Chinese Pirates Clone WinXP sorta :)

whoosh

Cooler King
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According to Download Squad, a group of Chinese pirates has moved on from their days of pirating Windows XP itself. Now, they've settled for just the look and feel. Ylmf OS is a version of Ubuntu that will make your head spin. The OS looks very similar to Windows
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, using identical icons and a similar taskbar. It has Wine integration to allow for Windows based programs to run, supports Compiz effects, and comes with a lot of pre-loaded freeware (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, etc.), as you'd expect from a Linux distro.

This sort of distro could be an ideal way to shift a Windows user over to Linux, as the learning curve would be minimized, at least from the UI standpoint. Under the hood, Ylmf OS is still Linux and will not run Windows based applications natively (Wine still doesn't work for everything). For a detailed list of features, you can visit the Detailed Features page of their website.

One of the comments on Download Squad indicates that by using the "sudo locale-gen en-US" command after installation, he was able to change the language to English (which would explain why the picture below has English in it). If you're a Linux enthusiast or are interested in giving it a whirl, please do. Be sure to let us know how it goes in the comments. Download Squad also mentions some possible legal issues over the design, though many think that it won't be much of an problem, as the OS still runs a pure Linux kernel (not to mention that China's copyright laws are pretty non-existent).
According to Download Squad, a group of Chinese pirates has moved on from their days of pirating Windows XP itself. Now, they've settled for just the look and feel. Ylmf OS is a version of Ubuntu that will make your head spin. The OS looks very similar to Windows
Link Removed - Invalid URL
, using identical icons and a similar taskbar. It has Wine integration to allow for Windows based programs to run, supports Compiz effects, and comes with a lot of pre-loaded freeware (Firefox, OpenOffice.org, etc.), as you'd expect from a Linux distro.

This sort of distro could be an ideal way to shift a Windows user over to Linux, as the learning curve would be minimized, at least from the UI standpoint. Under the hood, Ylmf OS is still Linux and will not run Windows based applications natively (Wine still doesn't work for everything). For a detailed list of features, you can visit the Detailed Features page of their website.

One of the comments on Download Squad indicates that by using the "sudo locale-gen en-US" command after installation, he was able to change the language to English (which would explain why the picture below has English in it). If you're a Linux enthusiast or are interested in giving it a whirl, please do. Be sure to let us know how it goes in the comments. Download Squad also mentions some possible legal issues over the design, though many think that it won't be much of an problem, as the OS still runs a pure Linux kernel (not to mention that China's copyright laws are pretty non-existent).




ylmfos.jpg

Image courtesy of mark on Download Squad. Thanks!
 
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I have tried Ylmf that brand of Linux that claims to be like Windows XP. I tried it just after Christmas and I installed it on my Netbook the same way I did with Linux Mint. I mounted the ISO CD file on virtual clone drive,so it was installed alongside Windows.

And it did look like Windows XP in appearance but that's where the similarity ends. It is still Linux it is not Windows, or part of the Windows operating system. So you are still subject to the same rules that make Linux not so user friendly, and easy to use and Linux controls how it is run,not you.

Unlike on Windows,where you control how it runs.

On Linux you have to log in with a password and enter it every time you change settings on your computer. And Ylmf was no exception,I still had to do all of this and like the other Linux brands. I could not remove my password or disable this annoying feature.

But I could connect to the Internet on wireless broadband on Ylmf the same way I could on Linux Mint,unlike on Ubuntu where I could not. As Ubuntu never found my Wifi,but Ylmf,Linux Mint and Jolicloud did.

Ylmf is like Linux Mint in a lot of ways but it has got an extra software called Wine Tricks,which you cannot get on Linux Mint. And with Wine Tricks I was surprised to see IE6 and IE7 for Windows in the list of packages to be installed.

Out of curiosity I installed IE6 through Wine Tricks, and IE6 was a scream. It performed so badly it crashed on many webpages and sometimes froze the Ylmf operating system. On Windows IE6 performs badly as all of the IE's do but not that bad. But then IE and Trident engine browsers like it. Such as Green browser that use the same engine do not perform well on Linux. In fact they can't run at all on Linux. Because I have tried installing Aim Messenger and Green browser on Linux, through Wine, and although they install,they do not run. And as soon as you try to run them on Linux they crash right away. So IE is no exception.

Ylmf had some good software like Firefox and I think that the Wine and the Windows Live Messenger clone for Linux was put there to stop Windows users from feeling homesick for Windows.

But a lot of the packages were broken and in Linux Mint this is also the case when you first install it. But on Linux Mint you can select Generic Recovery Mode on start up. And this will repair all of the broken packages and bring your system up to date. But this did not work on Ylmf.

There are a lot of reasons why Linux will never be as good or as user friendly as Windows is. And you just do not realize how lucky you are to have a Windows computer,with a Windows operating system. Until you try Linux that is.

I think that Ylmf will make a lot of homesick Windows users, who are missing Windows, feel at home on Linux. But Ylmf is NOT windows, it is Linux.

And there are a lot of differences between Ylmf and Windows XP.On Windows XP you do not have to have a password if you do not want one.And you don't have to log in with a password, or enter it every time you do something either on Windows XP. And you don't have to have a password on Windows Vista or Windows 7 either.

And you can download and install any software you want on Windows. But you can't on Linux, if it is not in the package manager,you cannot have it.

But on Ylmf and other brands of Linux you do have to have a password and you cannot get rid of it. So you are stuck with this feature, whether you like it or not.

But not on Windows. On Windows you have a choice and it is true that while Windows XP and Windows 7 are good for Netbooks.

Windows Vista needs more space to run well so it is best to run Windows Vista on a full sized laptop or computer,rather than a Netbook like I have got.

But because I bought my Netbooks last year and now in England you can't buy Windows XP or Windows Vista computers or laptops anymore. As they stopped selling them a few months ago. I don't suppose I will know now what it is like to run Windows XP from a home computer.

But if I was given a choice of running Windows or Linux,I would rather stay with even an older version of Windows,even Windows 95,98,or 2000 than convert my computer to Linux. Andrea Borman.
 
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