looking for GUI distro that isn't windows clone

farslayer · 03-29-2006, 03:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarthPooh

I don't want to make my new system LOOk my my mac, i really could care less what it looks like. I want to make it PRODUCTIVE for a mac user. That means having the behaviors I'm accustomed to, without having to change 22 years of habits. I don't want to have to retrain my fingers to go to the key to the far left of the keyboard instead of the key next to the spacebar when I want to copy or paste. I don't want to accidently close a window because the close box is in the position I expect to find the zoom box. I don't want to spend hours trying to figure out how to get work done, I want to GET WORK DONE.

I won't have a weeks to get my machine setup and ready for use, I will have an hour or maybe 2, then I need to be ready to GET WORK DONE.

There are tons of distributions that do that for those coming from Windows, such as Linspire or Xandros, but what they do to accommodate those familiar with Windows, creates obstacles for those of us who are mac users. So of the thousands of distributions out arent ANY of them are designed to put the former Mac user at ease?

I would love to get feedback from people who have actually used a Mac, and know what I'm talking about. If you have never used a Macintosh, more than casually, you are UNQUALIFIED to meaningfully contribute to this thread.

Actually I think you are unqualified for the Job you took... If you are so hung up on everything being exactly like Mac but you can't use a Mac, you should really go find a differnet Job where you can use a Mac.. and quit all the whining and insults already..

A willingness to learn goes a long way, being inflexable and unwilling to learn anything new is not an employee I would want working for me..

"I want it my way and if I don't get my way I'm just going to throrw a tantrum.. !!"
Sheesh get over yourself already..

DarthPooh · 03-30-2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haertig

This means: MAC ... out, Windows ... out, Solaris ... out. Darn near everything EXCEPT Linux ... out. I'd suggest you use what everybody ELSE in this company is using (unless for some bizarre reason YOU are the only one who is subject to these limitations). Since you're going to be needing help at some point since you can't use your MAC skills, might as well get that help from the locals, by using what they use. Sounds like you want a Linux distro that is better than Windows, better than or identical to a MAC, and even better than Linux itself. All without having to learn anything new. I'm a bit skeptical that you'll ever find that anywhere. Your employer is your employer. What they say goes ... or you should. I'm not exactly thrilled when I have to dual boot my Debian box back to Windows and fire up IE, just so I can access some company webpage that is IE-only. But such is life when a company is paying you to be there.

Everyone else uses Ubuntu. I have no objections to learning anything new, over time I expect I to learn enough to call myself a linux guru. But for now I just don't have the time. I know i'm going to have to make compromises, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop asking for 100% of what I want. If its out there,e I want to know about it, and if it isn't, I want to get as close as possible as quick as possible with the path of least resistance. The bottom line is productivity, and if I have to use default Ubuntu, it means for the first month or 2, my productivity is cut in half because half my time is spent fighting my old habits.

Michael_aust · 03-30-2006, 11:46 AM

if Im underatanding this correctly, you want something where for the most part thinga can be done through a gui. Id say mandriva is worth a shot, its mandriva control centre takes care of almost everything you need. The only time you would need to touch cli for a normal user is to add the urpmi mirrors or if you couldnt be bothered go through the sub menus to get the the package installer gui.

Xandros could be worth a try but its definitly a windows clone right down to its appearence.

yeh so to sum it up, try mandriva, pclinuxos, suse, fox desktop. Mandriva and suse are probobly the mnost suitable int ersm of least amoutn of toching the cli, yast and the mandriva controln centre are prettty feature packed.

demented_are_go · 03-30-2006, 12:04 PM

Has anyone suggested OS/2 yet? *hum*

There's something I really don't understand here, so you're starting a new job, where you'll have to use linux, uhm... shouldn't you like, know at least a little about linux before you start the job? I'm doing an internship right now and well they'd have never given it to me if I had not known linux pretty damn well and if I didn't have a strong interest for Solaris, now I'm not paid for this, but you will be, so to me that makes no sense at all.

What's so bad about taking some time to learn and figure out what you're doing, you cannot expect to run -any- os without ever having to read documentation. Linux makes it seriously easy for you with man pages, which you clearly stated you want nothing to do with.

What you're asking for doesn't exist, there is no such thing as an OS that is better than everything else, runs itself without assistance and doesn't require you to configure anything.

If you don't like the look of a windows clone, then just install another manager, enlightenment looks nothing like windows, but you'd have to configure it.

You need to pick your priorities, what you want is basically sending us all running into a circle trying to please you, if it's one thing then it's not another.

DarthPooh · 03-30-2006, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dragineez

Maybe accomplishing what you need could be as simple as a custom keyboard mapping. What you're asking makes sense to me now. Just as there are Windows specific keys on most keyboards, Macs have their own special keys. A lifetime's use of these keys can be an almost impossible habit to break. So you're right - why break them.

How about this for a solution - use a Mac keyboard and map the keys to perform the functionality you desire. Then the distro you use becomes unimportant. (Can you plug a Mac keyboard into a PC?) The keyboard programming may take some time, but look on the bright side - you only have to do it once. Come to think of it, I'd be surprised if you couldn't find and download one all set to go.

I don't have a great deal of experience customizing the GUI except in XFCE. But I think XFCE already has a Mac skin. Or you could use the farslayer's link to make the distro look and act Mac-like. The hardware specs you gave should be ample to run KDE smoothly.

Between a genuine Mac keyboard and compatible mapping as well as presenting a familiar interface, you should be productive right out of the gates {pun intended}.
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Edit: Apparently you can use a Mac keyboard - http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...p?postid=85338

By far this is the most useful post I've seen so far, It addresses the most important issue: mapping the keyboard. Now what I need to know is how is it easily done.

The other things I need I will put it the order of priority:
2. Keeping an application live until I explicitly quit, not when I close the last window.
3. Ordering dialog buttons so that ok is on the right and cancel is on the left.
4. Being able to drag and drop between applications.
5. "Highlight and paste" replaces highlighted text with copied or cut text.
6. Up and down arrows at both top and bottom of scrollbars
7. The ability to hide all windows not belonging to the focused aplication in a single action
8. Any other mac behavior.

Dragineez · 03-30-2006, 12:50 PM

You might find this interesting, Mac On Linux - hope you kept your OS 9 boot CD. Unfortunately, it looks like it only runs on PPC.

DarthPooh · 03-30-2006, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demented_are_go

Has anyone suggested OS/2 yet? *hum*

There's something I really don't understand here, so you're starting a new job, where you'll have to use linux, uhm... shouldn't you like, know at least a little about linux before you start the job? I'm doing an internship right now and well they'd have never given it to me if I had not known linux pretty damn well and if I didn't have a strong interest for Solaris, now I'm not paid for this, but you will be, so to me that makes no sense at all.

What's so bad about taking some time to learn and figure out what you're doing, you cannot expect to run -any- os without ever having to read documentation. Linux makes it seriously easy for you with man pages, which you clearly stated you want nothing to do with.

What you're asking for doesn't exist, there is no such thing as an OS that is better than everything else, runs itself without assistance and doesn't require you to configure anything.

If you don't like the look of a windows clone, then just install another manager, enlightenment looks nothing like windows, but you'd have to configure it.

You need to pick your priorities, what you want is basically sending us all running into a circle trying to please you, if it's one thing then it's not another.

A. what makes you think I know nothing about linux? I've been using linux web servers for years. What I don't know about is linux desktops.

B.whats bad about taking time, is I don't have the time, I've spent way too much time just on this thread alone.

C. why can't expect to run an os without reading documentation? I've been doing it for 22 years. When I started with mac os I spent 10 minutes without instruction figuring out what everything does, the rest I just picked up as I went along. When I switched to mac OS X, I had to look up a few things, but I had help files that were in written in full paragraphs.

D. Well if it doesn't exist what the closest I can get to it.

E. Why does everyone keep bringing up looks? I don't care one bit about looks. I care about feel and FUNCTION.

demented_are_go · 03-30-2006, 01:10 PM

Let's see :

A. answer is simple, -you- Your snobbish attitude towards linux spoke for itself.
B. Then maybe you should not have taken a job where they expect you to run an OS you don't want to take the time to learn.
C. Because you need to learn to crawl before you can learn to walk or run. If you want to run linux with that attitude, I doubt you'll get anywhere, but really that's your problem.
D. I believe others already answered that.
E. Last time I checked, LOOKS are a part of the FEEL.

The only thing I could figure out, picking through the attitude shown here, is that you want a mac, that isn't a mac, but looks/feels and acts like a mac...

I'll apologize in advance to anyone else reading this, but this sort of attitude when asking people for help just annoys me to death.

Apparently some people have had success running OS X in vmware, but for that you'd seriously be on your own and you'd probably have to read up on it a lot. And vmware isn't free.

masonm · 03-30-2006, 01:33 PM

The simple truth is that changing OS means a bit of a learning curve. It can't be avoided.

If you were able, as you say, to figure out how things worked on your MAC, you shouldn't have any problem figuring out how things work on a Linux box. There is no way that you are going to make the change to a different desktop OS without having to learn new things and new ways of getting things done.

Any distro with Gnome should feel comfortable enough for you to get started, as KDE, Fluxbox, and others will seem too foreign to you after using a MAC for so long.

You're simply going to have to accept the fact that you are going to have to retrain yourself, or choose a different job without the OS restrictions.

Dragineez · 03-30-2006, 01:41 PM

There is Keyboard Mapping For Linux - but that looks like it's intended for foreign language support.

I found this How-To - but it looks really dated and I'm not sure that resolves your issue.

There is Linux Easy Access Keyboard - that might be adaptable to your needs. Also, if you contacted the developer and outlined this specific requirement he might add in Mac keyboard support. You never know - doesn't hurt to ask.

I've found a few instances where users say they are using USB Mac keyboards under Linux - but no description on whether or not any of the Mac specific keys work.

Edit: If I haven't entirely missed my guess here, getting a Mac keyboard to work "properly" should be easy: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ad.php?t=53278

If you're particularly masochistic, in terminal type: man xmodmap
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Come ON everybody! Don't you think you've pummeled the guy enough? Think about it, if you don't have anything useful or positive to add to the conversation, consider just moving on.

geeman2.0 · 03-30-2006, 01:56 PM

Quote:

C. why can't expect to run an os without reading documentation? I've been doing it for 22 years. When I started with mac os I spent 10 minutes without instruction figuring out what everything does, the rest I just picked up as I went along.

If you're that good at picking stuff up as you go, then I think you should just stick with the same distro as everyone else in the office (you said Ubuntu right?).

Then you can save hours scouring forums and reading docs to set things up in the first place because you can just ask the guy across the hall how he did it.

The little differences like cutting and pasting and mouse clicks or whatever won't take too long to get accustomed to.
Like it or not, you're going to have to learn to adapt. Being in the computer field means you have to be flexible and ready for constant change. If you keep throwing temper tanrums about the location of function keys then you're goning to get left behind.

DarthPooh · 03-30-2006, 02:32 PM

I'm not throwing a temper tantrum, I'm trying to get the information that is useful for me to get what I want, the more I ask for it the more likely i'm going to get it. If people are annoyed by that then the don't need to read this thread. I keep up asking for what i want, maybe I'll get lucky and someone will say "Hey I know exactly what your going through, I went through it 6 months ago. If you get distro X, add mod Y and follow the directions of instruction Z, you will get about 80% of what your asking for. It won't be exactly like a mac but it will give you most of what you need to get your work done efficiently" Being told "your not gonna get what you want, get over it", doesn't provide me with useful information, being told steps that get me closer to what I want does.

haertig · 03-31-2006, 11:26 AM

Quote:

If you have never used a Macintosh, more than casually, you are UNQUALIFIED to meaningfully contribute to this thread.

This is my favorite quote from the OP. A MAC user comes to a Linux forum, asks the Linux folk for some help, finds that the Linux folk do not have the answer he wants, and then insults the Linux folk as being unqualified. This has got to set a new world record in "How not to obtain help".

Quote:

If people are annoyed by that then the don't need to read this thread.

And this would be my second favorite quote. I'm not reading because I'm annoyed ... I'm reading because this whole thing is just too funny! It's like a living cartoon. I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame. For the entertainment value.

I just saw over on the SLAX forum (a LiveCD distro based on Slackware) where somebody had managed to get Linux installed on an iPod. No joke! http://slax.linux-live.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6840 Maybe that would work?

pixellany · 03-31-2006, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarthPooh

I'm not throwing a temper tantrum, I'm trying to get the information that is useful for me to get what I want, the more I ask for it the more likely i'm going to get it. If people are annoyed by that then the don't need to read this thread. I keep up asking for what i want, maybe I'll get lucky and someone will say "Hey I know exactly what your going through, I went through it 6 months ago. If you get distro X, add mod Y and follow the directions of instruction Z, you will get about 80% of what your asking for. It won't be exactly like a mac but it will give you most of what you need to get your work done efficiently" Being told "your not gonna get what you want, get over it", doesn't provide me with useful information, being told steps that get me closer to what I want does.

I'm sorry, but the issue you are facing is that you don't like some of the answers you have been getting. It seems perhaps that you are in to asking the same questions repeatedly until you get an answer you like.
This approach has never worked for ME---YMMV.

Dragineez · 03-31-2006, 03:05 PM

Now that we've pissed him off enough that I see little likelihood of him ever returning...
How To Get an Apple USB Keyboard Working in Ubuntu

I think we may have been a tad harsh, I was hoping we could help him out with some of his legitimate concerns.

The only thing that bothers me is that it looks like I may have done all his research for him.