Windows is a fine operating system. The NT kernel is pretty good, all things considered, and the design and UX of XP, Vista, and 7 were overall pretty peak. The main problem with Windows is and always has been Microsoft.
But at least it’s windows XP, right?
But many Linux DEs are made to be similar to Windows anyway. They are serving generally the same purpose of supporting the file/app world. It’s about time we moved on to a more streamlined user friendly world. But people’s lack of imagination holds us back.
I tweaked my KDE desktop to look like XFCE.
What does that make me?KDFCE boy :)
I tweaked to look like windows xp, loved the retro feeling
I made my KDE desktop look like Windows 7 and I like it
Peak
Screenshot? Legit curious cuz it looks so Mac out-of-the-box
What’s wrong with wanting a UI you’re used to?
Everyone wants other people to switch to Linux until they do literally anything a purist wouldn’t do with their own personal setup 😅
Aha ! I choose a distro that looked like Windows out of the box, so did not tweak anything, joke’s on you i’m no psycho
I use Windows from Scratch. I built all the bloatware and telemtry myself, god damn it!
Always nice to come across fellow React developers!
I like making mine look like “XP if I got to make it do what I want and have things like dark mode.”
I just miss the era :)
Having grown up with a Mac before OS X came out, I liked that I could make XFCE look a bit more like OS 9, but I haven’t been able to find a suitable equivalent for kde yet.
I might give a Windows 7 theme a try. As much as I hate Microsoft, I’ve been feeling unusually nostalgic for 7. That one was kind of peak for gaming.
only for gaming compatibility
Well yes, but i always tweeked my windows to the point of breaking. Now i use mint and have reached the point where i love how it looks, everything works and i will likley sit with its current form for some years, maybe untill my kids are older and i have more time to waste again.
Well, first I tweak my windows to mimic the appearance of the windows that I liked, windows 7. Then I tweak my Linux to mimic that.
Just because hurr durr windows bad, doesn’t mean their huge team of UI and UX designers didn’t ever come up with a good design. And like most things Microsoft, I take pleasure in pirating it when I can.
Goddamn it I still miss 7
IMO, Windows’s UI/UX might seem good only if you haven’t tried anything actually different. Tiling/scrolling WMs is the way.
I’m pretty much always picking XFCE or KDE over just a WM. In the case of KDE, I use it like Windows. I make XFCE as Unity-like as possible, which I believe is the best interface for limited screen real estate.
I’m using the term “WM” loosely, as a more of a general term here.
And no, i can’t call a DE that adds a title bar to every window, has a huge-ass taskbar, and a limited amount of free space per workspace “best for limited screen real estate”. Something like Niri, MangoWC or Hyprland (with scrolling layout enabled) works much better and cleaner precisely in that regard, since they offer
a) a hotkey-first UX, meaning that everything usually represented by a UI button is moved to the keyboard and no longer needs to clutter the screen
b) literally infinite horizontal space.
I literally can’t go back ever since i gave tiling a try, any floating de/wm now feels clunky and awkward to me.
There’s nothing wrong with tuning your UI to match one you’re more comfortable with. Thats the beauty of Linux.
I wish I could tweak Win 11 to look like Win 7. The only improvement since then was putting the Folder Up button back and adding tabs to Explorer, everything else is worse.
There’s this project you could try in a vm https://classic7.lol/
Exact same. That missing up button alone made me not like Windows 7, I didn’t realize how much I relied on it in xp. I have one pc that I keep Windows 11 on for work because there’s just too much niche software I need that only supports Windows, but everything else is Linux at this point.
Being comfortable with something is overrated, try new things and see what clicks for you. I never understood the “it’s what I’m used to” thing, that just drives me crazy because you are so aware of the issues and there’s never any excitement and interest of discovery. And I don’t mean that you need to change everything all the time, I very much have specific things that I go to great lengths to have but I have those because I’ve found them and nothing else has come close to feeling as good.
Trying new stuff is great - when you choose it. Random surprise tweaks that you’re forced to spend a while figuring out how to revert are pure fucking evil and everyone knows it.
What’s especially terrible is when people change stuff for the worse, then remove the old better option.
