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.

Comments

appealing to windows users

[perdida]

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.

Watch out for these folks

[Bruce Perens]

Xandros bandied my name around as their "consultant" while setting up this deal. Please be advised, I have nothing to do with them. Although I verbaly agreed to advise them more than a year ago, nothing exists on paper and their behavior since then does not merit my continued involvement. Linux Global Partners, their parent, reneged on signed term sheets with a number of Linux companies in March. Just before announcing the Xandros deal, LGP was in talks with Progeny, got a very good look at Progeny's business plan, and then said "no thanks". In retrospect, it's clear that they simply wanted a look at the business plan.

I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

Bruce