01.22.07

OS XP

Posted in General at 4:19 pm by Soabirw

Finally got sick of bringing in my personal laptop to use as a workstation at work, so I threw myself together a box from various parts we had around, mostly from the MythTV box. I started off trying Linux since I used to run that exclusively for work for a few years and was very happy. Not so much the case anymore. Took me a few evenings just to get it to the point where I could take it into work to replace the laptop. And even then, I spent nearly a month fighting with it. Some of the fights was me being silly and wanting OS X features. But some of the fights were me just wanting to run and use a common application, like Thunderbird. Or playing sound… I have a big list of frustrations. I have been spoiled by the “Just Works” mentality. As opposed to the, “Will work eventually, with enough trouble shooting, RTFM, and cursing. But when it does work, it *should* stay working.” I used to not mind that mentality since I had enough free time and it was still more stable then Windows.

But I have become increasingly weary of all the time I have to sink into an OS just to get mildly comfortable. With as open as Linux is and as popular as OS X has gotten, I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to incorporate some features. I was horribly, horribly mistaken though. It is possible, but it’s not easy nor is it remotely stable. I have spent weeks trying to get various Docks working, for example. Not a single one behaved like the OS X dock, although they did look similar enough. Even without my failure to make Linux look like OS X, I was frustrated almost daily with some other issue. Things that I can even easily get setup in Windows seemed like a chore in Linux. Yum/Yast/Apt, etc help a lot, but they don’t cover everything and often add their own complications. Like not having the right repos or have two that are really good, so Yum wants to install from both of them. Making your packages a jumbled and instable mess.

So I finally threw in the towel with Linux and decided to go back to Windows so I can have that “Just Works” back. Even if it is and unstable pile now and then. At least a re-install only takes me an hour or two and then I’m back up and running. And at work, I doubt my XP install will crumble as fast as it does at home. While I was at it, I looked into making it look and feel like OS X. I actually found some pretty slick stuff. Here is a screen shot of my current setup.

And here is the breakdown of software I used, took me less then an hour to get this all setup.

  • FlyakiteOSX - That is one impressive site. He also made a pack that runs a wide range of tweaks to Windows to get it setup like OS X. Includes a Dock, Splash screen, Windows OS X Theme, various app skins like Trillian, WinDVD, OS X like programs (RKLauncher for the Dock, WinRoll, etc.), etc. Made this very easy.
  • StudioTwentyEight - This guys just has a lot of really well done themes for Windows. He even had an OS X one for Vista, but MS made him take it down. Guess there have been enough comparisons between the two that they didn’t want to add anymore fuel to that fire.
  • Launchy - This is very much like QuickSilver in OS X. Great way to launch your apps without dealing with horribly inefficient menus. You can even add directories for it to index if you install your programs outside of the default.
  • Expose - Normally I would link to some software bundles that I was trying out, but then I updated my mouse software to the latest IntelliPoint and it turns out MS did this already. It was normally just for Vista, but now works in XP too. So far I’ve only seen a way to assign it to a mouse button, which doesn’t really work for me. I like to use the scroll button as a middle click. So I just set it up so in explorer.exe the scroll button does their expose, but in everything else it is middle click. Just have to middle click on the desktop for expose to kick in.

Might have been a few other things I’m forgetting, but it was all easy to find and I hardly spent any time at all tweaking. And I do realize how silly it sounds for me to profess my love of OS X, but then move to Linux/Windows only to try and make them look and feel like OS X. But the big flaw for OS X for me is the hardware. Right now I don’t really want to buy yet another Mac for work. Especially when I have perfectly good hardware laying around the house. My goal is to be back in OS X relatively soon though. Even with all these great tweaks to Windows, I still prefer to be in native OS X.