MX Linux Forum

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.

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

Aww, come on :/!

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 9:45 am 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.

OP could just fork windows...

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.

dolphin_oracle wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 11:50 am 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 :)

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?

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.

@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.

dolphin_oracle wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 11:50 amsupplying 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.

Well... yes and no. I agree that an install option for this is not a good idea. OTOH, a separate MX tool (MX-Cellar?) that can install some apps would perhaps not be daft. Even if such a tool starts with just a few of the stalwarts (foobar2000 and IrfanView come to mind), it would enable some users to a) get some stuff up and running quickly and b) might make it easier for them to install their own stuff, not least because they see that it does work and also can study how it works.

I switched my PCs to MX some six or seven years ago and yet even nowadays I use a couple of Windows apps every day, and another four or five every now and then (though not via Wine but in a Windows 7 VM which also allows me to chkdsk /f a borked NTFS/FAT USB stick or HD).

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 12:01 pm 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.

There's that word, "simply", again :). It simply isn't as simple as you think. It's not sufficient just to shuffle files around, you actually need to make the installed applications work under wine after their existing installation has been moved like that. At what point would the wine prefix be created, and how would that be implemented? You are forgetting that so, so many applications in Windows need to store something in the registry, for example. You would need to access the Windows registry, find application specific data for the programs you wish to include and migrate over, then create an appropriate setup under wine, handling the correct Windows versioning, other possible configuration file locations, devices that the applications are set up to work with, blablablabla. Transferring already installed stuff like this is _not trivial_ ! It would need case by case considerations and a team of people tackling one application at a time to test the migration procedure. It's just a tremendous amount of development time for, as dolphin_oracle put it, minimal gain.

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 9:41 am 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.

Users can simply learn how the directory structure works in Linux. Linux Directory Structure Explained for Beginners

Wine might not be the best solution, in most of the cases especially for games it's better to use something like Proton from Steam.

Most of the user should just install Steam from MX PackageInstaller...

In Windows, each app has a unique (to it) installer that has NO repair option in GUI.

In MX Linux, the MX Package Installer (user app Software Manager), a GUI, has several buttons:

• Install and Uninstall appear and when one app is checked,

• If an app is already installed and a newer version is available, Reinstall and Upgrade is offered.

• MX Fix GPG keys is an app that checks and installs missing apt GPG keys. A GUI for what otherwise would be a terminal typing task.

Windows programs only offer a part of the above in their installer app. The programs that didn't join the Windows branding have installers that vary widely in what they offer and look like.

One of the features of MX Linux that sets it apart from the other Linuxes is the collection of GUI apps that preclude the users from having to use the command line. The 33 plus MX Tools are as follows:

Live - Live USB maker and Snapshot.

Maintenance - Chroot Rescue Scan, Boot Options, Boot Repair, Cleanup, Disk Manager, Job Scheduler, User Manager and Samba Config.

Setup - About MX Linux, Bash Config, Nvidia driver installer, Conky, Date & Time, Locale, Network Assistant, Select Sound, System Sounds, Tour, Brightness Systray, Tweak, Welcome, Papirus Folder Colors, System Keyboard, System Locales and User Installed Packages.

Software - MX Updater, Deb Installer, Fix GPG keys, Package Installer, Repo Manager and UEFI Manager.

Utilities - Quick System Info and Format USB.

A few tools exist in special cases. Live-USB Kernel Updater and Remaster Control Center are standalone tools. Eject USB is a standalone tool in Fluxbox and Xfce.

MX Tweak is a GUI collection of many settings that were too few for their own app but needed in GUI for new to Linux users. This app has options tailored to the edition - Xfce, KDE or Fluxbox.



Folders In the user's home folder the directory structure is similar: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Public, Templates, and Videos. If missing the My prefixing of each is too foreign they should stay on Windows!

Wine was addressed by another post in this thread. My experiences in the past still make me twitch. Seek the Linux equivalents of the Windows apps. In more than a few cases they are superior in function and disk space usage.

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 12:01 pm This is easy stuff any live distro can do

Can you provide a functional example of this?

If all these things can be done manually, from a live CD distro, then why can't they be automated, for honestly who knows how many potential future Linux users, who at the present point barely managed to master some obligatory Windows office software their employers absolutely demanded? I admit, I'm just a computer enthusiast, but not a computer geek like you guys. I see the Linux terminal, by the third attempt at getting anything fixed through it, I'm done! And the exact same thing is with the other 95+% PC users, simply don't having the patience needed here. Wine is exactly already bending to MS Windows, and if you want more Linux users, simply let people use the software they wish to use, as easily as possible, cause the more easy it's gonna be, the more morons like me you'll have using Linux. Nobody wants to use Windows, they just want to use the software they mastered with really a whole ton of effort, cause as I've mentioned, 95+% PC users simply aren't computer geeks. If you want users, your cookie jar has to have their favorite cookies.

This is a topic dedicated to ideas, and that's exactly just that. Nobody's pulling anybody's leg to do anything they don't want here. MX is still my most favorite distro, above even OpenSUSE, which too has a feature that makes it a lot better than the rest, YaST, just still could be even better. If you're not interested in these ideas, you guys should think about an internet traffic controller, just like in P2P software, cause just like with P2P software, you sometimes still wanna have reasonable internet access, while in this case updating the system, or having the system download something else. This would be really helpful in developing regions, where internet speed is a problem.

DukeComposed wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 1:47 pm

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 12:01 pm This is easy stuff any live distro can do

Can you provide a functional example of this?

How else can you get rid of such garbage like Avast, AVG, or Avira, if not through direct access from, let's say, a Fedora live CD/pendrive?! Maybe things managed to change, but some time ago, good luck with gutting that crap out of Windows any other way!

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 1:47 pm why can't they be automated

For the reasons already stated above. Like DukeComposed asked, can you provide examples? Where and how (exactly, in no uncertain terms) is this trivial to achieve? It's easy to say it is easy, but how? I've got a Windows machine pretty extensively set up with various software tools, what can transfer that into a Linux environment in the way you describe, and how?

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 1:53 pm

DukeComposed wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 1:47 pm Can you provide a functional example of this?

How else can you get rid of such garbage like Avast, AVG, or Avira, if not through direct access from, let's say, a Fedora live CD/pendrive?!

That means no, you can't.

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 1:53 pm How else can you get rid of such garbage like Avast, AVG, or Avira, if not through direct access from, let's say, a Fedora live CD/pendrive?!

Removing software so that it _cannot run_ is an entirely different problem to solve than migrating installed software from one OS to another, as is, so that it _can run_.

Nokkaelaein wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 2:16 pm

AlexKidd wrote: Mon Jul 07, 2025 1:53 pm How else can you get rid of such garbage like Avast, AVG, or Avira, if not through direct access from, let's say, a Fedora live CD/pendrive?!

Removing software so that it _cannot run_ is an entirely different problem to solve than migrating installed software from one OS to another, as is, so that it _can run_.

I was referring to NTFS file system access from a live Linux ISO.

How can all of this be automated:

!. Live ISO scans NTFS file system for directories.

2. GUI wizard lists the usual, or all in "Advanced mode" Windows directories, like Pulpit, user folders, x86 and x64 Program Files to check off which to keep.

3. Live ISO installer first partitions just enough space for the chosen Windows directories, and moves them to this new partition.

4. Live ISO partitions the rest of the disk and installs the distro from the live ISO (hopefully MX), next merges the 2 partitions together.

5. The newly installed distro scans the integrated Windows Program Files folders for .exe files and components, checks every .exe file online what problems occur during a standard .exe execution attempt, if any further Windows system DLLs are required by Wine, Proton, or any other MS Windows compatibility layer, and if so, and it doesn't require a license, downloads all of it to the required Wine or Proton directories.

6. Finally, every working Windows.exe file gets listed in the distro apps launcher, dedicated to Windows software.

Another whole new different idea would be a new, very lightweight DE, even more lightweight than Xfce, like Enlightenment light, but with Compiz built in, cause if there's any eye candy capable of selling Linux, personally, I feel nothing does it like Compiz! Put everything on a transparent dock, like MacOS, with transparent and "zoomable" home screen widgets you just need to hover the pointer over, to zoom in big and opaque from the background. And give it a pretty tropical fish aquarium live wallpaper, or some Tamagoochi interactive alligator feeding live wallpaper, or something like that capable of capturing a given audience, even allowing them to get more users, like those annoying fb game requests (for me they're sure annoying)!

And automatically give access to the Wine settings of the given .exe program from the window it's running in, like screen resolution! Instead of manually going into Wine options in what resolution, what volume played, etc you want the given MS Windows program running, make it available from the very program window, like you have minimize and optimize! You guys dig?

There is a part of the word 'no' that you are not getting. If the Oracle says 'not gonna happen' then you can go on till you see blue in the face, but it is not gonna happen. So.. either you make one of your own, or go ask elsewhere. MX obviously isn't the place to provide.

I've never been a Windows user, but I see a lot of Windows users (and ex-Windows users) on Linux forums. Most of them keep Windows for those things that they can't (yet) do in Linux, while learning. I've seen a lot of them say that they still have a Windows install even though they only go into it to let it update, and a lot who decide to finally cut it loose. Rather than asking the devs to make their Linux more like Windows, they make the effort to wean themselves from the legacy system.

I think there is a place for people who want to make a Linux distro that saves people from the effort, and I encourage them to get busy and create one.

I don't get religiosity when it comes to OS, I use Windows at work and I'm perfectly fine with it. I put MX in WSL and I'm also fine with it (it has some limitations over running it on real hardware, but that's fine with what I can do on a work machine).

Linux is fun and it's free... don't make it unfun for people to use because you are on a high horse preaching about it. Also, I doubt most of the people here use Linux because they want to run programs under wine... if you want to run Windows programs you are better off with Windows.

The proposition was presented and rejected. This thread is locked.