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ZDNET key takeaways
- A Linux developer has created a Windows 8 DE.
- Win8DE looks very much like Windows 8.
- This new desktop is still in alpha stages.
Remember Windows 8? I'm sure I can guess what you remember from that less-than-ideal iteration of Windows. The UI.
Microsoft decided that a “card-based” interface was the way to go. At the time, they were also leveraging the Windows Phone, and when you compare them side-by-side, you start to understand why they went this route.
Microsoft wanted to outdo Apple.
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Whether or not the Windows 8 UI was a success or failure is a matter of taste. I know people who hated it and people who loved it. As for me, I'm indifferent because I never had to use it.
There's a Linux developer who either must have used it and misses it, or decided there were enough people out there to constitute an audience for a Linux UI that closely resembled Windows 8.
The developer in question goes by er-bharat on GitHub, and his evil-scientist project is called Win8DE. Now, before I continue, I have to say that I spent roughly 2 hours trying to install Win8DE and had no luck. The reason behind this is the dependency issues. Of course, this is an alpha release of the software, so there will be issues, even with installation.
Even so, you can check out the developer's GitHub page for the project and see just how close he's come to the Windows 8 desktop. Impressive.
Do alternatives even exist?
After failing to install Win8DE, I decided to scour the internet for a Windows 8-esque theme for either KDE Plasma or GNOME, but came up empty. Sure, there are some themes that resemble Windows 8's color scheme, but none that mimic its card-like UI. That's one of the reasons why this developer's project is so impressive.
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As much as I've always disliked the Windows UI (in all of its incarnations), I can see why someone might take to the Windows 8 UI. Of course, I tend to go against the grain with everything I do, so the weird and odd are always appealing to me.
Who it's for
At the same time, while examining the developer's screenshots and reading about his project, it all makes sense… especially if you'd be using this DE on a touchscreen device.
You can watch this animated clip that shows Win8DE in action. Watching that clip has me convinced I'll spend the weekend getting this DE up and running on a virtual machine. I am determined.
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Of course, knowing that someone who's been using Linux for decades is going to spend a weekend attempting to get a desktop up and running should tell you everything you need to know about the state of Win8DE. It's not ready.
The latest version of Win8DE is v0.5.0, so I'm guessing it's a long way from a stable release. And given this is a one-person show, I wouldn't expect it to reach version 1.0 for some time.
Even so, Win8DE is a cool project that perfectly illustrates that anything is possible with Linux. Although I'm not a fan of the Windows UI, I will certainly be interested to see how this project unfolds.
