Over the years, I’ve often thought that, despite how fast-moving the desktop Linux ecosystem is, there’s not much left that could truly surprise me. Yet I keep being proven wrong, and that’s a good thing. Winux, one of the newest additions to the scene, is a clear example.
Whether I like it or not, this distribution brings back memories of about 20 years ago, when Lindows, later renamed Linspire under legal (and fully justified) pressure from Microsoft, first tried to take the path of a Linux distribution built entirely to be as close as possible to the Windows experience.
Today, several Linux distributions aim to position themselves as an easy starting point, and even a replacement for Windows users looking to switch without friction. Zorin OS is a well-known example. Even so, these projects keep their own Linux identity, with similarities to Windows being more indirect than literal.
Familiarity instead of compatibility.
This piece of documentation from forgejo, about how their actions are mostly github actions compatible is how I feel about this or similar endeavors.
I really like KDE, because it’s familiar enough to Windows users that they can just kinda use it. Many of the shortcuts are the same. But I’ve had a bad experience with things that try to emulate Windows more completely, because people begin to expect some windows idiosyncracy or some other thing to be there. And then they get frustrated when it’s not the same.
KDE manages to be “close enough”, which results in a better experience.