Filed under: OS, Odds and ends
FlyakiteOSX
PC users deserve a nice user interface just as much as we Mac users do. It is a shame that they have to suffer along with Microsoft's secondhand UI though. However, there is one thing that Windows does much better than OS X does and that is customize its appearance.Lots of sites have popped up offering PC users who long to have a Mac a way to skin Windows and make it look more like OS X. FlyakiteOSX is one on them.
Why am I mentioning it here? Their website is the reason. It looks very much like an OS that you and I love, and it is very cool. No matter how cool it is, though, it does teach us why OS design and web design are not the same thing.
Found via the Apple Blog.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Twist said 2:32PM on 6-21-2005
Man I wish we had theming stuff as nice and powerful as WindowBlinds, Windows Media Player XP, and WinAmp.
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gwm said 9:15AM on 6-21-2005
heh. Their 'Spotlight' is a Google web search. :-)
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andrew said 9:54AM on 6-21-2005
After switching to Mac last year, I learned that the only thing sadder than using a PC is using a PC trying to be a Mac. I installed this on my PC at work the other week and removed it after 5 minutes because I found the experience entirely too depressing.
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froopyloot said 5:43PM on 6-21-2005
Flyakite is the only way I can deal with using my work PC. It also peevs the IT guy... which is worth it.
~m
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Nik said 1:37PM on 6-21-2005
Their website managed to crash my browser... I dread to think what would happen if I actually install it...
Did anyone ever notice that there aren't ANY applications that make MacOSX look like Windows... curious...
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Brian said 2:09PM on 6-21-2005
I tried it out last week for a day or so. Overall I liked the look and feel of things, but the main reasons I enjoy my Mac are the ease of the dock and QuickSilver. With FlyAKite I installed RKLauncher and everytime I restarted it went back to the default shortcuts. Annoying.
Bigger probem: Everytime I restarted my PC my firewall (ZoneAlarm) asked about every single program. Usually it only asks if they're new or they've changed, but I guess FlyaKite makes it think they're all changed. Weird and unacceptably annoying.
And yes, the website crashes Firefox for me almost every time.
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Tom Anderson said 6:58PM on 6-24-2005
Just tried FlyaKiteOSX 2 yesterday, though the website crashed my browser too, the install seems to have gone well. Just a quick note for those with less perception: it modifies some of your main system files (explorer.exe is one of them) and several others. But it's still fast and has worked out for me greatly so far.
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Peter Reinhardt said 9:39AM on 9-25-2005
great software. No problems after installing! Looks great now on my desktop. Finally the WinXP desktop looks like a professional OS.
Good work, guys!!!
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