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Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

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Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#91

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P »

wackget wrote: post #63

I'll consider switching to Linux when the GUI becomes as configurable as Windows 10 or earlier. For example, this is my taskbar layout: https://i.ibb.co/1GqKH27L/taskbar-layout.png To my knowledge, it's not possible to achieve anything like this layout on Windows 11, Linux or Mac. I did try it in various Linux distros a few times but frankly got sick of navigating the maze of window managers et cetera. I think someth…

Took me about 2 minutes to replicate on KDE Plasma[0][1]. I have a lot more things in my taskbar that I don't want to remove for this test, so it looks a little more crammed up.

[0] https://i.imgur.com/esNjPNg.png

[1] I didn't try to replicate it perfectly; things like smaller icons/etc are settings but cba

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#93

Post by MontyCarloHall »

delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77
MontyCarloHall wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Windows is the only OS that does scaling properly. macOS just pretends non-'retina' displays don't exist Not true. I use a high-DPI (~250) MacBook with a non-high-DPI (~100) external monitor [0] and the transition between the two is seamless. Windows are identically sized when dragging from one screen to another. The same holds true when I use the laptop with a mid-DPI (~150) monitor. I could not say the same was tr…

I have a long blog post stewing here. I'll give you the gist. Moving windows between monitors of different pixel densities is a rather difficult problem. Windows handles pixel density per-application, not globally, and it uses something called device-independent pixels (DIPs) for scaling. macOS and every desktop environment I've tried on Linux does scaling globally, or at least globally per-display. On Windows, when…

>I am happy to bet that you're just not noticing the early rasterisation and filtered scaling going on

macOS renders content on my 100 PPI monitor at exactly 100 DPI; 1:1, no scaling, so everything looks crisp at the pixel level. The scaling only happens on high-DPI displays (I think the cutoff is around 150-200), and for me at least, ~250 PPI is more than dense enough to not see any individual pixels and thus no aliasing artifacts. Since you like pixel-perfect rendering even at very high resolutions, perhaps you have superhuman vision. My eyes are decidedly average. :-)

>I hardly ever use windows spanning multiple displays

Me neither. My issue is that the windows are rendered at different sizes even when they're not spanning both displays: if I dragged the window in the example photo upwards to sit entirely on the top display, it would stay huge, whereas if I dragged it downwards to sit entirely on the bottom display, it would stay small.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#95

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

MontyCarloHall wrote: post #93
delta_p_delta_x wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a long blog post stewing here. I'll give you the gist. Moving windows between monitors of different pixel densities is a rather difficult problem. Windows handles pixel density per-application, not globally, and it uses something called device-independent pixels (DIPs) for scaling. macOS and every desktop environment I've tried on Linux does scaling globally, or at least globally per-display. On Windows, when…

>I am happy to bet that you're just not noticing the early rasterisation and filtered scaling going on macOS renders content on my 100 PPI monitor at exactly 100 DPI; 1:1, no scaling, so everything looks crisp at the pixel level. The scaling only happens on high-DPI displays (I think the cutoff is around 150-200), and for me at least, ~250 PPI is more than dense enough to not see any individual pixels and thus no ali…

> Since you like pixel-perfect rendering even at very high resolutions, perhaps you have superhuman vision.

I'm just annoyingly particular about this. It's why I accept a framerate hit in video games and don't use upscalers like DLSS, and why I intend to swap my 3840 × 2160 600 × 340 mm monitor for a 5120 × 2880 one of the same physical size. Some really nice ones were demonstrated at CES a fortnight ago.

> if I dragged the window in the example photo upwards to sit entirely on the top display, it would stay huge, whereas if I dragged it downwards to sit entirely on the bottom display, it would stay small.

This is not the behaviour I see. The window upon occupying the larger percentage of a display, 'snaps' to the DIP of that display.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#97

Post by dralley »

wackget wrote: post #63

I'll consider switching to Linux when the GUI becomes as configurable as Windows 10 or earlier. For example, this is my taskbar layout: https://i.ibb.co/1GqKH27L/taskbar-layout.png To my knowledge, it's not possible to achieve anything like this layout on Windows 11, Linux or Mac. I did try it in various Linux distros a few times but frankly got sick of navigating the maze of window managers et cetera. I think someth…

KDE, Cosmic, etc.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#98

Post by gmuslera »

Besides of the advantages and disadvantages of Linux and/or Windows on this, the problem I see on a Microsoft Linux distribution is not the Linux part, but the Microsoft one. The problem that is driving away users are the company policies, not what the OS can or not do, they were mostly OK with how things were in previous version. So putting the Microsoft policies in a Linux desktop will probably have the same results.

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#99

Post by skissane »

asdf1280 wrote: post #61
ggm wrote: post #17

I would never predict this, but I think it's an idea which has occurred to many people over the years. the name WSL always hinted to me at a group inside MS who wanted Windows to BE the subsystem. I think people who have run UNIX over non-traditional FS get this vibe too. We're used to thinking it has to be some linear progression from FS to VFS to UFS to "all the other FS" and the idea "nah, I can run on NTFS just f…

IIRC, from back when I worked there, they had to name it windows subsystem for linux instead of linux subsystem for windows because there was a copyright problem with putting a term that is copyrighted by someone else (linux) first.

I think you mean trademarks, not copyrights

“X Subsystem for Y” vs “Y Subsystem for X”, where you own one of those trademarks but the other is somebody else’s, is the kind of thing that seems irrelevant to most developers, but pays the salaries of trademark lawyers

Re: Prediction: Microsoft will eventually ship a Windows-themed Linux distro

#100

Post by keyle »

wincy wrote: post #87
keyle wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. The kernel stuff of Windows isn't really the problem. I've been on macOS for eons, but I still hope that some day, someone at microsoft will have the balls to make a Windows Redux. Which is just Windows 7 with a coat of paint; and less stuff, installable separately; geared towards speed and not stuffings.

It’ll be like WoW classic servers or old school RuneScape, only for your OS.

I am completely oblivious to what you stated but it sounds about right :')
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