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Windows Interoperability in A Linux Distro

Posted by Hemos on from the kicking-the-tires-folks dept.

Magenta writes "There is a review of the Desktop OS Version 3 Business Edition from Xandros. This operating system is meant to allow users to easily move from Windows XP to Linux without the problems that can arise. Xandros not only can use Window's file system but it is able to run a great number of Windows programs using its CrossOver Office tool from CodeWeavers. This is one of the most accessible distros to come along in awhile and it marks a big step forward in the progress on Linux on the desktop."

6 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Talk about advertising by gilesjuk · · Score: 4, Informative

    The original posting overstates the abilities of Xandros.

    Crossover office is a product you can buy and install on most Linux distros. It's a nicely patched up and packaged version of Wine.

    As for being able to access Windows filesystems, the Linux kernel contains drivers for FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. I would be very suprised if this distro can write to NTFS safely as this is something that is still being worked on.

  2. Re:30 Great Number by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Supported" means that if it doesn't run, you get tech support. It also means they will continue to run properly in future versions. There are plenty of other apps that are unsupported which work fine though.

  3. Re:/shrug by mahdi13 · · Score: 5, Informative

    not to mention that Transgaming's Cedega runs all the games the parent mentioned...

    --
    "Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
  4. Credit where credit is due by FidelCatsro · · Score: 3, Informative

    First off , This is great that they have had the fore sight to include the drivers to read and write NTFS .It is also very nice that they have included code weavers cross over office.This is great for getting some people to switch to linux , shame they didn't include cedega as well , which could of really completed the package , though this is a business edition.

    But credit where credit is due , the article summary makes it seem like Xandros was responsible for these things.http://www.codeweavers.com/ code weaver site , responsible of Crossover office and naturally a link to wine on which Cross over office is based http://www.winehq.com/.
    A link to the linux NTFS project http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/ (I assume this is the driver they are using , correct me if I'm wrong)
    (Cross over office is a great product , It also has a rather pleasant installer in my experience.So you don't need to switch distros .)

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
  5. Free version by genericacct · · Score: 4, Informative

    On their downloads page, there is a link for the Open Circulation edition. Completely gratis if you use bittorrent. I'm considering trying it here at work.

  6. Re:Windows compatibility by leonmergen · · Score: 4, Informative

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought Wine used some sort of chrooted environment when executing Windows programs, thus only limiting the security risk to other Windows programs, and not your Linux OS ?

    --
    - Leon Mergen
    http://www.solatis.com