digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at xubuntublog.wordpress.com

Design your own desktop with Xfce 4.4

xubuntublog.wordpress.com — "Xfce is just as customizable as KDE or GNOME, so I set myself a goal: make Xubuntu look like Windows Vista. Why? Because I can."

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 11, 2008

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

119 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Shogi, on 02/11/2008, -2/+59Oh man, if Linux ever gets big games running well, I'm ditching windows like I just skipped on the bill.
  • BlueSkyfish, on 02/11/2008, -1/+48To show you don't need 2 gigs of RAM for a shiny desktop.
  • BlueSkyfish, on 02/11/2008, -0/+31You should open the system monitor and show just how little system resources it uses.
  • gnoshme, on 02/11/2008, -4/+34I would shoot whoever taught you English if I could.
  • tofagerl, on 02/11/2008, -5/+35But... why?
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -2/+30Well, personally, I don't think the Xfce developers added all those customisation options with the intention of nobody using them ;-)
  • xfile087, on 02/11/2008, -1/+27Quite a nice blog actually. It help me to decide to give Xfce another go because I just don't get along with KDE.
  • a6n28f, on 02/11/2008, -2/+28*whomever
  • Haxxormaster, on 02/11/2008, -1/+24Because I can.
    eh, I meant because he can.
  • baalzebub, on 02/11/2008, -5/+21i sure as hell don't want to make xfce to look like Vista...
  • suriyou, on 02/11/2008, -0/+14Maybe he's someone who actually likes the Vista look, but prefers everything else about Xubuntu?
  • richgustavson, on 02/11/2008, -0/+12Was it really necessary for me to have to click that screenshot like 6 times before it showed it to me full-size?
  • sirhomer, on 02/11/2008, -1/+12Getting Linux to look like Windows or Mac OS X is really simple, and with Compiz Fusion (for Vista check out the "Glide" and "Cover Flow" plugins) you can have pretty much the same effects too. I don't know why you would want that though, Compiz Fusion can do much more then Aero.
  • bruenig, on 02/11/2008, -0/+11Depends on where you are defining the beauty. It is disgusting as an operating system. Perhaps you mean it looks pretty which depending on your tastes could be the case.
  • t3soro, on 02/11/2008, -0/+10he may have switched from Windows for reasons other than aesthetics.
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -0/+10Well, to be honest, I don't think Vista ugly, but the main purpose was demonstrating how much you can customise Xfce.
  • meez, on 02/11/2008, -1/+9xfce feels a lot more responsive than gnome/kde...

    I recently switched from fluxbox to xfce
  • Vich, on 02/11/2008, -1/+9Will you shot who is taught him english just because you can ???
  • ptFoe, on 02/11/2008, -2/+10That is so retarded.
    Not everyone has same taste as you.
    The one which came with Mythbuntu was so depressing (that dull purplish blue) with guide I am hoping to change it.
  • RubberBinder, on 02/11/2008, -0/+7You do realize Wine will run MS Word and Photoshop CS2 right, I don't know if it will run CS3 because I don't use photoshop, but I'm sure that in the near future CS3 will run if it doesn't already.
  • Philluminati, on 02/11/2008, -1/+8The point isn't purely to mimic Windows Vista but to show how customisable it can be. If the user just said "I'm going to make it look like how I want it" and then did some stuff you might wonder if it's really customisable or if there are boundaries to it's customisation which you just can't see. Basically, by saying "to make it look like Vista" he has set himself an achievable goal that all of us can judge.
  • Philluminati, on 02/11/2008, -0/+7but that would cost the price of a copy of XP. Also VM's aren't great for playing new games.
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -1/+7Thanks, good luck, and if anything is unclear feel free to ask :)
  • clupean, on 02/11/2008, -1/+7If you're talking about Linux with Vista looks, what about www.vixta.org ? ( http://vixta.sourceforge.net/ )
  • martalli, on 02/11/2008, -1/+7If you want a real lean system interface, I would suggest a window manager and not a desktop environment. You will use far less clock cycles with icewm, fluxbox, or jwm than with xfce, kde, or gnome. In fact, some articles posted on digg showed xfce being nearly comparable to equal to gnome and kde in footprint and speed.
  • xfile087, on 02/11/2008, -0/+6That just isn't true. Some people just prefer a lighter distro!!! I could run Ubuntu and Compiz Fusion if I wish, I just don't.
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -3/+8Well, yeah, I don't use it as my actual skin too, but that doesn't mean that I make it look as it is set by default. When I find a nice new GTK theme (e.g. at xfce-look.org) then I'll use it :)
  • fyanardi, on 02/11/2008, -1/+6So KDE is not the best Microsoft Windows (TM) clone anymore? ;) Even this XFCE thing looks more Vista than Vista itself!!
  • chris9902, on 02/11/2008, -0/+5because companies like Apple and Microsoft spend millions and millions on testing and R&D.

    There's a reason colours look the way they do.
    There's a reason the start menu is in a corner.
    There's a reason the taskbars are the width of the screen.

    you get the point.
  • Ademan, on 02/11/2008, -1/+5If the look and feel of vista is one of the main complaints you've heard, you haven't been on digg long... I actually don't think I've heard that complaint once...

    That said, I don't particularly care for the vista look anyways, but that's comming from the guy currently using the bluecurve theme... (I don't know why I like it.. but i do...)
  • MacParrot, on 02/11/2008, -2/+6I can haz 2 b shot for english?
  • inactive, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4Interesting.. I use Wine for a couple of games, but I never thought about that. I'll give it a shot--thanks!
  • johnstar, on 02/11/2008, -1/+5"Xfce is just as customizable as KDE or GNOME" I love xfce but thats just not true :(
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4To show it is possible - I don't use this as my actual setup, it's just another account I've added to play around in.
  • TheWindBlows, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4It lacks a bit in both regions.
    Though it is meant to be lean but designable. The More Designable it becomes the less lean it is...
  • proverbs17, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4Xfce is great. I run it on my old computers because it doesn't take a lot of resources. It runs great on a 800 Mhz PIII and a 400 Mhz PII. I used to make it look like Windows (because I could), but then I just went with one of the standard theme's.

    Bottom line with Linux in general is that you can make it look anyway you want it too, and it will work on old hardware better then Windows.
  • zephyr42, on 02/11/2008, -3/+7I wouldn't call vista *beautiful* but it's definitely stepping in the right direction on the things that people tend to care more about.
  • inactive, on 02/11/2008, -2/+6^ I meant aesthetically. As I said, I'm a Linux user. I have a small Windows partition for Photoshop and MS Word. And I don't intend to buy Vista--I'm just saying it looks nice, which is why I have a couple themes.
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -0/+4Well, you can always ask me for help (see the About page of my blog).
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3Well, I prefer Xubuntu over Ubuntu *and* run Compiz. And I'm not the only one, since I wrote a guide on setting Compiz up on Xubuntu and, next to this post, it's my most popular post.
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -4/+7Whaha, good point :P
  • gnoshme, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4I agree with you and at the same time, since setting permanent NFS mounts up all around instead of using that ultra-crappy SMB I've never looked back. NFS is a thing of beauty.
  • lcmatt, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3http://www.duggmirror.com/linux_unix/Design_your_o ...
    Images failed to load on the original website but duggmirror managed to catch them
  • meez, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4I dugg it just for xfce, but luckily the article wasn't too bad either!
  • xfile087, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3Big games like what exactly? Linux can run World of Warcraft and many Steam games, as well as a host of over games via Wine and also it runs games such as Doom 3 and Quake 4 natively... Why wait?
  • Shogi, on 02/12/2008, -1/+4Key words "running well". I'm well aware of Wine and other such programs, problem is they don't run well, and it's a pain in the ass to get it to run period. Until it becomes easier and performance improves drastically, it's just not worth it.
  • Vinvin, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3You get the point :)
  • ninja0, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3He said in the article. Because he can!
  • mooninite, on 02/11/2008, -0/+3XFCE (and recently Gnome) are starting to use the Free Desktop standard, which uses one standard instead of "per-Desktop Environment" standards of the past. XFCE relies heavily on HAL and dbus for system control. This will allow anything else that uses HAL and dbus to control your stuff reliably. Compiz works great with XFCE. I've used XFCE for several years now, and it feels strange to use Gnome or KDE on other people's systems. They just don't work as fast as XFCE does, and I'm not just referring to performance.
  • neko, on 02/11/2008, -1/+4Wow, Internet Explorer is just like Netscape Navigator. Which is just like Mosaic.

    Because they're the same kind of tool.
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 120 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.