Interview: Xandros and KDE

Fabrice Mous writes "The Xandros Desktop OS is known for their intuitive graphical environment that works right out of the box. Their polished desktop product is based on KDE. The KDE News website had the privilege to talk to Rick Berenstein, Xandros Chairman and CTO and Ming Poon, Vice President for Software Development about Xandros and their products and the relationship between Xandros and the KDE project. Without further ado ... enjoy the interview!"

Comments

Why is it "intuitive"?

[manavendra]

I had a quick look at the Xandros OS screenshots, since I hadn't heard of it before (sheepish grin).

Most of it seems to be an exact replica of MS look and feel - the same start button, the task bar, task trays, heck even the colour variations!

Why is this deemed "intuitive" then? Isn't this just another attempt to replicate MS experience on another OS? Or am I missing something?

Re:Why is it "intuitive"?

[randomencounter]

I suspect it is a failure of the imagination.
The whole "docking bar" concept comes from Apple. MS copied it for Windows95 and bloated it badly, then the KDE people copied it from MS.

Personally, I prefer the active desktop of fvwm/mwm/blackbox where your menus are wherever you don't have a window and otherwise stay out of the way. It is an older concept than the docking bar, and I consider it superior. So good, in fact, that MicroSoft has finally gotten around to copying it.

Re:Why is it "intuitive"?

[SoTuA]

I think it isn't "an interface that's hard to top" as much as it is "an interface that everybody is familiar with".

For instance, if I try to teach two groups of people (one has experience with the QWERTY layout, the others don't know any) touch-typing with Dvorak keyboard layout, the class that is familiar with the QWERTY layout will have a harder time than the class that is seeing a keyboard layout for the first time.

(that's from a mental standpoint, the people who have worked with QWERTY obviously have a better physical preparation at using a _keyboard_)

Re:Already /.'d

[rylin]

*Chuckle*
Whoever modded it informative deserves to be shot.
Ok, you might not read the article
but ffs, check the fscking links if you're gonna mod it informative? :P

(Oh and, why was ol' tubby censored?)

Re:Xandros is just Debian with KDE and Codeweavers

[iangoldby]

Do you not consider submitting bug fixes back to the KDE team giving back to the FOSS community? Read the article.

I use Xandros

[smacktits]

...and I love it. With the possible exception of Crossover Wine, which seems to be a bit flaky, I have no complaints other than the really nasty window skins and colour schemes.

It's true to say that it might be confusing for a new user. As always, when switching from an OS you've used for years you will find things difficult if you're not used to Linux.

I personally have had few problems with it. It detected my monitor, LAN card, all my hardware. Something even Redhate failed to manage.

Of course, it's not FreeBSD. But hey, it's a start...

Re:I just do not get it

[AbbyNormal]

"..effort "creating" a GUI that is already in use??"

General Acceptance and ease of use for people new to Linux? If a corporation could easily just drop this into place, without having significant training to their end-users, this could be conceived as a Godsend. I'm not suggesting that Linux needs to conform or try to take over the entire desktop market, but for the majority of linux users who would LIKE to see Linux run in their workspace (officially), this is definetly the way to go. Hook-em then wow-em.

Jef Raskin says "don't say intuitive"

[Russ Nelson]

Jef Raskin says, in The Humane Interface, that people misuse the word "intuitive". In the context of user interfaces, they mean "familiar".
-russ

"works right out of the box", my left nut...

[Anonymous Coward]

I had to install Xandros on a professor's new laptop and desktop. Selected the packages I wanted installed, clicked "Install" only to have it fail with the error "bad package". No indication which of the dozens of packages I had selected was bad. I ended up installing the systems six packages at a time so when I got an error I could uncheck them individually until I found the bad one.

What a pain in the ass. Naturally, after all that the modem in the laptop didn't work (driver version was too old), neither did selecting the proper resolution for the flat panel using their display control panel (no matching modeline). I fixed the XF86Config file, only to have Xandros overwrite it on a subsequent boot.

For his money and my trouble, he basically got an old Debian sid snapshot with an XPesque Playskool theme, plus the CrossOver plugin. Big whoop.

As a Xandros user...

[ites]

I can say why it's easily worth the price tag.

1. On every PC we've installed it on (about 10 in our company) it just worked, with the exception of a notebook that had some CD hardware problems.

2. It installs smoothly and gives you a good set of applications without overloading the UI.

3. It has an excellent one-click GUI update manager that is based on apt and is compatible with it.

4. The Xandros File Manager really _is good_. Whatever file you have, you click and the 'right' thing happens. Want to burn some files to CD? Selected them, right click and select "Burn to CD"... Want to unpack a zip file? Right click, choose "Unpack". and so on.

5. It is stable.

Overall Xandros gives you the feeling that you are driving a luxury car. Smooth, highly polished, and incredible attention to detail.

6. It is Debian: want to add something? Find the sources, unpack, build, install.

Now the poor points:

1. Slow release cycle, annoying if you're a thrill seeker. With one release a year, Xandros gives you reliability over performance and gadgets.

2. Not free. You can't just copy it and share it. I believe Xandros is preparing a free version.

3. The Windows support is flaky and not something you should bet on. It's better just to migrate to Linux/portable applications such as OOo over time (it took me about 6 months to migrate, switching one application at a time: office, media players, browsing, streaming, agendas, and finally email.)

I've tried many different distros, but I'm not willing to spend much time installing, or learning the details. It has to work quickly and smoothly. That's what Xandros does.

Re:NT Domain Authentication?

[pyros]

I have heard that Xandros is the only linux distro that does NT authentication and that it is some non-free component ... if any users can confirm or deny that (and how well it works), I'd be happy to hear about it.

Thanks to Samba, which has been around since long before Correl first released the linux distro which would become Xandros, any distro can authenticate to an NT domain, also to an Active Directory domain. It can also act as an NT domain controller, but not an Active Directory domain controller. Xandros probably just has some slick tool to configure it. Red Hat has a slick config tool for it in Fedora and in Enterprise. I'd have to assume that Suse and Mandrake has a slick config tool for it too. It's certainly possible that Xandros uses something else, but it's not a feature unique to that distro.

Writing as somebody who's making the switch

[Brento]

Hi, my name's Brent, I'm a developer, and I'm migrating from Windows to Linux. ("Hi, Brent.") About a month and a half ago, I got fed up with the intricacies of Active Directory and Exchange 2003's wacko registry keys, and decided to ditch it all.

I'd tried Linux every year or so, but the installation process kept turning me away. I couldn't find a distro that worked out of the box with my IBM Thinkpad T21 (strange video card running 1400x1050, and integrated 3com Hurricane ethernet card that isn't supported anymore.) This time, I decided I was going to make the switch no matter what.

Over the course of two weekends, I tried every distro I could find and had nothing but problems. My video card setup was particularly problematic: I just wanted dual head video with one video card, two flat panels. Most distributions just stubbornly refused to work out of the box. I contacted a lot of Linux users in my area via IRC, and nobody had the time (even though I was offering great money) to come set it up for me.

Out of desperation, I shelled out $90 for the downloadable version of Xandros, figuring that since it came with Crossover Office, it'd probably be worth the money.

Wow. It was. Among other things, Xandros detected the ATI video card out of the box, eventually got dual head video working, and the user interface is pretty straightforward. It still couldn't handle the onboard Ethernet on the Thinkpad, but I've given up on that laptop by now.

Here's the punch line: users leaving Windows don't care about the window manager. They don't care whether it's Gnome or KDE. We want an easy transition, and we're willing to pay good money for it. We don't want a *BETTER* user interface - if we did, we'd buy Macs. We just want to do the same things we're doing more, but more reliably and more securely. People who argue about whether Xandros is copying Windows are missing the point. They got my $90. If I could do it all over again, the only thing I would have done is bought Xandros earlier in the process.

Linspire is suing them, they shared code...

[Orion Blastar]

Lindows/Linspire files for IPO and sues Xandros.

Apparently Lindows, now known as Linspire, shared code and lent Xandros money to develop their own Linux much like Lindows.

PC OnRamp AKA EPC sells Xandros for $40USD on an install CD.