This discussion reminds me of a project called Litestep (http://www.litestep.net/), which you could use to replace the Windows Explorer shell on top of Windows XP. I used it for a couple of months, and it was fun because I was using WindowMaker at the time at home, so my work computer and home computer had similar interfaces. There's more to an OS than just the window manager / shell. In fact, you could argue that isn't even part of the OS. Of course, in the Windows world, it's always been tightly coupled, so we rate an OS based on the UI. Anyway, Jason, I appreciate your interest in the landscape of distributions -- I'm aware of more of them than I would be because of you. I checked out Windows 8 for a few minutes at Micro Center yesterday. I figured out how to get past the flashy new tile thingy, and saw that the old desktop and task bar looked pretty much the same. Found the multiple desktop thing on the left side. I think it's an improvement for people who use Windows. I don't anticipate I'll need to use it for anything other than testing IE on my web development work. -Erik On Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 11:04 PM, Brady Hegberg <bradyh at gmail.com> wrote: > On the one hand...yeah, bleah...though Windows 8 isn't all that different from setting up icons on your desktop to run commonly used programs. Also, hit the windows button on your keyboard and bam you're back in the familiar (Windows 7) territory...which is more than I can say for Gnome 3. :-/ > > On Jan 27, 2013, at 8:54 PM, Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com> wrote: > >> I looked at the computers at Office Max yesterday and got to see Windows 8. It's rubbish! How are you supposed to do anything? >> >> As a Linux user, I've been so spoiled by the user-friendliness of Linux Mint, Puppy Linux, and antiX Linux. Windows 8 is even worse than Unity. I felt completely out to sea. There were some Windows 7 computers there as well, and Windows 7 (at least in the configuration I saw) didn't look that different from Windows XP, the last Windows OS I have significant experience with. I can't imagine how anyone who likes Windows XP or 7 will like Windows 8. Anyone who objects to Unity will hate Windows 8 even more. >> >> Microsoft today reminds me of General Motors during the Malaise Era. Windows Vista was Microsoft's Chevy Vega. I expect Windows 8 to go down in history as Microsoft's Chevy Citation, Cadillac Cimarron, or Oldsmobile diesel engine. >> >> -- >> Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com> >> _______________________________________________ >> TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota >> tclug-list at mn-linux.org >> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list > _______________________________________________ > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota > tclug-list at mn-linux.org > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list -- Erik K. Mitchell erik.mitchell at gmail.com