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The Upcoming Corel-Based Distro From Xandros
mutantcamel writes: "Michael A. Bego, the CEO of Xandros Corporation has given an interview
with Consulting Times. Xandros recently signed a license agreement with Corel that gave them access to Corel Linux." Bego holds off on a lot of specifics here, but says that what Xandros inherits from Corel includes a lot of improvements that never made it to Corel's since-abandoned boxed desktop distributions, and since it's Debian-based, will "automatically" run on several platforms.
The installation and text-based maintanance of Debian has always kept some of my friends away from it. Progeny and other companies seem to be stepping up to the plate to make Debian a more user-friendly distro and I hope this one continues what Corel started.
windows users don't think about their operating system.
linux users do.
most linux users have a windows box or access to one when they want to do something with the great mass of consumers which use the internet, like playing video games, watching movies or multimedia, etc.
linux users use the linux box for many of the un-sexy things like operating a database or serving web pages, something which your average windows user, who is looking for Minesweeper or a DVD player, would consider "nothing to do."
It will be interesting to see a linux system meant to appeal to the Windows user. Perhaps it will be a bargain basement version of what Windows already provides, without the powerful, world-changing tools that make Linux already useful in its own niche.
I remember all the knockoff Gameboys that come out of import shops and Dollar stores after they failed in the mainstream consumer market, and I hope these will serve as a word of warning to Xandros.
Goat sex free since 2001
I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
My first reaction is, "why would anybody care?" There are a lot of Linx distributions out there, so we're hardly hurting for choice at the moment. Why would we need another one?
But, reading the intereview, where they say they intend to contribute back to the community, I saw why I should care. Perhaps, just perhaps these folks will appeal to somebody that no current Linux distro does. If they succeed, and they're another company employing Linux hackers to hack Linux, then that's a good thing.
And, unlike Red Hat, VA, and a number of others, since they're based in Canada their business won't be outlawed after the US Government finishes passing its defense-of-copyright laws.
-Rob
Bruce, I'm sure it's you, but I am not sure that the level of venom in your original post is seemly for a person in your position. You could have just presented what you perceive as the facts and let people draw their own conclusions.
Although I verbaly agreed to advise them more than a year ago, nothing exists on paper...
A verbal agreement is no less an agreement than a paper agreement. Paper and signatures are simply evidence of an agreement, not the agreement itself. That was one of the points you made, another had to do with term sheets. Are you sure that the term sheets had no provision for adverse market conditions? It is typical that they do. Finally, you suggested that Xandro's investor, LGP, entered into negotiations with Genome simply to discover their business plan. I find that something of a stretch, really I do.
I am completely impartial in this, though I admit I want to believe in Xandros. My impression of their intent is that they want to put out a "Corel but done right" distribution, correcting Corel's mistake where some parts of the distribution were closed source. Personally , I believe there is room for a Debian-based KDE-oriented commercially supported distribution and I am relieved to see someone stepping in to fill the market position so recently vacated by Storm Linux. I do not believe that Xandros simply imitating of Genome.
Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
I can't believe it... not _yet another_ debian based distribution! Look around! The only debian based distribution that has even the faintest hope of turning a profit is Progeny. Even then, the only reason is the quality of developers involved. Others who have tried and failed should serve as enough of a warning to newcomers. The only reason I can possibly see for this company to undertake this endeavor is to try to squeeze money out of underinformed venture capitalists to pay their own 6 figure salaries.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
Need I go into the difficulty of validating your identity via email?
Schoolman Thrumbart
Coordinator-in-Exile
People's Republic of Sealand
I'm not sure what constitutes some of these relationships; I thought Gnucash had been cut loose, but maybe I'm wrong. Does anyone have information about these corporate sponsorships, or what Xandros's acquisition of Corel means for them?
AFAIK, only Red Hat is selling access to an update server, called the "Red Hat Network."
What's more, they didn't release the source for that server.
I know for a fact that Ximian, Mandrake and SuSE don't do anything like this.
Windows is a vast desert of "nothing to do" when you start off, compared to Debian's teeming, insane hive of fiddlygadgets.
Your concept that "windows users do not think about the OS" is correct- but this is true not because Windows offers so much more to do (it offers less than any Linux I know) but simply because it's the default.
That's all.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
Maybe you don't understand that many Linux users find Debian based distros to have a stronger foundation when compared to Redhat based distros.