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Xandros 1.0
Mr. Smoove writes "Despite the quick-off-the-mark review from Newsforge this morning, the Xandros 1.0 desktop is finally here! No free download so you'll have to shell out US$99 for it but you do get an enhanced (?) version of KDE 2.2 and built-in Cross-Over Plugin and Office! Finally a decent challenger to Lycoris and also what Lindows should have been..." There's also an interview with a Xandros executive.
no free downloads....that sucks.....even if they gave away a less featureful version.
and $99 for an unprooven peice of software....nope, Im not paying.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Ok, but correct me if I'm wrong here:
If you take a GPL'd application, make changes to it, and then release/sell it publically, you're under obligation to return those changes to the original creators of the application, no?
In which case, I'd expect Xandros to, at the very least, publish the source code to all the standard applications that they're using that are GPL'd.
'ARRGH! Pirate Designers of the Internet, we be!'
You are wrong. I am correcting you. All the GPL says is that the soucre must be available to anyone who aquires the binary via legit (through the company) channels.
I'm sure it's been said before, and probaly will many times now, but seriously...KDE 2.2? While I can see the point that using older software will decrease the possibility of having to deal with bugs, does KDE 3.0 even have enough bugs to bother worrying about. I've been using it since 3.0.1 and in all versions it's seemed more stable than windows explorer.
It just seems rather a damper on the whole experience of using Linux on the desktop. Part of the fun for me was finding and playing around with the various themes, most of which are kde3 oriented now. I'd find it rather annoying to shell out that much money only to find that my system was uglier than someone who'd just downloaded theirs from the internet.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Next was the license agreement. It was one of those (quickly-becoming typical) EULAS that mention the GPL stuff and then the proprietary stuff. Interesting about this license: There was no license to read BEFORE I opened the box, no shrink wrap or seal on the package, and yet the final paragraph of the EULA states that if I don't agree with the license and haven't broken the seal on the software I can return it for a refund. Oops! Too late. Of course, this is a review copy -- perhaps yours will be shrink-wrapped with a copy of the agreement on the outside.
Sure the Mac OS theme is intriguing, but I can get my mac jollies out using Basillisk. And 99 bucks for what? Lindows with a different name? Let me download it, and we'll see. Frankly, I'm happy with my win98. When I can run Adobe software, Acid & Soundforge on linux, I'll switch. Until then, OpenBeos gets my vote for 'alternative OS'.
Try this:
Let me tell you: Internet Explorer 5.5 runs beautifully in Xandros. I've used Crossover to install Explorer on Mandrake and SuSE, with only partial success. But everything about Explorer is right this time: the fonts, the javascript, the layouts, the speed -- everything.
Unless you think the reviewer is lying, this may indicate that this particular distribution did it right with the MS compatibility. This is a big deal, if you like to use the MS stuff.
There is a very good reason to charge for a distribution in this way:
Bandwidth costs money
If somebody buys the $99 CD, and puts it on their ftp server, which at best is likely to be on a 512Kbps ADSL line, it'll be swamped within an hour or two.
He likes to run his own systems, and I've taught him Novell and Windows over the course of about 10 years. He's now fairly capable.
I've been extolling the virtues of Linux to him for sometime now. And with this release, I'm fairly confident he can manage this release of Linux by himself, which is his goal!
As soon as the /.ing is over, he'll be buying it...
In a previous interview, I believe they said that they are going to be about 1/3 the price of Microsoft equivalents. While they only currently are selling a boxed version, this isn't that convenient, but they are also rolling out OEM and reseller programs.
Best of luck to them! I have a copy on the way.
The reason Linux has the market on servers and covers less than 1% of the dektop market is because consumers are computer illiterate. (Which is not their fault)
The only way for Linux to have a shot at becoming a major OS and compete with Microsoft is if it can become dummy-proof and easy to use for the average PC owner.
Xandros may not be that solution, but it's a step in the right directin to bridge the gap between linux and user-friendly needs.
Hmm..
My time is $100/hr , so if it takes 10 minutes to open the letter, extract the name, mailing address and such, then another 10 to burn the CD and another 10 to drive to the Post office to mail it then add in the costs of packaging and postage and the CD + state tax, $75 would be a reasonable cost.
FTP servers arent free either, the machine, the admin time, the T1 all cost money. It's a little harder to determine costs there, If one person a year wants source, then its gonna cost about $10k,
if 1000's want it, then $10, if millions, then I need a T3 and a rack of servers, so the cost may still be $10 or more..
Of course the GPL allows someone else to get a copy of the source and provide it for free, and that would be fine with me, saves me the time and money, and I can work(bill$$) on more interesting things.
Starman97@Gmail.com (bring it on spammers)
yes, I do. and the rollout from windows NT 4.0 to redhat 7.3 worked great... yes we had the whiners and moaners for the first 2-3 days... but you NEED management to back you on big things like this... to allow you to tell users to "shut the hell up and think for once in your life!" and to allow you to ignore them when they piss and moan about not being able to install gator or elf bowling.. (Gawd i LOVE linux on the corperate desktop!) in 3 days they start shutting up... in 12 days they start asking if Open Office is available for them to use at home and they jump up and down and almost piss themselves with joy when you hand them a copy.
Supporting users is easy in the switch from win** to linux, IF your management has the balls to do it and your IT depratment is willing to stand behind their decisions.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I bought Suse for ... around $70 as my first linux distro. If I had Xandros as an option at the time I would have bought that instead, it seems like a really great first distro that bridges nicely between windows and linux.
Maybe once I'm a 1337 linux d00d then I'll just download and build my own linux but for now linux is hard (a lot of pride-swallowing as I wallow around practically like I've never seen a computer before, taking a half hour to figure out that I can pipe things to grep (still can't write regular expressions) and a couple hours until I finally got rc.d). Anything that made linux more useful, more quickly, is great.
closed minded is as closed minded does
Perhaps you or the parent poster could answer this question:
Why the hell should users have access to any configuration items? These are the company computers. The company is the one to pay for your changes to the system. The company is the one who pays to settle with the EEOC over your 'bikini babes screensaver'. If it weren't for licensing costs, we'd be all over Citrix. As it is, I can swap any two machines in our network (only about 40 terminals) and nobody is the wiser.
We have about 90% employees who made it out of high school. (The other ten percent are physicians and three others, including myself). We switched from a minicomputer with dumb terminals (some bastard vt100 rig) to Windows NT. Guess what? No problems. Users didn't have access to CD's, minesweeper, solitaire, control panels, floppy drive, etc. There is a network share in the off chance they need to save something. We spent one month training. And had almost no problems.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
I don't ilke the idea of such a commercial-centric distrobution. Even RedHat, a commericial company, offers their distros for free. For one, there is little or no cost savings over Windows. Also, a distrobution so heavily reliant on a commercial company, they have a habit of going under quite a bit.