Windows XP and Linux Mint: Brothers at the interface (Gallery)

5 of 6 NEXT PREV

Windows XP desktop

Say hi to my rather cluttered Windows XP SP3 desktop. Other than the mess, the only thing that's different from a typical Windows desktop is that I've placed the menubar on top--where it was intended to be! :-)

Published: March 31, 2014 -- 00:04 GMT (17:04 PDT)
Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon desktop

And now say hello to my much neater Linux Mint/Cinnamon desktop. You'll notice that except for having the Menu button on the top left instead of XP's Start button, it looks pretty much like XP. Mint/Cinnamon does more than than that, it also works--left-click to select, double-left-click to run, right-click for properties--just like XP.

Published: March 31, 2014 -- 00:04 GMT (17:04 PDT)
Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
WinWord on XP

Here we have a typical Windows XP application--Microsoft Word set to use menus instead of the annoying ribbon. You know it well.

Published: March 31, 2014 -- 00:04 GMT (17:04 PDT)
Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
LibreOffice Writer on Linux Mint

And, here we have LibreOffice's Writer application with a document. Notice how "different" it looks from Word? That's right. It's doesn't. It works the same and it can also produce Word-compatible documents.

Published: March 31, 2014 -- 00:04 GMT (17:04 PDT)
Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Windows XP Start Menu

Here we have my XP Start button menu. I'm sure it looks familiar to you.

Published: March 31, 2014 -- 00:04 GMT (17:04 PDT)
Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Linux Mint Menu

And, here's a closer look at Mint's Menu. Do you think you can pick this up after having used the Start Menu for years? I'll bet you can, with no trouble at all.

Published: March 31, 2014 -- 00:04 GMT (17:04 PDT)
Caption by: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols