Monday, September 07, 2009

Ubuntu is the Best Windows!

I took my nephew shopping for a laptop. And of course I want to let him use Linux. I formatted the laptop and installed Ubuntu and did everything in my power to change the look of Ubuntu to look like Windows. Now he uses it thinking its Windows, and that's a good thing. Now he has everything he expects in a computer, without windows and without viruses. He is very happy with it. I'll explain how to do it here.



How to make Ubuntu Linux look like Windows XP or Vista for your children:

  1. Install Ubuntu
  2. Install Ubuntu Tweak and Ultimatix
  3. Using Ultimatix, install extra fonts, extra themes, wine, wine doors, aMSN, Google Earth, media codecs, VLC, and all the games (don't install ultimate edition themes)
  4. Using Add/Remove utility, install all educational and games packages, and Cheese program too. (don't install games over 100MB)
  5. Remove the top Gnome panel and change the lower panel to look like Windows' task bar (like the screenshot above)
  6. Apply the Mythbuntu theme (comes from step 3 above) with a black background
  7. Using Ubuntu Tweak, lock down all Gnome panels and enable desktop icons for My Computer, Home Folder, Trash, and Network.
  8. For Firefox, install Flash plug-in and Adblock Plus add-on. And add bookmarks for your kids favorite sites.
That's it. You now have a Windows laptop without Windows. and everything should just-work. Now re-wrap the laptop and give it to your kid.

I expect that later on I'll show him how to change themes and get rid of the windows look once and for all.

Also, you can change Ubuntu to look like a Mac!! but no kids use Macs anyway.

3 comments:

  1. Great ! but why you should it make it to look like windows ! KDE is windows indeed but GNOME is better. so install GNOME with KDE applications and thats it.

    Mabroook :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have used many Linux distributions and I admit that Ubuntu is the best windows as you said. I hope your nephew will like Ubuntu.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you for the tip! I had to remove it from my home/family PC because they did not like it and find it difficult operating it

    ReplyDelete