Gnome/KDE themes

ok so my dad wants to make the switch but hes an older guy and i figure the more his system resembles windows the more he will use it and the more he will enjoy it. i was wandering that since there are hundreds of themes that make your system look like mac osx and such if anyone here knows any themes that change the interface so that it resembles XP. its sacrilege i know but i figure that this would also be a good thing for client systems to since the bulk of the population uses and is familiar with windows but alot of people in my area want to cut corners and linux after all is free.

My favorite places for themes and everything else you could possibly want:

http://www.kde-look.org/
http://www.gnome-look.org/

ive searched the two to no avail. i may just create one. if anyone has any experience in coding the themes i would appreciate the help

Did you look at http://art.gnome.org too? Look at the window borders and the application themes, there's enough there to piece something together.

you could also have a talk with the guys at linux-xp.com and see if they can give you advice. they made linux-xp pretty xp looking >.< hence the name.. lol

errrmmmm.... sorry if this sounds pretty negative, but I think your reasoning is wrong.. Making linux look like XP isn't going to help people at all. It's more likely to confuse them by reinforcing the bad habits they already have.

Unless you expect people to have static software configurations they will still have to learn the common linux skills with the terminal and configuring programs. Heaven forbid they should try to get every app to have a pretty double-click desktop launch shortcut. I tried once and it was a nightmare of permissions.

Gnome and KDE both have nice blue themes, You can tinker with the colours of toolbars and change the icons etc.. just like that horrid garish dayglo winblows default mess, with only one workspace that looks much better with one of the crystal skins and a zune theme..

Has anybody ever tried using linux-xp?

sorry.. I had a line of thought, but I just got in from a 20 hour battle with an industrial process control server.. I will have a sleep and come back and make more sense...

It's the difference that makes linux good, not how it looks. And that's what always catches people out.. they expect linux to work exactly the same as windows.. and it can't.

yes.
and at first, it was ok.
but after actually trying to USE it, i hated it >.< but that was more because of the lack of packages available and some things not working properly. i had a nice little rant about it on christmas of last year, actually. haven't really fiddled with it since, although they were claiming they were going to come out with a new version based on FC6 earlier this year (i used to check their forums every once in a blue moon)

Same here.. I found a ripped release and it didn't work properly. It had 2 main downfalls. A 2.4 kernal and what seemed to be messed up permissions.

Overall I think the project is based on sound reasoning, but for what it is they should not be attempting to charge for it. It isn't good enough for that. Seems like the last update to the site was back in Feb, and they are still peddling the 2006 release. Our general opinion of it (a *nix user group from somewhere else) was that though it showed promise it had major flaws and in our opinion was not suitable for linux newbies.

On to the main subject here.. I have had a sleep now and things are clearer.

I think you are making yourself big problems for the future.. skinning and tinkering with a distro is fun at home, but out in the real world people will be expecting everything to work off the peg. As soon as something goes wrong they will be on your back demanding solutions. Why make yourself all the trouble. Install a current distro and let them take the strain by configuring whatever browser you install to take them to the distro homepage. Most do that already anyway. You should spend more time working out what packages to include by default than worrying too much about how it looks. Most people don't actually like the look of XP.. that's why the multitude of skins and themes and tweaks you can find. I always put the Aston shell on xp machines for people, and configure everything ready for them. Making windoze more linux like..

May I suggest a couple of possibilities? I hear very good reports of Mint and Arch. I haven't tried either, but I hope they are better than videolinux
I would offer a realistic variant.. dreamlinux is debian based and comes with a really nice blue theme. It seems to install nicely, and will happily run most applications from a desktop icon.. you still need to build the icons and link them, and there is the downfall. Make it look too much like XP and people will expect it to work the same as XP running all the same software they are used to in all the same ways.

I had an interesting experience with my lodger this time last year.. They needed a computer to access the internet from home, do some text documents and a little desktop publishing/presentations and the like.. I set them up with an old pentium3 running suse and open office. They hadn't used a pc before so they were the proverbial clean slate. The only comment they had about it was how fast everything was, and how easy it was to find the programs you wanted from the menus. productivity = 10
Unfortunately at work they started using XP and after a few weeks started bugging me to put it on the old heap which was still fast and clean running suse. To my great regret I finally gave in and did what they wanted, installed the horrid XP.. and then had to add another 128 stick of ram just to get it to boot reliably. Now all I get every evening is "this isn't working" "how do I do this" "what does this mean" "oh no.. it's gone on a go slow again" "can you find me such and such a program.. I need it for work but I'm not going to pay all that for it" etc. etc. etc.
There is an upside to all this. They have an account on my main machine, but after 9 months on XP debian is a closed book to them. They have lost the skills they gained in a few days using suse and have fallen into the "only windows can do what I need because I use it at work and nothing else will do the same things" mindset that is so pushed everywhere.

I migrate small businesses to linux almost weekly. It saves them money and in most cases increases productivity. I use debian with kde because I think it's less of a culture shock for them. Give people the applications they will need, ensure one person in an office has root access to all the machines and everything is good. They save money, and get good fast applications without the large recurring outlay for software licenses and new hardware.

Overall it seems like the way to go. I get very few service calls, and most can be resolved in 1 or 2 phonecalls.

Final word? I would from experience suggest going down the suse/fedora with kde route. The support is better than in the deb based distros, and more home office and multimedia type applications seem to work straight off with the rpm based distros. The other plus is.. KDE is very windows like in appearance and function, but you will need to change the default mouse action to 2 click otherwise they will be swearing at you when every folder and application opens twice all the time

olycrap wall o text

yeah that is a good point but most of the people who i do builds for are smart enough that when they get shown how to use synaptic they wont go downloading windows apps and if explained that double clicking wont install apps they will likley listen. anyways thanks for the help.

also i personally find gnome easier to use and i allready have the package list squared away. ive also decided that an xp style theme in linux is to much of a sacrilege to be allowed to live. and xp is a resource whore my dad is set up with my old p3 with 512 megs ram so he can test it out and now he wants me to drop ubuntu on his ibm so chock up another win for the penguin. he loves how he no longer has to spend a ton of money just so he can be secure and get what he wants done. plus i didnt see this coming but hes way faster than before with the gnome menu bar at the top than his XP start bar and hes only had it for a week

That's good news.. It does seem that it is the difference that makes the difference then.

Sorry about the big heap of text before. It was nice to put down how I feel about the whole windows thing. With that demon laid to rest I can get on with STILL trying to get the flashplayer to give me sound in debian. grrrrrrr