Flattery is a wonderful thing!

What I thought was funny was that I read this article a couple of days after I had gone to visit a school for something computer related (I was evaluating the school's helpdesk program). I looked across the room and noticed a machine with what looked like an OS X desktop, with the exception of the menubar...it didn't look quite right. That and the fact that this was displaying on a PC monitor at what looked like 60 Hz refresh rate. At first I though maybe it was a Mac that was hooked up to a PC monitor, but OS X would have detected the best refresh rate for the monitor and set it to that. I then realized that this was a WINDOWS PC modified to look like OS X.

I find it funny that people who poopoo Apple and the Mac are the same people that want to make their desktops look like it. So sad.....so very very sad.... :D
 
Now they just have to figure out how to apply ShapeShifter themes. ;)

Incidentally, the least popular SS theme is "Windows XP." :p
 
andychrist: Duh! ;)

I think the main market for the Windows OS X themes are people who want to have a mac but can't afford them, and people who have a mac and are forced to use a PC anyway.
 
No dlloyd I think the people who want those themes think they're just prettier than what's on windows.If you were to take a survey of all the wintel crowd how many do you think actually sat down in front of a mac & said I wish I had that?I still have neices & nephews who haven't even tried out my mac.:(
 
A buddy of mine and his sons were over yesterday and were marveling at the fact that we have 2 Macs in the house. When I opened iTunes and showed them some of my collection they were stunned that you could have music on a Mac. When I burned a CD for them they were amazed that it was so easy. After all, they had been taught that Macs were worthless and couldn't do anything that PCs could do. Now they want to come back and look again...
 
baggss said:
A buddy of mine and his sons were over yesterday and were marveling at the fact that we have 2 Macs in the house. When I opened iTunes and showed them some of my collection they were stunned that you could have music on a Mac. When I burned a CD for them they were amazed that it was so easy. After all, they had been taught that Macs were worthless and couldn't do anything that PCs could do. Now they want to come back and look again...
Click to expand...

That's what kills me. I work with PCs all the time as well as with Macs, and when Wintel people see the things I do on my Mac they respond in the exact same manner! HeLLo?!??! Especially with music applications. I mean, Apple has been the standard for a long time in the recording studio for a reason. THEIR SYSTEMS WORK!!! I have used some Windows applications for music composition, but they just doesn't feel right. I started composing on the Mac years ago, and that's the only thing that will feel natural to me as tickling the ivories.
 
Like i always say you can't sell car to the masses without at least taking a test drive first. how it drives, feels & functionality (controlls etc)

Would you buy car from a photo without seeing the inside? the interface thing is good on XP i bet it will switch a few people to OSX.
 
I can't stand the XP interface. I prefer KDE's Plastik theme better than Windows XP's default theme. I always end up putting it back to Windows Classic. What I find funny is that one of Longhorn's themes (I think it was Plex) looked a lot like Plastik. And this Aero interface tried to look like the brushed metal Panther interface. I mean, c'mon! Can't they at least TRY to make it look a bit different?? Even Windows 95 to Windows 2000 had widgets taken from NeXTSTEP!
 
Yes, I have to use a Windows XP machine at work, and I always switch it back to the classic theme as marginally less rubbish than the default Windows XP theme. What gets me is that the proprietor of the Aqua-theme website that Wired interviewed is still spreading falsehoods: "For example, Mobydock is as fast and smooth as the real OS X dock, and it includes plug-ins for checking things like e-mail and the weather. To get similar functions in OS X, the dock has to be hacked, Mazer said." - Simply untrue, and anyone who uses a Mac can verify that the unread mail count can show up in the dock, and apps like Meteorologist display weather in the dock.

The lesson: don't talk about things you don't know about.
 
I'm writing this very message on a skinned XP machine - I've had XP skinned as OSX since Jaguar was released. I've always had a mac too, but until I can get my webcam working on it, I have this one as my main internet machine.

I use a plethora of programs; I hate MobyDock, as it doesn't WORK for me, I use a port of Max Rudberg's SmoothStripes under StyleXP for the window GUI, I HAD a Safari skin for Firebird, but it died with the last time my user profile got corrupted on this machine (freaking Windows - that's the fourth user-file corruption).
I love having the look of the Mac on this computer. On both my PowerBook and this computer, all desktop icons are hidden, and I use navigation programs combined with the dock to navigate the computer.

I don't go to any REAL trouble to make my XP box a Mac - that takes far too many resources from an 800MHz Duron with only 512MB DDR RAM - but I like to have the elements of the GUI that I'm a fan of adorning my screen.

It has converted one of my friends, infurated several others, and continues to be a huge deciding factor on my investing in the newer PowerBook (I had been using a PowerBook G3 WallStreet previously).

In some respects, I wish I could make OSX behave a little more like XP, in terms of folder sorting and the ability to switch off or tone down some eye-candy (shadows, primarily); I'm just a person who wants the best of both worlds.

And this computer is hooked up to the bigger screen :p.
 
texaspenguin: what folder sorting, to be precise?
Also, there is a haxie to turn off shadows, made by the same people as Shapeshifter, etc.
 
dlloyd said:
texaspenguin: what folder sorting, to be precise?
Also, there is a haxie to turn off shadows, made by the same people as Shapeshifter, etc.
Click to expand...
I think he might be talking about the way XP folders sort files and folders. Specifically, XP sorts folders by name, THEN files by name.

I personally find this way of sorting confusing. Often times I try typing in the first few letters of a file or folder I'm looking for, and instead of having to look in one place, I have to remember to look in the folder section AND the file section. It should be a preference somewhere I guess.
 
Oh, I see. I never realized that was what it was doing, but now you mention it, that sounds right. I never liked it :)
 
I think a lot of people just don't like Macs because they haven't used them, and they think they're some kind of PC ripoff. I had a guy once tell me that Macs suck because you "have to use an Apple mouse"

i like to think of Macs as the Window's PCs intellectual counterpart. I have a few friends whose parents are research scientists (biochemists, chemists) and all of their labs are stacked with Dual G4 desktop systems
 
MBHockey said:
i like to think of Macs as the Window's PCs intellectual counterpart. I have a few friends whose parents are research scientists (biochemists, chemists) and all of their labs are stacked with Dual G4 desktop systems
Click to expand...

Ok, so this has obviously turned out to be the age old mac vs pc debate. So as a new user to this forum, I'll throw in my 2 cents...

Regarding the issue of XP skinning...
Some people here seem genuinely offended by XP skinning of the OSX gui. While it seems that most of you are tolerant, a few seem a little edgy on the subject. I too believe that Apple itself as well as you, the users should be "flattered" by those particular PC users who have (either out of envy or necessity) have emulated the OSX enviroment. In part because some of these users will end up joing your camp, in part because those who don't are still making the statement that Apple is always doing something that makes waves and it gets people's attention.

On the age old debate of what is better...
Let me ask you guys something... Why must one be better than the other? Why must one be clearly superior in all categories over the other? Let me explain my thoughts a little better...

I'm a graphic designer by trade. I've been professionally designing for almost 10 years now. I have used PC's (obviously), Mac's (Apple II, G3 and up), SGI workstations, Media 100's, and Avid video editing workstations.

On the peripheral front, I use applications from Photoshop to oil canvas. From digital photgraphy to film photography, from pen tablets to pencil or paint brush. From Flash MX 2004 to straight HTML coding.

Here's my point... The question isn't what is better or why. You will never convince a PC user that a mac is better. Nor a mac user that a PC is better. The reason is because they were never meant to be compared that way.

Use what works for you. Sometimes it will be a PC, sometimes it will be a Mac. Sometimes it will be oil based canvas painting, sometimes it will be digital airbrushing with photoshop. Don't dog one over the other. There are advantages and disadvantages to everything. Nothing and I mean nothing was, is, or ever will be "perfect" for "everything". Flawed creatures (that would be us) create flawed products. There is no way around this.

Why am I saying all of this?
I've noticed for the better part of graphic design career that there have always been two types of designers...

1. The ones who are more concerned with their equipment than design.
2. The ones who are more concerend with their design than equipment.

Guess which one does better in life overall?

Final summation...
This is a major issue of tolerance.

PC users that apply: Stop bashing on Mac's if you haven't used them. Learn to appreciate that their are other machines out there aside from Wintels that are seriously innovative, robust, and can perform certain tasks much much better than youe XP riddled machine can. There is life out of Micro$oft and in a lot of cases, it is MUCH better than you think so stop being ignorant and open your mind. Oh, and Bill Gates is NOT God.

Mac Users that apply: Stop playing elitests. Mac's don't make you better designers, photographers, journalists, brand consultants, business users, etc. If you need a Mac to tell you that you are better, smarter, or more important, than you need to go back to square one and find out who you are in the first place.

Oh, and Steve Jobs is NOT God.

To everyone else: If you aren't the two types of peeps I just spoke about, more power to you.

Oh and btw: I'm also using a VAIO Z1 laptop right now skinned to look like Mac OSX and quite a few components to emulate OSX functionality. I also play with my partners powerbook G4 all the time, and you know what? I'm picking up a G5 next month. =)
 
Well said, well said. But back to the topic and away from that ages-old war. Or rather: To my own experience with skinning PCs to look like Mac OS X...

There _always_ seems to be something missing - and that's the 'feel' part of the 'look & feel'. It's very strange, too... I was running Rhapsody DR2 on an AMD K6/200 MHz box a long time ago, when I was also using Rhapsody DR2 on my PowerMac 9500/200 MHz. While I wouldn't say that the '200 MHz' made them equal machines (the PowerMac cost nearly 6000 USD, while the PC cost me 1000 USD), they had the same FEEL to using it. It was a strange feeling. That PC felt like a Mac in many ways, suddenly.

I never got that feeling back when I sold that machine, because I never got Rhapsody to run on newer machines (kernel panics while installing, Rhapsody is quite picky...). So I used Windows (which I had to, anyway, since I have PCs to test Windows things on, basically) and tried to skin it to a Mac. But really: However close the _look_ came, the 'feel' part never worked for me. And I think that's _more_ than half of what's to using a Mac.

(I hooked up my old iMac-type graphite USB keyboard to the PC, which helps a _lot_, I can tell you, but still: Not the same thing.)
 
Right on Fryke, right on... No matter how you skin, mod, or hack XP to "feel" like OSX, it will never do. Apple has done some real innovative things with their brilliant UI developers, excellent hardware planning, and strong proprietary software development.

Hopefully, the wintel crowd who've been skinning their wintel's will eventually make the move over. Good things ahead.
 
@
Regarding the issue of XP skinning...
Some people here seem genuinely offended by XP skinning of the OSX gui. While it seems that most of you are tolerant, a few seem a little edgy on the subject. I too believe that Apple itself as well as you, the users should be "flattered" by those particular PC users who have (either out of envy or necessity) have emulated the OSX enviroment. In part because some of these users will end up joing your camp, in part because those who don't are still making the statement that Apple is always doing something that makes waves and it gets people's attention.
Click to expand...
You're right about that one. I once had my WinXP desktop looking like an OSX desktop and I impressed alot of people with it. i did have a screenshot of it but i cant find it! :(
I hadn't even used a Mac before we bought our iBook but whenever me and my fiancee were out and i saw any mac's i always had to look! :)
now we own one and are very happy! :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top