Windows or Linux

[madscijr]

There's *FINALLY* an ultimate solution to this whole Linux or Windows debate!

Did you guys know there's now a Windows 12 Lite out??  It's a Linux distro! 

Windows *or* Linux??  PSSHHH!!  Now you can have Win-ux!  https://tech.hindustantimes.com/tech/new...CCwdJ.html

Lovely! 
So is that someone's attempt to create a Linux distribution with the look & feel of Windows 7? 
One of the biggest complaints I've always had about Linux is the whole feel of the GUI, the little things like 

• the mouse doesn't "grab" the windows or window edges or other objects in the same easy way as Windows (all the way back to Windows 3.0 even! I haven't tried anything earlier). I hate the feel of the mouse in every single version of Linux I have ever tried :-O
  
• the right-click behavior & menus
  
• the Windows key & Start menu behavior, keyboard shortcuts (such as F2 rename, CTRL-A to select all files in Explorer, etc. etc.)
  
• the Start menu search bar
  
• Linux just seems to run more herky-jerky and slowly at times. Not as smooth as the Windows experience.  
  
• The 1000 other things that are manual in Linux that you don't have to think about in Windows!
  

One nice thing about Linux is that everything is in the file system, configurations and settings aren't hidden in a registry like Windows (unless they are, and I don't know it? I'm no Linux expert!)

I would totally welcome a Linux distro where the desktop and front end behave exactly like Windows 10 or even 7 (I would include XP but the Windows key search box is a crucial feature if you ask me!)

Computers! You can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em! Well we can, but we'd be living like it's 1974 (maybe in some ways that's not so bad! )

[mnrvovrfc]

Lovely!
So is that someone's attempt to create a Linux distribution with the look & feel of Windows 7? 
One of the biggest complaints I've always had about Linux is the whole feel of the GUI, the little things like 

• the mouse doesn't "grab" the windows or window edges or other objects in the same easy way as Windows (all the way back to Windows 3.0 even! I haven't tried anything earlier). I hate the feel of the mouse in every single version of Linux I have ever tried :-O
  
• the right-click behavior & menus
  
• the Windows key & Start menu behavior, keyboard shortcuts (such as F2 rename, CTRL-A to select all files in Explorer, etc. etc.)
  
• the Start menu search bar
  
• Linux just seems to run more herky-jerky and slowly at times. Not as smooth as the Windows experience.  
  
• The 1000 other things that are manual in Linux that you don't have to think about in Windows!
  

One nice thing about Linux is that everything is in the file system, configurations and settings aren't hidden in a registry like Windows (unless they are, and I don't know it? I'm no Linux expert!)
:

Do you KDE Plasma much?

I'm not a Linux expert neither, not even an intermediate but certainly not a newbie. But I'm happy to share my knowledge based on experiences.

TL;DR

Do you care about Linux only in "virtual box" mode? That's why it runs "herky-jerky". It's not designed to "replace" Windows but it also doesn't like being put in after-burner. Linux was meant to be an alternative to Windows and MacOS for those users who wanted an experience more towards Unix, but not "hardcore" like NetBSD. It's a compromise between what worked for a limited few people who knew about systems programming, and the masses who tend to seized by the eye and "want it now".

Linux could be "smooth" too but it requires a lot of knowledge and patience. There is advice that works only for a specific user's system, but people tend to follow it and become frustrated. Meanwhile, what could work for one on Windows could work for many thousands because M$ is so hard-pressed for profit to make it that way. Discipline is hard, when the user decides to fix what isn't broken, "it runs fine the way it is", or having to update to see if it's more "smooth", to see if it's more "cutting-edge". The user is challenged to have an Internet connection over discipline. If you have noticed, there is indeed a high cost for "smooth" Windows experience: impossible to recover a disk that it fouls up (common with pluggable USB disks), impulsive updates for those still on Windows10, caca-de-toro about being able to update or not on Windows11 according to the equipment bought, and many other things I don't want to mention because I don't like debating.

There is no "registry" in Linux but it has a combination of settings in user's "home" directory, and in "/etc" folder which are more system-specific. For example, "/etc/fstab" has information used by "mount" and "unmount" terminal commands to keep track of disks and partitions. Screw up that file and you might not be able to access any of your disks unless you grab a terminal, edit that file and reboot. It has to be done in Slackware sometimes... I would look more into it if it would let me install onto an external USB disk instead of internal hard drive only...

It might come down to desktop environment for you. GNOME could be very frustrating to people who don't want to give up Windows. It used to have a style which made better sense for portable phones, preferring touch screens over computer keyboards. KDE Plasma could be better, tries harder to please Windows-only people but it could also gobble up a lot of RAM, hard-disk space and CPU time. XFCE is lighter but might not be to your taste; I used to prefer it but cannot kill the animations such as the stupid scrolling sliding in the text editor called Mousepad. XFCE is preferred by the developers of some distros like Void, for people who must have a GUI desktop precisely because it has a smaller memory footprint than GNOME or KDE. There is also MATE (pronounced with short vowels) which looks more like WindowsXP, can defeat all the animations for sure. There are many other desktop environments but most of them are rather Windows or MacOS unlike. I suggest looking things up in Wikipedia.

I would recommend checking out NeptuneOS if you don't mind using apps not common on Windows like GIMP and Libreoffice. It has many other programs but managed to keep the ISO below 3GB. It's based on Debian and comes with KDE Plasma desktop environment. Be forewarned that if you like playing games and expect to use Wine, the version of Wine is behind other distros like Fedora and Void. This applies to anything based directly on Debian. It might not matter for most games anyway. I don't know that much about DOSBOX and Steam and other game-friendly modules because I don't employ Wine to play games.
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=neptune

[mnrvovrfc]

Just read that thing about "Windows 12 Lite OS" ROFLMAO! It looks like it's dressed in MATE. That's not going to get anybody changing out of Windows7 anytime soon. >cough< run 32-bit stuff.

[madscijr]

Do you KDE Plasma much?

I'm not a Linux expert neither, not even an intermediate but certainly not a newbie. But I'm happy to share my knowledge based on experiences.
...
Do you care about Linux only in "virtual box" mode? That's why it runs "herky-jerky". It's not designed to "replace" Windows but it also doesn't like being put in after-burner.

Thank you for taking the time to share all that!
I'll read through that later when I have more time.
For now, I will say that no, this is not for Virtual Box.
I'm talking about running it natively.
I very much prefer the concept of a portable OS like Puppy Linux, that can be run off a thumb drive or installed alongside Windows (I have a couple machines with 5 or more different versions of Puppy alongside Windows, and they all work).
My complaints are more about the feel of the GUI, the mouse, the keyboard shortcuts, and front end in general. I like the classic Windows Explorer, Start Menu and search bar.
Someone shouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to tweak Linux to do a few of these things.

I will read your post in detail a little later on, thanks again!

[mnrvovrfc]

Porteus could work for you, because they offer a variety of desktop environments. The ISO is only 500MB. It doesn't require a formal installation routine but one is available each for Windows or for another Linux just in case. I suggest doing some experimenting because I couldn't get the "savefile" feature to work on mine, on an external USB disk formatted FAT32. I have a working install because I created a 2GB "ext4" partition for the Linux-related stuff for it, the EFI partition and the FAT32 "data" partition, all in a single 16GB drive. This distribution is quite unlike Puppy, however, but it's attractive because it could act like one of the "big guys".

It would help if their main site and other places were upgraded to "secure protocol"... some people don't want to risk Firefox or other browser screaming at them "NOT SECURE" in some webpage that was opened LOL. Their forum however is "https".

[Kernelpanic]

ah yes compiling from source
that is a nightmare for me

Tell me about it... I tried setting up gcc under Puppy Linux, and ran into all sorts of issues with missing header files and the like. 

I'm hearing about this for the first time. The GCC is standard in every Linux distro, if it's not part of the Puppy distro then forget Puppy. 
In earnest, is there no guide on how one to correctly install the latest stable GCC 11.3; I think?

I have install WSL 2 with SuSE 15.3 under Win 10 Prof. In SuSE one install either via Yast2 or with "zypper". I have GCC 11.3 installed.

It is under /usr/bin and reads: gcc-11. This is of course much too cumbersome, so one change it with (as root): ln gcc-11 cc.
Now you can call the GCC with cc.

[mnrvovrfc]

I'm hearing about this for the first time. The GCC is standard in every Linux distro, if it's not part of the Puppy distro then forget Puppy. 
In earnest, is there no guide on how one to correctly install the latest stable GCC 11.3; I think?
:

Theoretically this is true, but only the C compiler is "required". Many distros don't carry the C++ compiler, will need that to create programs with QB64. Other programming systems want the "fortran" library for maths so that's usually pulled in as dependency of "gcc".

Even worse, a few distros could have the C and C++ compilers but a mind-boggling naming system which makes it difficult to locate the headers and libraries. This happened to me on Solus which forced me to investigate. It's one of the distros which specifically requires installing a "developer's package" on top of whatever exists considered to be "gcc".

[aurel]

[*]

[*]the mouse doesn't "grab" the windows or window edges or other objects in the same easy way as Windows (all the way back to Windows 3.0 even! I haven't tried anything earlier). I hate the feel of the mouse in every single version of Linux I have ever tried :-O

[*]the right-click behavior & menus

[*]the Windows key & Start menu behavior, keyboard shortcuts (such as F2 rename, CTRL-A to select all files in Explorer, etc. etc.)

[*]the Start menu search bar

[*]Linux just seems to run more herky-jerky and slowly at times. Not as smooth as the Windows experience.  

[*]The 1000 other things that are manual in Linux that you don't have to think about in Windows!

[*]

WOW man i can't agree more with you !

[aurel]

I very much prefer the concept of a portable OS like Puppy Linux, that can be run off a thumb drive or installed alongside Windows (I have a couple machines with 5 or more different versions of Puppy alongside Windows, and they all work).

Me to ...

[madscijr]

[*]

[*]the mouse doesn't "grab" the windows or window edges or other objects in the same easy way as Windows (all the way back to Windows 3.0 even! I haven't tried anything earlier). I hate the feel of the mouse in every single version of Linux I have ever tried :-O

[*]the right-click behavior & menus

[*]the Windows key & Start menu behavior, keyboard shortcuts (such as F2 rename, CTRL-A to select all files in Explorer, etc. etc.)

[*]the Start menu search bar

[*]Linux just seems to run more herky-jerky and slowly at times. Not as smooth as the Windows experience.  

[*]The 1000 other things that are manual in Linux that you don't have to think about in Windows!

[*]

WOW man i can't agree more with you !

[*]
[*]
I would think that there are Linux distros or desktops that come closer than others, and some that are more configurable than others. There may even be distros that do have the Windows feel and features we're talking about. But I haven't run into one yet. A few years back I read that Zorin OS was very close to Windows... Nope. I wasted many hours trying to tweak the many desktop settings to get it to function like Windows, but in the end it didn't work. 

In the end, it comes down to time. I just don't have time to mess with this stuff at the depth and detail that it probably requires to get it right. Maybe over time my accumulated knowledge will add up to make it easier for me to do this stuff faster, but I haven't reached that level. 

I don't HATE Linux, it's obviously a powerful and flexible tool, and it has its uses. It's just not friendly enough to compel me to move to it as my chosen platform for computing. If someone eventually gets the bright idea to create a version that really truly has the ease of Windows, then I'll be first on line! Unfortunately, the only other alternative is Mac, and that's a whole other can of worms. I am not a fan of Macs, but if that makes you happy then great. I think the best thing we can have in life and with tools like computers is options! :-)