Wubuntu: The lovechild of Windows and Linux nobody asked for | Hacker News Reader

Wubuntu: The lovechild of Windows and Linux nobody asked for

theregister.com

31 pointsLorenDB36 comments

> If you do consider paying for either Wubuntu or LinuxFX, it's worth keeping in mind that in the past, the developer's activation system and registration database have both been investigated and found to be horribly insecure. However, from the database, it looks like some 20,000 people did pay.

Even if one wanted to use it for anything serious without paying or otherwise providing any personal information in the process, this is a huge turnoff.

Seems a weird article to omit mentioning Linspire/Lindows, though they did early abandon the goal of running Windows applications out of the box, if I recall correctly. Additionally, ReactOS feels like it warrants a mention, even if not Linux.

Reading the headline, first thought was Lindows, had to look up how far back that goes... Founded 2001, how time flies.

I felt my bones crack from both thinking Lindows at first, then finding this thread.

And Zorin.

Interesting offer, but why not make it a Windows 10 look-alike? I've been spending more time recently on KDE on Ubuntu specifically to avoid interacting with Windows 11, which feels like a Windows designed by Mac users that don't have any complex workflows.

Elaborate complex workflows please. And as if Mac users don't have complex workflows :)

Here's just an example: I often want to see all currently open windows on my task bar, and using my mouse I can instantly open the specific window I want to work on.

Note that I don't want to open a specific app, I want to access a specific instance of that app. Think of an example when I have multiple Chrome windows open, and I want to open a specific one, since that has a group of tabs open. The principle is generic, I might want to open a specific IDE window, as I've got multiple instances open at the same type.

Absolutely every Mac user I've seen had to swipe through all their open app, or has to open the app and from the app then choose which instance they want to work with.

I can't say that I've seen anyone use the Windows functionality you're talking about here either, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

One of the hardest things about being a "power user" is watching other people use their computers in horrible and inefficient ways. There's a few different ways to get to a specific window on a Mac using the mouse. But I would add that using the mouse for this is probably less efficient than alt/command+tabbing anyway.

I don't understand what you mean by complex workflow in relation to this example of opening a specific window.

I think however this is achieved in mac by right clicking on the app icon in the task bar, then it has a list of open windows. In Windows, this is done by mousing over the app icon in the task bar.

In pre-11 Windows you can see all open instances of an app from the taskbar, and with one-click open any one of these. Of course, there's an equivalent for Mac as well, but it's not one-step, it's two step. I know it sounds like something minor, but it really rattled me on a Mac.

I feel dirty just seeing the screenshots

> plus your own installation of WINE, OnlyOffice, and whatever else takes your fancy. ®

Why does the Register recommend installing the far-second as functionality goes, and not-really-FOSS, OnlyOffice, rather than LibreOffice? Grrr.

Probably because OnlyOffice focuses on DOCX compatibility. In theory it's a better drop in replacement if you need to work with existing Office files.

That said, yeah, let's get more open source.

They do recommend libreoffice, but that particular sentence is just saying "even if you want these same apps, get them anywhere else"

Could we actually develop a serious 'fake Windows' layer to assist the hundreds of thousands of Windows-based organisations off Windows and onto Linux? Something which can seamlessly Wine the applications and effectively be free of all the Microsoft excess.

I'm not too in the know about why Windows to Linux transition processes usually fail in governments etc., however, it could be that a very adequate and seamless replacement would help a great deal.

Office files compatibility kill it usually. As much as your organization can rely on ODF, external or old files will usually be DOC/X and there's where the fun stops, people get frustrated and as soon as you have a person with decision power frustrated, it's buh-bye Linux damn those transition taxpayer-supported costs.

So, basically, a key, if not the key, component would be the import and output filters for Microsoft Office formats: OOXML (DOCX, PPTX, XLSX mostly); DOC; RTF; XLS; PPT. These formats have been reverse-engineered enough to sorta-kinda open them, but there are still lots of bugs. The root of the hierarchy is here:

https://bugs.documentfoundation.org/show_bug.cgi?id=MSO-Form...

and there are 2128 open bugs... it's true that many are quite esoteric, but some aren't.

Want to do your share to help resolve them and rearch perfect MS Office compatibility and replaceability?

* Contribute effort/skill: https://whatcanidoforlibreoffice.org/#!/progornoprog/design

* Contribute money: https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/

* And even just filing compatibility bugs - helps

Since even Microsoft can't keep perfect bug-for-bug compatibility among its multi-platform Office implementations, this is unlikely to succeed or even reach parity. And people do rely on bugs and quirks in the official implementations.

I salute the effort, but a better path may be to infiltrate schools so the new generation demands non-Microsoft solutions.

I would say the two courses of actions are complementary rather than contradictory, especially since most SW developers aren't also teachers or education activists / parents' association members etc.

I have been loving the ironically named, "ClosedXML" power shell module

Hot take, but I think this could be best addressed not by creating conversion tools, but by getting Office to work perfectly under Wine.

Amazon have an interesting equivalent where they have a translation layer for SQL Server on their Aurora database[0].

[0] https://aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/babelfish

> why Windows to Linux transition processes usually fail

Would expect this to be down to security teams expertise, _enterprise_ software and AD integration rather than the end users/specific software.

~~I had the opportunity to donate the bootloader code to the Wubuntu project (a subset of my work on EasyBCD), which was a large part of the magic that made it “just work” for most. AMA!~~

Edit: I’m an idiot and I also haven’t had my coffee. I was talking about Wubi, as a comment pointed out below! Feel free to deservedly downvote!

EDIT: OK phew! Never mind. :) All cleared up while I was writing, so now disregard. But here is what I think of this product....

AMA? Ok you asked. Why do you not seem embarassed to have anything to do with this?

I don't mean working on easybcd or working on integration with Windows in general, those are fine and admirable, I mean this jank ass valueless ripoff product.

For a second there I actually thought "opportunity to donate" was a joke you were making that they ripped you off like the guy stealing the bios for that 8088 laptop, but you seem to be sincerely pleased to be assosciated with this.

Maybe you're just young, in which case I advise, don't link yourself to crap like this.

If you want to work on a system that emulates Windows, at least find one that has the basic integrity not to copy actual MS assets and doesn't actually try to confuse or deceive anyone. The fact that they found someone else who is redistributing copyrighted and trademarked images first and so they think this protects them legally doesn't make it any better. That is actually just yet more sleaze.

Cheers!

Just a guess, but did you also read the headline and think this was about Wubi, like I did?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wubi

The article itself is about a weird looking Kubuntu-based distro with no relation to Wubi.

Guilty as charged. In my defense, it was a long time ago!

What motivated you to contribute? What was the itch you were scratching?

What itch do you need? Windows 10 EOL Oct 2025

I think it is not a bad idea, no Recall and TPM2 will make it a great alternative to people afraid of leaving Windows.

I wonder if Office 365 (WEB Ver) will work with it. FWIW I have no need for any Office type applications.

edit: looks like Office 365 will work with it.

I installed Q4OS with the Trinity Desktop Environment, and using the Redmond theme for a hit of Windows 95 nostalgia.

God damnit. I know nothing about this and it makes me mad. What unspeakable monstrosities have you wrought?

Didn't Mandrake Linux have a similar intention?

I have never heard of that before. I only know that Mandrake tried to be the best Linux for normal users.

Mandrake started as Red Hat plus KDE. For a time Red Hat didn't include KDE. Mandrake made KDE the default.

A short while later Mandrake had a real good installer and a control center. Also a dependency resolver on top of rpm (urpmi) with a graphical package installer (rpmdrake). Then there was really good hardware support with lots of plug and play, all before udev existed.

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