Re: [orca-list] Looking for a good Windows-like Ubuntu

[Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com>]

Usually, when people ask for "windows-like" this or that, they mean that they want the interface to resemble 
as closely as possible the one they are used to using.  Things like source code openness and underpinnings 
rarely come into it unless the person is a more advanced sort of user.  The biggest concern for most folks is 
finding something where they will have to make as few changes as possible to the way in which they perform 
day to day tasks.  This is quite doable in Linux for a good many GUI-based packages.  This is the reason for 
the existence of things like Icewm, for instance.  Someone wanted a desktop environment that reminded them of 
Windows 95 but they wanted it in Linux.  The KDE folks have a windowsish interface which accounts for KDE's 
popularity in some corporate environments.  You reduce training costs significantly when you provide people 
with something that works similarly to Windows because there are fewer things for them to learn how to do.  
It just sucks from an a11y standpoint if you're applying for a job somewhere where that desktop is the one in 
use and you depend on a screen reader.  

Now then, to his question:

If the windows environment which you wish to come closest to is Windows XP, then something like 
Gnome-fallback, Gnome-classic, and Mate may give you what you need.  All the application menus are found in 
the application window itself, there is an analog to the start menu when you hit alt+f1, and there is a 
desktop analog which you can use to set up launchers to your frequently-used applications.  Nautilus has an 
interface which is quite easy to learn by someone coming from Windows Explorer and the System Settings area 
in use these days isn't too terribly dissimilar to the windows Control Panel for someone to experience a high 
learning curve.  

Hope this helps,
Alex M


-----Original Message-----
From: orca-list [mailto:orca-list-bounces gnome org] On Behalf Of Kyle
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2014 3:23 PM
To: orca-list gnome org
Subject: Re: [orca-list] Looking for a good Windows-like Ubuntu

What you ask for is a technical impossibility. If you want Windows, then use it, but it will never be Ubuntu, 
because making Windows Ubuntu-like would mean that Microsoft would need to open up their source code, which 
they are completely unwilling to do, and the Unix design is also not in line with Microsoft's design 
principles. If you want Ubuntu, then use it, but it will never be Windows-like, since it's actually 
Unix-like, and changing this isn't in their plans. If you want a Windows-like OS that isn't Windows, then 
your only option is ReactOS, but it has been in an alpha stage of development for many years, and I haven't 
even been able to find a way to make NVDA run on it yet. In any case, I'm not sure that trying to turn Linux 
into Windows or Windows into Linux is actually on topic for this list.
~Kyle
http://kyle.tk/
--
"Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?"
Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"
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