14 DAY TRIAL // The Linux platform is extremely flexible, and it can be implemented pretty much anywhere, either as a server, a firewall or as an OS for your heating system at home. The same flexibility allows users to customize their operating systems to look like Windows, and that is somewhat of a paradox.
The Linux community has always belittled Microsoft and its effort of making Windows secure. Security has been one of the major advantages of Linux over time, and that hasn't changed until today. When you draw the line, Linux will be much more secure than Windows. The main reason is the fact that it's open-source, and it's extremely flexible.
Linux users usually don't want to have anything to do with Windows or anything related to it. When a Linux distro commits the mistake of looking a little bit like a Windows OS, the result is always pretty much the same, ridicule from the community. That has started to change a little bit in the past few years because the Linux community is getting a little younger. The distros have become much easier to install and use, so many more people have migrated to Linux, and some of those users don't have anything against Windows. They simply don't care about the ancient "feud."
Long gone are the days when Microsoft believed Linux to be a cancer or when Linus Torvalds was saying that he would be happy when Microsoft went out of business. Those things happened, and it's just a matter of history, but the feud was real, and it's still buried deep in the conscience of the community.
Linux systems looking like Windows feel out of place
I've written numerous articles over the years about various methods that were available for this kind of transformation, and a lot of people were interested. Sure enough, there were a lot of people opposing Linux transformations, but that is beside the point. Themes and icons that imitate Windows 8 are published even today, although no total transformation pack exists right now.
The problem is that despite everything Windows is accused of, the design doesn't seem to be one of those issues. A good part of the community doesn't consider the design choices of Microsoft regarding Windows to be a problem.
There is at least one desktop environment that I know of which makes this choice deliberately. It's called Trinity DE, and one of its most recent implementations is in Q4OS. You could say it's a Windows clone because it copies pretty much everything, including dialogues and installation procedures for apps.
So, the question remains? Why do some Linux users want so desperately to have an operating system that looks almost identical with another? Is there anything more to this than just curiosity? Is it possible that users see a benefit in the Windows desktop that is not present in a Linux OS?
These are honest questions, and you are free to try to answer them. Every time I post an article about how to turn your system into a Windows lookalike, I always get this question: Why would you do that? It's something that I can't answer, and maybe some of you will help me and the rest of the community understand this.