Ideas for improvement

[AlexKidd]

Things need to be fixable through GUIs, especially as simple as faulty software installations, cause the only reason why many people switched to Linux, is because of the ugly things Microsoft has recently done. The moment that were to get revoked to a satisfactory extent, these people won't be typing to use their computers anymore, but will return to using their computers to type. It is, what it is, not everybody is happy with the Linux "freedom" of copying and pasting command lines off all over the internet into the Linux terminal, to fix things that everywhere else are fixed in a matter of a few mouse clicks. A very, very simple way of fixing this problem, GUIs for the 95+% PC users who don't have the time to become Linux proficient IT experts!

Another thing would be a "mask", mimicking the Windows directory system for beginning users, cause not knowing where's what also is a serious deterrent for the beginning Linux adept.

Fully configured Wine out of the box, with the possibility of maintaining the Windows program files and user files directories during installation, which the newly installed MX would automatically detect and list in the applications menu. People, this would be really, really a great thing just on its own.

[Eadwine Rose]

Feel free to make your own respin of MX, we have a respins forum for just that.

[AlexKidd]

Aww, come on :/!

[Nokkaelaein]

Aww, come on :/!

Most of those improvement ideas are simply magic based. They might sound simple when formulating them like that, but that's because between the lines they need magic to work.

It sounds simple saying something like "maintaining the Windows program files and user files directories during installation, which the newly installed MX would automatically detect and list in the applications menu", but it would be a monumental juggling feat to make that happen when creating a new file system and installing over said Windows installation. Even if you had a completely separate drive for the new installation, bringing over application installations and data like that from a different OS, automatically, requires so much case by case setup and application specific knowledge (not to mention that there are so many applications that by their nature make this impossible with DRM or other things preventing this) that it's quite the thankless task. It's extremely unlikely a volunteer distro team would start pouring such tremendous development efforts into something like that.

Similarly, things being "fixable through GUIs, especially as simple as faulty software installations" - what is so simple about fixing faulty software installations that one can develop a generalized GUI that troubleshoots and fixes those? Reinstalling things already works through a GUI, but fixing a faulty installation is a whole range of operations and possible solutions - and again, goes into the realm of being application specific pretty quickly.

[Melber]

OP could just fork windows...

[dolphin_oracle]

Thanks for the suggestions.

MX is unabashedly Linux, so I have no interest in either making it look or act more like windows. supplying wine is an interesting idea, but wine is so specific to the apps being utilized, and the fact that the wine bottles sit in the home folder, makes it complicated to deploy generally at best, and for minimal gain. zorin does things like that, and they are welcome to it. I much prefer to provide linux native applications, and to encourage open source applications in general.

Again, thanks for the suggestions.

[Nokkaelaein]

supplying wine is an interesting idea, but wine is so specific to the apps being utilized, and the fact that the wine bottles sit in the home folder, makes it complicated to deploy generally at best, and for minimal gain. zorin does things like that, and they are welcome to it. I much prefer to provide linux native applications, and to encourage open source applications in general.

And thanks for describing this in a nicer way than I did :)

[AlexKidd]

Why exactly? Simply partition the drive in such a way that it automatically migrates specified NTFS directories to ext4, btrfs, or whatever the choice. Partition a large enough part of the drive for the chosen NTFS directories, and base Linux necessities, then the rest when that's done. Or maybe entirely just keep a certain amount of the given disk as NTFS. This is easy stuff any live distro can do (in fact, the only way of removing certain crappy antiviruses off Windows is through a live Linux distro!) Believe it or not, but many folk need this type of stuff automated, since they have absolutely no grasp of procedures like disk partitioning.

Anyway, after all that is done, just have the system go through all the Windows .exe files, folders they're in, etc, and look up online what Windows system dlls, whatever, they need downloaded again to work once more. The truth is thus so horridly pathetic, the Linux platform still doesn't even have a worthy PortableApps-type of option. What's the use of ImageApps, if everything isn't stored in a separate, dedicated folder, like browser passwords, tabs, extensions, so on? Why can this be done on greedy MS Windows, but not on Linux? From what I reckon, the closest you can get to the functionality of a Windows PortableApps browser for Linux, is a whole persistent live distro installation on a pendrive! Isn't that much harder, yet possible?

[arjaybe]

I'm a little more blunt. You want Windows, use Windows. You want to get away from Windows, let it go.

Less stringent: MX provides a lot of ways to do what you want. All you have to do is take advantage of them.

[CharlesV]

@AlexKidd In my opinion, the REAL issue here is the compromising of the system. ajaybe is correct in if you want Windows, then run it and deal with the issues ( ie fight it there.).

And if your 'done with windows' and want to move on... then do that. But bending linux around to run Windows would not only be an atrocity, it would compromise Linux and nobody would be happy.

There are other methods to do what you suggest - Bottles, WINE, a VM with windows running. Portable apps like Appimage and flatpak are as close to "portable" as you get.