Xandros Recruiting Beta Testers

An anonymous reader writes "Looks like the folks at Xandros are getting ready for a new release of their Linux desktop. They're recruiting beta testers so those of you who like to try something new, you can sign up from here. No details about when or what to expect in the new release. Xandros always lets the other distros get the bugs out of the latest bleeding edge software before they do a new release so this should be another solid release with updated KDE, kernel, X, drivers, etc. Can't wait. Gotta get me on that beta list."

Comments

Poor

[mistersooreams]

I swear this is not a troll, but honestly, this is really poor. For a start, I thought Linux was supposed to be at least partly about freedom of information? Now I don't want to tie a philosophy to tightly to a product, and Xandros sure is one of those, but seriously... what is the point of all this harvesting of personal information? They can sell that for a mint as personal information of a cross-section of the market (the tech-savvy) to which it's usually very hard to target ads.

Then, even if you get involved in the beta test (I gave up with all the pointless personal details so I don't know), what do you get? A free copy of a potentially very bug-ridden distro. You then find the bugs (probably the sharp end thereof), suffer the consequences, and they sell the resulting fixed-up distro. I have nothing at all against paying for Linux distros if I'm getting something for my money, but this doesn't seem to be a whole lot more than a bundle of otherwise-free apps.

I can't help but feel there's a cynical "... PROFIT!!!" in there somewhere.

(As I say, I really feel this is NOT what Linux should be about, and I hope I'm not trolling.)