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Another Xandros 2.0 Deluxe Review
JimLynch writes in about his review: "If we had to define Xandros 2.0 with one word, we'd pick 'usable.' This time around, the folks at Xandros have refined their product significantly and come up with something that makes Linux quite comfortable and easy to use, even if you're a total newbie to the OS. Obviously the Gentoo crowd won't be interested in this distro, but Windows users who haven't used Linux before or have had bad experiences with other distros will particularly enjoy this release. The time to begin the desktop migration to Linux might very well have arrived with Xandros 2.0." An earlier review was also favorable.
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OK, I've been thinking about making "the big leap" to a Linux distro for a while, and this Windows application compatibility looks really intriguing. Can someone give me an idea of how well it works, and any configuration / compatibility snafus it might have?
The only things, at this point, that would really prevent me from wanting to use Linux as my primary OS would be the ability to run Windows apps well (let's face it, I have a lot of apps on my system that work well already, and I don't want to have to lose access to them or have to reboot into Windows to use them), and the ability to play games / DirectX-based programs (I've heard WineX has this ability, any comments on how good it is / how easy it is to use / configure?).
I've recently been experimenting with KDE under Cygwin, which works surprisingly well except for a few glitches like not displaying JPEGs correctly (I've heard they fixed this in the latest version). Any comparisons?
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
did you see the screenshots?
That's a lawsuit just waiting to happen... All the sub-apps like the Task Manager and all the Properties windows are a perfect copy! Very impressive.
The review doesn't mention one of the most important criteria: what are the copying conditions for Xandros?
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
The following line blows my criteria for a Mom-ready Linux distro:
Price:
Xandros Standard $39.95, Xandros Deluxe $89
Yes, I'm cheap. But I got Knoppix from these guys for like three bucks, and that's just 'cause I was too lazy to configure the CD burner to do it myself.
When I screw something up on the Linux box, my wife shakes her head and says "You get what you pay for." On the other hand, she's not too excited about shelling out $100+ for Windows, and I'm not too excited about shelling out $40+ for Linux. Besides, if I weren't screwing up my installation all the time, how would I learn?
Of course, I could always do what one of my relatives did. He downloaded a pirated copy of WinXP Professional, and doesn't feel the least bit guilty. He was amused when he tried to apply a patch and got a message like "Dude! It's pirated! Go look for another download!". As a programmer (who enjoys getting *paid* to code), I just smile, while trying not to breathe through my nose... at least he doesn't ask me for tech support.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
I don't know about how Xandros 2.0 works out in this, as I haven't used it, but I feel we're still a few months away from really good compatibility with windows apps. Most of them work now, but some upcoming changes in shell32.dll implementations will make a huge difference for a lot of apps.
Hmmm is this really any improvement? The biggest complaint many people have with Microsoft and Windows, is that its proprietary nature stiffles any innovation. I'd much rather see someone make a desktop that expands beyond XP then tries its hardest to emulate it. Id be more excited about a DEXP, Doesn't Emulate XP then an XPDE.
What's another word for Thesaurus?
-Steve Wright
Linux on the desktop will happen when its ready to happen. All this pushing does nothing to aide linux.
All that will happen is less experienced users will hear all the fuss and see phrases like "A free windows alternative" and attempt to give it a go.
Assuming they find their way through the installer, they will find that their modems, web cams etc dont work and various other niggly issues that still cause alot of problems.
The brave end-user that tried it out will head back to windows, never to enter linux territory again and whats more, will likely tell all his friends not to bother. The hype will be countered with anti-hype and things stay as they are.
When linux is viable on the desktop (for Joe Public) it will happen, trying to push it before this point will just be detrimental.
I cant understand the push anyway. Does the linux community need to validate its existance by taking on the evil empire?
Have you even tried Xandros 2? I have, on my laptop. All the stuff you're going on about worked fine. It took me all of 2 minutes to configure my Winmodem dialup account. First time ever a distro configured a winmodem for me. Flat out, everything worked well. Crossover Office configured Forte Agent in no time. Newsbin Pro even worked. (It never did for me before) I configured a Windows printer in less time that it takes me in SuSE 9. This product is GOOD! Samba worked out of the box. I could share files both ways on a windows network.
I've been using Xandros Desltop 2.0 for a few weeks, coming to it after several years with a number of other distributions.
It is, indeed, a slick piece of work. Installed as advertised. Detected and offered the correct drivers for all of my periperals, including my printer. Saved me the trouble of chasing down and installing some Mozilla plugins. Crossover works as advertised. The tweaks to KDE are well done and present a professional image.
The standard install does not deposit the usual retinue of servers and development tools on your drive (most are available on the 2nd CD or via download). That makes sense for the market Xandros is targetting. (Makes sense for me, too. On my home desktop box, I don't need 'em.)
If Xandros targeted the geek market, included the usual geek software, rewrote their manual, and changed their advertising to downplay the Windows thing, this distribution would be seen by geeks as the best desktop Linux released to date. Most geeks won't look at it that way, but they'll be wrong.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
I have read the review, and all the other ones that are floating around on the net, and yes, beside Knoppix (www.knoppix.net) Xandros is stepping in the right direction to complete the bridge for Home Linux users. Not to say Xandros doesn't have flaws (Slow Loading, No 2.6 Kernel, And it didnt get all my hardware). Then again Windows Xp didn't get all my hardware either. Either case, they have pretty much made a seamless gap for people looking try linux, and have the ability of dual booting. One of the features I enjoyed was their File Browers. It has been re-written to make it appear as tho you are in Windows, and don't have the evil Linux (*nx) file system Structure. Flaws with it: * Any game you play with a game pad - Need to download, and install modules. * Sometime when accessing your CDRom, it will say it doesn't exist, and has an error about mounting /var/.../../.. ?
* Slow booting, and Shutdown
* I have to manually force it to use ACPI 4 Not
ACPI 3, 2,1 or APM 4,3,2,1 .. Why all the
choices?
* Xandros Networks has a button called "Update
All" don't seem to work, or at least the 4 time
I tried it.
* And last but not least, Not a aXandros Only
problem, some windows games will not work under
WineX.
Final Comment: -> Very stable, Using RiserFS works flawlessly, and you get one of everything.. (Browers, text editor, chat program)
I almost agree with you.
If you want to lure them away from Windows, you have to offer them something better.
That something better changes depending on who you are talking to. To the majority of the users of desktop operating systems, better means: like Windows so it's familiar, but sell it for less. And make sure it just works. IMHO, OS X is there.
If you want to drag them away from Windows, then you are talking about people who have no choice in OS (i.e. employees). Make it familiar so retraining costs are minimized, make it work well, have a corporation behind it for support, and make it cheap.
I don't think anybody is just copying crap blindly. A familiar interface is not necessarily a bad thing.
-ec
Started with Xandros/1.0 a while back. Nice simple package, installs all by itself, but a little dusty around the edges. But hey, it brought a number of old PCs back to life as simple browser/email/Office boxes, no hassle.
Chucked Xandros/2.0 deluxe onto a box (from which I'm typing this). My main machine, now. The switch from a W2K notebook was remarkably easy. I did use CrossoverOffice to install MSIE because we need this to test some applications. But most everything else has gone the native Linux way.
Xandros' good points: Debian, the file manager, seamless integration with Windows networks, good selection of packages, clean and dry user interface (compared to the 'how much more can we add' horrors of Lindows 4.5). Everything a 'normal' user needs within easy reach, and very little poking under the hood to make it all work. The file manager is especially lovely, though I suspect a large part of that comes from Konqueror. Double-click on _anything_ and something useful happens. Archives magically uncompress, ISO images magically get burnt to CD, Windows executables run immediately (assuming CrossoverOffice is there), RPMs get launched in the Xandros installer. It "just works", and that's the greatest compliment I can give any software.
Xandros' weak point is the lack of some useful packages in the standard sources. To burn DVDs for instance I needed to install K3b and a number of auxilliary tools myself, some from source, some from RPMs and other packages. But then exploring and installing one's own packages from source is part of the fun of getting the system you want.
Linux is an operating system with depth (as are most Unix systems). Xandros wraps this up so nicely that you almost get that Windows experience. But when you open the wrapping, there is solid metal underneath, and it feels good.
I forgot how limiting Windows was, how many comprimises there are in the platform, and to tell the truth after a decade of using mainly Windows, I was a little scared to jump to a Linux distro. Xandros made this move easy, so easy that I did not once think 'Oh, forget it'.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Why does everyone knock on Gentoo claiming it's hard to use. I'm a linux newbie and have been for about 5 years. I tried Caldera, couldn't get the hang of it. Tried Red Hat didn't like it either. Tried Gentoo, I love it. It's the first distro that didn't leave me confused after the install. Sure Red Hat and Caldera installed easier, but Gentoo was better documented, and since I had to do many things manually I learned what would need done in the future if I needed to change something. For instance under Red Hat I didn't know what I needed to do to add another hard drive to my system, or to change network cards.
With Gentoo during the install I learned how to create filesystems, configure and compile the kernel, and lots of other stuff. It takes more work, but I wouldn't call it difficult. Grandma couldn't do it, but my dad or my 13 year old cousin probably could.
Non gratis rodentus anus
If you had said Linux is not ready for the average Joe Consumer purchasing their first computer at Best Buy, you might have a leg to stand on. But it most certainly *is* ready for the desktop. You can't make the claim that just because it doesn't run every single Windows application out there, that it isn't ready, because Mac OSX doesn't either, and no one with more than two brain cells would claim OSX isn't ready for the desktop.
I could be wrong though. I don't use Linux. I use FreeBSD. But considering that the GUI/desktop portion is exactly identical to Linux, I don't think I am. I use FreeBSD/XFree86/KDE on my desktop at work and at home, including a laptop. I still have a Windows partition, but that's ONLY for the use of ONE highly specialized program. Everything else is native FreeBSD. Web browsing, email, word processing, spreadsheets, digital cameras, photo processing, music, etc, etc. There's no common task you can do on your desktop that I can't do on mine, and just as easily.
What's holding Linux and BSD back is not the desktop. That battle has been won. What's missing is easy to perform system administration. But for many systems, that's not too far off. It was actually easier to install and configure FreeBSD on my laptop than it was to do the same with WinXP.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Let me start off by saying you really WON'T need your Windows apps after switching to Linux. That's old news. Now you can get Linux native apps that do that same things as their Windows counterparts and do it just as well. (Just as easy to install too) I run Linux on my laptop and XP on my desktop and there's nothing I can't do with my laptop and Linux native apps that I can do on my desktop. To get to that point took more work on my part, but far less then it would have a year ago. Plus... if you do find something that only works on Windows (say some MS Office feature) you can run most of the major Windows Apps painlessly on Linux with Codeweaver's Crossover Office and/or Plugin. I've not had a need to use it on my system BUT I have used it before and it's about as simple to use as you can get. The apps don't run as fast, and there are a few very minor bugs here and there for some apps, but it's still very usuable. Standard WINE is a MAJOR pain in the butt to use... unless someone written a very well detailed how-to already.
As far as games go... Linux is definitely not there yet. Particularly with DirectX games. WineX works pretty well for a lot older games (1-2 years old being considered "new") but still nowhere near well as Windows apps do. You will have to do some work to get them running too. Good thing is that most of the major games have Linux native versions. With the state of 3D and video card driver support, openGL, etc... they still don't run as well as on Windows systems but they are playable. So if you play a lot of games I'd say hold off with Linux OR dual boot because Linux isn't there (yet).
All and all Linux makes a very good desktop for something that's computer savvy. There's still a lot of work to go before it's as easy to use as Windows but at the rate things change in the Linux world I wouldn't be suprised it it was pretty close in the next 2-3 years. I think it will take commercial development to do it.. since consistency is not something the community does well.. but with IBM and others going to Linux on the Desktop that will happen.
Seeing shots like this really make me embarassed to use Linux.
I use Linux because of what it has to offer me.
I dont use Windows because it has nothing to offer me (verified by a phone call with M$ last week:).
I dont want Linux to look/behave/feel like Windows.
Why on earth would someone pay the same amount of money for something that looks and feels just like windows (shutter) but has 0% of the software and hardware support? Wanna impress me, try ripping off OSX first, or for crying out loud rip off a Mac slogan and "Think Different".