heironymouscoward's Journal: Instant review of Xandros/2.0

Or, what they got right.

I'll make it brief - it's 6.45 here in Brussels and I really want to go into town to get an Orval at the Metekko.

First, Xandros installs sweetly. Rapid, efficient, etc. When I first tried Lindows I was impressed that it could format and install the hard disk in under 7 minutes. Xandros does this trick too.

Caveat: there are some boxes that Xandros does not work on. You might want to try Knoppix on your box first (not quite the same hardware detection layer, but close).

Second, the Xandros user interface is perfect. I mean this literally: there is not one thing I could do to improve it. It's KDE with a clean set of applications, well organized, with no junk and no flashing lights.

Third, the Xandros File Manager is by itself worth the $40. It automatically mounts every partition and device in sight. It handles USB sticks, CDs, network drives, everything. It includes CD burning that my mother could use. This is proprietary software, written from scratch by Xandros, and it is 100% quality. This is the biggest visible difference between Xandros and other Linux distros: on a fresh Xandros install you can click on almost every interesting file, and something useful happens. packages install, zip files open, documents launch, images view, etc. It Just Works.

Fourth, Xandros is Debian. apt-get works. You can install the many Debian packages, or build from source (which is safest if it's not a Xandros-prepared package), and I've customized my system nicely.

Fiftly, Xandros (the Delux edition) has Windows support that actually works well. Crossover Office is built in, so clicking a Windows executable runs it (if Crossover/Wine supports it) transparently. I use this to run MSIE.

Overall I'd say that Xandros is somewhat conservative but impeccably finished. It is the BMW of Linux distributions: you can take this anywhere and give it to anyone, and they will never wonder 'what the heck?' In my company I've pushed a number of people to use Xandros in place of Windows, and it's always been a smooth ride.

There are some things missing. A built-in firewall would be useful. More applications. Gnome as an alternative to KDE. But this is a product with a good future: already the differences between Xandros/1.0 and 2.0 show a determined and focussed attitude to delivering the goods.

I give it 9/10 (the missing point is for the missing applications I had to get myself from the Net: k3b, kate, etc.), and I expect Xandros/3.0 to be 10/10.

Thanks

[Zirnike]

Much obliged. When I get cash, I might just build up a system for it. Would it run well on a P2-300 (dual)? If not, I may buy a cheap system to try it.