Windows or Linux

[mnrvovrfc]

Lovely!
So is that someone's attempt to create a Linux distribution with the look & feel of Windows 7? 
One of the biggest complaints I've always had about Linux is the whole feel of the GUI, the little things like 

• the mouse doesn't "grab" the windows or window edges or other objects in the same easy way as Windows (all the way back to Windows 3.0 even! I haven't tried anything earlier). I hate the feel of the mouse in every single version of Linux I have ever tried :-O
  
• the right-click behavior & menus
  
• the Windows key & Start menu behavior, keyboard shortcuts (such as F2 rename, CTRL-A to select all files in Explorer, etc. etc.)
  
• the Start menu search bar
  
• Linux just seems to run more herky-jerky and slowly at times. Not as smooth as the Windows experience.  
  
• The 1000 other things that are manual in Linux that you don't have to think about in Windows!
  

One nice thing about Linux is that everything is in the file system, configurations and settings aren't hidden in a registry like Windows (unless they are, and I don't know it? I'm no Linux expert!)
:

Do you KDE Plasma much?

I'm not a Linux expert neither, not even an intermediate but certainly not a newbie. But I'm happy to share my knowledge based on experiences.

TL;DR

Do you care about Linux only in "virtual box" mode? That's why it runs "herky-jerky". It's not designed to "replace" Windows but it also doesn't like being put in after-burner. Linux was meant to be an alternative to Windows and MacOS for those users who wanted an experience more towards Unix, but not "hardcore" like NetBSD. It's a compromise between what worked for a limited few people who knew about systems programming, and the masses who tend to seized by the eye and "want it now".

Linux could be "smooth" too but it requires a lot of knowledge and patience. There is advice that works only for a specific user's system, but people tend to follow it and become frustrated. Meanwhile, what could work for one on Windows could work for many thousands because M$ is so hard-pressed for profit to make it that way. Discipline is hard, when the user decides to fix what isn't broken, "it runs fine the way it is", or having to update to see if it's more "smooth", to see if it's more "cutting-edge". The user is challenged to have an Internet connection over discipline. If you have noticed, there is indeed a high cost for "smooth" Windows experience: impossible to recover a disk that it fouls up (common with pluggable USB disks), impulsive updates for those still on Windows10, caca-de-toro about being able to update or not on Windows11 according to the equipment bought, and many other things I don't want to mention because I don't like debating.

There is no "registry" in Linux but it has a combination of settings in user's "home" directory, and in "/etc" folder which are more system-specific. For example, "/etc/fstab" has information used by "mount" and "unmount" terminal commands to keep track of disks and partitions. Screw up that file and you might not be able to access any of your disks unless you grab a terminal, edit that file and reboot. It has to be done in Slackware sometimes... I would look more into it if it would let me install onto an external USB disk instead of internal hard drive only...

It might come down to desktop environment for you. GNOME could be very frustrating to people who don't want to give up Windows. It used to have a style which made better sense for portable phones, preferring touch screens over computer keyboards. KDE Plasma could be better, tries harder to please Windows-only people but it could also gobble up a lot of RAM, hard-disk space and CPU time. XFCE is lighter but might not be to your taste; I used to prefer it but cannot kill the animations such as the stupid scrolling sliding in the text editor called Mousepad. XFCE is preferred by the developers of some distros like Void, for people who must have a GUI desktop precisely because it has a smaller memory footprint than GNOME or KDE. There is also MATE (pronounced with short vowels) which looks more like WindowsXP, can defeat all the animations for sure. There are many other desktop environments but most of them are rather Windows or MacOS unlike. I suggest looking things up in Wikipedia.

I would recommend checking out NeptuneOS if you don't mind using apps not common on Windows like GIMP and Libreoffice. It has many other programs but managed to keep the ISO below 3GB. It's based on Debian and comes with KDE Plasma desktop environment. Be forewarned that if you like playing games and expect to use Wine, the version of Wine is behind other distros like Fedora and Void. This applies to anything based directly on Debian. It might not matter for most games anyway. I don't know that much about DOSBOX and Steam and other game-friendly modules because I don't employ Wine to play games.
https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=neptune