Xandros is preparing to release the business edition of their popular Linux desktop distribution. Here’s what we found out so far about this new product.The product uses the same installation method as the desktop version and it works extremely well. I believe that Xandros has one of the best, if not the best, installation procedures today for any Unix.
It comes pre-configured with KDE 3.1.4 and you will very soon (about 15-20 minutes later) have the desktop up and running ready. There is not much new to say about Xandros BD as it is very similar to Xandros 2.0 and we already had countless Xandros 2.0 reviews. However, a few things under the hood have changed and more bugs are fixed (the build date was March 3rd).
The distro comes with the applications an office would need, like an Office suite, email clients and web browsers, Xine for multimedia, CrossOver for MS Office compatibility, fax, PDF and graphics tools and more. The Xandros tools, in addition to KDE’s control center, allow for monitor resolution settings, networking and wireless, while the Xandros File Manager can write CDs with the ease of drag and dropping. Additionally, the File manager can “automount” printer shares, samba and NFS shares, other CD devices while the “Switch User” is also as important in the business world as it is on a home.
Xandros Networks is also a very nice feature which allows users to download software off the net (with no dependency nightmares for the user). At the time of the testing, the special channel for Xandros Business Desktop was down (preparing for launch) so I could not further test it.
The main differences between Xandros Deluxe and Business Desktop are:
Business desktop: Authenticate against Windows Primary Domain Controllers (PDC) and Active Directory Servers
Deluxe: Peer-to-peer Windows networking only
Business desktop: Star Office 7 with Sun support
Deluxe: OpenOffice.org 1.1
Business desktop: Kernel 2.4.24
Deluxe: Kernel 2.4.22 (will be updated too)
I only encountered two major problems with Xandros Business Desktop. First, the Display Properties panel which wouldn’t work with the integrated SiS 740 graphics card (it was stuck to 1024x768x16bpp@60Hz while my monitor could do 1280x1024x24bpp@85Hz) and any effort to change the resolution would result to either a hard lock or an /etc/X11/XF86Config file full of blanks (and after that point I could only boot to fail-safe mode). To get to the settings I wanted I had to manually edit the XF86Config file at the end. Mandrake’s v10 had no problem at all with that PC to automatically detect the monitor and the right driver and best settings.
The other problem I encountered was the low reliability of the Crossover plugin. I think IE 6 is on the list of the supported apps, but it would crash every time there was a popup ad on a page… Other than that, the default font used on Crossover is terrible, difficult to read, and has nothing to do with the rest of the OS (should have being a way to easily change this instead of hardcoding it on a font that ugly).
I felt that the only software missing is a good collaboration tool, like KDE’s Kontact or the new Ximian Evolution 2.0. I hope future versions will include such an advanced messaging and collaboration tool.
Overall, this product is a good office solution, it has the most needed software in place and it works well as I experienced no crashes or any other malfunctions. I believe that Xandros should start seriously knocking doors in Canada and establish their product as an office solution the same way SuSE was able to achieve in Germany. After this initial step, getting more office users worldwide will be easier in the long run, but I believe they should first start this office business in the home country first (proved easier also for Mandrake and Red Hat, not just for SuSE).
Overall: 7.5/10
Sorry, a bit offtopic, but maybe someone’s got a solution to this problem: I installed the actual Wine RPM Release under Redhad9 and afterwards installed IE6 in there. the browser works just fine (except for the ugly fonts, but there seem to be solutions for that problem). but everytime i encounter a popup the browser freezes, just as Eugenia described in the above review. Is there some sort of solution for that problem?
Btw. I don’t really want to use IE, but need to as I do webstuff at work and need to do Compatibility-Tests in IE from time to time.
thanks, ez
You might try something like CrazyBrowser which is based on IE and has popup blocking.
And word on the price yet?
http://www.xandros.net/products/shopping.html
How about you install Google toolbar?
I noticed in your screen shots you showed mozilla 1.6
I used Xandros 2.0 Deluxe and it only includes 1.4
Did you updrade mozilla your self or did it come with the distro?
It came with the distro.
Sounds nice that it is easy to set up, but from the screenshots Xandros looks rather plain KDE, with some uglification. Honestly the Xandros touch looks horrible! …They should learn from Lindows, Lycoris and Mandrake here!
Also it would be nice to hear how well Xandros Networks work for software installation and maintaince. I’ve heard XN is lacking recent apps and hasn’t got very much in it overall – please let us now!
Also I wonder what’s up with that Demo CD of Xandros they were talking about a few months ago. It would be nice to be able to try the OS before shelling out $129.
I have a similar problem (as Eugenia wrote in the review) with my monitor in both Xandros 1, 1.1 and 2.0. It is able to do 1280×1024 but is detected wrongly as a 1024×768 max resolution monitor. I didn’t manually edit the Xfree86config file, I went to the advanced setting and selected a generic 1280×1024 monitor and selected a refresh rate I know my monitor can support and then selected 1280×1024 as the resolution. It worked perfectly. But most, if not all, other distros detect my monitor perfectly and I don’t have to do that.
Xandros is by far the best distro I’ve used. It’s not the fastest or the latest software but it is quite recent and what it has is very polished and better tested thana ny other distro I’ve used.
It’s nice that they also upgraded Mozilla to 1.6 =)
[sarcasm]Yeah, the polish shines in those screenshots[/sarcasm]
Xandros Networks has the update to Mozilla 1.6 on it.
I have one cuestion with the fonts in Gnome; I can’t see any Gnome aplication in the screenshots, but fonts in Mozilla 1.6 menus looks much better; Do they fix the problems with Gnome programs? In XD 2.0 they look ugly! And with the Gnome’s theme? (you can install any gnome aplication (i.e., Rythmbox or Gaim)with apt-get)
Thanks
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Sounds nice that it is easy to set up, but from the screenshots Xandros looks rather plain KDE, with some uglification. Honestly the Xandros touch looks horrible! …They should learn from Lindows, Lycoris and Mandrake here!
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What has Lindows done to beautify KDE that Xandros hasn’t? This is not a flame war cry but honestly Lindows hasn’t done enough “function” customization to KDE. The use still has to figure out stuff like in vanilla KDE. Xandros is good and admit it … unless you’re paid to write about Lindows etc in the way that you have done.
I use Redhat9, Mandrake 9.2, PCLinuxOS (which is pretty good), and a host of linux distros so I am not particularly sympathetic to Xandros. However, your comment about “uglification” is uncalled for. THe default Plastic theme of Xandros is probably the best and is included by default in KDE 3.2 too!
I wasn’t talking about the Plastik theme. I’m talking about the Xandros touch on KDE and it’s plastik theme. Ie the taskbar icons like “X”, console, netscape and xfm look horrible! as does the win95’ish file manager interface. I’m sorry to say it but that’s my opinion and I doubt many others find those things mentioned attractive.
Btw, I don’t know why you start “jabbing back” on Lindows. What has my opinions on Xandros got to do with Lindows? Sure I think Lindows looks better and as I said so does Lycoris and Mandrake. Personally I like mandrake the best out of the desktop OS’es, though I think Lindows is easier for a newbie. Currently I run Debian.
Don’t start flaming about lindows though – this thread is about Xandros and nothing else!
I very much agree with Eugenia’s comment about Wine’s fonts. It’s also stupid that you can’t change the Windows colors.
But this is something for the Wine project to solve. It’s been there since day one.
I couldn’t agree more about the icons being pretty bad, I purchased a copy of Xandros desktop 2.0 deluxe and the default icons were horrible, I don’t like the xandros file manager much either because of the Windows9X explorer look to it but its nice not to have to use Konqueror as both the file manager and web browser any more.
I went to Everaldo’s web site and downloaded the kde kristal svg icons, those look much nicer, there is also a plastik theme for Mozilla to make it look more like it belongs with KDE, I think it was called plastikzilla at themes.kde.org .
Overall though Xandros is very usable, I’ve not noticed the problem with the monitor resolution not going over 1024×768 but then I didn’t try to get it any higher because thats what I use and I wasn’t paying much attention to the Xandros installer really.
Overall my only real complaint about Xandros is that a lot of software is missing, I’m especially missing my KDEaddons and I’m not pleased that Xandros file manager is more of a stripped down Konqueror then an ehanced version.
[sarcasm]Yeah, the polish shines in those screenshots[/sarcasm]
I personally much prefer something that have all the little things in place and have a rather sensible UI than having eye-catching looks but starts breaking up just when you start using it. Sure, Xandros badly needs a new graphic designer, but at least their icons do their job – they convey information fast enough (quite unlike other dro-dead gorgeous icons that hardly does that)
Is it an impression, or does this puppy only support english language?
Eugenia is there support for something else than English?
Did you know that if you bought the Xandros 2.0 Deluxe version before Jan 24,04 you can email them and they’ll give you a coupon for a free version of the Business Edition all you have to pay for is the shipping. Sweet deal.
I use Xandros 2.0 and I’m quite happy with it. But Xandros Networks has the bad habit of deleting downloaded debs from /var/cache/apt/archives without asking my opinion on the matter. If you want to hang on to those files, eg to update other machines on your network, rather use synaptic or straight apt-get
Xandros: stop hardcoding apt-get clean into XN!
well thanks for the comments. the main problem is that I need popups to work as it’s part of the stuff i need to test (to lazy to type the details). well ok, i’ll wait for future wine-versions then.
thanks again.ez
I cringed when I read that Xandros business desktop will authenticate against Windows Primary Domain Controllers and Active Directory Servers, but the Deluxe version only does Peer-to-peer Windows networking. Am I missing something here? Doesn’t Samba do both with only a minor configuration change? Shouldn’t both versions ship with the ability to authenticate against Windows PDCs?
This is like shipping a distribution called “basic” that will only do VESA graphics. You have to buy the super special version to get a real graphic driver.
*This* is corruption of the open source ideals. I’m all for companies making money, but removing features from open source software to make a buck sounds slimy.
ez,
if you just want to test your web pages for compatibility issues, it’s best to use online tools like BrowserCam:
http://www.browsercam.com
It is a paid service, but you can try it out for free. Basically, you give it the URL of the page you want to test and folks at BrowserCam send you screenshots with your page as seen by any browser you want, working under an OS you want, and resolution you specify…
Perhaps Xandros is not officially supporting the configuration change needed to auth. against a PDC to differentiate between the two releases. That way, if you don’t need the feature (or know how to configure it yourself), you don’t pay for it. MS does the same thing with Windows XP. The Pro edition can authenticate against a PDC and Home can’t (not without a clumsy, kludgy workaround anyway)…and they charge much more for Pro.
… I can tell you a few things.
1) Xandros is very easy to install,
2) update although I admit the XN is neither cutting edge or cram-full of optional software, however it is thorough enough in it’s basic incarnation that only the B&W hungry will notice.
3) Use day-to-day, which is what I’ve done for a while now.
-> What’s more I’ve always liked that everything fits neatly on 1 CD, it installs pretty darn fast, and is fairly accomodating hdw-wise, meaning much (of course not all is covered).
PS: I find it funny how some can gripe about the res : it doesn’t automagically see/config to 1480×1280 at 99 zillion colours … like I need that to work ? I have yet to see anyone here at work use more than 1280x1024x16M. And even then – it tends to make anything so tiny it becomes irritating unless you have a 21+ inch monitor.
-> but like a reply said : just specify a generic one and crank it up to the max !
Note : I still cannot get over the visual aspect comments I read all over : beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and is _totally_ subjective.
I’ve had too many people to count – that have told me how NT2000/XP like it is – meaning : clean & professional.
I have seen/used all of Lycoris, Lindows and Mdk from 7.1 to 10. None of them have blown me away on the their looks and Mdk looks a little to unorganized for my tastes. Whatsmore – I find way too many distros that pile on 10 different consoles & editors (I mean really !) If you don’t like the default one, remove it – and install _your_ favourite – that’s what Linux and OSS is all about.
I also belong to a LUG and find that everyone that shows up complains about stuff I take for granted (and works out of the box for me)…
Cons/rants :
1) It does only english (no french)- since I live in Quebec, Canada – that’s an issue, especially since it’s made in Ottawa …hmmm
2) Needs a GUI VPN.
3) And for a business edition – a gui installer/client login for Novell (I know it’s not the most wide-spread NOS around) but it is still there.
-> I login to it everyday (I work as a consultant for the provincial government).
I’m a Xandros 2.0 owner and in my experience:
Appearance: icons – OK, I guess, fonts – really nice except under CrossOver, as others have said. OpenOffice looks great – better than under any other distro – they’ve done something with the fonts, I think similar to Ximian.
Software availablilty. Those saying software choice is limited aren’t paying attention. You can enable ‘unsupported’ sources in Xandros Networks to get a whole bunch more (console stuff like screen, zsh, sux etc.) Also, since Xandros is Debian you can use any Debian apt source as long as you protect the Xandros-specific stuff with apt pinning. Xandros should do more to make power users aware of this, like putting pinning instructions in the FAQ.
Documentation: Manual: amazing, on-line: not great. Libranet’s on line support (especially the FAQ) is way better.
On balance, I like Libranet better since it’s like Debian without the some of the hassles but Xandros is a mature, well designed desktop distro.
I am concerned about how much they contribute back to the free software community. I guess this may be through their parent company (Linux International)’s contributions to Wine through their sister company CrossOver. Don’t know how significant this is, though.
If you install the kde-i18n-fr or -de or -it or whatever language package you need with Xandros Networks, you will have the language you want. Only a few programs will still be available only in english, that is:
-The Xandros File Manager
-The Xandros Networks (front-end to apt-get)
-StarOffice7
And that’s about it. All the other programs will be in the language of your choice. Same goes for Mozilla where you have to download the localisation of your choice (rather small download) and apply it to your prefs. I have read that they are now working of translation of their File Manager and Xandros Networks.
However, if you don’t need the PDA authentification, you might just be happy to use Xandros Deluxe or Xandros Standard that will give you the opportunity to install OpenOffice 1.1 in the language of your choice.
I’ve used both the 1.0 and 2.0 editions of Xandros. The version 1 product I used had the CodeWeaver’s plugins, the newer version was the desktop edition that was released before the business edition. I had a very favorable impression of both of them, but the new version 2.0 software is definitely an improvement. Version 1.0 was very conservative and dated. By the time the software was released, quite a bit of it was well out of date. In contrast, version 2 comes with reasonably current stable releases of many software packages.
Others have noted that Xandros does not include every possible title. Note that by using the freely available Debian mirror sites, you can freely obtain thousands of additional software packages. Xandros includes software that’s fairly well integrated with their desktop offering, and is stable.
I’ve found that I can immediately use Xandros right after installation, using only what’s provided, yet if I’m so inclined, I can also transform the system into anything that’s needed, including a bleeding edge development system. That’s all because of the great Debian packaging infrastructure that’s beneath the Xandros veneer. I’ve also found, however, that simply using the Xandros provided software update tools, you can also nicely customize and configure the system. Therefore, Xandros is both solid and flexible, yet it’s easy to get started. That’s why I give it a very good rating. I’d give it a 9/10 on my own rating scale, dinging it only slightly for the font issues mentioned by others. Highly recommended!