“XandrosOS is a good-looking, Debian-based Linux distro designed to lure Windows XP users. It’s exceptionally easy to install and use, has good hardware and peripheral detection and good multimedia support, offers Windows networking compatibility, saves one money — and the desktop, a tweaked version of KDE, even looks like XP to boot.” Read the review at TheRegister.
XandrOS: User-friendly to a fault
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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The GUI administration interface is nothing more than KDE’s Control Center, which is hardly adequate. This means that when one wants to do any serious tweaking, one will be using the shell and editing configuration files manually
That sucks.
The package manager, called Xandros Networks, is good, allowing for both DEB and RPM installations. It will automatically check dependencies when packages are installed, though silently. It can also automatically fetch package updates from the Xandros server.
I like that.
it’s necessary to uninstall an unnecessary service using the Xandros Networks package manager, or manually edit the boot scripts in /etc/init.d, which, again, is too much to ask of a novice.
I agree.
when it is installed, it’s not integrated with the start menu, making it necessary for the user to search for the binary and launch it.
Yes that is bad, it should ask if you want a shortcut on the desktop put in, & where you want the menu entry.
Thus Xandros is like Windows XP in the worst way possible: it makes dangerous “features” available to everyone whether they need them or not,
Wait, it is like windows, hehe.
..and I don’t agree completely with the author of the review, but anyway… good to finally see a different point of view about Xandros. Till today all the reviewers seemed like copying from each other. At least this guy tries to go more in-depth than just explaining what the installer looks like and what is installed by default and how it detects hardware.
Lets start off by just stating the obvious, no operating system is perfect, be it Gnu/linux, windows, mac whatever.
Reviews of Linux distro’s always seem to be compared to Windows XP, “The fonts in (insert whatever distro) look like crap compared to XP” or “XP is easier” or “hardware detection is poor”, amongst the other 20 or so other main gripes that come up again and again.
You are trashed because the distro is too difficult to use, you are trashed because the distro is too easy for newbies, you are trashed because its no good for “power users”
Xandros does what it says it does. Makes things easier for Windows users to migrate to linux.
Remember that Xandros is only in its second major release, and like every other operating system, there is room for improvements. Although some of the authors comments are valid, 99% of people that have used Xandros would disagree about recommending it to linux newbies.
What in the blue hell?
“Still, Krusader is a good file manager / Web browser / sort-of FTP client”
huh…? Krusader? you mean Konqueror? if they can’t get THAT right, I dunno how much weight I’d through into this “review”
And this line “The Xandros file browser is a heavily-tweaked version of Konqueror” number 1, why does he get Konqueror right here but wrong all through this review? 2nd, its been debated time and time again but XFM is not Konq.