Lin-X Linux 1.1
In my last review I took a look at a distro that looked like Windows Vista. This week I got an interesting suggestion on the Request A Review page from Jai Ho about a distro called Lin-X. Lin-X is a remastered version of Ubuntu designed to look and feel like Mac OS X. Lin-X has turned the cool Apple logo on its head a bit by putting in a skull and crossed swords. Surely an act of blatant defiance of Steve Jobs and his lawyers. We’ll see if anybody at Apple notices this amusing act of rebellion.
What’s New In This Release
I looked around for details on what was new in this release but since the developer site is offline at this point, this brief bit of text was all I could uncover.
· Boot and system sounds do not work with the sounds window disabled
· This will be fixed (hopefully ;p) with the next release. However we apoligize for the inconvienence.
If you know more details about what was updated please post them in the comments.
Requirements & Installation
Since the Lin-X site is not available I could not find exact install requirements. But since it’s based on Ubuntu you should simply bear the Ubuntu install requirements in mind. I had a few problems with the install which I’ve detailed in the problems section. Suffice to say that once you actually get the install going it’s about the same as installing any other Ubuntu-based distribution which means that it’s not difficult.
The Lin-X login screen features an apple logo complete with a skull and crossed swords.
Since it's based on Ubuntu, it's pretty easy to install Lin-X once you get the installer started.
(3 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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(4.70 out of 5)
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I guess I’ll just have to get over the coolness of this distro. Without enough information to really deal with it and no assurance that there will ever be an update or any further development, this is a hard one to go after, but just like before, I always enjoy reading about these niche distributions. Sometimes I even go out on a limb and get a few of them, but I tried the Hannah Montana Ubuntu variation, I actually have instances of Live Android working in my Virtualbox OSE, plus I have Tiny Core, Tiny Me (in a Unity Linux 3.7 prototype skin), a really off the wall version of Debian called Canabix, so I think I have enough unusual distros in my collection right now. I use them for research and for amusement, but return to my every day systems for most of my activities, and my every day system remains sidux right now (with antiX, SimplyMEPIS, and Debian Stable providing a solid core, and backup should anything “happen”). That’s enough for right now. Besides, SimplyMEPIS is starting to gain steam on their 8.5 effort, and I want to help out with it, and antiX is bound to be active testing its next release soon, and I want to be an active part in testing and promoting those two – a couple of my long term favorites.
Yep, I’d classify this one as a fun curiosity but not something to really be used on a day to day basis. Distro-hoppers might have some fun playing with it.
While I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, this is clearly NOT the best way to make your desktop look like a Mac. Rather than relying on a shady offshoot of Ubuntu with little support, why not just re-skin your existing Ubuntu install? That’s what I’m running right now, it looks and feels great, and the only problems I’ve had are people unfamiliar with GNU/Linux thinking its some sort of Mac ripoff (grrr).
Anyway, a combination of the Mac4Lin theme, Avant Window Navigator with the OSX skin, OSX fonts, the Global Menu bar, and a few other tweaks, you can make your fully Canonical-supported Ubuntu distro look just like this. In fact, here’s a tutorial: http://mihirknows.blogspot.com/2009/05/turn-ubuntu-jaunty-into-mac-osx.html . Its easy enough to do or undo for your average GNU/Linux user, and is a fun little project that shouldn’t take nearly as long as setting up a whole new distro.
Actually Lin-X Linux is based on MAC4LIN project
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin/
Its developed by Anirudh Acharya(infra_red_dude)
http://phoenix-ani.blogspot.com/2009/06/mac4lin-ver10-released.html
You can see more screen shots at
http://143sachin.tumblr.com/
Jim, i have a suggestion for you…
while doing reviews about linux distros,please give their performance in multimedia…while most of the famous distros does not support multimedia on the spot,it will be useful for news users….
That is one advantage given by Lin-X live dvd…you can test everything on the spot (multimedia,AWN etc) and it will help newbies….
If you already have installed ubuntu no need to download Lin-X LInux…just download the 33 mb tar file from mac4lin project page
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin/
For more, you can find step by step procedure in how to forge….
http://www.howtoforge.com/mac4lin_make_linux_look_like_a_mac
I remember years ago using some distro that allowed you to pick a MacOS theme from the selection of themes. This was the “old” Mac OS desktop complete with wrong sided window buttons.
It too was fun to play with for a while, but eventually I switched back to the default KDE.I think they eventually got threatened by Apple or something as I have not seen it since.
No matter how hard I try, I just cannot get into the Mac interface. It is just slow and cumbersome to me. Since this is just a Mac’ed up version of Ubuntu, I would just rather stck with that.
Beyond that, this seems like yet another distro built by the author to prove that he could.