Submitted by “It’s been a while since I looked at Xandros. True to form, it has remained one of the easiest to use and flat out slickest Linux distributions available. This version of Xandros focuses on the ‘digital lifestyle’ and includes wireless network profiles, a music manager with iPod and MP3 support, photo manager, video players and internet telephone via Skype, among other things. This version also provides good security tools such as a built-in firewall and anti-virus.”
Not a bad article, someone should teach the author how to take good screenshots though, those first few were absolutely terrible!
However the content of the article itself was VERY interesting.
Edited 2006-07-31 17:53
Can’t help but feeling a sense of Deja-vu, we’ve discussed all this before.
Why pay out good money of you can have nearly the same with Freespire or of course the wealth of other distros available. $79.95 is more than just pocket change. Unless you absolutely want Crossover Office.
This is a distro for Windows users who are used to having to pay for software. For philosophical and politicial reasons I resent this and have never felt left wanting with Debian. No other distro with such large repositories and ease of installation of additional programs. As Xandros is Debian derived I’ld say “try the proper distro”, it’s quite likely also got more online documentation and busy mailing lists (that by the way sometimes get utilised by Xandros users as well).
Alternatively please use CentOS, SLED, Zenwalk etc. and save yourself some bucks. The gods of FOSS will thank you 🙂
Last October I shelled out $76 w/tax & shipping for Mandriva PowerPack 2006, and I’m pleased with what I got.
The real advantage of free software isn’t that you can avoid paying. It’s that you’re free to inspect the source code to see how to make your application run better. You’re free to replace your motherboard without begging Microsoft’s permission to use the same license for the same machine.
The point is not to subsidise a business that as all companies solely exists to make money – from free and open source software in this case.
Surely not when there are so many great alternatives out there made by people who care about what they do without even getting paid.
Edited 2006-07-31 20:42
As a Xandros 3 Deluxe user, I always enjoy seeing reviews of Xandros. I thought this reviewer did a very good job. I’ve always enjoyed Xandros for it’s simplicity and ease of use. I plan on upgrading to version 4 when I get some spare time.
I think one of the best attributes of the review was that the reviewer was willing to point out what was “wrong”. No distro is perfect and for some people, Xandros will really rub them the wrong way. However, for those who want ease of use and to just have an OS they can install and forget about.
Some of the new features that weren’t mentioned is the read and write access to NTFS (Windows) partitions and the new disk manager. I am excited for those.
Anyways, for some Xandros would probably be a waste of time and money. For me, it saves time and is well worth the money. That’s the real beauty of Linux: there’s a flavor out there for everyone; just pick the one that works for you.
Does anyone know if Xandros has an option to duplicate a VCD?
Edited 2006-08-01 01:30
I personally do not believe in paying for a distro now that we have such great no-cost distros. But (big but) I am glad that they sell a product that costs money, so people can buy the product and support the company so the company can keep releasing a no-cost version for me.
But I do not really see the point anymore. Donate $10 to the free distro you choose and I assure you it will go further and make more of a difference that $80 going to a large company that sells linux.