Posted on 12/26/2009 6:50:42 PM PST by nickcarraway
From the Chinese pirate masters of the non-sea-faring variety comes ... Ylmf OS! Not happy with pirating Windows XP itself, these creative Chinese have gone one step further and hacked Ubuntu to look exactly like Windows XP. Why have they moved to Ubuntu? Because their previous release -- a pirate version of Windows XP itself -- is being cracked down on by Microsoft.
If you clicked the link above, you'll notice that the entire site is in Chinese with no sign of any button that'll magically turn it into English, but if you navigate to the download page, there does seem to be five links to the ISO that you can download. Initial testing, and the screenshots, would suggest that the OS's GUI (graphical user interface) is purely Chinese too, but if you find out a way to convert it into American/English, let us know!
This isn't the first time copycats or pirates have imitated a prevalent operating system. Cloned in China reported on the case of Tomato Garden Windows XP, another pirate distribution, where the creator was jailed for 4 years and fined $147,000. China has very lax piracy laws, but I would expect Microsoft to lean rather heavily on its friends there -- if they have any -- to make sure Ylmf OS is stamped out quickly. It might not be Windows itself, but you can sue for GUI copycatting too!
All in all, despite the questionable legality, it really is a great-looking copycat; almost pixel-perfect. I wonder if Ubuntu developers are happy, or despairing.
ReactOS (www.reactos.org) might be a better bet for most people.
I’ve been frustrated by flaws in my Windows XP for years. Have the Chinese managed to resolve these problems?
XP is old news. Why do they waste their time copying that?
Nice work! Blue screen even has a funny easter egg built in.
Domain Name:YLMF.ORG
Created On:24-Jun-2005 05:51:16 UTC
Last Updated On:26-Jun-2009 00:29:08 UTC
Expiration Date:24-Jun-2016 05:51:16 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Guangzhou Ming Yang Information Technology Co, Ltd. (R1745-LROR)
Registrant ID:090426023828000
Registrant Name:Lai linfeng
Registrant Organization:YlmF
Registrant Street1:songshan lake
Registrant City:DongGuan
Registrant State/Province:GuangDong
Registrant Postal Code:523808
Registrant Country:CN
Registrant Phone:+86.076923075555
Registrant FAX:+86.076923075888:
Registrant Email:115@115.com
Admin ID:090426023828000
Admin Name:Lai linfeng
Admin Organization:YlmF
Admin Street1:songshan lake
Admin City:DongGuan
Admin State/Province:GuangDong
Admin Postal Code:523808
Admin Country:CN
Unless they provide the source code free they are in violation of the Ubuntu agreement too!
XP is old news. Why do they waste their time copying that?
Because they were smart enough not to copy Vista?
fine whatever!
This is linux not windows! They only made it LOOK like XP.
See post 10
ReactOS looks pretty cool, thanks.
lovit
Thanks martin. Shiver me timbers. My question is, is this fake immune to SmitFraud? ;’)
These are just interface tweaks. Wake me up if they ever get Ubuntu to run XP programs in native mode.
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