fact kept me from downloaded the premium version to try it out, so I'll never know unless someone else tries it and reports the results. Ubuntu and Kubuntu work fine with Mono stripped, but I don't know how much of Zorin uses Mono C# script or apps to achieve its Windows like look.

Their business model seems similar to Mandriva's: a paid premium version with everything in it (LiveDVD) and a version which offers less at install. (LiveCD?). Are there two separate repositories as well, one for the free users and one for the premium users. There haven't been enough buyers to keep Mandriva afloat, at the rate their overhead expenses required, so Zorin will be swimming upstream, unless they can minimize their overhead and personnel expense. Then, you get into the trouble of one man shows. MEPIS and PCLinuxOS have problems when their creators have to take a leave of absence. Given those histories a Linux distro based on one developer is an uphill fight that will drive to exhaustion all who try. There is only 24 hours in a day.

Bottom line: after watching that video it seems fair to me to say that since the KDE4 desktop has more power than Win7 it would have more power than a Win7 clone not built with the Qt API.

[sithlord48]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

can't you just theme kde to look like win7?

using

Qt-curve Win7 theme
7 like plymouth theme
7 like icon set
win plasma theme
if you don't like that well, there is more just look around kde-look.org or the "get new stuff buttons"

[de_koraco]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

http://zorin-os.com/gallery.html

That REALLY looks interesting!
The premium version costs only a $15 US donation to access a download.

Anyone could whip it up in about 15 minutes. It's basically Ubuntu with the gnome2 panel, and a gnome widget called DockBarX, which lets you pin applications to the panel Win7 style. Of course, KDE has had it for even longer with Smooth tasks, but that's another story.

[Snowhog]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

Yes, it does. I'm downloading the 64-bit .iso to give it a try (not as a replacement for Kubuntu). Only DVD .iso's, so it will be my first burning of a DVD .iso. Not sure it's a LiveDVD either - their site doesn't specify.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

I prefer LiveDVDs over LiveCDs. They burn MUCH more reliably on my notebook. And, I use the re-writable DVDs so I don't waste any when I decide to toss the candidate!

[GreyGeek]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

......
Anyone could whip it up in about 15 minutes. It's basically Ubuntu with the gnome2 panel, and a gnome widget called DockBarX, which lets you pin applications to the panel Win7 style. Of course, KDE has had it for even longer with Smooth tasks, but that's another story.

Interesting as well. I've never heard of it, is "Smooth tasks" a widget? I just used the Classic menu and re-labeled and re-arranged stuff to be be in the same position as WinXP, and I chose a similar background and desktop icons for the apps I put on the desktop.

Since I retired 3 1/2 years ago I have no need to keep a Windows desktop around so I scrubbed Win7 off this notebook and resumed running only Linux as the installed, main OS. Since KDE 4.2 this desktop has gotten so powerful (along with Dolphin) that I leave it as it is and just activate all the features built into Dolphin and the desktop, except for Desk Effects, which slows my Intel video chip down too much.

[de_koraco]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

Smooth tasks is a Plasma widget, aye. The version in the repos doesn't have the icon docking capabilities like in win7, only a means of representing running windows via icons, but the latest one from git is supposed to have the docking capabilities. I'd love to help out some more, but I haven't tried it myself.

http://kde-look.org/content/show.php...content=101586

[arochester]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

...was wondering if there's a linux distro that has the look and feel (I guess not really the feel) of windows, preferably Windows 7. What's the best one?

Is this approach a mistake? What you gain in looks you might lose in functionality. Windows is Windows, Linux is Linux. Celebrate the difference, don't look for some similarity!

If absolutely necessary I would go with the idea of using Ubuntu as a base because Ubuntu is simple(r).

I just leave my Linux laptop around the place and my son, daughters and their friends use it without any difficulty.

An oldie, but a goodie, is the video at: http://cnettv.cnet.com/can-you-tell-...-50005203.html

[dibl]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

I'm trying to convert some friends to Linux and was wondering if there's a linux distro that has the look and feel (I guess not really the feel) of windows, preferably Windows 7.

My personal opinion is, default KDE is close enough. I think it would be a mistake to "lure" people, with an appearance that "it's the same". The first guy that tries to defrag the hard drive will discover how different it really is, and of course the next one will try to set the screen refresh rate for his ATI card, and there you will be with some shock and awe to deal with. Better to show them KDE, with the menu in the expected lower left corner, and explain that they need not look for the same things that they are accustomed to seeing with Windows. Instead, there is a kinda-similar navigation scheme, with Linux packages instead of the familiar Windows software, and some things like Firefox might be almost the same, but other things will be totally different and "foreign". So, best to forget how to do things with Windows, and make like a student with Linux, and learn some new ways to do things.

Two cents' worth.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

For Win7 http://ubuntu.sun.ac.za/index.php?title=W7_Theme
For XP http://ubuntu.online02.com/node/14

I just downloaded the XP scripts and am going to try it on a friends computer.

[woodsmoke]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

Sithlords comment about downloading particular things is what the script does en mass as opposed to in fine.

woodsmoke

[jpenguin]

Re: Need A Win Looking Distro

Well, I was going too say Lycoris Desktop LX; but it doesn't exist anymore...

Maybe PeanutLinux, wait-a-minute- that was replaced by aLinux!