Posted by
michael
on from the debian-goodness dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Xandros is now shipping version 2 of their Desktop Linux distro and it's also possible to purchase a download version. Based on Debian (sarge), KDE 3.1.4, 2.4.22 kernel. Cool CD burning is integrated into the Xandros File manager. Screenshots are here."
For their own sake, I do hope that...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
...I do hope that they do a bit of *marketing* for their product, I mean I hope they try to get people to know they exist. Crap, it always blew me away that so many companies put out a Linux distro, do absolutely zero marketing and then wonder why they can't sell their product or even get people to acknowledge they exist.
Do they even show up to their local LUG? That would be a start...
Where's the source?
by
stoolpigeon
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I'm not trying to troll or be a pain - just trying to understand
I was under the impression that if you created stuff with GPL software you have to make the source available.
I looked at the site- they explain that some parts of xandros are GPL and some are not. But I could not find anywhere that explained what you need to do to get copies of the code for the parts that are under the GPL.
Am I wrong in thinking that this is required?
-- It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
As of version 1.1 Xandros didn't support (claimed it wouldn't even install) on a system that was multi-processor, or even on a newer P4 system with Hyperthreading enabled. Any ideas if these issues are addressed in version 2.0?
I can't see a good reason for not having something like that working at this stage in the game.
Just like Windows
by
Cynical+Troll
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The reason I switched to Linux was to avoid dialog boxes written for 5 year olds telling me that I needed to click the obviously-marked buttons below to select the obvious choices.
Maybe this is a great solution for home users who love to be coddled by their operating system, but is it really going to be popular in the Linux community? It even looks just like Windows, and frankly there are far better user interfaces to copy. The last straw though is calling root access administrator access. I hope to god they haven't changed the root login to "Administrator". That's one thing I really don't miss typing.
-- Who's that tripping over my bridge!
What do you want to support?
by
RatBastard
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
If your mother is anything like mine, you will be her tech support. What would you rather support? If I were going to saddle my mother with a Linux distrobution I would go for the one that I'm using (unless it's something hidiously newby-unfreidnly). At least I only have to worry about the design choices made by one team.
A new distro arrives (that's not free for download) and the users of every other distro on the planet show up to bash it. Get over it people. If you don't like Xandros and would rather run Woody or Gentoo then do so. There's no reason to bash Xandros over it.
I too looked at the screen shots and I felt that Xandros has done a great job. The interface is clean, very clean. The menus are straight forward and uncluttered. The configuration utility has basic options up front and an advanced button to access all the less used config options that KDE offers. They made KDE better, addressing most of the issues of a recent OS News article on KDE, without dramatically changing KDE as Red Hat did with Blue Curve (irritating KDE users no end).
Xandros makes adjusting the screen size as simple as sliding a bar, versus manually editing XFree86Config. Sounds like a geat idea to me. They offer drag and drop cd burning versus the command line joys of cdda2wav cdparanoia cdrecord. Sounds great to me.
I see no reason whatsoever to bash Xandros over this release. It doesn't matter that you don't like its Windowsish looks. Do you really intend to stick Mom with a copy of Gentoo? I bet she'd rather the Windowsish look, at least at first. That is unless she's used a Mac and if she has, she ain't gonna think much about Gentoo/Slack/Debian/Mandrake/Xandros or what ever distro YOU think is the cat's pajamas.
Re:new lindows soon?
by
greenskyx
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Windows would fail that test badly. When something breaks in windows, it's so opaque generally the only recourse is to reinstall the entire system. With linux there are man pages, the -h flag, and config files to grep through. Programs actually give you meaningful error messages in linux, and the OS actually keeps a log of what it's doing. None of these things are available in windows, consequently I find windows a lot harder to use than linux.
Does it perform NTFS resizing? I just checked their webpage, and the "Desktop Standard" version says specifically that NTFS partitions cannot be resized _during_installation_. Perhaps this means that AFTER you've got it installed, you can use the tools to resize those nasty NTFS bits? Doesn't make much sense to me, frankly.
Besides, once something like true NTFS resizing shows up in one distribution, you can bet that it'll soon make appearances in some other major distros.
What's wrong with Mandrake?
by
biendamon
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
If there's one thing I would like to see change in the Linux user community, it's the attitude we all sometimes display concerning our favorite distributions. We all have our reasons for using the distributions that we use, and there's no need for us to rip on the choices of others.
Mandrake is still a perfectly good "newbie distro," and one of the things I really like about it is that it has also matured way past being just for newbies. I find Mandrake, even with the recent cd-rom debacle, to be a highly usable, very powerful, and really stable OS now, with all the developer tools I like at my fingertips, too. This in no way detracts from Xandros, Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Gentoo, LindowsOS, SuSE, or any other distro's quality.
When I mention an OS I like, I try to do so without dissing an OS that I choose not to use. I don't always succeed, but it would be nice to see others at least put forth similar effort.
Slashdot Mirror
...I do hope that they do a bit of *marketing* for their product, I mean I hope they try to get people to know they exist. Crap, it always blew me away that so many companies put out a Linux distro, do absolutely zero marketing and then wonder why they can't sell their product or even get people to acknowledge they exist.
Do they even show up to their local LUG? That would be a start...
I'm not trying to troll or be a pain - just trying to understand
I was under the impression that if you created stuff with GPL software you have to make the source available.
I looked at the site- they explain that some parts of xandros are GPL and some are not. But I could not find anywhere that explained what you need to do to get copies of the code for the parts that are under the GPL.
Am I wrong in thinking that this is required?
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
As of version 1.1 Xandros didn't support (claimed it wouldn't even install) on a system that was multi-processor, or even on a newer P4 system with Hyperthreading enabled. Any ideas if these issues are addressed in version 2.0?
I can't see a good reason for not having something like that working at this stage in the game.
The reason I switched to Linux was to avoid dialog boxes written for 5 year olds telling me that I needed to click the obviously-marked buttons below to select the obvious choices. Maybe this is a great solution for home users who love to be coddled by their operating system, but is it really going to be popular in the Linux community? It even looks just like Windows, and frankly there are far better user interfaces to copy. The last straw though is calling root access administrator access. I hope to god they haven't changed the root login to "Administrator". That's one thing I really don't miss typing.
Who's that tripping over my bridge!
If your mother is anything like mine, you will be her tech support. What would you rather support? If I were going to saddle my mother with a Linux distrobution I would go for the one that I'm using (unless it's something hidiously newby-unfreidnly). At least I only have to worry about the design choices made by one team.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
A new distro arrives (that's not free for download) and the users of every other distro on the planet show up to bash it. Get over it people. If you don't like Xandros and would rather run Woody or Gentoo then do so. There's no reason to bash Xandros over it.
I too looked at the screen shots and I felt that Xandros has done a great job. The interface is clean, very clean. The menus are straight forward and uncluttered. The configuration utility has basic options up front and an advanced button to access all the less used config options that KDE offers. They made KDE better, addressing most of the issues of a recent OS News article on KDE, without dramatically changing KDE as Red Hat did with Blue Curve (irritating KDE users no end).
Xandros makes adjusting the screen size as simple as sliding a bar, versus manually editing XFree86Config. Sounds like a geat idea to me. They offer drag and drop cd burning versus the command line joys of cdda2wav cdparanoia cdrecord. Sounds great to me.
I see no reason whatsoever to bash Xandros over this release. It doesn't matter that you don't like its Windowsish looks. Do you really intend to stick Mom with a copy of Gentoo? I bet she'd rather the Windowsish look, at least at first. That is unless she's used a Mac and if she has, she ain't gonna think much about Gentoo/Slack/Debian/Mandrake/Xandros or what ever distro YOU think is the cat's pajamas.
Well you mentioned it not me....
LindowsOS 4.5 was released today!
Windows would fail that test badly. When something breaks in windows, it's so opaque generally the only recourse is to reinstall the entire system. With linux there are man pages, the -h flag, and config files to grep through. Programs actually give you meaningful error messages in linux, and the OS actually keeps a log of what it's doing. None of these things are available in windows, consequently I find windows a lot harder to use than linux.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Does it perform NTFS resizing? I just checked their webpage, and the "Desktop Standard" version says specifically that NTFS partitions cannot be resized _during_installation_. Perhaps this means that AFTER you've got it installed, you can use the tools to resize those nasty NTFS bits? Doesn't make much sense to me, frankly.
Besides, once something like true NTFS resizing shows up in one distribution, you can bet that it'll soon make appearances in some other major distros.
If there's one thing I would like to see change in the Linux user community, it's the attitude we all sometimes display concerning our favorite distributions. We all have our reasons for using the distributions that we use, and there's no need for us to rip on the choices of others. Mandrake is still a perfectly good "newbie distro," and one of the things I really like about it is that it has also matured way past being just for newbies. I find Mandrake, even with the recent cd-rom debacle, to be a highly usable, very powerful, and really stable OS now, with all the developer tools I like at my fingertips, too. This in no way detracts from Xandros, Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Gentoo, LindowsOS, SuSE, or any other distro's quality. When I mention an OS I like, I try to do so without dissing an OS that I choose not to use. I don't always succeed, but it would be nice to see others at least put forth similar effort.