Review of New Xandros 4.1 Professional Linux 139
holden writes "OpenAddict has a review of the new Xandros 4.1 professional.Some of the big changes in professional include a newer kernel, AIGLX, and support for 3G wireless. One of the subtle, but still very important changes, is that Xandros has finally removed the registration requirement, and users can now access Xandros Networks without registering first. Techworld is one of many that is already looking at Xandros as a possible challenger to Windows Vista"
What's its niche? (Score:2, Insightful)
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I would suspect (I haven't used this particular version) that its niche is the same as RedHat/SuSE. It aims to be a Linux distribution mainly for business use, with a specific emphasis on Windows compatibility.
That said, I would like to see how Xandros reacts to the Novell/Microsoft deal. With Novell poised to take the lead in Windows compatibility, it seems that Xandros is fading into another "me-too" Debian based distro.
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FWIW, this Xandros 4.1 Professional Edition seems to be the replacement for Xandros Business Edition; they are both aimed at desktops. The only thing really new for Xandros niche-wise is their enterprise-level serve
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I used to use it, but I felt bad for stealing, so now I use kubuntu.
For the non-technical, it's worth the money. IMO it's the best 'desktop' linux in existence.
For the geeks, you'll probably want to install something like kubuntu and tweak it until it works like xandros (ntfs support, aiglx, nvidia drivers, wifi drivers, etc). They add a lot of value to debian, but I
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The "niche" for this distro is: Anyone who wants to install Linux in 20 minutes and have everything running pretty much out of the box. X 4.1 Pro has kernel 2.6.18 which is just what I needed to get to brand new SONY DSC-HS5 digital camera to work flawlessly with Linux. My DVD-RW works fine out of the box. My NVidia video card has full 3D function and TV-out ope
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Part of my ire comes from the jerkwad parent poster who couldn't even read the executive summary paragraph. Still though, I don't have a choice for what works, I
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image =
root =
label = 2.6.14
read-only
#Other crap
other =
label = Windows
table =
With appropriate changes to fit your circumstance of course
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The shared bar between applications on MacOS still infuriates me
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Besides there are plenty of ways to save even more space. The real waste of space isn't the menubar - its the window decorations. I keep windows around on my desktop for games but I use Zen on my laptop with Fluxbox - I like having everything at the click of a mouse and if you turn off window decorations and bind some keys to clo
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PenGun
Do What Now ???
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Anyway, I'm posting from my PowerBook right now...
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There are many flaws to this system as well. I can't stand it personally and even though I don't like it the "normal way" either (you're right that it e.g. wastes space) I'd prefer each application with it's own menu bar to the osx style.
Also X
Re: Menu Bars (Score:1)
Again there are alternating comments upon the ease of use of Xandros. I'm a moderate user...
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A nice fluxbox/windowmaker, multi screen, I run 5 with keyboard shortcuts CTRL/Right-Left arrows. So a bunch of instantly accesible windows. No damn bar at all. Right click on vacent screen, or the wierd key between the windose and ctrl keys on the right, for a menu. Lots of keyboard shortcuts. Alt-m for mail is as fast as you can do it.
It's so much faster and easier than an
Transition, transition, transition! (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the biggest conceits within the Linux community is "Of course it't better, so just use it". Even if it's true, you need to help people along the path. Think of it as a language. If I could *prove* that, for example, Esperanto was a better and more efficient language for communication I would have a hard time making people switch if it was completely unlike anything they had ever seen before. There needs to be a strong tie to the language they already know to ease the pain of switching, or else it just isn't worth it.
I could ramble on about the problems, and where Linux apps really aren't as polished as Windows (Gaim vs Trillian for example) but I'm pretty drunk right now. Typing this much has been a pretty significant accomplishment.
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As far as the OS goes its pretty but a distant second to Windows.
I have a Mac and a PC (XP) and I won't take sides on what's a better overall system because both
have their merits. But in terms of usability, OSX has that infuriating icon bar at the bottom
which doesn't nest with sublevels. The file system has a weird horizontal orientation in the
'explorer' which smacks of "we need to look different from Windows" logic. The window maximize
feature (which doesn't lock to t
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But, to be fair - you can set the dock to autohide so it's only there when needed. And if you drag a folder to the dock you can treat it like a hierachial menu if you right-click it.
Right-click? Yes! OS X has context menus all over the place. If you don't like using the keyboard to emulate a right-click, just buy a half decent USB mouse instead. It'll work seamlessly.
I agree about finder though. Although that column view is only one of several views.
Trackpad behavior under Tiger (Score:2)
If you haven't used Mac OS X lately, or not at all, give it a spin. It's been good since Panther, Tiger is nice, and Leopard will make the new MacIntels fly thanks to more native IA64 code. It's like Linux only more thin
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have their merits. But in terms of usability, OSX has that infuriating icon bar at the bottom
which doesn't nest with sublevels. The file system has a weird horizontal orientation in the
'explorer' which smacks of "we need to look different from Windows" logic. The window maximize
feature (which doesn't lock to the screen) is also infuriating. But most of all... and this is
something that I cannot forgive Apple for:
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So... Apple wants me to go and by a Logitech mouse for their superior-design computer?
I'll continue to call b.s.
Its time for Apple to pull their stick out of the mud and admit that their precious mouse has been radically improved upon by the design of others.
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For all the MS bashing in the linux world, why do all distributions use a crappy gui that tries to copy the crappy startmenu/explorer interface of MS? It sucks, copy apple at the very least.
Sometimes even MS get something right and the interface introduced with W95 is, in my opinion anyway, one of those things. I really like the basic idea behind that GUI. I do not however like how they do their operating system. I prefer *nix so by using GNU/ Linux with KDE I get the best of two worlds.
One typical Linux thing that's not in Win that I particulary like is the ingenious pager. I have just a 15" display and utilizing multiple desktops makes handelig of many open programs a breeze. So by having
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I started out using UNIX-based systems only, at home, in October 2004, so it's already been two years for me. I tried SuSE, Solaris, Slackware, FreeBSD, Debian and Ubuntu, and so far, I can say that Ubuntu is the one that I liked most.
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CD burning issues (Score:1)
I assume this problem exists on Windows as well but is ignored. Because Linux is by nature multi-user these sorts of problems are more serious. You wouldn't want someone to be
cache (Score:1)
http://www.openaddict.com.nyud.net:8090/page.php?
I am impressed (Score:4, Informative)
I am one of the very few slashdotters that have publicly said that Xandros, Freespire and especially Xandros are one of the best distros out there. I even contributes a few days ago that these distros actaully work as advertised.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=208360&cid=169 89294 [slashdot.org].
What came out of that contribution was being touted as one who had contributed flamebait!
Now, with this view from Techworld, I feel very happy inside. This makes me wonder why there is all this hype about K[U]buntu, which is dogged with all sorts of bugs. Thanks once again to the folks at Xandros.
Re:I am impressed (Score:5, Insightful)
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*IF* such a case were to happen, and beings that Apple with their Mac OS-X runs only on Mac
Re:I am impressed (Score:4, Insightful)
Add to that a company which seems to be floudering with their flagship products and promising to go on a lawsuit binge and you can see trouble coming from a mile away.
Re:Search for Challengers (Score:2)
The average marketeer knows it's nearly impossible to convert these users so don't waste too much energy on them. Apple does waste a great deal of energy on them over the years and look how it hasn't really worked.
What does work is finding the consumers ready for a change or urgently needing something that they can't get in windows and building on them.
That's why when I see opinions flying about "as good as Windows" wh
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It was modded a flamebait it WAS a flamebait. And this one was too, not because you're praising Xandros, but because you're making baseless accusations or at least vast overgeneralizations and mudslinging other distros with them.
So maybe Ubuntu didn't work for you out of the box and Xandros did, and as such one must be worthless piece of shit ant the other best ever. Guess what? That doesn't happen to everyone, no matte
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Ku/Xu/Ubuntu is free as in beer. Of course, Freespire is as well, but they have the "we used to be Lindows and the community turned its back on us" gorilla on their back to this day. They've made good strides and I've suggested it as a Windows replacement to a few family members.
Another thing is that Ubuntu has pretty successfully taken most of the ideals of the Free Software movement and made a pretty
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Tell me about it. I like kubuntu as a live CD, and so I tried deploying it "for real" for a group of four workstations which needed a temporary *nix desktop. It was a nightmare. For some reason, two of the machines were never able to apt-get a particular package because of a circular dependency. With adequate documentation(1) and a tiny bit of time, I might have figured out the solution. But with only six
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We are just so relaxed about computers
PenGun
Do What Now ???
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And since I went from HPUX directly to GNU/Linux, I can't say that I have any idea what sort of d
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RE:(1) — Did you happen to try adept [ubuntu.com]? ...or explore the Ubuntu
wiki [ubuntu.com]? ...how about the forums [ubuntuforums.org]? Anyone
can tell you that apt-get is a fair package-installer, but not the best
at package management. Had you tried adept, you
may have been able to find a solution in time.
Personally, I use original-flavor Ubuntu. (Gnome) I understand KDE is regarded as a more powerful environment, but it certainly has its flaws.
The kUbuntu documentation is very informative regarding some of the basic functions. (even afte
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And yes, I went online to the forums. Which is a poor source for primary documentation, especially if you're trying to set up a networking (another problem I had with k/ubuntu). The forums didn't help, but three pages into a google search, I found a clue that eventually led me to the cause of the problem. The X package I was installing needed a newer Y package but older Z package. I couldn't figure out how to down
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But Ubuntu restored my faith in Linux.
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I've tried the last 3 releases, and its no better and in some cases substantially worse, than Fedora. I cant speak for the others as I've not tried them.
Mark me as flamebait, thats fine. Just my personal experience. Ubuntu isnt the second coming as some would lead you to believe.
bad moderation? (Score:1)
Features? (Score:5, Interesting)
The ability to write to Windows NTFS partitions
Seamless Microsoft Exchange connectivity
If an enterprise already has a Windows environment, why would they be interested in upsetting everything and installing new Linux workstations? I'm not saying Linux can't perform, but keep in mind that if things are running smooth already, the least of their costs are going to be Windows client licenses. They are spending money on Windows servers for file storage, mail, directory services, etc, so they may as well use Windows as the client software as well. Vista isn't going to be this enormous expenditure because most corporate computers will not upgrade to Vista until the computer hardware is replaced anyway.
This sounds like just another one of these "Linux Is Read and Poised To Overthrow Microsoft on the Desktop!" articles that Slashdot sees every couple months (especially around the end of the year, when next year just might be the Year of Linux).
Re: Unique features? (Score:2)
The ability to write to Windows NTFS partitions
Seamless Microsoft Exchange connectivity
Can't I already do that with debian?
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Re:Features? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Also, could try QNX, it's fast, fancy, and lacks even more software than BeOS
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This seems to be my reply-don't-mod day....
If we grant your assumption that things are indeed running smoothly, then there's no reason to change. But in my experience with Windows, I've yet to see a place
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>everything and installing new Linux workstations?
Let's say they've done some math and come to the conclusion it's cheaper to keep a few servers,
and replace all the desktops to avoid the yearly tithe to the Church of Bill. Then it makes some sense.
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Say you are fed up with 2000/XP security issues, and you want something better. You have heard that both Vista and Linux are more secure. Then a 2-year-old existing PC upgraded to Xandros Professional is $99; buying a new PC that can run Vista will cost an order of magnitude more.
Alternatively, for an older PC nearing the end of its life, buying a new one that
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What a bold statement, and supported by nothing. What do you know, marketeers and reporters STILL have no problem spewing BS that makes no sense, as long as it attracts attention.
This sounds like just another one of these "Linux Is Read and Poised To Overthrow Microsoft on the Desktop!" articles that Slashdot sees every couple months (especially around the end of the year, when next year just might be
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Well if you had actually read the summary and the article you would understand that the product is called "Xandros Desktop Professional, and that based on the features listed and discussed, is most likely being touted as a possible challenger to Vista Business Edition. Maybe Techworld didn't spell it out for you, but I assumed that features s
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A few years ago.. (Score:3, Insightful)
It came installed with Mozilla and not Firefox. This is where the road back to Win2K/Xp stared. Looking thorugh their software repository I searched for Firefox and it wasn't there. So I check the forums. I found a post about installing Firefox. Well it was about 7 pages at that time. Reading through the first two showed me that no way in hell was I going to go through all the admin mumbo jumbo just to install Firefox. I was too lazy from trying out several destop distros that day.
Anyways I went back to windows cause it just works. Now before I get flamed by the "You're just too stupid to run Linux" fanboyz, know that I've ran/run and setup Slackware 10.1 and FreeBSD 6 web servers at home with no problems so my techincal abilities/curiosities are above the average computer user but what had to be done to install Firefox on XandrOS was just retarded and this is what keeps a steady supply of new users away from Linux. Most joe/jane average computer user has no problems finding/installing and configuring software preferances but thats if its provided for them through an installer.
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Why wouldn't you just install Firefox on Xandros the same way you'd install it on Windows? Sure, there's an "unzipping" step, but if you went through all the effort to install an OS you can handle double clicking on a tarball and hitting the "extract to..." button.
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Seriously. There seem to be two kinds of "Linux is hard" forum posts:
- A user tries to do something simple and finds the absolutely most complicated way of doing it. (i.e. compiling Firefox from CVS)
- A user tries to do something complicated and unnecessary (i.e. installing XGL by hand on a distro so old that it has libc5, or connecting a Linux machine to a Windows NT 3.51 machine by AppleTalk through an IPv6 V
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Use versus deployment vs management (Score:2)
Now in terms of deployment, Windows sucks. Everything has to be hand managed. The patches required to deal with the security problems, spyware, adware is huge problem. And manag
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fast forward 10 years into the apolyptic future. linux is the desktop king. you don't think spyware, adware, et al is going to exist? i mean by that notion, microsoft had it pretty damn easy in the windows 3.1 and early 95 days, remember? if linux can solve the problem, explain why a bunch of heavily paid microsoft researchers cannot do the same thing.
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Et Tu Mac OS? (Score:2)
Not sure what you mean by enterprise though. AIX, Sun, Z/os, OS/400 are all perfectly capable enterprise systems.
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second.. dude, re-read my post i was talking about the desktop. that said we all know aix, sun, etc. are enterprise ready. windows has become the defacto standard that everyone sees when they walk into an of
Backwards compatability. (Score:2)
Two words: backwards compatibility.
What kills Microsoft and produces problem after problem is their requirement (driven by perceived customer need) to have long backwards compatibility. They can't 'clean slate' things as often as Mac OS or Linux can.
If some part of Linux is demonstrated to be insecure by design, chances are somebody will decide it's ugly and rewrite the thing. Sure it might get patched, but eventually some pr
Challenger to Vista? Yeah Right (Score:1, Informative)
Corel and Xandros and Microsoft (Score:2)
As well, IIRC, Corel sold their distro to Xandros about a year after Microsoft pumped $135 million of much needed cash into Corel in a "joint development and marketing alliance [forbes.com]" to get Corel to port their various Windows apps to the
Prior to this, Corel had been poised to port WordPerfect to Linux (natively - I believe there was already a WINE-based port) and were working on all sorts of initiatives to help make desktop Linux competitive wi
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I have the full tarball running fine on Debian (needs libc5 and xlib5). Sure a pleasure to use compared to most newer word processors, at least on my old hardware. For the hell of it I tried installing the deb on Ubuntu but it wanted to backlevel and remove a lot of stuff.
Corel Linux was a nice distro.
I want ONE computer, already... (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we get past the idea that we have to have two completely separate computers... one for gaming and one for business? This is 2006. I think we can have one machine that does both.
XP Professional does both. Hell, even Macintosh does both to some level.
Telling people that they should dual boot is not going to get new users any time soon.
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A linux distro should not be more than $40 (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Xandro 'Free Copy' Consists Of A 30 Trial Only? (Score:5, Informative)
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True enough. And I can refuse to go anywhere near it. Choice is good!
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The companies that include by default do so out of good practice and community spirit.
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Well, that, and it's probably easier to just throw the source in a tarball on an ftp server and forget about it than train a secretary on dealing with an obscure request that only comes up twice a year.
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For a system that is supposed to work friendly with a Windows environment OCE 3.0 has some serious limitations. As a normal user I can't write to a Samba share every other Linux distro I've used has no trouble with. I have to change files on the serve
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Actually, most folks who run Linix/*BSD/whatever don't do it due to Windows costing money.
Having an OS that doesn't suck is priceless.
Using Windows drives me nuts.
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There, I fixed that for you.
You almost made some good points, AC.
Windows is still a cesspool I choose not to swim in whenever possible.
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You're confusing "works" again.
I don't think it means what you think it means.
Converting all those nasty Unix boxes to Windows back in the day took many an IT department from a part time job for one engineer to a full time job for 20 monkeys. Been there. Done that.
MOST "software" is written in house, for in house use.
People seem to forget that.
With Windows, you
Mod poet up! (Score:2)