“The “premier release” of Xandros, formerly known as Corel Linux, is being released today at the Xandros.com Web site. Individual users can pick up a copy for $99, and corporate/enterprise users will see a discount price for multiple licenses. I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of Xandros to play around with. This distribution is Linux through and through, but it could just be the Linux that will truly snag a market that is looking to escape from the confines of Windows.” Here you can also find an interview with Ming Poon of Xandros. OSNews published the world exclusive preview of Xandros Desktop (Beta 3), just a month ago.
Xandros Linux: “It Just Works,” Even With Windows Stuff
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
One of the first desktop Linux distributions to ship. Is it finally the start of a new era in open source computing?
Bah, it’ll never catch on. Who’s gonna pay $99 sight unseen for Yet Another Linux distro?
I could see only allowing downloading of source or a net install via floppy and no iso downloads…that would seem fair. If you wanted CDs then you’d have to order them, kind of like how OpenBSD does it.
If these folks don’t change their business model fast they’ll never get mindshare or curious users.
Isn’t that the same price as Lindows? Hope its more successful.
Wait, is this $99 per copy or unlimited seat of installation?
As a matter of fact an OEM bundle of Windows cost about the same or just a little more.
It’s not even close to being one of the first desktop distributions to ship. Lindows is here, so is Lycoris. Mandrake has long been considered a desktop distribution. Just recently my new favorite distribution, Red Hat 8.0 was released, it even comes with a personal desktop option, so it is a dsktop distribution.
From the license:
“The End User may install the Software Product on unlimited home computers of his or hers for non-commercial use and one commercial use computer.”
and
“Many of the Software Programs included in Xandros Desktop are distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (“GPL”) and other similar license agreements that permit the user to copy, modify and redistribute the Software Programs. ”
and, more importantly:
“In addition to the freely distributable Software Programs, some versions of Xandros Desktop may also include certain Software Programs that are not distributed under the terms of the GPL or similar licenses that permit modification and redistribution. Generally, each of these Software Programs is distributed under the terms of a license agreement that grants the licensed user to install each of the Software Programs on a single computer for the user’s own individual use. Copying (other than for archival purposes), redistribution, reverse engineering, decompiling and/or modification of these Software Programs is prohibited.”
So, you can install your copy on as many non-commercial computers you want. You can redistribute the source code, of course, all you want. You cannot redistribute the non-GPL software.
Will you be poking at this one? I think since many of the UI topics will have been covered before (KDE 2.2), you would have some space to devote to other functional aspects. And you seem to have troublesome hardware, so it’s always nice to get your opinion 🙂
Oh, and $99 upfront is a bit of a hassle. Should have a trial period, period 🙂
I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. I’m really surprised at the price for the desktop version though.
I’ll pay $99 for a good desktop *nix distro. Heck, I paid $129 for on recently.
Development isn’t cheap. If this works as well and as reliably as Windows or OS X, it’s a bargain.
Here’s hoping Xandaros Eugenia a review copy soon.
LOL Kady, I’m not opposed to the price pe rse…I always try and support Linux disros by buying. I guess I’m used to the prices of my “Personal Editions” of distros like SuSE and Red Hat :-). I am anxious to get this though.
for only $99 i can get what i currently payed far less for, a linux desktop that works.
give me a break, i even had some hope for this, but no free to test download and it features “old clunky” kde 2 when 3 has been out how long? do yourself a favor, run mandrake or redhat and sent them $49. half off and already a proven product.
I would love to try a real good Linux Desktop OS and this seem to be easy enough. Yes I have tried others and to be blunt the are a PITA. But to shell out another $99 is just too much. I wish them luck but I don’t see too many people spending this much on a untested OS. Heck I got BeOS and Gobe Productive for less than that when it was first released. What makes this one worth that much?
IIRC, Corel only charged $5 for a copy of the CorelLinux CD! I don’t think you code download their’s either.
Plus, can you connect to there apt server, to get it? (it is debian) Just do a basic debian install, and set apt to point to their servers. It might work.
Thier isnt a reason. 99$ isnt justified. Currently thier isnt a linux distrobution on the market or internet that is worth 99$.
shane,
The point you (and most other distros it seems) are missing is that just because it’s KDE 2, it doesn’t mean that the value add isn’t important (moreso than having the newest “non-klunky?” KDE version!). The whole point of Linux/OSS is for someone to be able to roll up a solution and distribute it, adding value along the way; value can be additional software, features, or can even be just making the software work PROPERLY, w/o crashes, and use it as a base to provide more functionality than you would be able to when starting from scratch. I used to be Mr. bleeding edge KDE as well, but I got tired of seeing the happy segfault window all the time.
I love Mandrake and Red Hat’s efforts, ditto to Lycoris, but for all the pretty changes they keep making, they aren’t necessarily intrinsically better than just throwing all that software together yourself. The UI’s are still unstable, applications don’t all respond in a common manner, there’s not enough distribution specific help, all of the common bugs are included, and so on.
If someone can produce a KDE 2 based distro that is uniform, stable, and “boring” enough to make me feel like I’m using an OS and not a desktop environment, then I’m all in favor! Xandros is dead on in all of their statements about base KDE being TOO generic in order to support all *NIX’es. They’ve done the right thing in focusing the power of KDE into the tasks specific to their OS features and functionality.
And I already agreed about the $99 part
They list Crossover Office as a $99 value in itself – this, I would think, is their main reason for the high price. You also get a “Xandros Technology Preview” CD with KDE 3 (and a 250 page manual). Hmm, I wonder how stable to Technology Preview is?
Does Xandros come with Gnome 1.x or 2.x libraries? Just pondering.
So much for ‘free’ Linux, eh? See, I keep telling you all .. the more like Windows it becomes, well … the more like Windows it becomes
What other Win apps run well?
Interested in VC6, & perhaps even .net.
The reason for the $99, my belief, is because of CodeWeaver included. I would not mind at all IF the product delivers a very usable desktop. Plus it gives people incentive to move to Linux while they are not yet ready to abandon their Microsoft Office, etc. that currently supported by this release.
Beside, it’s good to support the alternatives to Microsoft OS.
Bitch about lack of apps and commmercial support and then bitch about paying for it…ya can’t usually have it both ways
The price is quite reasonable because it includes some very good CodeWeavers software that means you can run Windows apps under linux…kinda like getting two OSes for the price of one
I’m a poor college student, and I still support linux development by buying a copy of RedHat every couple of years…some of you tightwads ought to be ashamed of yourselves…
good software does not come cheap and Xandros isn’t licensing Crossover for free I can guarantee you…that stuff cuts into the bottom line
besides it’s only 100 bucks…it probably won’t kill any of you and if it does then go download red hat and shut up
-bytes256
I’m a poor college student, and I still support linux development by buying a copy of RedHat every couple of years…some of you tightwads ought to be ashamed of yourselves…
[…]
besides it’s only 100 bucks…it probably won’t kill any of you and if it does then go download red hat and shut up
I’d rather make a donation to Software in the Public Interest (the non-profit that oversees Debian) or the KDE project.
I can see no valid reason to patronize a company that gives nothing back to the community. Look where that kind of ‘tude got Caldera/SCO.
Red Hat does give things back to the community, GPL requires it…yeah CodeWeavers doesn’t…but then don’t use it…simple as that…buy red hat instead or contribute money to debian like you said…whatever floats your boat…just don’t be a freeloader
>CodeWeavers doesn’t
???
They have contributed all their changes to Wine back.
Well, it seems like Xandros, by getting Codeweaver in there, is really trying to set itself up as *the* way to co-exist with Windows. It sounds like IE 5.5 runs great with it. If other Window’s apps do as well, it is worth $99. Well, time to go order and find out 😉
Well, it if just works out of the box, something Mandrake doesn’t do so well (and configuring it is even harder as Mandrake slaps config files everywhere), RedHat is not something for the first time Windows -> Linux user. Just look @ the networking. No wizard for connection sharing or Samba. Though you can surely load up the console and edit the config files, it isn’t just worth it coming from a Windows rig.
If it just works out of the box, Great! It doesn’t need to be feature filled for people who just want to browser the net, type up a piece of work, and use their digital camera.
Mandrake is bloated, RedHat is not that Windows-User friendly. But heck, to you nerds, install Gentoo. The real fun stuff… mentioning Gentoo… I’m off to install it again, and spend another 1/2 a day compiling!
Mandrake, as much as I hate to say it, works great out of the box usually. I still hate mandrake with a passion, don’t get me wrong
As for redhat, buying their product is a good idea since they employ so many people to work on open source software. (Alan cox etc.)
If you cant use the stuff in the debian repository?
probably has great config tools and everything userfriendly,
but as soon as you get a new KDE from debian, all that
goes away!
Well I’m impressed, most every thing I run seems to be on the list, a far cry from Wine of a few years ago.
Wine database listing
http://appdb.winehq.com/appbrowse.php?catId=0
that they have a built in framework for there updates. no work needs to be done on the back end all tehy need to do is set up the apt file, and build a gui front end that is powerful, simple and user friendly while maintaining the look and feel of the OS.
Jefro: I always thought that any distro of linux must be opensource.
This is where the difference of “Free as in ‘Speech'” and “Free as in ‘Beer,'” comes in.
As with any other distro, if Xandros makes any changes to an opensource product, then they must make those source changes available as per the appropriate license.
Under most licenses, it is not necessary to make binary versions available.
As to their own software, they may license it any way they choose. If it is not a modification of an open source product, then they are well and truly entitled to making it proprietary.
The thing to remember is; Xandros bought Corel’s Linux division. They are more than entitled to recover that investment, and all slurs against them for doing so, reflect badly on the people who make them, not on Xandros.
If you bought a house for $100,000, would you give keys out for it to all and sundry? When you had finished renovating it (for another $100,000) would you give it away?
I commend Xandros for their commitment to Linux, especially for choosing a Debian-based distro.
I also commend companies like RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake etc, that still put their binary ISO’s up for -free download-, even though they are out to make a crust.
Time to count your blessings, methinks.
That’d be right! I respond to a comment that gets moderated down during the meanwhile! Sorry Eugenia!
J.P. Du Plessis: One of the first desktop Linux distributions to ship. Is it finally the start of a new era in open source computing?
First? Now, that’s a new story. Best? Maybe, but personally, I think they took the wrong approach.
Anonymous: Bah, it’ll never catch on. Who’s gonna pay $99 sight unseen for Yet Another Linux distro?
This isn’t a Yet Another Linux distro. This isn’t targeting freeloading Linux geeks, but rather home users and the corporate desktop market. And let me enlighten you on something – the corporate market likes something cheap and good, but never trust something free.
pc dude: Isn’t that the same price as Lindows? Hope its more successful.
Lindows cost $99 – soon $120 a year for CNR. Xandros isn’t like that.
Zero: As a matter of fact an OEM bundle of Windows cost about the same or just a little more.
Depending on the volume of the sale, Windows OEM bundle cost way less than that. $99 is the same upgrade price of XP, though.
Richard: Oh, and $99 upfront is a bit of a hassle. Should have a trial period, period 🙂
True. Looks like I would never use this, period. Cause the only reason that I would try this is to “check it out”. Even if it is good, I would probably never use this.
shane: do yourself a favor, run mandrake or redhat and sent them $49. half off and already a proven product.
DO yourself a favour, don’t spend any money and just stick with Windows. Mandrake and RH is very different from Xandros. For good or for bad, I don’t know. It is just different.
David Ferguson: Heck I got BeOS and Gobe Productive for less than that when it was first released. What makes this one worth that much?
And they succeed as a product?
Isaac Shaeffer: Thier isnt a reason. 99$ isnt justified. Currently thier isnt a linux distrobution on the market or internet that is worth 99$.
On the pricing. A lot of people are complaining it is more expensive than other distros, twice the price. Well, for me
– A normal boxed set distro = around $50
– CodeWeavers CrossOver Office = $54.95 (Downloadable, mind you).
– CrossOver Plugins = $24.95
– Total = around $130.
So please, try to be less of the freeloading type.
(Besides, I might even use this – striping the default desktop off, of course, because this is the first distro I have found that could do NTFS resizing).
Masao[RY]: Does Xandros come with Gnome 1.x or 2.x libraries? Just pondering.
It comes with GNOME itself.
Darius: So much for ‘free’ Linux, eh?
Of course, in a few months, I’m quite sure you would find a warez site to rip it off.
Anonymous: I can see no valid reason to patronize a company that gives nothing back to the community. Look where that kind of ‘tude got Caldera/SCO.
It is a small 40-person company – what do you expect them to do? Become Mother Teresa? Besides, KDE could benefit a lot from all of Xandros patches….. if they were using KDE 2.2, that is.
Besides, a lot is going back to the community, indirrectly. For example, by licensing CodeWeaver’s apps, it would indirectly benefit the Wine community.
But…. do make a donation to SPI, they fund Fresco after all 😛
bytes256: Red Hat does give things back to the community, GPL requires it…yeah CodeWeavers doesn’t…but then don’t use it…simple as that…
CodeWeavers is the main people behind Wine. And now they have pushed it to become LGPL, they would have contributed even more. Their products is just Wine tweak for a few applications. You can yourself get Wine and tweak it yourself if you like – but not many can/want to do that.
mindwrap: Mandrake, as much as I hate to say it, works great out of the box usually.
Yeah…. I wish. The only release of Mandrake that works right out of the box is 7.1. All releases after that breaks one thing or another. Heck, 8.0 gave me a kernel panic when I booted up, till today, I wonder why.
Antarius: I also commend companies like RedHat, SuSe, Mandrake etc, that still put their binary ISO’s up for -free download-, even though they are out to make a crust.
Since when SuSE had free ISOs? Never saw them…
—
My take. Go to their website. Notice the button “Buy now”. Why the heck that every other Linux distribution MUST rip off a style of another company, namely Apple? Lindows first… now Xandros. Geezz, get your own style for crying out loud. Sure, it looks nice, but it reflects badly on the company’s professionalism.
$99 for a Windows clone … it will fail simply because the target audience of this product will want the genuine article, not the more complex product with incomplete and unofficial Windows app support.
If Linux wants to succeed on the Desktop, they will need to try to make themselves DIFFERENT.
Too bad they don’t release a version without crossover for $50 or something. I’m sorry if I want to run a windows program I’ll reboot into windows. Granted I use wine for some things, like to play this uno game I have, but if I’m going to be using a serious windows program I’ll reboot into windows. It sucks having to pay an extra amount of money to be windows compatable, when I’ve already paid twice for windows itself (98se and 2k pro). If they offered a version, without crossover or the plugin, for $50 or so, I would look into it.
Of course if I made a distro it would have a free time limit install isos. After 90 days you couldn’t boot into the os, it would just lock you out until you enter a purchase code (upc like number). You’d need to hold unto your code of course but other then that I don’t think it would be too much of a hassle. And depending on which code you bought you could “unlock” commercial apps like crossover, star office, etc. And for those who don’t want to support the company they could do a clean install and enjoy free computing for 90 days, but I think for most people the fee would most likely be worth it to save themselves a couple of hours every 90 days.
Most of the posts are bitching about the $99 price tag. I think, for the market they want to sell to, it’s a good price. If someone who isn’t really tech-minded is buying software, they will probably look at the price to tell them whether something is good or not. Something that costs $99 is going to seem more like a valuable product than something that costs $30. $99 is about the same as XP home edition, and it’s going to look more competitive in the store aisle at that price.
Since when SuSE had free ISOs? Never saw them…
Erk – I was thinking of “freely available…”
Though they do have some ISO’s available. As well as their “Live CD”, there are ISO’s for non-Intel platforms.
From the Suse Readme:
We are currently providing ISO images for download for all
non-Intel/AMD/PPC platforms (IA64, AXP, S/390 and Sparc), since these products cannot be made available everywhere, worldwide and at the accustomed speed.
Of course, you could always just grab the FTP site and throw it on a local server, boot from their boot.iso and away you go… But then, installing via FTP encourages you not to download crap that you don’t want.
Androo:
$99 for a Windows clone … it will fail simply because the target audience of this product will want the genuine article, not the more complex product with incomplete and unofficial Windows app support.
Not true. The intended audience isn’t necessarily the “I wanna ditch MS” crowd.
As discussed earlier, the “desktop linux” has many definitions. In an enterprise situation, which IMHO is what Xandros is targetting (with a Server & Desktop product), it has the best of all worlds:
1) The stability & security of a *nix-derived OS.
2) A “familiar” desktop to reduce staff re-training.
3) Limited support for legacy Windows applications – even if just for the transition period. (Myself, I’ve been transitioning my Windows users by replacing their MS Office with OpenOffice.org, which they can then be at home with, come the rollout of the Linux boxen.)
bytes256:
Red Hat does give things back to the community, GPL requires it…yeah CodeWeavers doesn’t…but then don’t use it…simple as that.
Actually, that’s not quite something that appears to be even remotely resembling something that is altogether, in any way, accurate.
*cough*
CodeWeavers supports the WINE project in a big way, providing resources, servers etc. It has produced front-end programmes and even assists in bringing WINE to the masses with the free CodeWeavers WINE Previews (as they move towards WINE 1.0)
Any enhancements that they make to the actual WINE code is merged back into the code tree. The running of apps like <shudder> IE5 has some credit to be attributed to C.W.
The only thing that they don’t contribute is their own code for the installshield support, which allows products like Quicken, MSOffice, Notes etc to install and run.
In fact, several months ago, I asked them about support for MYOB, and they sent me a copy for review. Unfortunately, MYOB didn’t run under it.
The ISOs for non-Intel platforms aren’t “freely available”. 🙂
Face it, I stump you on that one 😛
> The ISOs for non-Intel platforms aren’t “freely available”.
Uhmm ….
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/ftp.suse.com/suse/ia64/7.2/iso/
ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/ftp.suse.com/suse/sparc/7.3/iso/
monty
As several people pointed out here, it is a pretty high price to pay for any linux distro. And to be fair, a review just doesnt cut it for me. As any disclaimer says the oppinion of the author isn’t necessarily the oppinion of the user/reader/site. I mean, i would love to try it out, and when i think it’s good i will buy it, just as i did with SuSE (i like SuSE)
Having said that, it’s a step in the right direction. A small step for Xandros, a huge step for linux.
Take Care
Kevin
What happens to these guys when linux reaches the ~2%
market share and micro$oft release a version of office
that runs on linux?
They develop for OS X.
Maybe they will release a version for freeBSD
They would only consider releasing one if they know it is profitable. If Linux ays got 30% of the market share yet everyone except a small minority, don’t believe in paying for software – how are they gonna make money?
Believe me, if they found out they could make more money on Linux than on Mac OS X, I would be using office for Linux right now.
All cool! Pretty looking Linux distro! I guess it’ll be easy to use for newbies… but… after Corel Linux 1…2… the only shit has happened… just one small feature has disappeared… There is no Corel Draw Suite for it… and that sux!
I think it is a great step in the right direction, although I think 99$ is a little high for a Linux distro. The only reason I say this is because no matter how much work they put into the OS they didn’t write the OS. Unlike Microsoft and Apple who charge a similar price for their OS, in which they wrote themselves or at least own the code too. But I still like what they have done. Just think about it though, as most of you have, I have praised Linux to non-Linux users. Do you know what the number one question I get is? Can I run MS office on it, and if it doesn’t run seamlessly I don’t want. That is what Xandros offers seamless MS office on Linux. It’s just one less excuse to not use Linux and even better one less excuse not to support Linux.
Even under the most strict interpretation of the GPL no distributor is required to make ISOs available for free. You can already snag all the packages you want from their FTP servers. I don’t use SuSE but I can understand why creating 7 (the number of install cds last time I checked) ISOs wouldn’t interest them.
Like it or not there’s always going to be a conflict between paying for ease (and usually ease of installation) versus a learning curve. There are more than a few distributions out there that are fantastic, free, but require some knowledge to install and sometimes to maintain. Deal.
I do agree that Xandros might consider offering a version without the Codeweavers additions since I’m sure they could shave a significant chunk off the price.
Look in the screenshot section in Eye Candy. DesktopSnap6 is a picture of downtown Ottawa, my home town
(I know that the wallpaper probably just came over from Corel, but I’m still just happy to see it)
If XFree is as bad as many people seem to suggest. And Min Poon suggests that their target audience is the business desktop. And they seem to have no problem including non GPL software. And don’t mind licensing software such as Codeweavers etc. I wonder why the don’t consider licensing a commercial X Server and be done with XFree until it gets better.
Would that not be a way to add value a differentiate themselves from the pack.
The Linux distro I tried was different than Windows …
In that it left me literally screaming with frustration as I tried to do some very *simple* things, like install software.
I don’t want DIFFERENT from Windows. I want a reasonably easy to use graphical interface with software that installs, hardware that works, and general all around usability without having to go to the command line or recompile the kernel to add basic functions. W98 lets me do all of this and about once every 3 months I get the BSOD on my home machine.
I want different than Microsoft.
TANSTAAFL. Free Speech, not Free Beer.
If for $99 I’ll never have to go to the command line (but it’s there if I want to) to make Linux run on my PC and everything automounts and autoloads with a minimum of fuss, then that’s a great deal. It costs money to make a distro and I’m all for paying a fair price for a good product if it means there will be more good products at reasonable prices.
$99 for an OS … no problem.
$129 for an OS … okay, but it had better be the coolest OS I’ve ever used.
$199 for a crippled OS … no way.
$300 for an OS … no way in hell.
$38 for an office suite … no problem.
$50 for an office suite … no problem.
$199 for an office suite … no way.
$300 for an office suite … too funny.
I want different than Microsoft.
That is the target market that Xandros (and Lindows and Lycoris, for that matter) are going for. They are targeting people/SOHO’s/SMB’s who are willing to pay for software, but want to pay for high-quality software that won’t crash.
For lack of a better way of putting it, they want “a better Windows than Windows.”*
Cheers,
Ken
*If any of those distros want to use that slogan, remember who said it first, and I’ll demand royalties — I have to eat, too! 😛
a better Windows than Windows.
Maybe MS will buy it from you. For their upcoming OS I mean.
How many of you have actually gone to the Xandros web site, or read the interview with Ming Poon? Corel, and now Xandros, has given every piece of what they developed under the GPL back to the community, or did you not see the Source Code CD included in the box set? Oh that’s right, freeloaders don’t buy box sets.
Each and every one of you have used a distribution that has a Corel feature in it and you didn’t even know it. See that Bookmarks section, or the list of recently run programs on your Applications Menu? Corel did that.
I’ve actually purchased and run both versions of Corel Linux OS Deluxe($80), RedHat 7.1 Deluxe($80) and Mandrake 9.0 PowerPack’s($70) (running beta2, stable on order, and I’ll tell you that if Xandros is half as good as CLOS was, it’s well worth the $99.
Has anyone tried this with the Xandros. is is nondestructive?
Since most of the work was done by other people I would wonder WHOM is the freeloader here. I have been downloading free and purchasing linux/bsd software for longer than some of you can say you were on this earth. (ya whipper snappers)
I have a garage full of old software and hardware. I still pay my fair share because I am one of the few people I know who does not have any copyright infringed software. In fact I goofed once in a while and bought two instead of one.
“As with any other distro, if Xandros makes any changes to an opensource product, then they must make those source changes available as per the appropriate license. ”
So, if they are so good then why can’t I get those sources FREELY?
Answer is they (boohoo) paid for blue sky on a company and are trying to SELL the hard work of the original writers that offered their work to the open sourced world just to have it hidden by these lame companies. They bought blue sky NOT linux software. Keep the blue sky and give back to the opensourced world what it due.
The prospect of recovering blue sky would be in the doc’s and service that they actually do.
If I give you given a $1,000,000 home and a herd of cattle came in and then a space craft flew over and your mama called what would you do?
guess the last one is a sure winner for a deletion after reading the moderated down version is only me.
“a better Windows than Windows.”*
*If any of those distros want to use that slogan, remember who said it first, and I’ll demand royalties — I have to eat, too! 😛
The thing is, some of us do remember who used that slogan first.
Hint: it wasn’t you.
Go Team OS/2!
Apple is like Xandros. What did it use as the base? Darwin. Which is based on…..? Good, you are learning fast. Xandros bought all of Corel’s technology, and therefore own the code. That means from the control panel applets to the file maanger – it is theirs.
I.E. 95% of the distrobution 😉
but anyway, the 95% that is not owned by them is already out there jefro, what the GPL SAYS is not that if you change it you must make it public, but if you change it AND distribute it, you must make your code available to the person you gave it to. No Doubt, some KDE Hacker will buy a box of Xandros just to try out, and when he/she does, that person can then include it int he KDE sources….
or some KDE fan can just send the KDE team a copy of the source from their box.
it all gets out one way or another, and this fact does not escape the companies, so what they normaly do is give the changes to the respective maintaining organizations after the new product has kicked off.
Until now the phrase
Linux is only free if your time is worthless.
Has held true, I am high level network engineer and consider myself very technically savvy – but I cant be bothered to faff about setting up linux to do simple things that windows does easily. Eg I could spent 4 hours searching the web for patches and drivers, rebuilding the kernel installing samba…… or I could bung win98 cd in the drive, wait 20 minutes and get the job done!
I think Xandros sounds like a big step in the right direction, Linux doesnt have to be different to windows, it just has to allow businesses to do what they want to do (bear in mind that all their staff have been using windows for 5-10 years anyway – a huge change of feel is another barrier that they are going to see, training staff is not cheap or fast). Once it gets a reputation for doing this then its got a chance – then it will come down to cost of ownership. Personally I think being able to run MS Office is a huge step – no need for a clone that claims 100% compatibility and dleivers 95%.
Go for it Xandros