Desktop shell replacements for Windows - are they dead?
-
@matchaman I remember LiteStep too and some other options. It wasn't powerful in terms of changing the Usability like in Linux with different Desktop Environments, but it was nice. For that time, I was happy to be able to change some Windows aspects, asthetics, adding widgets to Desktop and so on. Today, I use Windows only for gaming and so, I am not interest in anything like that. I think, those days are dead.
-
Indeed, it was fun while it lasted. Microsoft seems to have focused heavily on making customisation harder for 3rd parties while in all honesty, the Windows 10 GUI gets extremely boring after a while. The case seems to be the same for Mac OS, however, Apple has managed to make their OS look still attractive even after years of usage.
This all comes in contrast with the amazing theming capabilities of Linux GUIs... another field that open source makes things much, much better.
My final conclusion is that Windows 10 has some theming capabilities that are currently limited to two options (which can be used simultaneously): Cairo Shell (open source) and WindowBlinds (proprietary). Neither of them is a complete shell replacement though.
-
@matchaman In their defense, they've added the multiple desktops feature right into explorer now - at least that's on par with the most basic Unix/Linux window manager. To be honest, at the pace their developing the new OS, I don't think they want to expose any extension/customization points for fear they'll be breaking them in one their rolling releases. Which is probably why custom shell solutions have given up on maintaining them in the Win10 release track.
They're focusing now on adding Linux into Win10 (via WSL), so in 1 year you'll probably be able to run any Linux windows manager on-top of Windows explorer :). -
That's some mind blowing news! I'm reading about it and it feels almost as shocking as SEGA games being released on Nintendo systems back in the early 00s :)
-
@matchaman it is. Hell is frozen already. And not only that. I read somewhere Microsoft did a Linux only distribution; i think for web servers.
-
@thelostsoul said in Desktop shell replacements for Windows - are they dead?:
I read somewhere Microsoft did a Linux only distribution; i think for web servers.
It's probably for their cloud (Azure), which makes sense since they want to compete with AWS/GCE, where Linux is the dominant OS deployed. Do you know they also ported .Net and SQL Server to Linux ? (ok, this topic is getting out of hands).
-
@mitu yeah as I use Linux based OS as my main OS since 2008, I am aware of it. ;-) its just amazing.
For the on-topic, I don't believe the situation will change for Windows 10.
-
Well, there's always the option to switch to a more flexible OS. ;) (As long as one isn't dependant on Windows-only software like AAA games, MS Office, or Photoshop.)
-
@clyde said in Desktop shell replacements for Windows - are they dead?:
As long as one isn't dependant on Windows-only software like AAA games, MS Office, or Photoshop
And theres the reason keeping me from using Linux. I play a lot of games on steam and rely on software like Photoshop and Bridge for school work.
-
Most everything in terms of desktop shell replacements died out around Windows 7's release.
Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.
Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.