A New Venture Into Windows

Kavrocks

[The main aim of this is for me to seek options and advice. I do not intend to insight an argument, flame war or other aggressive action. These are my honest opinions]

TL;DR: Can I alter Windows (customize it) to be very similar to the look and simplicity of OS X preferably with a Launchpad type interface to replace the Start screen?

So I very recently begun a PhD and needed a new laptop that would be capable of getting me through the next 4 years. With that, software, hardware and portability needs in mind I purchased an Acer Aspire V Nitro. Now I'm coming into this new purchase having used a Macbook Air for the past 4 years and only begrudgingly used a Windows PC for those times when I needed specialist software.

I like the laptop, it looks really nice and to my surprise it is not as heavy as I expected. It has amazing specs that I would have never found on a Macbook for the same price. Even though it was more expensive than my Macbook Air unboxing it, plugging in the charger and turning it on did not feel as premium. The outside of the box looks nice but inside the laptop and charger (which is quite a heavy brick) are contained in fairly shoddy and cheap feeling bags.

Anyway I didn't really mind the unboxing too much as it only happens once. The laptop booted up (and continues to) extremely fast, faster than my Macbook Air. Now that is really saying something. It's not all rosy though, from there everything started to go downhill. I was into Windows 8.1 and the first-run start-up. That's fine I acknowledge I need to set a few things like username and password. However, the first pain point I came to was when I had to pick a name for my laptop. I chose a name, typed it in and was ready to proceed but no, Windows wouldn't let me! I had chosen a keyboard type that Windows won't let you pick a name for your laptop with. Ok fair enough, maybe supporting Irish isn't high on Microsoft's priorities. Now how do I go back and change the keyboard layout to something that will let me continue? You can't! Great! I had the laptop turned on a few minutes and already something was broken. In the end it turns out the error message about my keyboard was not right. I could pick a name for my laptop, it just couldn't have any hyphens in it even though the sample has a hyphen!

Anyway I proceeded on through the setup and let Windows install a number of useless crap from the Store I was probably never going to use. I quickly downloaded all the drivers necessary to get the laptop off the ground and created a bootable USB so I could install a clean (no OEM bloatware) version of Windows. This process was nice and very easy, I was pleasantly surprised.

Now we are on to the crux of my post and the whole reason for me coming here. There are 2 main points to this:

1. Windows 8 is UGLY
2. Windows 8 is unintuitive

Both of these points meld into 1 and are the main reason I love OS X so much. OS X is made for idiots/dummies. It's aesthetically very nice. Things just work. Most things are very intuitive and right before your eyes. I love the simplicity of OS X, I love how I don't have to think about anything I'm going to do but above all else I love how it looks and its superbly smooth animations. Now I am not an Apple fanboy by any means - I don't like iPhones or iOS, I prefer Android its Openness (to an extent) and Google. Is it too much to ask that Windows look nice and be intuitive? I have my new laptop 2 days and already I've spent more time googling stuff and being annoyed at Windows than I did in the first year of receiving my Mac.

I have used Windows, OS X and Linux before. There is a need for all 3. No 1 OS is better than the other, they each have their uses, strengths and weaknesses. I realise this even if most don't. I myself have need for parts from all 3. My ideal OS would look and be as simple as OS X, it would have the software compatibility and wide range of support of Windows and it would be backed by a Linux kernel with full command line tools and support.

Down to the main question I want to put to people here. Can I alter Windows (customize it) to be very similar to the look and simplicity of OS X preferably with a Launchpad type interface to replace the Start screen?

I would appreciate any feedback or discussion anybody may have on anything I've posted here.

Moon54

I skimmed your post but it looks to me like you'll need something like ObjectDock from StarDock.
It's an animated launcher dock that I suppose mimics a major OSX feature.
WindowFX also seems to mimic other OSX features
Start8, also from StarDock, is a good start menu replacer, but I prefer the free, and more customisable, ClassicShell. ( bypasses start menu tiles too)

Also Windows 10 is coming later this year, and it'll be free, it should iron out a lot of that Windows 8 oddness your experiencing.

Brian CivilEng

Trying to make Windows more like OSX is kind of like emigrating to a new country but shipping over Taytos and Lyons tea every month. You will never discover all the benefits of Windows if you don't immerse yourself in it and become a native.

I have always listened to people saying Windows 8 is counter intuitive and respectfully disagree, it just works differently to OSX. I would find macs to be quite unintuitive whenever I use them, the weird way those red, yellow and green buttons work, the way scrolling moves the screen the wrong way, the quite dated dropdown menu UI. Similarly some of the windows 8.1 touch UI has become so second nature to me now that I keep using it on non windows machines in work, the swipe down from centre of the screen to close being the main one, but also swiping from the side to dock.

Looks are subjective too, I hate the way everything is rounded in osx, I hate the transparent effect in windows 7, I love the flat, opaque and rectangular start screen in windows 8.1.

My advice is to spend a few weeks just learning the windows ui, googling everything when you need to find something that isn't immediately obvious. Trying to make it more like a mac will just need to frustrations because it isn't one.

28064212

http://winlaunch.org/

If that's what you want. I can't understand how a Launchpad interface is somehow better than "Windows key => type the first few letters of the application => hit enter". It's so much faster and more intuitive

dimsumss

wait until windows 10

its going to be super

Kavrocks

Moon54 wrote: »

I skimmed your post but it looks to me like you'll need something like ObjectDock from StarDock.
It's an animated launcher dock that I suppose mimics a major OSX feature.
WindowFX also seems to mimic other OSX features
Start8, also from StarDock, is a good start menu replacer, but I prefer the free, and more customisable, ClassicShell. ( bypasses start menu tiles too)

Also Windows 10 is coming later this year, and it'll be free, it should iron out a lot of that Windows 8 oddness your experiencing.

It's not so much emulating OS X features that I'm interested in. It's more making Windows look nicer. The Dock though does look nice and if I don't have to go to those awful tiles I'll definitely give ClassicShell ago.

abitofacomedian wrote: »

Trying to make Windows more like OSX is kind of like emigrating to a new country but shipping over Taytos and Lyons tea every month. You will never discover all the benefits of Windows if you don't immerse yourself in it and become a native.

I have always listened to people saying Windows 8 is counter intuitive and respectfully disagree, it just works differently to OSX. I would find macs to be quite unintuitive whenever I use them, the weird way those red, yellow and green buttons work, the way scrolling moves the screen the wrong way, the quite dated dropdown menu UI. Similarly some of the windows 8.1 touch UI has become so second nature to me now that I keep using it on non windows machines in work, the swipe down from centre of the screen to close being the main one, but also swiping from the side to dock.

Looks are subjective too, I hate the way everything is rounded in osx, I hate the transparent effect in windows 7, I love the flat, opaque and rectangular start screen in windows 8.1.

My advice is to spend a few weeks just learning the windows ui, googling everything when you need to find something that isn't immediately obvious. Trying to make it more like a mac will just need to frustrations because it isn't one.

I understand it'll take time to get used to Windows 8. My main issue is the look of it though and how it's so optimised for touch whilst seemingly neglects people using a mouse. That scrolling the wrong way can be changed on both Windows and Mac. I've set up my Windows laptop to scroll that way. I find it more intuitive as your fingers are moving in the same direction as the page.

I will take some time to learn Windows and it's gestures. I suppose I was a little hasty in my teardown of it and should give it a chance. It is the most popular OS out there, there has to be a reason.

28064212 wrote: »

http://winlaunch.org/

If that's what you want. I can't understand how a Launchpad interface is somehow better than "Windows key => type the first few letters of the application => hit enter". It's so much faster and more intuitive

That looks like a nice replacement for the Start tiles. To be honest I'm not interested in doing things much faster. I don't need an efficient method of finding programs to increase my productivity. I would rather work on a laptop that looks nice, can leave 3 or 4 programs running in the background and let me 'ALT-TAB' between them. 'ALT-TAB' on Windows in my opinion far exceeds that on Mac and is something I am looking forward to using.

Thanks for all the replies, there are some good suggestions I will definitely try out. On Windows 10 I've looked into it and am very impressed. It looks really nice, its got some great new features and if Microsoft can pull everything off as they seem to be trying it will be an amazing OS and one that I would love to use. I'll be one of the first to upgrade to Windows 10 (when its officially released) and I think I will end up preferring it to OS X. I won't go on anymore about it as there is already a thread for it.

Brian CivilEng

Kavrocks wrote: »

That scrolling the wrong way can be changed on both Windows and Mac.

Ha ha, I did not know that. Guess I spent my entire time using a mac complaining that it didn't work like Windows

Kavrocks

abitofacomedian wrote: »

Ha ha, I did not know that. Guess I spent my entire time using a mac complaining that it didn't work like Windows

I guess ignorance is bliss!

Donne

<Snip>

Capt'n Midnight

Unless the Apple OS license now allows you to install their software on PC's then we can't really suggest doing that here.

Also the Mac charter specifically mentions hackintosh
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055167650

No Warez, Hackz, Appz or Crackz (advice/sourcing or discussion), software or operating system (hackintosh etc)

Anyway isn't Mac OSX just a fancy UI for BSD ? :pac:
http://www.pcbsd.org/