There have been long conversations bouncing around online communities about making Linux run like Linux (i.e. stable and fast) but look and feel like Windows Vista. So we thought it would be a good idea to investigate the possibilities. Hop in to see my quest to make Ubuntu Linux look like Vista.
Introduction
When our Managing Editor came up with the idea of trying to make Linux look like Vista, it filled me with trepidation, but in an inquisitive way. So we agreed that it was worth giving a shot. What transpired took me a couple of days to figure out - options, possibilities, configuration and security issues being just the beginning. What follows is how it all worked out and explains why Neil and I had pretty much the same opening and closing thoughts.
Making something look like another is called “theming” or “skinning” in computer jargon. If you want to go all the way to theming, I must say that it is not as simple as changing Window borders or Menus. You have to consider everything from the icon set to the placement of menus, from window borders to menu backgrounds. If you fail to implement any single component as it should be, then your desktop will be inconsistent at best, garbled and unusable at worst.
Notes:
Many of the themes for making Linux look like Vista take on the Gnome interface and I personally do not recommend going with KDE because the current KDE 4.x series are still having stability issues. So indeed the best place to start is with a Gnome-look.
Please note that we will be doing some tweaking here that has the potential to ruin your desktop environment with a wrong choice. So please proceed at your own risk.
Fonts
In Windows Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft uses their own Segoe UI fonts as they do with all other products. Segoe UI fonts are not available for free download. Moreover, Microsoft's A-Team (which Long Zehng has put beautifully and humorously in his blog) is on the lookout for such infringement, and they ask website owners to remove any such links (otherwise they will take legal action.) I might have preferred to go underground to find the fonts, but I always stay within the legal boundaries and this is what I recommend. Unfortunately I have still started with a minus 1 in my evaluation because the fonts are not available. Alas, needing something at least I can use the DejaVu Sans fonts, which are free (as in speech) and without any problems, even if they have nothing to do with Segoe UI.
Window Borders
Then I thought that I would tackle window borders. I wanted to go with something stable and something that has the Aero look. To get this transparency you have to enable Compiz. Personally I am not using the Compiz extensions because I do not want to dedicate some of my system resources to graphical assortments, although I have a graphics card and an overall system capable of doing this. Anyway, if you prefer you can go for an Aero-clone 1.1 download. But take the following into consideration:
- The theme is 73 % good, so there is a 27% chance that you might not get what you wanted.
- The theme uses Compiz/Beryl so you will have to dedicate some system resources to achieve this look.
If you are successful (and lucky) you will see windows similar to the screenshot above (courtesy of the developer kimmik on Gnome-look.) As I have just said, subtract the fonts from the screenshot.
Personally, I did not go with the theme and installed Vista Ultimate Metacity, which worked better, more consistently, and consumed no additional resources. There are also transparent Window Borders with the Gnome-look, which you may want to take a look at, but they could potentially conflict with the icon sets and/or the controls. This is the best one that I could find.
