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I’ve long suspected that a Linux desktop environment designed to closely mimic Windows 7 (with light modernization where it makes sense) would prove popular, an

I’ve long suspected that a Linux desktop environment designed to closely mimic Windows 7 (with light modernization where it makes sense) would prove popular, and the existence of all this reinforces that idea. A rough facsimile can be built using KDE, Cinnamon, or XFCE, but many details will still be wrong (and aren’t practically fixable without forking) and I think that’s enough to prevent many users from considering Linux as a viable alternative.

lynnharry 2y ago
IMHO, what's important for Windows 7 is the established userbase and all the hardware that's already running on Windows 7, not it's UI.
- cosmic_cheese 2y ago
  Maybe, but there’s no reason why a thoughtfully engineered Win7 clone DE on a lightweight Linux couldn’t run just as well or better on the same hardware.
  - aleph_minus_one 2y ago
    > but there’s no reason why a thoughtfully engineered Win7 clone DE on a lightweight Linux Why not a "thoughtfully engineered Win7 clone Desktop Environment" (without Linux :-) ). By the way: people are working on ReactOS: > https://reactos.org/ https://reactos.org/
- listenallyall 2y ago
  Your opinion. Win 7 was the best Windows UI, both in looks (Aero) and usability. It was abandoned primarily because Microsoft was trying to achieve some hybrid desktop/tablet/mobile UI that worked poorly for all form factors. Win 11+ (or whatever the next version is called) would be well-suited to return to an Aero-like UI.
nicman23 2y ago
it is the other way around. ms copied heavily from what people where doing with compiz and gnome 2 back in the day
- lproven 2y ago
  No... get the timing and the attribution right. Both Vista's Aero compositor (not 7) and Compiz copied from Apple Quartz Extreme. Apple worked out how to use a 3D accelerator to speed up a 2D GUI. Quartz Extreme was first released in Mac OS X 10.2 in 2002. Vista and Compiz were both 2006.
  - nicman23 2y ago
    i did not know about quartz but compiz was not the only 3d compositor iirc xcompmgr which became compton was older
    - lproven 2y ago
      I am not claiming Compiz was first. It's just the one I still use so it happens to spring to my mind. (My own laptops run Ubuntu with the Unity desktop.) As far as know, Apple invented the concept of a display compositor using 3D hardware. If anyone has prior art from before 2002 I'd love to know.
      - nicman23 2y ago
        i thought probably sgi would have done something but it turns out it was amiga lol
        lproven 2y ago
        The Amiga did not have hardware 3D at all, so I doubt that.
        nicman23 2y ago
lproven 2y ago
https://linuxiac.com/kumander-linux-a-windows-7-nostalgia-trip/ https://linuxiac.com/kumander-linux-a-windows-7-nostalgia-tr...
- cosmic_cheese 2y ago
  Not bad for an XFCE mod, but falls under the “rough facsimile” category I mentioned.
  - lproven 2y ago
    :-D Can't deny that. I have not tried it myself. (Possibly "yet".) I did try Wubuntu. https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/05/wubuntu/ https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/05/wubuntu/ Not good.
    - Pesthuf 2y ago
      All of these look so off that I wonder why they even exist.
Dwedit 2y ago
Windows Vista/7 screwed up file associations badly, you can do far less with them than you could under Windows 95. Under Windows 95, you could customize the right click menu for any file type, and add all your favorite programs to that menu as a different option. That's gone since Vista, which added in the buggy "Open With" submenu. The worst is that today, if you associate Icon files with an icon editor, Icons suddenly lose their ability to display themselves, and instead turn into pictures of the associated application!

lynnharry 2y ago

IMHO, what's important for Windows 7 is the established userbase and all the hardware that's already running on Windows 7, not it's UI.

cosmic_cheese 2y ago
Maybe, but there’s no reason why a thoughtfully engineered Win7 clone DE on a lightweight Linux couldn’t run just as well or better on the same hardware.
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago
  > but there’s no reason why a thoughtfully engineered Win7 clone DE on a lightweight Linux Why not a "thoughtfully engineered Win7 clone Desktop Environment" (without Linux :-) ). By the way: people are working on ReactOS: > https://reactos.org/ https://reactos.org/
listenallyall 2y ago
Your opinion. Win 7 was the best Windows UI, both in looks (Aero) and usability. It was abandoned primarily because Microsoft was trying to achieve some hybrid desktop/tablet/mobile UI that worked poorly for all form factors. Win 11+ (or whatever the next version is called) would be well-suited to return to an Aero-like UI.

nicman23 2y ago

it is the other way around. ms copied heavily from what people where doing with compiz and gnome 2 back in the day

lproven 2y ago
No... get the timing and the attribution right. Both Vista's Aero compositor (not 7) and Compiz copied from Apple Quartz Extreme. Apple worked out how to use a 3D accelerator to speed up a 2D GUI. Quartz Extreme was first released in Mac OS X 10.2 in 2002. Vista and Compiz were both 2006.
- nicman23 2y ago
  i did not know about quartz but compiz was not the only 3d compositor iirc xcompmgr which became compton was older
  - lproven 2y ago
    I am not claiming Compiz was first. It's just the one I still use so it happens to spring to my mind. (My own laptops run Ubuntu with the Unity desktop.) As far as know, Apple invented the concept of a display compositor using 3D hardware. If anyone has prior art from before 2002 I'd love to know.
    - nicman23 2y ago
      i thought probably sgi would have done something but it turns out it was amiga lol
      - lproven 2y ago
        The Amiga did not have hardware 3D at all, so I doubt that.
        nicman23 2y ago

lproven 2y ago

https://linuxiac.com/kumander-linux-a-windows-7-nostalgia-trip/ https://linuxiac.com/kumander-linux-a-windows-7-nostalgia-tr...

cosmic_cheese 2y ago
Not bad for an XFCE mod, but falls under the “rough facsimile” category I mentioned.
- lproven 2y ago
  :-D Can't deny that. I have not tried it myself. (Possibly "yet".) I did try Wubuntu. https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/05/wubuntu/ https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/05/wubuntu/ Not good.
  - Pesthuf 2y ago
    All of these look so off that I wonder why they even exist.

Dwedit 2y ago

Windows Vista/7 screwed up file associations badly, you can do far less with them than you could under Windows 95. Under Windows 95, you could customize the right click menu for any file type, and add all your favorite programs to that menu as a different option. That's gone since Vista, which added in the buggy "Open With" submenu. The worst is that today, if you associate Icon files with an icon editor, Icons suddenly lose their ability to display themselves, and instead turn into pictures of the associated application!