Is There Room for Xandros in the Server Market?

Robert writes to tell us CBROnline is reporting that almost two years after discussing the possibility, Xandros has finally named a date for their first Linux server product. From the article: "While there are plenty of Linux server distributions on the market, the market is undoubtedly dominated by Red Hat, Novell's SUSE Linux a distant second. In order to find a gap in the market with Xandros Server, due May 1, the company will have to differentiate it from the pack."

Comments

Not a wise move

[liliafan]

Whilst I wish Xandros a lot of luck in their venture, I think it is a mistake for them to move into the server market. I haven't used Xandros myself but I have known people that have, they have nothing but good things to say about their desktop environment, Xandros is the kinda company we need leading the way for the desktop market, they seems to have done a lot of what lindows (now linspire) promised, a high quality desktop platform with decent windows compatibility (thanks to crossover and wine).

They are doing so great in that market a risky move like this could undo a lot of that good work, they could end up eating it on the server market not being able to compete with the big boys.

Whilst the article mentions some cool stuff they are planning, if people want a windows like management console they are likely to stick to windows.

Regardless I wish them luck.

Suse is a distant second, but ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Novell's other products are increasingly becoming Linux based. That should change the statistic. There is still a large installed base of Netware/Open Enterprise Server.

Re:Is there room?

[Numen]

People want support for more than warm fuzzies... you *boss* wants support so that when you go under a bus he has some chance of keeping his systems up and running when the new guy turns up.

why not?

[Sfing_ter]

I have used Xandros since it came out,before actually, they bought Corel Linux. And has "out of the box" the best windows network integration. Even allows AD domain logins, not that other distros don't have this capability, just not straight out of the box.They also create a fake "C:\ Drive" environment so converting some people is easier.

What they are doing is creating a server that supplies updates and management to the rest of Xandros boxen on the network, and groupware. Why shouldn't they? So far nobody has integrated this functionally proper even in the windows environment.

Differentiation is the key

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw the Xandros Server at LW in Boston and they are definitely doing something different. It's basically Windows 2000/2003 for Linux. It's a full GUI interface in a native Linux application (not Web). It may not appeal to some but it will make people migrating from Windows a whole lot more comfortable.

It comes with a full groupware solution (they haven't announced which one but it's a commercial product) and a commercial backup solution. They also announced it's bundled with Helix Server which is cool if you want to get into streaming media.

Their site is still short on details and no screenshots but it gives a pretty high level view of the product. www.xandros.com. If you want to know what it looks like, just look at Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

They Should Concentrate on a PDC and kill the CALs

[HighOrbit]

From TFA

Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos. "The Xandros Server platform was designed to map that vision of how modern businesses really work. Our platform connects communities of users, services, and IT architectures, whether they are local or dispersed. It offers a new, user-centric operating philosophy that has enabled the design of powerful features and protocols such as community management, task workflow automation, and centralized remote administration."

Tsk Tsk, Mr. Typaldos. Please ditch the PHB-gibberish and speak English. Xandros is a desktop company, so you should "leverage" that strength. If you make a general purpose linux server, then it will either 1) be a jack of all trades but master of none, or 2)be lost in the crowd of general purpose linux servers.

So try on this "vision". You are a desktop company, so connect your desktops. What would really distinguish your company and provide "added-value" is to make a Xandros-Domain Controller by integrating Samba, a Directory Server (perhaps using the now open-source Redhat/Netscape DS), along with a slick admin gui. Provide support for an office running mixed Xandros and windows clients. It could be based on Linux, but it's linux-ness should be almost invisable and irrelavent.

Re:The more, the merrier

[massysett]

Big difference: with every Linux distro, every user gets the very best that the particular distro has to offer. There is no crippled version. At worst, a distro might have one version that doesn't have some proprietary packages, like OpenSUSE versus regular SUSE.

With Windows on the other hand, Microsoft intentionally cripples the lesser versions of Windows. Look at XP Home versus XP Pro, and how Microsoft intentionally crippled out of Home features that were in Pro. For example, XP Pro has advanced control over user permissions--the capability is on Home too, but MS crippled it out.

With Linux distros, the maintainers are adding as much functionality as they can. With Windows versions, MS figures out what functions it can remove, in order to goad users into spending more $$.

Yes iff the following questions are answered

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Can it be certified to run Oracle (like RedHat)?
2. Can it be certified to run DB/2 (like Ubuntu)?