There’s always a lot of excitement when a major Linux distribution has a new release – there’s the clamour for the release notes and changelog, as well as the insatiable urge for screenshots and the search for the torrent for the ISOs. The release of Xandros Desktop 3.0 last week was no exception, with OS fanatics everywhere curious just what was in store. Read on for details.
Unlike many of the popular Linux distributions, Xandros is not offered in a free form for some time following the release. Eventually, there will be an “Open Circulation Edition,” but for now, there are two editions of Xandros, the Standard Edition, at $49.95, and the Deluxe Edition at $89.95. The Deluxe Edition, which was used for this review, contains Codeweavers’ CrossOver Office 4.1, which is an enhanced version of WINE, which can run Windows applications. Xandros is based on Corel Linux, which includes the closed source, heavily modified Xandros File Manager (XFM), which is the bread and butter of this distribution. With integrated CD and now DVD burning, XFM is one of the sleekest file managers out there.
![xandros2]()
The Xandros adventure starts with a fairly straightforward installation routine. I won’t go into too much detail, but the install is graphical and easy enough to figure out, even for someone who hasn’t installed Linux before. When I chose to manually select a partition for installation, Xandros correctly guessed I wanted to use my ReiserFS Userlinux partition, and the existing SWAP space. Package selection is, as I’ve noticed with many “desktop friendly” distributions, fairly pointless. The recommended default installation is just a few megabytes less than their “everything” selection, which includes Apache and Netware connectivity. Xandros will write the boot loader to the partition you install it on automatically, you can choose to add it to the master boot record as well, as it will detect your Windows partitions in a dual boot scenario. My one complaint here is that, as per usual, it recognizes my XP installation as “Windows XP,” and then adds an option to boot to my non-bootable NTFS data store as well. I wish the installer would check if the partition is bootable before adding an entry to the boot menu.
Xandros boots noticeably slower than I expected, slower than I remember version 2 booting and certainly much slower than my Windows XP installation. It’s worth the wait in my opinion, as after login you’re presented with a gorgeous modified KDE desktop. At the heart of Xandros lies Xandros Networks, the update and software installation tool for Xandros OS. You’ll want to update immediately after install. Since I installed Xandros the day it was released, there were no updates. My first act was to check for network connectivity. I had unplugged my ethernet cable to check if it would detect my wireless card, as one of the touted features of Xandros is “Extended Wireless Support.” Unfortunately, no go – there was no connectivity, and no light on the card. Now, my card is a PCMCIA Dell Truemobile card, and it should work under Linux. A “modprobe orinoco_cs” showed the module installed, but not functional. I had to play around a little while, and eventually got the card to work. As you can see in the screenshots, this was disagnosed by Eugenia as a bug in the Xandros hotplug scripts. Over the course of the next few days, I’d have a number of problems with my wireless connection – after an extended period of inactivity, the wireless would stop working. In addition, I never got it to work while the ethernet card was marked active.
![xandros1]()
The wireless card was the largest problem I had with Xandros. By far, the rest of the experience was fantastic. Once connected, I decided to try one of Xandros’ other new claims – their PPTP VPN. I can sum this up in a word: awesome. I don’t know what’s taken Linux so long to have a capable PPTP VPN, but it’s an absolute MUST. Without it, Linux cannot be the primary OS on my home computer. I connected to my work VPN in a few seconds, and used the remote console application to login to my Windows domain controller at work simply and easily. SSH worked like a charm through my VPN connection as well. I say this not lightly – for me, this is the best feature I’ve seen added to a Linux distribution in the last two years. This is very significant, because it goes beyond “wow factor” and is really, honestly, something I require from a computer. A+ for Xandros here.
![xandros4]()
One complaint I have is the inclusion of Mozilla as the default browser. I think the world has spoken, and it’s spoken more than 10 million times in the last month, Firefox is the browser of choice. So I popped in the included “Applications” CD. It included many applications I was pleased to see – Evolution and Firefox amongst them. These applications are available directly from Xandros as well via Xandros networks. Xandros Networks can be pointed to a repository over the internet or via local CD or filesystem. Pointing it to the applications CD allowed me to add new software. It was very nice to see it ask questions as it installed, such as “Should MySQL start on boot?” Xandros Networks is great, similar to Linspire’s Click N Run.
As far as software goes, though, there are a few things missing that I think are pretty important. First off, there’s no FTP client available that I could find. KBear would be a natural fit for Xandros. Furthermore, there’s no easy development environment other than the package marked “KDE development tools.” Why not include Quanta+, at least in the apps CD, which is certainly a fantastic application. Lastly, the last version of Xandros included the Citrix client. With the Citrix client, you’ve really got yourself a capable work machine. It’s likely we’ll see the Citrix client appear again in the Business Edition, which is supposed to be released in a few months.
![xandros3]()
Xandros includes tons of plugins by default, including many closed source licensed ones, like RealPlayer 10, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash Player 7, and Java 1.4x. This is very convenient, as in other distributions it’s taken me a bunch of tinkering to make things work. But by far, the selling point of the Deluxe version is Crossover Office 4.1. Things have improved tremendously since the last version of Crossover. The good people at Codeweavers have done some amazing things. With the inclusion of no development software like Quanta or Bluefish in the apps CD or via XN online, I resorted to my favorite editor, the Windows only Programmer’s Notepad. I was amazed to see it run almost fully functional in Linux directly from my NTFS partition, and even better, to install without an issue directly from an .exe file into my Xandros Desktop OS. I was able to install KaZaa Lite K++, but it wouldn’t run. Crossover makes a great addition if applications is part of the reason you’re holding up your transition.
Xandros hardware detection, apart from my wireless card, was spot on. It caught my digital camera, my sound, and my video card (it comes pre-bundled with the NVIDIA video driver), and even let me run at 1280×1024, which most Linux distributions can’t do, due to my semi-obscure Quaddro 4 card. My CD burner was picked up with the option to burn at 24x, which is also not always available, and burning a disc was never so easy. Simply open a folder and select “Burn to Disc.”
Xandros also mounted my NTFS drives for me. Since my test system was a Dell, it came with a very small FAT partition (about 55MB) for some Dell nonsense present in all new Dell models. Xandros mounted this as C:, and then my C: drive as D: and my D: drive as E:. It mounted them under /disks and placed links in XFM for easy location.
I’m fairly picky about what stays on my hard drive. I’m very partial to XFCE as my desktop these days, and consequently, I’m partial to GTK+ apps. I miss Gaim and Gnumeric. But I understand that Xandros’ strength comes from their integration of KDE. And furthermore, I think it’s a good thing. “Do one thing and do it well” is not the mentality of many distributors these days. Much Linux suffers from the “must provide choice, must include everything” syndrome. Xandros provides as useful a desktop on CD as Fedora does on four.
![xandros5]()
Xandros is possibly the prettiest Linux I’ve seen thus far. It’s smooth without being effortful, colorful without being garish, clean without being too simple, and functional without being novelty. It includes useful applications, and provides tools that are essential to computing. Frankly, what it has that many miss the mark on seems pretty simple: it looks and feels like a unified system. The entire experience adds a legitimacy to desktop Linux seldom seen elsewhere. The nay-sayers will say that Xandros is dumbed down or a Windows wannabe, but I’d argue that the Xandros people are listening to what’s needed and providing it. I don’t think I’d run Xandros Desktop 3 on any of my servers, but if you’re considering a change to Linux, but aren’t sure if you can make that leap, you might consider Xandros. It’s got all the makings of a comfortable transition desktop.
I have to admit that the Xandros model of doing things puzzles me (specifically their heavy promotion of WINE to run Windows applications). I’ll explain.
There are two ways you could approach a gradual migration from Windows to a Linux or UNIX based desktop. The first approach would be the use of open source applications (OpenOffice, Mozilla, GAIM) on Windows first, and using that to gradually move over into a more fully open source system.
The second method would be the usage of an emulator (such as WINE) to use Windows applications on Linux. This second approach seems to be the one that Xandros is using. Because applications are really the key, in my view, to the success of any platform, I think the first approach has several advantages.
-WINE is not the world’s greatest performer… to say the least.
-Using WINE does not encourage the development of cross-platform open source applications!
-Using WINE can cause real problems when new versions of Windows based applications running on it come out, and become broken.
-Cross-platform open source applications bring benefits to everyone, not just Linux or UNIX users (ie. Firefox, OpenOffice).
I remember years ago when Corel released their Corel WordPerfect Office 2000 for Linux. It turned out to be a “frankenwine” application, and not a very good one at that. It was an example, in my opinion, of why Corel’s Linux strategy failed, despite the fact that their desktop OS did have some real strengths (simplicity, based on Debian, etc.)
Lindows was origninally going to go this way as well, yet they wisely abandoned this course and instead promoted the use of open source applications. They even sponsored a few of their own (nVu comes to mind).
While I am also not a big fan of the fact that Xandros takes great pains to very closely mimic the Windows UI with their product, that is a matter of taste, and I can see how some companies may like that idea to reduce training costs.
-Using WINE does not encourage the development of cross-platform open source applications!
Right. And when you develop a MYOB or Simply Accounting that runs natively, just let the world know. I’ll buy it. But you think I shouldn’t run Linux until then?
Not bloody likely. I’m downloading v3.0 right now, hoping it will work with my necessary Win32 apps. It’s the only choice for millions of possible Xandros users, and that’s the whole point. People need these things now, not 20 years into the fanciful future.
“My CD burner was picked up with the option to burn at 24x, which is also not always available, and burning a disc was never so easy.”
What is the hard part ?? my slack,gentoo,freebsd detect the right cd burner speed …. never got any probleme.
“Xandros also mounted my NTFS drives for me”
Well take any linux distro and edit /etc/fstab ..it do the job.
“Xandros provides as useful a desktop on CD as Fedora does on four.”
any example ??
” First off, there’s no FTP client available that I could find” ….well.
“I don’t think I’d run Xandros Desktop 3 on any of my servers”
xandros DESKTOP 3
They are many review on xandros desktop 3 , can we have only one review with the some real technical stuff not like it detecte my cd burner speed and other thing like that ???
Thank you.
The filemanager/burner and Crossover- it does not have anything else…
“Xandros provides as useful a desktop on CD as Fedora does on four.”
apple and oranges. Yes, some people dont like the 4 CDs, however you have to consider how many configurations you can give to Fedora.
Whatta want to know? Most people are curious and want to know what they get OUT OF THE BOX. Slackware, Gentoo, and FreeBSD are NOT the distros Xandros is competing with, and the users of those three are probably NOT looking to buy Xandros.
Your answers are dead simple, and they don’t address the selling points, which are that Xandros users don’t want to edit /etc/fstab or download and compile apps. Furthermore, Xandros comes with Apache and MySQL. Those are SERVERS. I would not use this edition as a server. Is that not a fair comment?
What is “technical stuff?” Can’t you just get the specs from the release notes? Ask any question you have and I’ll try to answer it for you.
“Well take any linux distro and edit /etc/fstab ..it do the job.”
that’s pretty much the approach that’ll keep linux down, preventing it from being a real competitor to windows.
you have to understand that not everyone wants to go around editing config files. not everyone even want to know they exist. doing things automagically or through a simple GUI is the way to go.
“heavily modified Xandros File Manager”
Compared to what? Is there an unmodified Xandros File Manager somewhere?
“a gorgeous modified KDE”
Care to elaborate? Xandros 2.0 OCE had only what I would call slight KDE modifications.
The real point of a distribution like Xandros is for those who _want_ to try an alternative to Windows in the Enterprise or in the home, so debating the merits of Windows vs. Linux is almost besides the point.
However, I think it is a fair question to debate the course taken by Xandros in meeting this need. Does the WINE approach offer the best way to migrate?
Or… do distributions like SuSE/NLD (Enterprise) and Lindows (Home) that concentrate (or focus) on the usage of cross-platform open source solutions make more sense?
The assertion that open source applications are crap is no longer valid in the year 2004. Some may be, but many are highly polished and very usable. Best of all, they are also very affordable!
“the OS fanatics”, the “search for the torrent”…
I wouldn’t mind a more respectful language: after all this site is called “OSnews”
Regarding ftp client filezille runs without a problem with crossover.
The level of civil discourse on this website is taking a sharp nosedive. Eugenia… it’s getting pretty bad these days, which is a shame because you have put together a great site with many interesting articles and reviews.
I don’t think the reviews are as bad as Kevin indicates, and even if they are not of professional quality, it doesn’t matter, they can still be (or should be) discussed and debated in a friendly manner. You don’t have to be an English major to be a nerd and review on OS on a site like this. I for one like the fact that pretty much anyone can post a review, it is one of the reasons I come here, its refreshing to get so many different perspectives.
The posts on this site are almost becoming unbearable however. They are slowly but surely ruining the reputation of this website and making it far less rewarding to participate. That is a shame. I wonder if a more aggressive form of moderation is needed? Weed out those who just want to cause trouble, or those who simply are unwilling to be civil or reasonable.
Tested head-on vs Ubuntu and Ubuntu comes out ahead in multimedia, ease of used, appearance, and speed.
Ubuntu is much preferred…
With all the imho rather dumb comments I just wanted to say thanks for a nice review. As I’m always on the lookout for a nice noobfriendly distribution I have some questions though.
1. I’ve now heard a lot of praise for the Xandors filemanager, but I still haven’t quite figured out what makes it so unique. What are it’s main advantages to konqueror?
2. As I’m a cheap bastard and like to try things out before I recomend them to anyone, can someone give me an estimate about how long it will probably take befor the open circulation edition (is that’s what it’s called) will become available?
3. The reviewer mentioned problems with his wireless card that were due to a bug in Xandro’s hotplug script. Now things like that happen, but what would be interesting is how Xandros reacts to bugs like these, did they already address the issue?
Finally, as someone already mentioned I don’t think it’s really fair to compare Fedora and Xandros as they have different goals and are targeted at different people, however I’m glad that there are now more and more distributions who’s goal it is to give the user a great out of the box experience with a good default set of applications. Ubuntu, Mepis and Xandros come to mind.
Since Ubuntu is Gnome based I doubt it comes ahead in speed. I have installed and used both, Xandros is considerably faster since it is based on KDE. Maybe Ubuntu boots faster. Not sure.
In terms of look it depends on what you preference is. Xandros is more understated and professional looking.
Multimedia – Ubuntu is probably better to me as it has a real jukebox standard. Xandros may have other things Ubuntu does not.
Ease of use – you can’t get much easier than Xandros so I don’t really think it could come out ahead. Maybe a tie.
Does Xandros come with non-free multimedia enhancements such as mp3, flash, java, etc. pre-installed? If it does, than admittedly it will come out ahead of Ubuntu as a multimedia distribution.
However, in fairness to Ubuntu, of all of the free community based distributions I have tried, none were as easy to “enhance” with non-free multimedia support.
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/RestrictedFormats/view?searchterm=f…
That page has all of the directions you need.
My only problem with Ubuntu was that it was a little rough around the edges. I am eagerly anticipating the release of Warty Warthog however, and am generally very excited about the potential of Ubuntu.
I realise that it is the author’s personal opinion, but it beats me why he finds it so. As far as I can see, it simply uses the Plastik theme which is oh so common on KDE desktops. Now Fedora/Redhat is something else…they use the custom Bluecurve theme, plus a few awesome default desktop background pics. That is what that sets the distribution apart from the rest.
Note: If you have a laptop, check the forums to be CERTAIN that it will work with Xandros before buying. Else you will be in the same boat as myself and a ton of others, who have installation problems on laptops..
Bloody thing starts up, claims it’s installing, then has the balls to turn around and look me in the eye and claims that it can’t even find the CD! This, after it just booted from the CD!!
Some lucky bloke @ my LUG is going to get a free Xandros 3.
So in reply to the “cheap” people waiting for Open Circulation edition: It’s not being cheap, it’s called PRAGMATISM. Don’t buy it until you know it works. This is linux, remember.
“2. As I’m a cheap bastard and like to try things out before I recomend them to anyone, can someone give me an estimate about how long it will probably take befor the open circulation edition (is that’s what it’s called) will become available?”
They say that it will be available in the Spring.
But did you read what they said? “the search for the torrent”… hint, hint…
I am not suggesting that you should downoad for free what you are supposed to pay, but I can understand people who want to try before they pay 🙂
My slack box only detected 4x, I had to set the real speed (32x) manually. YMMV of course.
Thanks, I know that I could probably easily find a torrent for it, but and this may sound stupid to some people, one thing I really enjoy about Linux and Open Source is that I normally don’t have to resort to these kind of things to get a working system with all the software I need.
@testy: I don’t know if you are reffering to me, but the cheap bastard was meant to be tongue in cheek. I agree with you though, I really would like to try it out first before I commit to buying it.
>>“heavily modified” XFM…
This begs the question: What did Xandros modify to make XFM? Haven’t they said it is a new application and, specifically, that it is not a modified Konqueror?
>>…let me run at 1280×1024, which most Linux distributions can’t do…
This is an X function, not a Linux function. With the appropriate driver and and an appropriate XFree86/Xorg config file, if it works in one distribution it will work in all of them. Perhaps the author meant that he was relying on X to be optimally configured automatically based on hardware detection during the install. In my experience, that’s rare.
>I have to admit that the Xandros model of doing things puzzles me (specifically their heavy promotion of WINE to run Windows applications). I’ll explain.
“heavy promotion” is an exaggeration. It’s one of many features that Xandros promotes.
Reading the posts on just about every story always seems to come down to an almost religious fervor for or against certain platforms.
An operating system is a tool, people, let us not forget that.
>Does Xandros come with non-free multimedia enhancements such as mp3, flash, java, etc. pre-installed? If it does, than admittedly it will come out ahead of Ubuntu as a multimedia distribution.
If you’d actually read the review before claiming that Ubuntu was better, you’d know the answer is yes.
If you’d actually read the review before claiming that Ubuntu was better, you’d know the answer is yes.
I never claimed that Ubuntu was a superior multimedia distribution, in fact I was pretty much making the opposite assertion. I read the article, but my memory gets fuzzy when I am working nights and I didn’t feel like reading it again.
None of the free community based distributions are good at multimedia out of the box due to licesnsing and patent issues.
I’ve been a Xandros supported over their last 3 versions and I keep it installed in one the PCs at home.
Overall, I think Xandros is a good distro keeping in mind the average home/enterprise desktop user it is targeted but for the more than $80 of Deluxe Edition I expected a little bit more. I did not see many changes in version 2 and less seems to be changed for this new version. Many of the annoyances of version 1 continue on this:
– Fonts. Yes fonts continue being a issue. Fonts are very small for high resolutions display. This is espcially apparent on Laptop displays with resolutions up to 1400×1050. You can easily configure font size in KDE but with some applications (Mozilla) this will not work. Ditto for CrossOver.
– Xandros Networks: Sorry Xandros, XN is plain ugly. It has not changed an inch since version 1 (that was 2002!) Other tools like Linspire click-and-run are much more intutive and user oriented.
– Installation with Windows: My Windows partition become unrecognible by Partition Magic after installing Xandros. That never happen on version 1 or 2. I have to tweak with for a pair of hours in order to get things running again.
– Floppy Icon on Xandros Explorer. A floppy icon is shown in Xandros on every floppy-less laptop I have installed! When the incon is clicked Xandros Explorer hungs. Once you connect a floppy drive via USB, it becomes drive B:(!!)
– GTK applications are poor integrated into the KDE desktop; why is so hard to follow what Red Hat did with Bluecurve?
– Booting time. Why Xandros try to re-re-re-re-detect all my hardware all over again after every reboot?
– Suspend/Hibernate. These features don not work without tweaking a little bit with command line. Do Xandros expect their customers know how to configure ACPI and other power-savvy features on theier PCs?
– Many Wireless PCMCIA cards are still not being recognized by the OS. I know this is common proble in Linux proble due to hardware manufactures but I expected a little more from a distro of around $80.
– etc.
Please, do not get me wrong. I use Xandros almost everyday and still think it is the best Linux option for the average Microsoft user that wants to move from Windows, but I expected a more polished and evolved distritbution for a version 3 pay-per-download distro.
(Sorry for my poor English
David
David
>I never claimed that Ubuntu was a superior multimedia distribution
You’re right, I got you mixed up with another poster, my apologies.
Here’s the bit I was referring too:
“Xandros includes tons of plugins by default, including many closed source licensed ones, like RealPlayer 10, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash Player 7, and Java 1.4x.”
Include the various Windows plugins supported by Crossover and Xandros comes out pretty well under Multimedia.
I don’t think that it is fair to imply that Xandros has added this wonderful PPTP functionality when every other distro has had this functionality almost forever. Linux has been a capable PPTP SERVER! with PopTop for three years and clients have been available at least as far back as 1997 (um, EIGHT YEARS!) It took no less than fifteen seconds of searching for me to look up the dates on these tools. I don’t think you should be writing articles about features if you don’t bother to google “linux pptp” and look at the first page! There are a lot of people in the FOSS community who put a lot of work into making tools to make Linux and other systems flexible and powerful and it only takes a handful of writers not bothering to research topics to make the general non-Linux population BELIEVE that these tools really haven’t existed. I personally have used PPTP on Linux for years… right out of the box with standard distros. Don’t glorify Xandros for being eight years out of date.
What tool that Linux in the business users like me use everyday and have for years will we hear about next as a major breakthrough from some commercial distro?
no thanks, i dont need to buy something i can get free (remember the GNU in front of Linux (GNU/Linux)), and wine/crossover is not needed since i switched my office to OpenOffice.org running satively on GNU/Linux…
The first approach would be the use of open source applications (OpenOffice, Mozilla, GAIM) on Windows first, and using that to gradually move over into a more fully open source system …. I think the first approach has several advantages.
I would say this depends on the percentage of open source apps you are using. I mean, if you’re planning to use 90% open source apps while using Windows apps only to fill a couple of voids, you’re probably better off in Linux.
However, if the majority of apps you’re using aren’t well represented by open source, then it makes more sense to use Free software in Windows where you can.
Also, it must be noted that some open source apps (esp some of the GTK ones) don’t run as well on Windows as they do in Linux, while some (such as Mozilla) do.
Just wanted to thank Chris Dunphy for the Ubuntu link, re. Restricted Apps. I know this thread is about Xandros, but I have absolutelly NO problems with UBUNTU. I actually love it.
Regards to all,
Serge Matovic
[email protected]
Am I the only one who noticed the ABBA directory in the first screenshot?
Chris Dunphy wrote:
“None of the free community based distributions are good at multimedia out of the box due to licesnsing and patent issues.”
Chris, try Mepis, it has ALL the plugins included, and they WORK, I tried them all.
Serge Matovic
[email protected]
I don’t think you should be writing articles about features if you don’t bother to google “linux pptp” and look at the first page!
Mr. Miller, if you had read the article, you’d see that Xandros includes a PPTP CLIENT, not server. This is key in connecting to Windows VPNs, which are very common. I don’t need a PPTP server, which is what PopTop is. Note that if you search google for Linux pptp vpn client you’ll get significantly fewer results. Now let’s look at the “try it” link from http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net, the leading (as far as I can tell) PPTP client project.
# install MPPE support in your kernel, (if required)
# install MPPE support in PPP, (if required)
# install the PPTP client,
# configure the client,
# start the tunnel, and
# configure routing.
In Xandros, you’d notice, I just typed in an IP address and it connected. No fiddling with the kernel, no configuration, no tunnel, no routing. Just an IP and credentials. Considerably easier.
I’d suggest before you accuse people of somehow attacking open source and FOSS developers, you make sure you’re talking about the right thing.
you almost hit the nail on the head there…..
although, if someone was to set up his windows pc with 90% oss, he would need that 90% to be totally functional, and a better choice than what it was replacing. So there would be absolutely no point in using oss if a better alternative was available.
Now I am not the type of linux user that will tell everyone that if they want a linux program to “do something some way or another” then you need to code it yourself etc etc however… there is nothing to stop a normal user contacting the author and asking for a specific thing for the next version…
try it
they are all very much approachable.
although, if someone was to set up his windows pc with 90% oss, he would need that 90% to be totally functional, and a better choice than what it was replacing. So there would be absolutely no point in using oss if a better alternative was available.
Right, but sometimes (not always) even if an open source app doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a commercial app, if it does everything you need, then it’s fine. Take OpenOffice for example – doesn’t do everything MS Office does, but it certainly meets the needs for a lot of people.
Now, I’m not saying that you shoudl ALWAYS use open source, but just because there’s a more functional alternative that costs money, if it doesn’t have any features that are useful to you, then free software is a perfect solution.
see, now I am confused
every time I see a post from you on this site, you say that you will never use linux or oss because it has not got the specialised apps that you need….
you never tell us what these are….
but it sounds to me like you are going back on your word and using some oss
🙂
“However, I think it is a fair question to debate the course taken by Xandros in meeting this need. Does the WINE approach offer the best way to migrate?”
Well, until they come out with Photoshop (no, GIMP isn’t good enough), Dreamweaver (no, Composer and Bluefish do no compare) Audition 1.5 (no, Audour and Audacity are not as good) WINE is the best alternative.
The PPTP client was what got my notice right away. It’s hard for me to understand why nobody (distro), to my knowledge has included this before. IMO, it’s huge in getting people to move to Linux. Being in the IT industry, so many of our clients use VPN’s, and already have a number of issues trying to get their Windows boxes to connect without problems (user error mostly). If I can supply them with a commercial distro, and yes, the only way it would fly is if it’s commercial (not my requirement but theirs), that has an out of the box working vpn client . . . well that’s a huge part of the battle right there.
Garret
I have to say, I was looking forward to the latest version of xandros 3.0 but its not much better than 2.0
I new the limitations regarding web content that v2.0 had and went straight to a web page with some video & audio streams to see if it could cope with them but sadly not so. All I got was no response.
When are Xandros going to realise that if you want to lure people off M$ windows and provide a linux alternative, then it must be able use all the multi-media content available on the net. I currently use Mepis which will play most of the content that people currently use windows media player for but xandros is way behind mepis in this departmant.
Maybe the people at Xandros should take a close look at Mepis & maybe they might realise what they have to do as a minimum & then improve on it to make it worth paying money for.
Until they do something realistic, I’m sticking with Mepis & guess what? ITS FREE
Bloody thing starts up, claims it’s installing, then has the balls to turn around and look me in the eye and claims that it can’t even find the CD! This, after it just booted from the CD!!
I had the same thing happen to me on my iBook with Yellow Dog 2.3. I contacted Terra Soft, and they said that I’d have to wait for version 3.0, which DID install.
every time I see a post from you on this site, you say that you will never use linux or oss
I said I wouldn’t use Linux*, not necessarily OSS. I actually use a handful of OSS apps, Mozilla & Thunderbird being chief amoung them. (Although I will probably drop Mozilla when Opera 7.6 comes out, because the text-to-speech option is just killer .. yet one more thing that doesn’t work in Linux.)
because it has not got the specialised apps that you need….
Well, in regards to Linux, it doesn’t have some of the specialized apps I need, and I am not willing to give them up to jump ship.
you never tell us what these are….
If you were to go back and look at archives, I have mentioned them several times. But everytime I do, the general response is that ‘But those are niche apps!’ which just goes to show you that one size does not fit all. Linux may be perfect for some people but for me, it is not.
*Ok, maybe I would use it if I needed a server for something, but not as my primary desktop OS.
fair enough
and I am not one of these linux muppets who keep banging on that everyone should switch
if you happy with what you got, then fine. use it and enjoy it
” (Although I will probably drop Mozilla when Opera 7.6 comes out, because the text-to-speech option is just killer ”
no. its not
no. its not
Make a dealw ith you .. I’ll trade your vision for mine and see if you still feel the same way
Based on the many good reviews of Xandros, I downloaded and installed the OC version. Sure, it’s only version 2 but it is awesome; not because it has features nobody else has and not because it works with all hardware (no video drivers for a VIA Epia board). It is awesome because it has that “just works” feeling. It is a polished desktop; simple and refined. It is easy for you to find your way around. It is easy to configure. Xandros Networks is really nice for adding/updating apps.
Basically, it’s a great tool. You install it and forget about it. For those that love to tweak, this is not for you; try gentoo. For those, like me, who just want to install and use, this is a great distribution. Your mileage may vary but this is best one that I’ve run across.
Is your CD drive integrated into the laptop or is it an external one? I have the same issue installing *any* Linux on my laptop because it uses an external PCMCIA CD drive. There’s a valid technical reason; you have to switch drive access methods during the install of an operating system. Booting from a drive, the drive is handled by the BIOS. Then the install procedure loads a proper kernel and that attempts to find the drive itself. This is where the drive gets lost. On my laptop I can pass certain parameters to the kernel that tell it where to find the drive, and then installation will proceed; I expect there may be a similar fix for yours, if you’re in the same situation. (I hope the Xandros installer has a method for passing arbitrary options to the boot kernel…)
As I mentioned in the other Xandros thread, drakvpn (vpn client wizard) has been in Mandrake since February this year, so v10.0 and 10.1. For 10.2 the interface will be cleaned some more and it will be integrated into the control centre.
nice flamers here
Note: If you have a laptop, check the forums to be CERTAIN that it will work with Xandros before buying. Else you will be in the same boat as myself and a ton of others, who have installation problems on laptops..
Bloody thing starts up, claims it’s installing, then has the balls to turn around and look me in the eye and claims that it can’t even find the CD! This, after it just booted from the CD!!
Some lucky bloke @ my LUG is going to get a free Xandros 3.
By any chance, does your laptop use an external USB CD drive? If so, pass the parameter “bootusb2” to the kernel. I had to do that to install Kanotix – worked like a charm.
Regards,
DB
Xandros is the only distro I have tried that can easily load a driver for a winmodem and I have tried most of the popular ones. Within 15 to 20 minutes from starting the install to browsing the internet. What more can you ask?
the video card settings are greyed out in the control panel, and my external firewire drive isn’t being recognized. On the plus side: it sees & mounts my NTFS partition on the other hard drive.
While overall the look and feel are good, and it is pleasing in many asthetic ways, functionally this release sucks. I’ve been a user since version 1, and every release since then has been a downgrade. I’m not happy with X3, I’m not going to hunt around for libs, drivers, etc for stuff that worked just fine in all previous xandros versions. And I’m replacing X3 with my old standby: mandrake.
Not only did Xandros 3.0 see my wireless WPC-11 card, it allowed me to log on to my work’s Novell file server. All I did was create a directory to mount it in “network”, then I typed
$ ncpmount -S servername /mnt/Accounts -U username -P password /home/user/network
into the console. No configuration needed.
What was the big deal about it? I have it running on my Ubuntu box and tunnel into work frequently (as a matter of fact I am tunneled into work right now…)
Mike
…I don’t think I will download and try it, but it does look nice and sounds reasonably functional and easy to use.
If the writer could contact us at [email protected] we’d be interested to know of the bug you’ve found with hotplug.
As of yet, its not been reported to us (i believe anyway)
If I recall, XFM can be used as an ftp client. I don’t use it as such, but I recall it being possible.
I use XFM as an FTP client on my Xandros 2.0 OCE system and it works great. I use it every day to maintain my web sites and I see no reason to move to another FTP app.
BTW, I guess I am the target audience ’cause I really like Xandros. It meets all of my needs, and whether it is missing some niche app or not, it should be more widely known and used by the rest of us.
Why is it, that every time a user friendly Linux distro like Xandros, Lycoris, or Lindows is reviewed there are always some people that don’t like the Windows style GUI of these distros? I have a question for critics like say thats like that? Do you want Microsoft to continue to be dominant? In order for this to happen Linux is going to have be user friendly and easy to use, esp if you want the average Window user to migrate to Linux, its just that simple. There is nothing wrong with this “mainstreaming” approach, but yet some of you act like doing this is selling out.
Let me explain something, most Windows user have ZERO experience with Linux, so why not encourage them to migrate to a user friendly distro like Xandros, where everything works right out of the box (relatively speaking of course)? Is it fair to ask to go to something like SlackWare where there is a amount of configuring and tweaking, which would be a daunting task?
Xandros is one of best versions of Linux I have ever used bar none, in my humble opinion, it is definitely the easiest to install programs with. The only downside to Xandros OCE 2.0 is a lot of the open source programs that run on other distros like Red Hat, Suse, or even Debian apps dont always run on Xandros and some of the have to be compiled to run on Xandros, but with a little bit of searching and access to the user forums and you can run almost all of the main streaming video protocols for Windows ie, Windows media stuff, quicktime, realplayer, etc and they are enough of other types of programs that at least allowed me to do almost everything I have done in Windows to be done in Xandros.
Also, while Xandros may be easy to use that doesnt mean you cant learn things about Linux. I have learn a lot about Linux ie, using the terminal, using the command line even with Xandros. So, might it be logical to assume that some Xandros users may possibly migrate to other more techinal “hands on” versions of Linux? You dont feed steak to a baby do you? You gotta start with milk first and then in a few years the baby will be able to eat solid foods, which mainly my point to the more experienced Linux who are critical of distros like Xandros, Lycoris, or Lindows.
What I read is simply unbelieveble. Here is the author with a well written review, that covers pretty much well what defines Xandros. And there, I read comments that just don’t make any sense with regards to the review itself and with regards to their very own topics. What is the point that Mandrake had this one option in February? Or that Fedora has the Bluecurve theme. The point here is to describe and review what Xandros 3 is. Some of you act like kids, it’s amazing.
Xandros is a very well done distribution that is designed for desktop use. In that respect, I does a wonderful job. Xandros File Manager is a huge step when compared to Konqueror, which I have used very often. Konqueror is also great, but it very well sucks when time comes to deal with networking (let it be NSF or Windows networking). Xandros File Manager does not reinvent the wheel, but the excellent implementations of Samba into it make things a whole lot easier, in a way that Konqueror doesn’t. Burning data onto CDs or DVDs directly from the FIle Manager, without having to use K3B (which is by the way a very neat software) is very handy. Those are a few of the strengths of the File Manager. It can also be used as an ftp client.
You don’t care for CrossOver (wine), just get the standard edition. Why hitting the nail on a company that just offers an option that, after 2 previous versions, seems to be still enough on demand. A comment on the “ugliness” of Xandros Networks: this is ridiculous, it’s not ugly, and it’s not beautiful either. It’s a package manager! What do you do? Sit on your chair and look at a package manager all day or what?
The point is that the previous review of Xandros incorrectly stated that it was the *first* distribution to include a VPN wizard, and someone in this thread repeated the same, incorrect assertion.
I didn’t say it was the first. I said “I don’t know what took Linux so long to get this…”
I haven’t used Mandrake 10+ (very faithful user of 9.1 though), but the client in Xandros is A+.
it just isn’t. I have heard this distro has killed several people, because it randomly makes the computer spit freon fire.
there where already 2 casualties in north carolina, and 7 in floriday. It was on slashdot, so it must be true