Submitted by Xandros has announced pre-orders for the 4th version of their desktop Linux distribution, excitingly named ‘Xandros 4’. The info page reveals little information beyond the usual marketing speak, which claims better wireless support, iPod syncing, NTFS read and write, all the usual suspects. Available 21st June.
Yes you heard that right: Companies like Xandros and Linspire suck.
They do nothing good for the community, give nothing back to FOSS software and yet they make a buck out of selling free stuff most of which works even on free distros.
Companies like Novell, RedHat, Canonical, etc. give something back while making a buck. They invest in Linux technologies and innovate and develop as well by paying community developers too.
On the other hand Xandros (and Linspire) do nothing except packaging software in a fancy manner.
Linspire Open Source Support, Projects & Initiatives
http://www.linspire.com/opensource
Kevin C ,
You need to update your very small contribution page and add freespire to it :
http://www.freespire.org/
😉
Integration is key. Xandros is able to take disparate pieces and combine them into a usable whole the way no other distributor is able to.
BTW, Xandros also periodically releases a free-as-in-beer “Open Circulation Edition” of their product.
Edited 2006-06-13 14:43
“On the other hand Xandros (and Linspire) do nothing except packaging software in a fancy manner.”
Which is precisely why many people like these distros. If people want Linux on the Desktop to go mainstream, it’s not going to be via debian, or Ark, or [insert volutunteer-run distro here] just yet. It’s going to start on corporate desktops, and corporates need a unified, commercially supported product where they can pay for an integrated and technically supported product. Cost of onwership is far more than the cost of the OS, after all. Whether Xandros can compete with the likes of RH and Novell/Suse is another matter.
Also, as stated above, Xandros release the desktop version for free, usually via bittorrent I think, or for a small fee if you want to use HTTP.
I can’t see a problem myself – if you want to use Xandros, use Xandros. If not, use something else. Personally, I think that the Xandros package is pretty good (I have the v3 community edition). I particluarly like the file manager, which I believe started in the Corel Linux days (although I could be wrong)
Thats the point.
How many persons trying out Linux will want to take the hard road of trying to make stuff work which Xandros and Linspire already do?
The big Linux players are enterprise level but these two distros are for the mom and pop shops,small businesses and home users.
Commecrcialized Linux has improved a LOT in the last several years. In fact, many of the code developed or ‘corrected/tweaked’ by these folks has been given to the OSS realm. Not all of it, but a lot.
These companies take on a lot. They start with a great concept, fill in the holes and bring a lot to the table. While some appreciate the work that started as a community effort, you have to consider that a hobbyist or community OS can only be taken as far as the available money & resources can take them.
That’s where companies like Xandros, Linspire, etc. have taken many aspects to the next level. With money, resources & real employees, these companies can get many things done that community projects simply cannot.
I will agree that, ‘some,’ of the commerial Linux vendors have been great at innovative solutions. On the flip side, there are some that have fallen short. My own experiences with the commercial side Mandrake had me quite pleased from 1999 (6.0) until the 10.0/10.1 releases on 2003. I haven’t used Mandrake/Mandriva since; and have no plans to again.
The positive of Xandros that their products offer a commercial solution that’s pretty darn useable. While they have distinct differences from a company such as Linspire, they both fill a very valid need to the users they’re trying to appeal to.
My 2 cents.
Xandros is a great distribution for corporate desktops, and for some home users. The only thing I don’t like about it is that it uses KDE, and it’s a pain to get Gnome installed (unless of course they fix this with version 4.) It does integrate great on a corporate level with Active Directory, etc. Something, which Ubuntu does not do quite yet. Plus the commercial versions come with Crossover Office that is very well integrated with the rest of the system.
Anyone know about a place where one can find some screenshots of 4.0?
Edited 2006-06-13 20:35
It hasn’t been released, so you won’t find any, yet.
Ah ok. Just thought there could have been some sneak peaks out there from beta testers or something. Couldnt find anything on xandros.com atleast. Guess we have to wait a couple days then.:)
Wait a second, Ubuntu is pretty much the same – it isn’t “debian” in that it’s easier to use and it is polished. It has one big difference: It’s free.
So why should we use Xandros, exactly? Ubuntu is better, it sticks to similar ideals to the Debian team and it’s free.
Mainly Xandros is more business friendly. It comes with built in support of Active Directory integration, tools for managing large desktop deployments, intergrated codeweaver for MS Office support and other stuff like that which companies planning larger linux desktop rollouts might care about.
Xandros is definetely the best way to start acquaintance with Linux. I’ve tried it a lot and loved it. Except for Windows Manager. It was way too slow for my ancient pc. I’ve installed Konqueror and that was it. Compatibility with deb and rpm packages was something i’ve adored.
Switched for “pure” Debian, cause I like experiment with my pc. And this desire interacts with stability and reliability of it
If you want to have distro to work on – pick Xandros.
I agree with all comments that say that Xandros is indeed one to install and start using immediately. No matter how much you argue, no other distro — not ubuntu, not suse nor fedora et al comes close to ‘usability’.
Xandros has the truly usable desktop — Sorry GNOMEies, but its true
Everyone who has had reservations about Xandros, should download the Xandros 3.0 OCE and try it. I feel its better than a ‘Freespire’ because you get the same distribution as the commercial one.
Xandros blends into an existing Windows network seamlessly and with very intuitive config tools with ‘joe-user’ friendly messages and prompts. This, I believe, is its greatest strength.
Suse and Ubunutu may be getting better but they are far far away on usability — the real one, not what is sold to us by the Novell crowd or the GNOME crowd!
Cheers.
PS: I have been a Xandros beta tester for 3 of their products (and have bought all of them when released).
Edited 2006-06-14 00:38
What’s even more amazing is that Xandros 3 is over a year old and it still holds own against any distro out there. The folks at Xandros have concentrated on making a distribution that is easy to use, easy to configure, and easy to maintain. They did a great job on version 3 (I use Xandros 3 Deluxe at home) and I’m looking forward to getting version 4.
Sure it’s not for everybody, but for those of us that want to install our OS and forget about it, it’s perfect.
“Sure it’s not for everybody, but for those of us that want to install our OS and forget about it, it’s perfect.”
Which is exactly why its *the* distributions for all folks moving away from Windows. I know my wife’s definitely happier with Xandros than with any other user-friendly distro out there. She’s a perfect example of average-joe computer user who wants to surf, email, play music, chat and want the computer to ‘just-work’.
I feel Xandros is not getting enough press and that’s probably because it comes out of Canada and not the US — but this is just my opinion.