this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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The Windows Interface You Didn’t Like, For Linux (hackaday.com)
submitted 2 days ago by cm0002@lemmings.world to c/linux@programming.dev
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If you were asked to pick the most annoying of the various Microsoft Windows interfaces that have appeared over the years, there’s a reasonable chance that Windows 8’s Metro start screen and interface design language would make it your choice. In 2012 the software company abandoned their tried-and-tested desktop whose roots extended back to Windows 95 in favor of the colorful blocks it had created for its line of music players and mobile phones.

Consumers weren’t impressed and it was quickly shelved in subsequent versions, but should you wish to revisit Metro you can now get the experience on Linux. [er-bharat] has created Win8DE, a shell for Wayland window managers that brings the Metro interface — or something very like it — to the open source operating system.

The most beautiful horror to ever exist lmao

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[–] ulterno@programming.dev 0 points 21 hours ago

The looks of the UI were never bad at all. There were other problems:

  • The larger distance between icons made it worse for cursor users. Specially for trackpad. But this is just a tradeoff, as it made it better for touchscreens. Also, this is the only problem with the design.
  • Laggy context menus and overall slow animations
    • This made it objectively worse for all mouse users
  • The method to access a list of all applications was also undesirable
  • No easy access to exit options
    • one of the versions I had to use, didn't exit to desktop on Esc key.
    • Where do you find the Shut Down button? I actually started using the terminal to shutdown the computer on these systems.

There was a similar looking UI in Windows Phone and it worked pretty well for me. I actually liked that one more than the Android UI. So, in this case it really was the substandard execution.

[–] AnarchistArtificer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

That fact that this exists is Art

[–] Affidavit@lemmy.world 100 points 2 days ago (4 children)

This is mean-spirited. Someone created something that they like and shared it with others, and people (who are clearly not the intended audience), are taking a big public dump on it.

I didn't like the Windows 8 start menu, but attacking someone who did like it and who is sharing how to experience the same thing on Linux, is pretty dickish IMO.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 35 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's one of the aspects I like from Linux: The ability to make the desktop your own. And, like you, I'll defend that preference and choice regardless of how terrible it is ;)

Sometimes for no apparent reason I will reconfigure my desktop to look like an old OS (Workbench, MacOS, OS/2, etc..)

[–] Affidavit@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That’s one of the aspects I like from Linux: The ability to make the desktop your own.

100% this.

Every time I try a new distro I spend 1-3 hours messing around with the settings, themes, and widgets to get things exactly the way I want it. This is why Linux rocks.

I am not a developer, but I can only imagine how demotivating it would be if I were to put in the effort to develop a layout I like, share it with other people, and then encounter a post like this.

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 4 points 2 days ago

Most opinionated people hated the Appearance Manager in MacOS, but for me it was a huge highlight of running that OS, with a dear preference towards "Drawing Board".

There's a mockup that mocks me as I do really wish this could be done: https://www.pling.com/p/1219916

And then Apple decided to close down any tweaking and convert it into a single look because the great leader wanted uniformity and some brand bs: https://www.wired.com/2002/10/the-mac-os-that-cant-be-tweaked/ - paywall

[–] agentshags@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Workbench? How does one go about doing this, I'd love to feel like I was on an Amiga again lol

e: also is there a way to make my shell look like the commodore 64 blue screen

[–] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 4 points 2 days ago

You will have to submit to XFCE, I have it as a spare when I feel nostalgic from my daily DE (KVM).

Icons are.. hard to accomplish:

There are a couple of png libraries out there, so it is possible to recreate either the 3.5 or posterior looks, however the older workbench with its lovely drawers and different sized icons is something I haven't achieved.

You can still pick a modern DE, add png icons to the desktop and recreate something like this without the filesystem navigation (or prefs): magicWB

(I found interesting the lower bar with the nextstep-like icons, though this was on 1994 so..)

[–] addie@feddit.uk 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

AmigaOS is still available and able to run all your Linux favourite applications as well as 'classic Amiga software', except of course it requires you to be running a PPC processor. Plus it costs money. So you'd have to invest £lots in 'most of a new PC' to see whether it even works for you.

Now, if we could open-source it and get it running on x64, I'd love to be running workbench again. It was ahead of its time.

https://amigaos.net/

[–] SharkWeek@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago

Or you could just chuck AROS on a bootable thumbdrive.

I have my old Amiga hard drive image with Workbench 3.9, and sometimes start it up in an emulator ... it doesn't take me long to remember that guis have come a long way since the Amiga was relevant :-/

[–] prettybunnys@piefed.social 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The windows 8 start menu could be dope if you took the time to theme it like we did with windows of yesteryear.

My start menu was customized for the things I wanted, steam quick launch links that looked like steam big picture links.

It was clunky at first and quite the change from the normal start menu … but MacOS JUST ditched its full screen “start menu” and gnome still has one

[–] AbsolutelyClawless@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Duality of Linux community. On the one hand people can be extremely helpful and nice; I'm way more likely to find a solution to a problem, niche or otherwise, for a Linux system than Windows. On the other hand the community can be unbearably toxic and gatekeep like no other.

[–] Logical@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My feeling so far is that there are few meaningful generationalizations that can actually made about the online Linux community. It's a very diverse set of individuals. To me the gatekeeping elitists seem more like a vocal minority, but I'm sure that varies a lot by distribution and forum.

[–] AbsolutelyClawless@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The main thing I encountered has been gatekeeping the OS itself. I.e. you have to be a Linux nerd/expert to be allowed to use Linux. I personally haven't seen that type of gatekeeping for other OSes. It's literally just an OS. There are dozens of distros one can choose from. There's something for everyone. I'm sure it's just a vocal minority, but they do exist.

[–] emeralddawn45@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

I've pretty much seen the opposite. Windows fanboys love to come up with excuses for why they COULDNT POSSIBLY switch to Linux but most of the Linux users I've seen are constantly trying to convince people that it's NOT that intimidating and that you DON'T need to be a super genius or nerd to use it.

[–] Velypso@sh.itjust.works -1 points 2 days ago

Lmao, you must be new to the linux community.

That's like the main linux nerds do

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 74 points 2 days ago (2 children)

this is INCREDIBLE news for approximately 3 people on the planet lol

[–] Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 32 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I have to imagine at least 2 of those 3 worked on it

[–] squirrel@piefed.kobel.fyi 19 points 2 days ago

It's gotta be 4 to make a full set of tiles

[–] jimmy90@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (3 children)

i'm one of them - i loved the ideas behind it and its potential

it was realised in the zune and windows phone UIs but unfortunately too unpopular to make progress in the desktop

[–] Hubi@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

I loved the Windows Phone UI but I absolutely hated the tiled menu on desktop. It was actually the main reason I left windows behind.

[–] janus2@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I KNEW one of you 3 was a Lemmy user

[–] curbstickle@anarchist.nexus 3 points 2 days ago

Another here - it was great if you bothered to set up groups. Filter for the name quickly on the keyboard.

It was set up by default to be kind of shitty, wasn't explained well to users, and overall a failure - IMO - of presentation, not product.

[–] stephen01king@piefed.zip 4 points 2 days ago

Windows Phone UI, especially version 7, was amazing to use. Unfortunately the UI got worse in version 8, IMO, and the concept was even more badly implemented in Windows 8.

[–] angstylittlecatboy@reddthat.com 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Unironically could be great for Linux tablet users...is there any?

[–] Die4Ever@retrolemmy.com 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Some people run Linux on the x86 Surface tablets

[–] ScientifficDoggo@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

Yup, and i might just grab this to try on mine.

[–] hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org 16 points 2 days ago

I didn't really like it on desktop, but it was pretty okay on a tablet (Surface Pro). Also ran really smoothly on my potato machine with Pentium 4, so I kinda get why some people miss it.

[–] Funnynate08@fedia.io 20 points 2 days ago

This belongs in a category of things I'm glad exist but I will never use

[–] DmMacniel@feddit.org 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It lacks the most fundamental part of it though: live tiles.

[–] brian@programming.dev 7 points 2 days ago

no it doesn't, you just have to add them for apps yourself. the readme has a whole section dedicated to live tiles.

[–] xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 17 points 2 days ago

Gee. Um, thanks.

[–] belated_frog_pants@beehaw.org 5 points 2 days ago

Yay a bad idea was revived? But i hope the 3 people that will unironically love this, have the best time

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Metro UI is good... For tablets and phones. But it doesn't work with the keyboard mouse combo.

[–] sorghum@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Makes you wonder why it died on tablets and phones.

[–] e8d79@discuss.tchncs.de 24 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The few people I know who had a Windows phone really liked the UI, the platform was just mismanaged by Microsoft. For example, they already had a problem with having too little apps in their store and then they broke app compatibility between Windows phone 7 and 8. I guess Google intentionally breaking compatibility of their services on Windows phones didn't help adoption either.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

A bit ironic when Microsoft struggles because someone else keep breaking compatibility. Although I would prefer it to keep trying because that would have been more choice and competition in the mobile OS land

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 9 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Microsoft windows has historically had pretty great backwards compatibility compared to macos, android or iOS; and pretty great device compatibility compared to basically everything.

[–] TacoSocks@infosec.pub 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think this is because they are forced to because of how many companies didn't want to update software to the latest OS. I remember the times when Microsoft had all sorts of compatibility issues with XP.

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I remember being able to play fairly old games with 'run in compatibility mode for '98' or something (a right-click menu item maybe?), so guess we have different recollections there

[–] TacoSocks@infosec.pub 2 points 1 day ago

That feature came about because of all the compatibility issues. I can't remember but I believe one of the service packs really enhanced compatibility mode to make it functional.

[–] sukhmel@programming.dev 5 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I had in mind their office they changed every now and then to break compatibility with FOSS office, afaik this is not the only thing they did like that, but support for running old software usually was decent, true

[–] Soapbox@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

I actually loved this interface on my surface pro 2, especially when windows 10 came out and it would auto switch between this in tablet mode and a normal desktop when the keyboard was attached. I grew to like the same design language in the desktop start menu as well. Windows 11 was such a downgrade in UI.

That said, I will take the freedom of linux and customization options of KDE plasma any day.

[–] notso@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago

[–] varnia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 2 days ago

I see one use case: After office computers switched to Linux and someone forgot to lock the desktop.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Thanks, I hate it.

[–] xep@discuss.online 6 points 2 days ago

I loved Metro and miss it.

[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

This would be great for Linux tablets/touchscreen stuff

[–] finalaccountforreal@piefed.social 1 points 2 days ago

Finally!

[–] BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

Looks cool, would try it