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Of course, now that Xandros only lets you use it for 30 days before disabling it

The trial version of Xandros Desktop Professional is valid for 30 days from the time of installation. At the end of your 30-day trial period, Xandros Desktop Professional automatically shuts down 30 minutes after booting.

... and how it hasn't kept pace with the latest and greatest, he wanted to switch when he bought a new computer, so he's now using opensuse + KDE, and he's very happy with it.

The K desktop got a lot of flack for how they handled the switch from 3x to 4x, but the end result is definitely worth it.

After you do the install, you'll want to add the "restricted formats" repository, for things like mp3, video, etc. There's a one-click installer that will add the repository, download the codecs, install them, etc., which I should imagine will be updated shortly after 11.4 hits the net. I'll probably do a clean install for a change, since I've been doing in-place upgrades for so long, and it's a good excuse to clean up the cruft, and I'll let you know how it goes.

I don't have a solution to the "how do we pay programmers to do the crappy F/LOSS jobs" problem ... maybe we need more schools to put emphasis on F/LOSS, and put those problems on the curriculum for grades?

I'll probably get hate for suggesting this, but you might want to try installing Xandros Business as it IMHO seems to be the best Linux for use in a mixed Windows/Linux environment. Pretty much all the big MSFT corporate products-Exchange,AD, etc work pretty much OOTB with Xandros and with the built in Crossover Office you can even run MS Office so they can't bring up document compatibility.

IIRC you can download a 30 day trial version on their website so maybe if you were to bring in a laptop running it so they can see that there is a Linux that "just works" with their Windows infrastructure? Well you just might get your wish.

Question: Have you tried Xandros? I really think it would be more likely to give you want you want a lot easier than SUSE. It plays nice with AD, has Scalix built in to give you your Exchange like email and group calendaring, and the XMC makes it easy to switch over Windows admins. If you want tight intgration in a mixed environment it would probably be your best bet, and they have a free trial if you want to fire up a VM and give it a spin.

Xandros obviously? :)

I would say Lindows/Linspire but Xandros bought them out.

Linux is notoriously finicky when it comes to hardware, windows has always been more forgiving, and even Vista at release had fewer hardware issues than Linux has always been stuck with.

In my anecdotal experience, Windows and Linux can both be finicky with hardware. Upgrading Windows frequently makes too-old or too-new peripherals useless (usually due to driver issues). Linux (and BSD) drivers typically, though certainly not always, continue working or get updated across operating system upgrades.

My company uses just one image for at least 50,000 pc's, maybe more, about 10 different manufacturers and about 20 models apiece. So, yeah. It's harder to set up in Vista, but it is doable.

Which doesn't jibe with this:

I can't wait till Windows7 gets cleared for my environment so I can start playing with the server side tools, since Vista will never be approved and the server tools don't work for making XP images (they work for deployment though).

So the server tools don't work for making XP images, Vista will never be allowed on your 50 000 PCs, but everything will work great on yet-to-be-released Win7? Sounds like marketing talk, not experience. In case you're young, MS is famous for saying their next version will be so much better, old-timers have learned to wait for proof.

If you try to go with imagine for Linux without a mass deployment tool to save time (and therefore money), you are talking hundreds of images to deploy Linux vs just one for Windows. I guess you'd have to be rolling your own mass produced images (like I do, heh) to understand how much manpower that is going to add to the sale of a Linux PC.

So mass deploying Linux without a mass deployment tool is time consuming? Well, yes, but then so is mass deploying Windows without a mass deployment tool. You would have to explore mass deployment tools to understand how much manpower they save.

Based on the copyright ("Copyright (c) 2009 Xandros Incorporated") I would venture to guess that Presto Linux comes out of Xandros Linux.

EeeOS is designed to be a minimalistic Custom Debian Distribution that provides a base system (drivers, system tools, Xorg) and nothing more. The idea behind such a release is so that users of Eee Linux OS can configure and build their own Eee experience ... an EeeXperience if you will :P While systems like Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse and Xandros are all amazing in their own right, they often come pre-configured and with a lot of bloat. Some power users prefer to have complete control over their systems and it is with these users in mind that Eee OS was created.

I was going to go on a lengthy explanation about how you could use Slackware or Gentoo to provide the optimal configuration you are interested in but after reading your summary, I doubt you're interested in this sort of devotion to squeezing your eeePC like a lemon over your enemy's eye.

... though I've been told with great enthusiasm that it actually works "out of the box."

Ubuntu has worked "out of the box" for two of my DLink WiFi cards. It worked on a no name CompUSA brand rebate PCMCIA card on my laptop but there were ... annoyances ... with lack of encryption options.

Also, why did you go with an Eee Ubuntu and not Xubuntu ... which I guess would be more widely supported?

Just as Mandrake became Mandriva, so to is Corel Linux still around. It simply changed owners and goes by the name Xandros.

If you need to switch a SMB over to Linux, or need to use Linux in a mixed Linux/Windows environment Xandros works great. Their desktop is close enough to XP that even the most tech phobic secretary doesn't have a problem with it, the business edition has built in Crossover Office so they can run their MS Office without difficulty, and their XMC which is now available for RH as well as Xandros server, makes switching a Windows server admin over to Linux a whole lot easier. While it isn't for everyone, for SMBs and mixed environments it really does great and play nice with Windows.

If you MUST use Windows:

http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

If you're partial to macs you have the same options:

http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

If you're fed up with Microsoft and don't have a Mac (or if you have a Mac but are tiring of OS X):

http://www.opensuse.org/en/
http://www.kubuntu.org/
http://www.xandros.com/
http://www.centos.org/
http://fedoraproject.org/

Actually,and I know i'm going to get the hate for mentioning them,but Xandros does a damned good Windows impersonation. The initial setup wizard even asks you if you want it to "act like Windows"(it also asks whether you'd like it to act like Apple or KDE) which if you choose yes all the keyboard shortcuts and context menus act like Windows.

That said,Crossover Office,which also comes built into Xandros,would solve probably 80% of those returns IMHO. With Xandros you stick in the software disc,the wizard pops up,you go "clicky clicky next next next" and your Windows software is ready to go. Because I'm betting a lot of these folks stuck in their Windows discs and got mad when the software didn't go and returned it. I'm sure an OEM Crossover license wouldn't be that much when you are a large OEM like this so that would be an easy fix. But if they want their Linux to act like Windows they ought to put in Xandros. I have yet to run into a Windows user who couldn't adapt to Xandros very quickly.

No viruses,spyware,and a lot harder to hack sounds like vastly superior to me. Never underestimate the fear of data theft. Companies see big losses can seriously hurt their bottom line,just look at TJmax.

So while free is nice,and I am often trying new distros just to see how they are,I always come back to Xandros. And if you need something that just works out of the box with no fussing or CLI,then Xandros is the way to go. It plays nice with AD,it plays nice with login scripts,and the desktop(Xandros Business) even has a "Behave like Windows" button that makes all the keyboard shortcuts and context menus behave like XP. But like I said,they have free trials for both the server and desktop. Why not fire up a VM and give them a go? If you need a drop in replacement for Winserver+Exchange or Windows desktop it is really nice and easy to use. And if you don't like it all it cost you was a little time. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

No viruses,spyware,and a lot harder to hack sounds like vastly superior to me. Never underestimate the fear of data theft. Companies see big losses can seriously hurt their bottom line,just look at TJmax.

So while free is nice,and I am often trying new distros just to see how they are,I always come back to Xandros. And if you need something that just works out of the box with no fussing or CLI,then Xandros is the way to go. It plays nice with AD,it plays nice with login scripts,and the desktop(Xandros Business) even has a "Behave like Windows" button that makes all the keyboard shortcuts and context menus behave like XP. But like I said,they have free trials for both the server and desktop. Why not fire up a VM and give them a go? If you need a drop in replacement for Winserver+Exchange or Windows desktop it is really nice and easy to use. And if you don't like it all it cost you was a little time. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Which if you check the prices of licenses compared to Exchange is a WHOLE lot cheaper.(Disclaimer-I don't work for Xandros,I just enjoy the ease of use). Look,Xandros+Scalix isn't meant for Linux gurus that are the masters of the CLI game,it is designed for businesses that have primarily Windows admins and need something that just works,or for those that have to support a mixed environment.

Thanks to a plugin you can manage your Xandros server from either your Windows server or your admin desktop,the Xandros XMC is so identical to the MMC that it takes almost no retraining at all to switch your Windows admins over,and with of 60 roles already to go with nice wizards it takes the CLI and guesswork out of setup and maintaining the server. I believe in the right tool for the job,and for the average SMB,or for those that don't have Linux admins on staff,Xandros takes a lot of the hair pulling out of switching. It even has both Xen and Vmware support built into the kernel so you can get virtual servers up and running in no time at all.

They have a free 90 day trial on their website so if you have space for a VM or an old server sitting around unused why don't you give it a try and decide for yourself? That is always better than taking someone else's word for it anyway. And as always this is my 02c,YMMV

Xandros with Scalix also works as a drop in,with the added bonus of being able to be either a member or a domain controller in an AD forest. Really nice if you need to support a mixed environment. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

They have a free trial here so it won't cost you anything to try it except a little of your time and a blank cd. For me it runs solid as a rock,allows me to hook up to a business's AD server when I get called out on a job without any fuss,and Crossover even lets me run IE 6 for when I run into those stupid Intranet sites that still insist on IE. At least give it a try before you have to shell out for XP,because it really does run well and so far has just worked with every piece of hardware I've thrown at it. But as always this is my 02c,YMMV

From the Xandros website

That is for Asus to sell the Eee without an OS so we can avoid the Microsoft tax.

Xandros are one of those stupid companies that did a patent deal. Wake me up when I can buy one of these machines without an installed OS, or at least without a linux distro that bent-over for Microsoft.

But Microsoft isn't competing with a free component. They're competing against another "for profit" company: Xandros. Xandros Desktop Pro (which is the closest thing I can find to what the Eee must be running) costs about $100 USD. Add $50 on top if you want to buy patent protection. Without the patent protection fee, that's comparable to a new Windows XP Home OEM CD.

If the software costs about the same, the $50 premium for more SSD space starts looking reasonable.

We have something similar here in Australia too, our Trade Practices Act 1975 (Vic) s 46—Misuse of market power. It'd be difficult to prove MS wouldn't be have been able to do this without their market power, though.

I don't know how much 12GB or 20GB SSDs cost (they haven't penetrated the Australian market); the only SSDs I could find online were ExpressCard SSDs. Amongst those, there's a $100 difference between Lexar's 16GB SSD and its 32GB one. 16G/32GB are massively different from 12/20GB, but the comparison shows that the price difference may be explainable by the different SSD. Yes, I may be wrong in using Australian prices since Asus doesn't do its manufacturing here, but then neither does Lexar. I can only presume price difference in Australia is somewhat linked to the price difference overseas, where both Lexar and Asus do the manufacturing.

As to the price of XP, an OEM disc of Windows XP Home costs about $100. Xandros Desktop Professional costs $99 to download. Those are end user prices. Asus would probably be able to secure further discounts. The question would then be whether Microsoft was supplying Windows XP to Asus at prices only explainable as an attempt to use their market power. I don't think Microsoft is stupid enough to give Asus Windows XP for free—that would be clearly a use of market power. Short of that, any price they charge may be explained as an aggressive attempt to counter what they view as their biggest threat.

You haven't? As a long time Xandros Business user I would recommend you give them a try. They have a free trial on their website,and if you need a Linux that will play nice with the corporate AD network,or one that just works out of the box and lets you install Windows apps when you need them (comes with Crossover) you really can't go wrong. For me it was the fact that they were the only one out of 30+ distros I tried that would work out of the box with the evil Broadcom BCM4318 that came with my Dell laptop. IMHO a great distro for a mixed business environment or for those that just want everything to work without tinkering. But that is my 02c,YMMV. But since it has a free trial all it takes is a little time,so form your own opinion.

Why don't you give them a try? Xandros has a 30 day trial for business 4 so there isn't anything to lose. Oh, and the only difference between Business and Home Premium is support for AD and 3G, so if you don't need either of those you can save a few bucks by going home. Or if you don't want to run any Windows programs you can pick up home for half price if you choose the one with only a Crossover trial. Me I like having the option of running Office 2K and I needed AD support so it was an easy choice for me. Give it a try and I'll bet you like it. Oh, and if you were wondering yes, I have the dreaded BCM4318, also known as the card that can make a Linux user postal.

I know a lot of folks on slashdot complain about the MSFT deal (from what I read and heard from developers on the forums it was the only way they could get their hands on the exchange APIs they needed for interoperability) but it in my experience Xandros makes a good drop in replacement for Windows and Win server. Give it a try, it might just be what you are looking for.

For those who haven't tried it,Xandros has a free trial of business and home on their website.I have tried both and thanks to the deal with MSFT where they paid for access to the APIs that they needed it works wonderfully with windows networks.Just use business if you need AD support,and home if you don't.For those of us who have to work with windows intranets it is a godsend.Hell,I even have both IE 5 & 6 for those companies who have those crappy intranet websites that demand IE.And both home and business come with Crossover.

I honestly tried to like Vista,if for no other reason so I would have experience dealing with the problems that I'm sure my customers will be bringing me.But after two months I will tell them that I would not run Vista unless they are willing to invest $1000+ in a pc.And that they should hope whatever thing they pick up from Best Buy has parts that I can track down XP parts for or else they are just boned.It should be illegal to sell a machine THAT underpowered with Vista home ANYTHING.MSFT needs to delay the death of XP,if for no other reason to give the Best Buys of this world a chance for Dual Core and 2Gb of RAM to become standard on sub $500 machines.Until then XP will run like a champ on a Celeron with 512Mb.Vista---HA HA HA HA.

For those who haven't tried it,Xandros has a free trial of business and home on their website.I have tried both and thanks to the deal with MSFT where they paid for access to the APIs that they needed it works wonderfully with windows networks.Just use business if you need AD support,and home if you don't.For those of us who have to work with windows intranets it is a godsend.Hell,I even have both IE 5 & 6 for those companies who have those crappy intranet websites that demand IE.And both home and business come with Crossover.

I honestly tried to like Vista,if for no other reason so I would have experience dealing with the problems that I'm sure my customers will be bringing me.But after two months I will tell them that I would not run Vista unless they are willing to invest $1000+ in a pc.And that they should hope whatever thing they pick up from Best Buy has parts that I can track down XP parts for or else they are just boned.It should be illegal to sell a machine THAT underpowered with Vista home ANYTHING.MSFT needs to delay the death of XP,if for no other reason to give the Best Buys of this world a chance for Dual Core and 2Gb of RAM to become standard on sub $500 machines.Until then XP will run like a champ on a Celeron with 512Mb.Vista---HA HA HA HA.

I disagree.

You can disagree all you want. It doen't make that disagreement sound or valid.

Yes, of course. Unfortunately for you, that goes both ways.

Seems that everybody forgets that months ago Microsoft latest strategy against OSS was to cut "interoperability" and "patent protection" deals with every Linux distribution it could (a move that allowed them both to throw FUD and -potentially- profit on OSS at the same time).

Well, it isn't that everyone forgets, the fanaticism died down and they were able to look at the details of the deals to find that what was being said about them wasn't true. Only the truely foolish and the fanatics continue to spout ideas like you are.

Sorry, but bashing and name calling won't get you nowhere, and judging by the level of your "argumentation" I'm pretty sure you're the one acting as a fanatic. Perhaps it would be best if you just shed some light on the details you're talking about which supposedly disprove my view.

It was the release of the GPLv3 (which among other things, closed that possibility) what made them back out; something which was accomplished without needing any actual project to change their license (the mere threat that it could happen was enough).

Well, it was more or less Novell that backed them out. But something more interesting is that Linspire, xandros or whatever it is called now and a few other companies made a deal with Microsoft knowing full well about the GPLv3 and what it said. Or are your forgeting about those?

No, Microsoft was actually the only one to back out from the deal: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/misc/07-05statement.mspx (Novell response: http://www.novell.com/prblogs/?p=365)
Microsoft-Xandros: june 4, 2007 http://www.xandros.com/news/press_releases/xandros_microsoft_collaborate.html
Microsoft-LGE: june 6, 2007 http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/jun07/06-06MSLGEPR.mspx
Microsoft-Linspire: june 13, 2007 http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS9642338710.html
GPLv3 release: june 29, 2007 http://www.fsf.org/news/gplv3_launched
But I'm sure they had studied the license extensively (even though the GPLv3 was released weeks after the last deal...)

I'd say that alone justify it's existence and is prove enough that there is a point to GPLv3.

I would say your either ignorant of how it didn't accomplish that or you are attempting to pump up the GPLv3 hoping that people are dumb enough to believe you. Either way, what I wouldn't say is that you are correct in your interpretation.

Ooops, you caught me there. I guess there's no point in keeping it secret any longer: I'm a GPLv3 zealot payed by RMS himself to post on Slashdot as part of the worldwide FSF conspiracy to take over the world.... (you know, your username almost honours you...)
Back to reality, I stand by my original point: even is the GPLv3 were impractical in most cases, it has already had a significant positive impact on OSS by putting an end to that. I'm afraid that to prove your point you'll have to do a bit more than posing a false dichotomy where I must either be completely ignorant or have some obscure agenda.

Just because it's not perfect it doesn't mean that it's not better than it's predecessor (and it certainly doesn't mean it's worst). That

I know some hate Xandros for the Microsoft deal (which I believe that, unlike Novell, they actually paid Microsoft for access to the documents for the API's they wanted to ensure compatibility with) but they really do make a rock solid, easy to use product. And the ease of use has allowed me to convert folks that I thought would NEVER touch anything but Windows. And I know that with the familiar xMC layout I won't have a hard time explaining to PHB's what it does. And they have a free trial if you want to load it into a spare box or a VM and give it a go.

I think as more and more Linux distros become easier to setup and manage that we'll be seeing a lot more "deals" like this.Microsoft has no problem losing a little money on a product if they can use it to kill competition. But server 2008 had better be a quantum leap better than Vista or IMHO all the deals in the world won't help.

Yes, it is irrational.

The code related to the GPL violation was specific to the Eee PC hardware and would not work on an ordinary PC.

If want your normal PC to run the same distro, you already can. The Eee PC runs Xandros, which you can download and install anytime.

Please do not judge Linux by Ubuntu. I have NEVER had more trouble getting the basics to "just work" as I had under Ubuntu. If you want it to "just work" and have Crossover built in for your Windows Apps, Try Xandros(free trial here). If you want it to "just work" and don't want to spend any money,try PCLinuxOS or Mandriva Free. I know this will probably kill my karma, but IMHO any of the above would be better for switching someone from Windows than Ubuntu. For all the hype about Ubuntu, I've never had more pain trying to get everything running from any other OS, except maybe Fedora 4(shudder).

That said, you can't expect to try a single distro on a laptop and have everything work perfectly out of the box. As a matter of fact, I tried over thirty before I was given a boxed version of Xandros which runs beautifully on my laptop. They were the only one that worked with my BCM4318 wireless out of the box, and with Compiz Fusion I have full 3d desktop effects and no slowdown on a laptop with 512Mb of RAM. If you would like to try it they have a trial version on their website and it sets up dual booting completely hassle free. And while it still has the power of Debian and the Bash CLI under the hood, its ease of use has allowed me to convert folks who had trouble with even simple Windows tasks.

Give it a try. You have nothing to lose and a lot of performance to gain.

After using their Business OS for 2+ years I can't be happier. It authenticates to the AD faster than my Windows did,accesses all the resources without a complaint,Crossover lets me run IE6 for the Intranet sites that won't play nice with Firefox,and since 4.0 it even works with my Broadcom 4318 on my laptop out of the box without tweaking or Ndis.Hell,it even runs faster on my laptop with all the 3d effects on than XP did with everything off and the classic GUI. Very nice

And as for Live CDs,don't base all of Linux on Ubuntu.I had to try dozens before I settled on the Xandros Pro which is on my laptop.They have a free trial on their website,why not give them a try?http://www.xandros.com/products/business/dsk_professional/dskpro_free_trial.html While they don't have a Live CD I've found it to be excellent at partitioning a dual boot setup.And so far I have yet to throw a piece of hardware at it and not have it work.It also has a built-in trial of Crossover Office so you can see if your Windows Apps work

Of course if you want to go strictly free,I would recommend either PCLinuxOS or Kanotix.Both are very newbie friendly and both have the Live CD. I went with Xandros because it was the only one that I didn't have to jump through hoops to get my laptops wireless to work.But on a desktop I've found both PCLinuxOS and Kanotix to work very well and have excellent hardware detection.

Due to many free distros being unable to add third party drivers you will have to tweak many free distros to get everything "just right".I don't have the time for that with class and a family which is why I've run Xandros Pro since version 3.0.Everything always seems to "just work right" no matter what kind of hardware I've thrown at it,even those PITA wireless cards.I've also placed their Home version 4 on the boxes of several Windows users and they have never had a bit of trouble and again everything "just works out of the box".

The have a free trial you can download for each version.Give it a try and if it "just works" for you to you can buy it through Xandros networks and not need to tweak anything again.Oh,and their license allows you to install it on more than one box for non-commercial use so you only need the one license for your home.IMO a great distro for those that don't have the time to tweak.

From their website...

Funny thing...

http://www.xandros.com/products/home/home_edition. html
The premium edition has a very nice utility that imports everything from Windows as well. The price? $40 of that is for CodeWeavers, which is optimized to run Windows apps directly in Linux. It also has free techinical support and a simple as can be upgrade and install application.

It's not Ubuntuu, but it is as close to "Linux for Dummies" as it gets(more hand-holding than even your grandmother would need), and by far the easiest to upgrade and adjust to when moving from Windows that I know of.

A steal at $60(if you look online) - Considering Codeweavers is $40 of that, it's really $20 for the two CDs, tech support and the manual - not too unreasonable for a newbie *ix user.

It is the best solution I know for the problem I recognized. That problem being the need for MS users to have other options. .... Do you have a better suggestion for a *nix distro for a brand new user who has previously only known MS?.

Of course, better than Ubuntu for that sector of users. I will prefer them to use Xandros or Linspire. Those are (in my opinion of course) the proper systems to replace windows (read carefully:) for that kind of people that is *just* going out of windows to try an alternative, hence they do not care about freedom of OS and available-sourcecode, etc available. They want something that, as windows "just works" (although I presume they expect things to work better than on Windows).

Ubuntu in my opinion is for people that wants to take the *next* step from those paid-for distributions or for people that used Mandriva, RedHat, etc and wants to try this newcomer which everyone is talking about.

Thats all I found after nearly a 1/2 hour of searching their site.

Even DistroWatch doesn't have access to a totaly free version of their work.

If this is true then they are seriously violating the GPL-- if they are under it :(

-- Firmly entrenched at the very bottom of 'Terrible Karma'.. now I can FINALLY speak my mind..

Nano is very tiny, and could be added to the LSB with absolutely no trouble. Then one could say that anytime you hop onto a Linux system, you can choose nano if vi seems too arcane. From there, realizing that OS X also includes nano, it is not a stretch to say that nano would be emerging as a *nix standard. It is already used in most OS X examples as a common-sense way to do quick edits in the CLI.

The problem with vi is that to many people it is outright repulsive. When told to use it, I infer an underlying attitude of "We don't care about making you deal with unnecessarily arcane tools and formats". Still, I'm not saying it should be abandoned or removed... its just not a program that ought to be forced onto anyone at the 'Webhosting 101' or 'Junior Linux Admin' stages.

Sed and awk are fine the way they are, but people are not going to be expected to learn them just so they can perform rare, emergency system maintenance. With vi, its a different story.

That is how I see it anyway. If it were up to me, I would replace 80% of /etc stuff with XML files, making sure that a good text-mode XML editor with tree/node view was included. Too many subsystems on Linux integrate poorly because their config/control options are based on their /etc file, a custom format with vague rules and/or poor documentation. The first nonsense file format to be slayed would be xorg.conf. But that's just daydreaming. :-)

Your idea about relocating libraries for certain app dependencies reminds me of Apple appdirs: The non-standard version of the library stays in the appdir, and appropriately the vendor that supplied it with the app is responsible for how well it functions. I think that should be standard procedure when developing any app on any OS: If you insist on holding back to an older version than the OS specifies, then (if licensing allows) it is your job to include it with the app and have the app load it from its own folder. Making the rest of the system deal with your decision is just wrong, but unfortunately that's how its done on "Linux".

The HCL idea has been burning in my mind for over a year. If I could figure out a way to attract a real following (and some hardware expertise) to it, I'd set up a project website. Probably the first thing to do would be to compile information from the various fragmented hardware lists; these would be some starting points:

http://mradomski.wordpress.com/2006/07/09/linux-ha rdware-compatibility-lists-hcl/

http://www.linux.org/vendor/hardware/index.html

http://support.xandros.com/hcl.php

And that earth-shattering question: What to call it?

Corel Linux seems to be doing OK, especially with the likes of HP pushing their product these days.

Rather than move to Vista, these people should seriously consider distributions like Mepis or Xandros. Both install in a snap and Xandros makes it easy to use Crossover Office for those few unfortunates who must still use M$ Word and other terminally kludged junk. I had a look at the Vista Ready page myself and here's are requirements and a feature compare with KDE, the desktop used by both distros. They work great on the computers your neighbors throw out too.

The Mac charge to X86 is starting to more G3s to the trash as well, and most of the same free software runs on them too.

I've tried Xandros and it's not too shabby. Just some problems w/ my sound.

I'm not sure it would be such a bad thing for Oracle to purchase Xandros. They have some neat server packages too. Such as http://www.xandros.com/products/business/xdms/xdms _intro.htmlxdms and their server http://www.xandros.com/products/business/server/se rver_intro.html.

This would be equally good for xandros because they have a business desktop too, so oracle would be able to go two fronts, business and home.

I've tried Xandros and it's not too shabby. Just some problems w/ my sound.

I'm not sure it would be such a bad thing for Oracle to purchase Xandros. They have some neat server packages too. Such as http://www.xandros.com/products/business/xdms/xdms _intro.htmlxdms and their server http://www.xandros.com/products/business/server/se rver_intro.html.

This would be equally good for xandros because they have a business desktop too, so oracle would be able to go two fronts, business and home.

Except for corporate ownership Corel Linux is still a very user friendly desktop Linux with embedded Windows support, just under a new name.

It comes with a full groupware solution (they haven't announced which one but it's a commercial product) and a commercial backup solution. They also announced it's bundled with Helix Server which is cool if you want to get into streaming media.

Their site is still short on details and no screenshots but it gives a pretty high level view of the product. www.xandros.com. If you want to know what it looks like, just look at Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

Have you ever tried Xandros? IMHO, it's got all of those features, plus a free version is available. It's meant for Linux newbies, but powerful enough to hold its own in an expert's hands.

Although if anyone does know of a Debian+KDE distro that's stable, well documented, and polished, I'm in the market.)

Ah you get the king of polished. Though you sound a little advanced for Xandros. Another alternative which may be a better fit Mandriva.

Somehow, the wrong link got included in the last post, here is the right one: http://www.xandros.com/products/education/edu_intr o.html

Somehow, the wrong link got included in the last post, here is the right one: http://www.xandros.com/products/education/edu_intr o.html

the people at Cygwin [cygwin.com] have put together a great version of Linux for the average user to use

No, really that's the answer. Those of you with roll your own Windoze software will probably be able to run them under Wine or crossover office without fuss. Most of your users won't even know the difference and that will be that. Just remember the above next week when 100% of your users are down due to a combination of IM and email worms slamming your network, you have to disconnect and can't get anything done.

As someone who does not use M$ junk, but does have to put up with network congestion, I thank each and every one of you who will liberate their users.