Linux incognito part two: Windows XP

David M Williams
Saturday, 25 October 2008 06:25

Opinion and Analysis

We’ll kick off with XPde. This is an open source project developed using Borland’s Kylix 3 platform. The author has implemented an XP-lookalike desktop, taskbar, window manager and start menu.

There are some dissimilarities – the Windows logo is a trademarked image and so it is not used. Instead, an “X” signifies the Start button. You can replace the graphic with the Windows logo provided you obtain it yourself. Additionally, the font used is Bitstream vera which is not Tahoma but has a similar appearance.

XPde comes with a few extra items – a Notepad, Regedit and device manager clone – although these are somewhat curious choices. XPde’s audience is primarily end users (or, perhaps more specifically Linux experts setting up a Linux machine for an end user, coming from a Windows XP environment) and these people would not ordinarily use Regedit. And perhaps not even Notepad.

They’re the type of people who will write a letter as a Microsoft Word document and then e-mail you the letter as an attachment with no text in the body of the e-mail, which then duly gets blocked by your anti-spam system and you never see it anyway.

Perhaps I jest, but I would tend to view the inclusion of Regedit as an intriguing nicety but certainly not the core reason for XPde’s existence. As a Windows XP lookalike desktop environment down to the pixel level it performs admirably.

Check out the screenshots of XPde in action and below, and download it here. Actually, you’ll notice there’s no blue screen – sorry, that’s one “feature” of Windows that Linux just doesn’t replicate.

Let’s see how LXP compares, over the page.



CONTINUED