Vixta Linux 2009.7
Where To Get Help
You can always post a note in the Desktop Linux Reviews Forum and we’ll do our best to offer feedback or at least point you in the right direction. You might also want to check out the Vixta forum on SourceForge.
Final Thoughts & Who Should Use It
Vixta probably appeals to a very small audience for the most part. Those who genuinely like the Windows Vista look and feel will probably enjoy Vixta to one degree or another. Distro hoppers will also have fun playing with it. But beyond that there really isn’t much here that lends itself to me recommending it for use as a daily desktop operating system. Most people will be much better off with regular Fedora or with one of the many other distributions out there.
Windows users looking to switch to Linux would be much better off with Linux Mint as their starting distro insead of Vixta. While Linux Mint may lack the Vista-like look and feel of Vixta, it’s far easier to install and will provide a superior overall experience.
Still, Vixta has its place as – at the very least – an interesting curiousity. I suspect that whatever interest there is in it will fade quickly once Windows 7 arrives and Windows Vista is relegated to the dustbin of computing history.
Summary Table:
| Product: | Vixta Linux |
| Web Site: | http://xange.serdigital.com/ |
| Price: | Free |
| Pros: | Resembles the interface of Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. Based on Fedora. |
| Cons: | Very slow install. Doesn’t offer any way to run Windows programs. Adds little value to the desktop experience beyond mimicking Windows Vista. |
| Suitable For: | Distro hoppers mainly. Windows users new to Linux would be better served by starting out with Linux Mint instead of Vixta. |
| Summary: | Vixta is an interesting curiosity that will amuse distro hoppers for a few minutes. |
| Rating: | 2.0/5 |
(8 votes, average: 2.25 out of 5)
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Desktop Linux Reviews Forum
So it cannot run standard Windows apps, it takes a long time to load, and its default apps are pretty slim pickins? Sounds a lot like Vista to me…
As far is Vixta fading, no doubt, frighteningly horrid a thought it may be, there is somewhere something like a “wix7″ already waiting to emerge in time to replace it (shudder)…
@ lefty.crupps:
Heh, heh. Way to sum it up, lefty.
@ David Sugar:
Yeah, good point David. I’m waiting for that one to emerge. I’ll certainly do a review of it if somebody makes it.
Sadly, given the way KDE designers latched onto Vista style in the 4.x series, I wonder if the next five years will treat us all to Linux desktops aping Win7…
To paraphrase something I said in another context, this is a bad idea done badly. In the first place the installation must work simply and smoothly because Windows folks have never done one. So this might be a problem area? Oops!
We have no Windows emulator running by default so our poor refugees cannot bring along any comforting applications as they wander into the Land of Linux.
Biggest problem? They are kidding. Linux is NOT Windows whatever the superficial desktop gingerbread – period. And our refugees will find that out the fist time they go in search of multimedia codecs or discover that their games will not run.
Biggest problem: Aside from an exercise in desktop design, just who is this for? What practical problem does it solve?
Only one way to find out. Do the actual full installation. Then gather up a half dozen Windows Vista types and let them play with this thing. (Umm, they discover that Vista is a better Vista?)
Jim’s suggestion of Linux Mint is a very much better idea. It more clearly is Linux, so it steps around false impressions. It will install and it will work. That seems rather fundamental to the enterprise. The half dozen will get along with Mint better than they will with “Vixta” (ain’t we clever). One or two of them might even like it.
If you want Windows users to switch to Linux, you have to give them an alternative that looks and acts in a familiar fashion. KDE is only one desktop option. The rest of the Linux community can use whatever they want.
@ The Doctor:
I don’t agree. Apple has been successfully converting Windows users for years and OS X is entirely alien to most Windows users. I would suggest it boils down to how easily the user can answer the question “How do I…..?”
I personally believe that if you create software that will functionally perform the tasks that you need to perform well, there will be an audience for your software. It may not include everyone in that audience, but the better the software is in terms of functionality, the more likely that will be the case. If the software is both functional and familiar, and works better than what the alternatives are, you are likely to do even better.
Based on Jim’s review, Vixta appears to do neither of these things. It tries to look like Vista, but it does not functionally replace Vista. It doesn’t even perform as well as the Fedora distribution upon which it is based. This seems to be little more than a user interface test exercise, and unless it works better for others than it does for Jim, it is of limited, probably VERY limited, use. This is another one that I will choose to pass.
In contrast, I just updated my sidux instance today. I have XFCE, KDE, LXDE desktop environments and probably a half dozen window managers installed, included a few that bridge the gap somewhere between window managers and desktop environments. They all work well, every one of them, and some of them are downright fast. On that system, apparently between yesterday and today, Debian Sid repositories were updated from KDE 4.3 to KDE 4.3.1 (because just yesterday, I updated another one of my test systems with sidux updates; there were plenty of them, but they were KDE 4.3 based only yesterday). So today I am trying out KDE 4.3.1, and as part of my testing, I am using the Konqueror File Manager and Web browser. As a browser, it still isn’t the fastest game in town rendering pages, but I’d say it’s probably up to what Firefox 2, maybe even early Firefox 3, was capable of doing as far as rendering pages. It starts up a lot faster than most browsers because it inherits most of its libraries from KDE. I wouldn’t use it as an every day browser, but it comes in handy at times anyway.
As far as KDE 4.3.1, it is looking quite good overall – and I can even use the classic KDE 3 menus. I think it is a highly functional full desktop environment. Though I do not use it all the time, I do use it at times when I want a full desktop or I intend to use many KDE based applications. It works very well and has many useful desktop applications. When I don’t need all of that, I tend to use XFCE instead. sidux has both of them and they both work well. No need for Vista or Vixta here!
Vixta seems like a “pretty skinned” fedora!. the reason you may have had trouble is Kde 4x is quite stubborn on virtual machines! 4.3 seems to work a little better. have you ever run Fedora Kde 4x from live cd? because it doesn’t look like vixta changed that much they just put a pretty theme and installed some apps on a fedora base. so i don’t think they could have screwed anything up unless there super smart! Hey maybe you should put a extra hard disc partition aside to test distros! great review though.
So you drive a Ford and have done so for years. You’ve gone through the various ‘upgrades’ from the small 4 cylinder 1.2 litre 2 door model to the 3 litre 4 cylinder, dohc, fuel injected, turbo charged engine, bucket seats, onboard engine management system, electronic dials and lcd displays, with bluetooth radio, cruise control blah, blah, blah.
Someone offers you a brand new car, full spec, all the extras free of charge. If your new car doesn’t have it as standard, call into the service centre and lift it off the shelf and fit it, free of charge.
NO! NO! NO!
Sorry can’t drive it because it’s not a Ford. A car is a car, if you’ve driven one, you’ve more or less driven them all, bar a little getting to know where the controls are.
I use Windows all day in work, at home everyone uses Linux Mint. Under the covers the two systems are different but in essence both systems are the same. Its got a word processor, a web browser, an email client, an IM app, a music app, photo manipulation system.
Unless your running apps that are really only developed for Windows then I fail to the problem making a switch.
To browse the web Firefox is almost as common place on Windows as IE, so there is some commonality there, Open Office again is available on Windows, so no problem there either. The ordinary joe uses the PC for browsing the web and IM. Running a live CD is a good start but the user has to be wiling to open their mind..