Reply to post: @Solarflare: There's a GUI for that, I think.

@Solarflare: There's a GUI for that, I think.

Q4OS: Control panel | Settings | Look switcher.

Can't vouch for its operation, never used that feature. There are a lot of customization options, themes and window-trimmings and whatnot, all gathered under the Control Panel applet.

Coincidentally, I've been running Q4OS on a 32-bit Toshiba laptop, originally Vista, for a year or so. It has seen many, many distros walk across its hard drive before Q4OS. The distro in hand is pretty much as reviewed, fast and trouble-free. The desktop is much like a generic Windows, pre-8.0 mashup, if one imagines such a thing. Chrome, Firefox, VLC, Libre Office, and multimedia codecs are installed if you so choose. IIRC, the install took 10 or 15 minutes to first boot.

The only niggle is that Google has quit updating 32-bit Chrome, so you get warnings there, but it's not an OS issue.

There's been an effort to make Q4OS Windows-user friendly: Control Panel, My Computer, Start button, taskbar at the bottom, notifications lower right corner. Desktop icons if you want them. But of course there's no C:\ drive... ;)

I've been on Linux and Mac at home for many years now, but I think the classic Windows desktop GUI remains an ergonomic choice. Not just because it is familiar, but because it's a sensible way to organize applications. And, as many have said, applications are what we use. The desktop GUI just enables them.

The Q4OS team appears to be targeting the business market. The OS is free, but customization-and-support options can be had for a price. I hope they make a commercial go of it. It seems a very sensible distro.