The XPde team has released a document on the legal impact of releasing Windows “lookalike” user interfaces in, specifically, Free Software. The gist of the document is So long as they avoid exact copying of the relatively few unique or distinctive elements in the Windows interface, they can still provide an interface for Linux systems that Windows users are familiar with yet not infringe copyright. It should not be used as a substitute for obtaining personal legal advice, but it’s an important read. Go to http://www.xpde.com to get it.
Have you seen their screen shots. They have a registry editor on Linux. Wow! They may be taking the cloning windows thing a little too far. If their target is the average windows user, thn a registry editor is a waste since they don’t edit the registry.
Innovate! Don’t copy Windows. Do something better! Break the stagnancy of UI design.
That’s why I use XFCE
I agree… nuf said…
Wouldn’t this make a nice GUI for the NT 4.0 clone?
I don´t want to blame xpde´s guys, nor the new switcher who come from windows and feel better with this.
But why in the hell do you want this XP-skin with big green buttons and this awful colours. You really like having a big fisher-price object on your desktop ?
Sadly, it does not help to responsabilize the user, who think his computer is a game, and does not consider that this game contain personnal or business confidential information, such as those we find too often on the internet. It does not help him to learn how to use this game in a rational manner (which should be mandatary, regardless of your OS, like when you learn how to use your car).
easy folks. This thing could be useful to entertain existing windows users to the new world of linux in a smoother way.
The point of this is not for seasoned Linux users; I was running XPde so that my Girlfrend could use my computer when I was running Linux. She is used to Windows and has no interest in learning a whole new way of doing things. With XPde eventuall I will be able to get her a computer and not pay for windows; and have less work keeping it running smoothly.
As far as I can tell (the version of XPde I ran was pre-registry; 3 something I believe) the gegistry in XPde is just a UI and hardware manger so that you can ccustomize the look and feel of the window manager.
I’ve yet to figure out this trend of people wanting to switch to Linux just to make Linux look like Windows and even run their Windows apps with wine… makes no sense to me!
They use a the classic wiget set; so it looks more like Win 2000 then XP. Look at the screen shots.
http://www.xpde.com/shots.php
the first time i used XPde, how really Windows-like it felt (ignoring the missing functionality all over the place) Since that is what it’s going for, a Windows 2K/XP L&F, they’ve got it closer than anything else I have used.
You people should read the FAQ on the XPde site:
http://www.xpde.com/faq.php
As they say, this isn’t for experienced Linux users – most of the XPde developers use KDE themselves and find it has more features than the XP GUI. The goal of the project is to clone the XP UI (using the Classic look instead of “Fischer-Price” Luna so far) so that someone used to Win2k/XP can use Linux with the absolute minimum learning curve possible.
Some may agree or disagree with this project, but it illustrates quite well the power of open-source: choice. They are free to spend their time coding it, and people are free to use it. I think it’s kinda neat, and again shows that you can shape Linux to look like just about anything, while Windows is more-or-less stuck within the same paradigm.
Their goal is expressively not to innovate: they simply want to clone WinXP to a T (or almost – check their paper). They argue – quite rightly, that KDE and Gnome already innovate, and that this is where further innovation should take place. Innovation is not what their project is about, period.
I’ve yet to figure out this trend of people wanting to switch to Linux just to make Linux look like Windows and even run their Windows apps with win
Well, I already paid for a copy of Office, and I’m quite used to it, so why shouldn’t I run it under Crossover Office? Also, if I need to do some CMYK work, I need to run Photoshop (I use the GIMP for anything else, mind you).
As for the look, well, I don’t miss it myself, but I can understand that some people feel reassured by its familiarity. Again, they keyword here is choice: different strokes for different folks!
You guys know it’s a hoax, right?
Who knew that linux could look like windows….
Windows look alike? How about a Mac OS X look alike? Would love to see that, helping Mac people switch to x86
.
Serious now, is there any project going on to do just that– replicate OS X’s look using via a WM??
Just curious…
…if the browser will look like IE…
Pages 10 and 11 seem relavent to the SCO case. What do you think?
What I don’t understand is why they’re targeting the classic windows theme. The whole idea around this project seems to be targeting windows users who dislike doing anything overly complex with their computer. The vast majority of those people aren’t going to be running around changing the theme of WindowsXP, they’re going to be using the default of whatever Microsoft gave them.
I personally don’t care what’s under the hood so long as I can maneuver without having to re-learn EVERYTHING. A GUI like this gives people like me, who are tinkering with Linux but aren’t fully sold because of the awful GUI’s available, an easier way to get acclimated with a new OS.
I like to perform certain functions and I don’t have time to figure crap out. If I can get what I need quickly, then I’m a happy camper.
It’s a great GUI for getting my feet wet. I can deal with software compat at a later date.
From the mouth of a complete Linux illiterate.
Personally I have no use for this. I cannot see the use for new users. In my experience new users find the gnome2 interface much easier on consistent than the windows one. For existing windows users I think it does not help them to have an interface that looks and acts the same, but with a few minor differences. I think it would be more confusing to them when they run into the inconsistencies (why can’t I install bonzi buddy?).
Though if they want to make this all the power to them. It is one of the joys of choice. They see enough reason to spend their time making this, and that is all that matters.
Good! This will help people that arent as techie as we are, but i dont think it will help me much. I’m curently using windows, but i’ve tried Linux with KDE and GNOME. I think they are as like as it is. I was suprised by the small difference beetween windows(KDE/GNOME). Since linux is more free than windows i think that we should rather make new and inovative GUI’s. BUT new GUI’s are always welcome and i think it will help inexpienced users. About windows, there are actually many alternatives here to. I tried MobyDock, it’s a MaxOSX dock replica, and i’m stopped using the taskbar. And yeah, Luna wont make anything easier.
I use win2k/server/xp etc on a daily basis. Please do NOT assume that we windows users aren’t technically inclined. I find that assumption is all too common of thought amongst the linux community.
One thing that some of you are not grasping is it’s not about “me” .. it’s about “us”. The GUI apparantly was created for smoothing the shift to Linux from windows. It’s brilliant really and I’m glad they did it. Do you realize how many people will be turned onto this and thought of using Linux instead of windows as a result?
“techie” or not, this opens the doors for a lot of us.
Linux with or without windows like GUI is simply different form MS OS. That would ask for some basic knowledge during transition. So the argument about “easy” GUI is flawed because some experience is still needed and having windows like GUI is least problem. Winning over windows users will not happen if linux will look like windows. What would be the point? The good example is OS X. It is different and it emphasizes that these differences make user work more efficient. Looks like someone run out of ideas.
I use Windows 2000 at work. At home, Mac OS X and Yellow Dog Linux (KDE) on my Mac, and various other Linux distros (Libranet, Red Hat, Suse) with KDE, IceWM, Gnome and occasionally FluxBox, on my x86 box.
Now – aside from FluxBox – there are no humongous differences in how things are used. It really does not take all that long to figure out how to open an application, save a file, surf the web, etc.
Why the hell do some people think they need to absolutely mimic another GUI in order to make it useable? I’m sorry, but they’re just not that freaking different! “Oh, so I click this thing to get to my programs? Thanks. And that there is the file display thingy? Great, thanks.”
Absolutely agree. Fundamentally much of the core DE functionality is pretty similar between all the mainstream DEs and differ more in style. XPde is only a veneer and as soon as its intended users see things below that are less & less MS like, I wonder if they’ll just go back to MS.
The Registry is the most pointless thing to mimic, whats next BSODs?
Thanks jmf for the mslinux.org link, its a good comic relief.
Brian N
see?
Everybody loves Microsoft 
Some of the Linux community love it so much, they can’t live without it 
Just kidding
Honestly, I do believe this is a great idea and will make it more convinient for new users.
Anyway, I am almost certain, if someone tries to re-create the OS X GUI, the Apple legal team will be out in full force the very first day. I mean, they even tried to prevent people from creating styles for XP that looked like OSX. Isn’t that true?
Lindows should adopt this as the default DE. That is the only way people could get more angry at them!
Linux people, grow up. Don’t like the product? Don’t whine, don’t pout, and don’t use it. Enough said.
“Anyway, I am almost certain, if someone tries to re-create the OS X GUI, the Apple legal team will be out in full force the very first day. I mean, they even tried to prevent people from creating styles for XP that looked like OSX. Isn’t that true?”
I’m pretty sure they won’t care as long as your not getting money from it. Take all the Linux Mac OS X themes and Icon sets for instance. None of them are shipped w/ a distro but they can easily be gotten from the web.
> “Linux people…” hmm whats next? Black People? Jews? Anglos?
it’s “People of a Linux persuasion”
Don’t like it? Fine. Try to give positive criticism then. It’s free software and gives people a choice. I see NP at all.
I ran XPde, originally to find out if it can help people who are used to XP or Windows to use XPde and Linux. My conclusion was (0.4): It’s not finished yet, but it looks promising.
For a more 95/98 interface, see http://www.qvwm.org
“Serious now, is there any project going on to do just that– replicate OS X’s look using via a WM??”
Getting an OSX/XP alike interface can be done via themes/styles with loads of WM’s and DE’s. Some do it good, and also change some other stuff to OSX/XP. Others don’t.
“…if the browser will look like IE…”
Mozilla has an MSIE theme.
In the long run, I would prefer mimics of Win32 desktops to porting Unix-like applications to Win32. At least the end user runs an Open Source software instead of a proprietary one.
Plus, that’s the kind of ideas that will reduce the learning curve and thus make switching free of a long learning curve.
So, two thumbs up for the XPde team. Hopefully, once Unix-like OS’s will get a larger user base, people will get along with Gnome and KDE.
This is one area where Microsoft seems to be a lot friendlier than Apple. Many theme designers have gotten “cease and desist” letters from Apple legal because they copied the Aqua design a little too closely. As far as I know, Microsoft has never threatened to sue anyone over Windows look-alikes.
NN, oh, really?
Care to state proof on both of your statements? URL’s for example…
I find lots of MacOS/OSX/Aqua/Apple stuff on Freshmeat.net
Example: http://themes.freshmeat.net/projects/aquatux
I installed Xpde on my MKE9.1; it seem like it was installed ok but nothing is happening and can’t find it. Is this a desktop or just a windows theme? How do I activate it.
Thank you for that. That was my point. Some OSX styles (particularly a very special one) had to be removed from themexp.org because Apple sent some sort of warnings to the theme authors that created OSX look-a-like styles and also a warning to the site itself. This was also reported to C|Net. Sorry, I don’t have any links.
Ah well, guess it’s true then. Yet, they’re not really winning that war given that i can just find loads of such themes on FM. I even remember i ran an Aqua theme on KDE 3.x a while ago.
Just found out this story also states it:
http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/1011/
Though i don’t agree on the MS statement. MS has recently threatened MSN sites to go down:
http://www.webwereld.nl/nieuws/15971.phtml
…
for example.
“By arthur (IP: 66.53.61.—):
I installed Xpde on my MKE9.1; it seem like it was installed ok but nothing is happening and can’t find it. Is this a desktop or just a windows theme? How do I activate it.”
It’s a desktop. I can only help with howto do it on Gentoo, since i don’t run Mandrake.
So, i describe here how Gentoo does it. First you emerge xpde. It’s only in unstable, but it does work under stable. Just edit the ebuild file. Second, it’s a binary only package. But XPde is opensource. Third, ot says:
sh /opt/xpde/bin/install-config.sh
“This will install a default configuration into your home directory”
Studied this script. What this script does is copy everything in /opt/xpde/share/defaultdesktop to ~/.xpde
then it copies /opt/xpde/share/xinitrcDEFAULT ~/startXPDE en then it does chmod +x ~/startXPDE
Perhaps Mandrake uses a similair method? Do you have /opt and /opt/xpde ? It could be in /usr somewhere, too.
Good luck. Finally, check the site! It has a good FAQ! http://www.xpde.com
>>>I use win2k/server/xp etc on a daily basis(snip)
so?
practically the whole mainstream computing world uses win2k/server/xp on a daily basis.
and you are wrong. the assumption that most computers users are computer illiterate is accurate.
it just so happens that most in the linux community are “extra” technically inclined. your comments fly in the face of my experience, and observations.
-a windows user, mcse, mct, mcp+i, ccnp, ccna
I love GNU/Linux. KDE is my favorite WM. I’m still using Windows because I’m tied to this visual basic project. As soon as I can, I’ll switch entirely to Linux.
I think XPde is a cool project. I don’t think I’m gonna use it, although I’m going to download it for the sake of curiosity.
For the people who say “I don’t see the point of this project”, etc, read the F.A.Q.
Not everybody think the same way, and that makes life more interesting… hey, I even tolerate Compaq users, racists, christians, colombian music lovers and Terminator 3 fans 😉 .
R.R.
I will give that a try. BASH should work on all distro, right?
About every GNU/Linux distro has Bash these days. But i don’t see what that has to do with XPde. Again, good luck.
You can also ask on Mandrake forums online or at irc.freenode.org #mandrake and the like. It’s more Mandrake-specific.
>>so?
practically the whole mainstream computing world uses win2k/server/xp on a daily basis.
and you are wrong. the assumption that most computers users are computer illiterate is accurate.
it just so happens that most in the linux community are “extra” technically inclined. your comments fly in the face of my experience, and observations.
-a windows user, mcse, mct, mcp+i, ccnp, ccna<<
assumption…hmm. I wasn’t aware that the previous post in which I replied to was being specific enough to eliminate the other part of the “most”. I stated that one should not assume that just becuase someone uses windows, he/she is not technically inclined. You are being more specific than the previous post and hence you technically agree with me. I happen to be on the side of more technically inclined, thank you very much.
your certs mean jack squat to me along with the other paper weights that I work with. Those who put forth their knowlege to elicit a response of awe are often the ones who are least confident and least skilled.
Have a good day.