HOTDOGbuntu - Make Ubuntu look like classic Mac, Atari ST, Win 3.1, & Amiga systems
Because more ways to make modern Linux look like retro computing systems is always a good thing.
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We’ve covered a number of ways to make your Linux systems (of any distribution) look like a wide variety of classic Operating Systems: from Windows 95 to Mac OS 9 to Amiga OS.
If you enjoy that sort of thing, you will love HOT DOG Linux.
HOT DOG is a complete Slackware distribution bundled with a custom set of packages to make it easy to switch between classic Mac, Amiga, Atari, and Win 3.1 themes.
But, what if, you want to make your existing Ubuntu installation look like an Atari ST… and you really don’t feel like installing a new Slackware-based distro?
Now the HOT DOG Linux project has a package available for Ubuntu: HOTDOGbuntu.
How to make this work on a semi-modern, 64bit Ubuntu system:
You’ll want to make sure a few dependencies are installed:
sudo apt install feh compton xterm
Download the HOTDOTbuntu package from the HOT DOG Linux download page, and install it.
Log out, and select one of the HOTDOG options (Amiga, Mac Platinum, etc.) as your Desktop Environment and log back in.
Shazam! Your’re all set! The best of HOT DOG… but on whatever Ubuntu variant you happen to be running.
Now… some thoughts on HOT DOG Linux:
First and foremost: I love this. So much. The developer did an excellent job of making it simply to switch between the styles of some classic operating systems. Hard to be upset about that!
That said… The experience is not perfect. Fonts are spot on in some spots, but slightly off in others. Same with cursors. And the “top bar” of some systems.
In some ways you get more system accurate recreations of these retro systems using HOT DOG than you can typically accomplishing using typical themes (such as I’ve done in my articles). In other instances… the results of HOT DOG are a little off compared to the theme tutorials found on The Lunduke Journal.
Be warned: HOT DOG does not do any sort of UI scaling. For anything. So if you have an HD screen, everything — from buttons to text — is going to be crazy small. Make that resolution lower to make the experience better.
Where HOT DOG really shines is with how quick and easy it is to switch between each style. Absolutely love that.
In the end, if you’re using Ubuntu, I highly recommend grabbing HOTDOGbuntu and taking it for a spin. Would love to see some improvements (especially to the Windows 3.1 and Atari ST styles)… but it’s already super fun. And recaptures the look of each system pretty nicely (except for Windows 3.1… that one is a bit off).
Full subscribers to The Lunduke Journal get a mountain of perks: 10 DRM-Free, eBooks, video games, exclusive articles and podcasts… just so much goodness. And if you really want some extra awesomeness, take a peek at the Founding Member subscriptions.
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Glad to see that the Self-Destruct-Sequence is disabled by default.
I like the Mac Classic Platinum look... I might even try for it. The yellow background of Win 3.1 seems ... wrong to me.