Windows like DE

luc891@lemmy.world to Linux@lemmy.ml – 50 points –

Hello all,

I would like to transition my GF to linux.

To make the switch easy I'll go for Ubuntu, but what would be the most windows-like desktop ?

Thank you!

Edit : thank you everyone, I'll go with Mint instead then 👍 Thanks for the help!

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Out of the box, KDE has the most similar look and feel as Windows. That said, I do believe Linux Mint has Windows themed DEs that go one step further

Depends on Windows version I guess.

Win XP: XFCE

Win 7: Cinnamon

Win 10/11: KDE

Though you might choose Zorin OS, Ubuntu-based and looks like Windows out of the box.

I have an XFCE box that I dressed up as XP. Honestly, if it had the XP calculator, I would get confused sometimes.

Linux mint would be the best for windows user

Go Kubuntu if you want Ubuntu and Windows-like. Otherwise, Mint is a solid choice for a Windows user too, I believe Mate and Cinnamon both are very similar UI to Windows. Sadly Mint only does LTS versions now, but maybe that's for the best if your GF isn't super into tech?

You can install the 6.2 kernel on mint through the upgrade manager gui. It's just a couple of clicks.

On the other hand Mint has a reputation for "just works" because the defaults are indeed LTS

Why do you want to get your girlfriend mad at you?

I'd say KDE since it offers fully working Wayland already.

Enough about Wayland already. We knowwwww.

Wayland mfs trying not to talk about Wayland whenever Linux is mentioned

What difference would this make to a new Linux user? Basically none, right?

No screen tearing never. My laptop saw a significant battery life boost (basicly doubled) when I switched DWM into DWL but I don't know exactly why.

And because Wayland is the future and xorg decrepatec, why you'd recommend xorg for anybody since they must swtich at some point and I doubt even the most basic user can make that transition 100% flawlessly.

Lack of screen tearing is a good point if it makes a difference on that person's hardware.

My thought wasn't so much about recommending xorg (or not), more about whether the user would even be aware what that meant, or care at the point when they start using Linux. Kind of like launching straight into a flame war about systemd. In theory they (or their distro) should be able to switch the backend without the user noticing

KDE is more similar to windows, Gnome is maybe closer to MacOS.

But generally, KDE felt always a bit "super user" to me, and I found the amount of customizability and features more overwhelming than useful. Gnome is simple, clean, and I prefer it for that reason.

My dad also made the switch to mint cinnamon about 3 years ago and I only had to fix things once for him (which was something in partitioning/fstab he or the installer messed up), he has successfully updated and maintained the system for 3 major releases yet and is even happier with Linux on his home laptop than with windows on his work laptop

Edit: he's not really tech savvy or something, he's a teacher by profession

Linux Mint is the way to go. It's by no means a clone of Windows(yuk) but has a "start button", vertical menu with apps listed and a bottom taskbar. So it should be very easy to use and get used to.

There’s some themes for cinnamon that make it close enough to windows 10 styling.

I'de rather go with Linux Mint Cinnamon or Nobara with their custom GNOME DE

While Gnome can be shaped into something Windowslike with extensions 'Arcmenu' and 'Dash to Panel', for another user I'd suggest just using a DE that already works like that. Best choices IMO are Cinnamon or KDE.

Since you already want to use a Ubuntu desktop, I'll stick to suggesting Ubuntu flavours. KDE on Ubuntu, you'll want Kubuntu. For Cinnamon, there is a Ubuntu Cinnamon flavour.

KDE is somewhat more modern-feeling than Cinnamon but also uses more resources. If your GF's system is a bit weak, maybe go for Cinnamon. Cinnamon is also a bit retro in it's design, so it might be more comfortable for people used to older Windows versions.

I recommend downloading a live installer for both, showing her them and letting her pick the one she likes the most. (On that note, I hope you got her permission to do this...)

I am not a huge fan of KDE but it actually uses fewer resources than Cinnamon these days.

If you must use ubuntu, you'll ultimately be tied to the desktop environments that ubuntu offers. Personally I don't think ubuntu works well, especially outside of their gnome offshoot Unity DE. If you must use ubuntu I would say install kubuntu which has KDE Plasma on it. KDE Plasma is highly customizable, quite pretty and pretty easy to use.

Well cinnamon and plasma are good options, those de are widely available. Zorin os was a quick select option that lets you go from windows 7 to windows 10 to mac with a wimple click.

There are minor distros deliberately styled to look like various versions of Windows. Someone already mentioned Zorin; I'll add Q4OS. Even if you don't want to support one of them in the long term, it might be worth picking up some live media and poking around to see what they did, depending on how much your GF depends on everything on the system being just exactly as she expects.

KDE Neon or Linux Mint will be your best betnfor a Windows-style layout. Just keep in mind it still isn't Windows so stuff will he different

Cinnamon has an official Ubuntu flavor now. I would recommend that over Mint, since mint is LTS-only. You can also do KDE-Plasma, but my personal preference is Cinnamon.

You can install newer kernels in Mint and upgrading to the next version also works very well.

Dont worry you don't need any special compression. JPEG opens up fine in linux too.

KDE in my opinion but it require more resources than others like Gnome

Where is that info coming from? To my experience Plasma is even lighter than GNOME, or just a tiny bit more resource hungry than something truly lightweight like XFCE. It doesnt really need powerful computer.

Yeah on modern hardware, resource usage by the DE is negligable compared to what some applications use (for example web browsers, or chromium based apps).

300MB of RAM vs 400MB don't make any difference on even fairly old systems. It might make difference if you try to squeeze your modern Linux distro on 512MB. In that case you might want to just use a window manager and distro with no systemd, something truly minimal like Apline. If we're talking 4 gigs+, the desktop won't make much difference anyway. On very old computers modern web browsers will always suck no matter the OS.

Agreed. I use older computers a lot and even use a 2008 machine for hours a day because I like the screen and I like where it is in the house.

I can say that with 8 GB of RAM or more, even older CPUs are quite usable for me. Less than about 6 GB and even basic web browsing is going I get fairly painful.

KDE used to be quite heavy. I am quite surprised how light it is these days.

Or maybe it just stayed the same while everything else got heavier.

If you want her hooked; make it better (not like). You're taking away Adobe, Office, Games, Topaz and other proprietary software, and you want to make it 'like' windows to boot? Outside of conspiracy theories about privacy and stuff, and people expecting an OS to run smooth at minimum specs; there isn't much reason to use Linux over Windows, besides dynamic tiling window managers. I'd think you were an idiot if I were her, and you gave me the popular response here.