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May 13, 2003

Same Tune, Different Year

Seven or eight years ago, when you installed Red Hat, you got a desktop that looked sort-of-kind-of like the default Windows 95 desktop, right down to the teal wallpaper and cute little "Start" button (except with a ShadowMan logo). As much as Red Hat's heart was in the right place, this was eventually understood to be a Bad Idea because of what people took to calling the "Martian User Interface," something similar enough to seem familiar, but alien enough to be really, really uncomfortable after a little use: the not-quite-Windows interface fell apart under any attempt at actually using it like Windows.

Lindows, it seems, has reinvented the phenomenon in 2003, and El Reg isn't particularly impressed.

Lindows kvetches, btw, are nothing new here.