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I'm surprised that this distro's headline is "The Windows 7 experience on Linux" even though it's using a vague Windows-style XFCE theme. If someone's interest

I'm surprised that this distro's headline is "The Windows 7 experience on Linux" even though it's using a vague Windows-style XFCE theme. If someone's interested in a real Windows 7 lookalike, take a look at https://gitgud.io/aeroshell/atp/aerothemeplasma https://gitgud.io/aeroshell/atp/aerothemeplasma, it's extremely close. See for yourself: - Kumander: https://www.kumander.org/img/images/kumander.png https://www.kumander.org/img/images/kumander.png - AeroShell: https://gitgud.io/aeroshell/atp/aerothemeplasma/-/raw/Plasma/6.7/screenshots/desktop.png https://gitgud.io/aeroshell/atp/aerothemeplasma/-/raw/Plasma...

n3storm 1mo ago
Never seen a long term used windows pc with transparency enabled, just when people asking "how to disable this? Is confusing.."
- qwertfisch 1mo ago
  I liked the transparency very much. Had it enabled in Windows7 for all of the 14 years. Until software incompatibility forced me to install Windows 10.
  - n3storm 1mo ago
    While office working or at home/gaming?
    - lproven 1mo ago
      Why not both?
OsrsNeedsf2P 1mo ago
AeroShell seems to only have full support on X11. Didn't expect this argument to come up again
- cantrememberpw8 1mo ago
  X11 is stable, mature, multiplatform, excellent software - wayland is not cross platform nor stable.
  - kombine 1mo ago
    > wayland is not cross platform nor stable. I've been using Wayland for two and a half years and it's been more stable than X11 that I've been using prior for years.
    - pseudony 1mo ago
      And I could say the opposite. Anecdata, it isn’t really helpful. Fact is still that wayland does some things better, and a bunch og other things worse.
      - ezst 1mo ago
        Matter of fact, the vast majority has moved on to Wayland years ago, both KDE and Gnome have reported their usage stats and neither sees a point in keeping X11 afloat. I too have been using Wayland (KDE) for years, it addressed some decades-long struggles around multi monitor and DPI layouts. I use input methods for CJK that work better and more consistently than before. As far as I'm concerned, this ship has sailed, for the better.
    - exe34 1mo ago
      No, X11 got stable once they abandoned it!
  - mixedCase 1mo ago
    Wayland is stable. What it's not is stagnant, like X11, which lacks fractional/mixed-DPI scaling, per-window HDR/color management, explicit GPU synchronization, and a security model ready for the modern challenges of the mid 90s. It's also technically cross-platform, as evidenced by FreeBSD's support for Wayland compositors. But it's not its goal either, the goal is an excellent Linux desktop, not something that serves the 17 people in the world that routinely run the same exact desktop config on Linux and non-Linux PCs.
cosmic_cheese 1mo ago
AeroThemePlasma is by far the closest that exists now, but I think there’s still a space for DE dedicated to being as close of a Windows analogue as possible while remaining legally distinct with a fixed feature set to prevent feature and resource creep. Think a desktop close enough to the user’s choice between 2K, XP, 7, 10 or 11 that they could transition from Windows to Linux and barely even notice that there was a change. I believe that “my favorite OS, frozen in time” has substantial demand (which will only increase as the big commercial OSes continue to enshittify) and it’s surprising that there aren’t more attempts to capitalize on that.
- felixding 1mo ago
  I think about this all the time. A high-quality replica takes tremendous effort and time, but it’s not really financially viable. I’d be happy to be proven wrong. Oh, and I’d be super happy to pay for such a replica too! For example, $99 a year for a Mac OS X Jaguar to Tiger era skin/theme/desktop environment.
  - cosmic_cheese 1mo ago
    I think in the long term, such a project could be more sustainable than projects focused on an “original” experience. KDE, GNOME, etc spend a lot of resources on new features and overhauls to enable new features. A fixed-feature replica project by comparison would eventually achieve a “finished” state, with resources instead going towards optimizations, bug fixes, code correctness, etc which are overall less demanding and make unavoidable tech migrations (e.g. X11 → Wayland) less of a pain since the project won’t be mired in tech debt.
userbinator 1mo ago
it's extremely close. First thing that caught my eye is the space between the command prompt and the first character of the command; but other than that, it's very much "I can't believe it's not Windows".
lproven 1mo ago
The thing is that this would seem to be a whole new shell, needing constant maintenance and adjustment to keep it current with KDE. Whereas AIUI the alternative here is just a cosmetic change to Xfce and shouldn't need any maintenance at all. There are only new KDE releases once every 2 years. I know which of those I'd want. As it happens, I also much prefer Xfce to KDE: it's smaller, simpler, lighter, faster, more coherent, and complies much better with Windows's keyboard UI.

n3storm 1mo ago

Never seen a long term used windows pc with transparency enabled, just when people asking "how to disable this? Is confusing.."

qwertfisch 1mo ago
I liked the transparency very much. Had it enabled in Windows7 for all of the 14 years. Until software incompatibility forced me to install Windows 10.
- n3storm 1mo ago
  While office working or at home/gaming?
  - lproven 1mo ago
    Why not both?

OsrsNeedsf2P 1mo ago

AeroShell seems to only have full support on X11. Didn't expect this argument to come up again

cantrememberpw8 1mo ago
X11 is stable, mature, multiplatform, excellent software - wayland is not cross platform nor stable.
- kombine 1mo ago
  > wayland is not cross platform nor stable. I've been using Wayland for two and a half years and it's been more stable than X11 that I've been using prior for years.
  - pseudony 1mo ago
    And I could say the opposite. Anecdata, it isn’t really helpful. Fact is still that wayland does some things better, and a bunch og other things worse.
    - ezst 1mo ago
      Matter of fact, the vast majority has moved on to Wayland years ago, both KDE and Gnome have reported their usage stats and neither sees a point in keeping X11 afloat. I too have been using Wayland (KDE) for years, it addressed some decades-long struggles around multi monitor and DPI layouts. I use input methods for CJK that work better and more consistently than before. As far as I'm concerned, this ship has sailed, for the better.
  - exe34 1mo ago
    No, X11 got stable once they abandoned it!
- mixedCase 1mo ago
  Wayland is stable. What it's not is stagnant, like X11, which lacks fractional/mixed-DPI scaling, per-window HDR/color management, explicit GPU synchronization, and a security model ready for the modern challenges of the mid 90s. It's also technically cross-platform, as evidenced by FreeBSD's support for Wayland compositors. But it's not its goal either, the goal is an excellent Linux desktop, not something that serves the 17 people in the world that routinely run the same exact desktop config on Linux and non-Linux PCs.

cosmic_cheese 1mo ago

AeroThemePlasma is by far the closest that exists now, but I think there’s still a space for DE dedicated to being as close of a Windows analogue as possible while remaining legally distinct with a fixed feature set to prevent feature and resource creep. Think a desktop close enough to the user’s choice between 2K, XP, 7, 10 or 11 that they could transition from Windows to Linux and barely even notice that there was a change. I believe that “my favorite OS, frozen in time” has substantial demand (which will only increase as the big commercial OSes continue to enshittify) and it’s surprising that there aren’t more attempts to capitalize on that.

felixding 1mo ago
I think about this all the time. A high-quality replica takes tremendous effort and time, but it’s not really financially viable. I’d be happy to be proven wrong. Oh, and I’d be super happy to pay for such a replica too! For example, $99 a year for a Mac OS X Jaguar to Tiger era skin/theme/desktop environment.
- cosmic_cheese 1mo ago
  I think in the long term, such a project could be more sustainable than projects focused on an “original” experience. KDE, GNOME, etc spend a lot of resources on new features and overhauls to enable new features. A fixed-feature replica project by comparison would eventually achieve a “finished” state, with resources instead going towards optimizations, bug fixes, code correctness, etc which are overall less demanding and make unavoidable tech migrations (e.g. X11 → Wayland) less of a pain since the project won’t be mired in tech debt.

userbinator 1mo ago

it's extremely close. First thing that caught my eye is the space between the command prompt and the first character of the command; but other than that, it's very much "I can't believe it's not Windows".

lproven 1mo ago

The thing is that this would seem to be a whole new shell, needing constant maintenance and adjustment to keep it current with KDE. Whereas AIUI the alternative here is just a cosmetic change to Xfce and shouldn't need any maintenance at all. There are only new KDE releases once every 2 years. I know which of those I'd want. As it happens, I also much prefer Xfce to KDE: it's smaller, simpler, lighter, faster, more coherent, and complies much better with Windows's keyboard UI.