OSNews:

OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/19946/Q_A_Xandros_CEO_Andreas_Typaldos Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2012, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:20:16 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com I am the CEO. http://www.osnews.com/thread?320873 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320873 Please ask your questions. Each time you are finished talking, type RET twice.

I'm pretty much convinced this interview was actually conducted with an Eliza-inspired chat bot rather than a real-live CEO.

Otherwise, I am always pleased as Linux also-rans merge. Years ago I had a dream of DREGS Linux where all the "other" one man distros merged to form an unholy alliance.

I can still dream..Edited 2008-07-01 19:25 UTC Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:23:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ratatosk) Comments RE: I am the CEO. http://www.osnews.com/thread?320874 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320874 I too once had that dream. Now i am hoping that OpenSolaris fills that position. or PC-BSD Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (poundsmack) Comments Andrea... http://www.osnews.com/thread?320877 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320877 >Q: When will CNR provide Xandros support?
>A: In July 2008.

Re Andrea, kante kai kana sovaro test re paidi mou, arpa kolla douleies den einai swstes. Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Eugenia) Comments Long term planning at Xandros? http://www.osnews.com/thread?320879 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320879 I hope I am wrong, but these canned responses add nothing of value and show no real planning occurred behind this acquisition.

A company that purchases another one and has no real plans yet for what to do with the acquired products and customers is a disaster in the making.

Here's a few tips for you. C

Create a single online identity for the combined company, with a single product-line. Get your product into admin's hands so that they can test it just like they currently test Ubuntu, Mandriva, Suse or RHEL through CENTOS.

Shed everything proprietary about Xandros such as its file manager. There is nothing unique about it and it just adds confusion to the market. Work off a single code base and add value by integrating well your file file and groupware server offerings with a standard kde client such as Kontact that any distro can ship. That way, you increase the appeal of your server distribution, which is what most people pay for. And people like consistency, so even if you support a standard kde client, companies will go to you for the whole widget.

Once every other kde-based distro has moved to kde4, which will happen in the next 12 months, Xandros and its file manager will look ancient and archaic. Put all your development resources into stabilizing kde4 and porting any remnant kde3 applications.

And yes, I know kde4 isn't ready for prime time yet, but you need to get into planning mode and I assure you that by the summer of 2009 kde 4.2 or kde 4.3 will be well supported and stable and the choice of all leading distributions.Edited 2008-07-01 19:55 UTC Tue, 01 Jul 2008 19:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (porcel) Comments This is Spin http://www.osnews.com/thread?320887 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320887 Having been the President of Linspire for six years and their CEO for two, I can tell you that this Q&A has a lot of "spin." For my "color" on this, visit my blog:

http://kevincarmony.blogspot.com/2008/07/xandros-linspire-here-come...

Kevin Carmony
Former CEO, Linspire Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (kcarmony) Comments RE: Long term planning at Xandros? http://www.osnews.com/thread?320890 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320890

I hope I am wrong, but these canned responses add nothing of value and show no real planning occurred behind this acquisition.

A company that purchases another one and has no real plans yet for what to do with the acquired products and customers is a disaster in the making.

The idea is simple: Xandros needs CNR, the infrastructure, the backend, the tools, etc, for their EeePC distro. Especially for a storage-space challenged device like the Eee it's important to be able to slim it down and easily add those stuff later on.

There's rumors flying around that Asus's shopping for another distro and if it takes CNR to keep that cash cow, it's in Xandros' best interest to acquire it.

Shed everything proprietary about Xandros such as its file manager. There is nothing unique about it and it just adds confusion to the market.

Funny thing you say that; because while I've never used Xandros, every Xandros user I've met said their file manager was their killer feature. Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:44:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nutshell42) Comments RE: This is Spin http://www.osnews.com/thread?320891 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320891 Well I'm not sure what is REALLY going on here. Personally I have no stake in either company so could care less. I did try Xandros back in its heyday (even used Corel Linux which it was originally AFAIK) and while it was decent it offered nothing that made me want to pay for an upgrade. I think all the current distros (Ubuntu especially) probably surpass thsi combined company in features and users by now. My only concern is for a product that was also recently purchases by Xandros, Scalix email server. I implemented this product at my company a year or so ago and am concerned that its future is now tied to Xandros which seem to have a sketchy existance to say the least. Oh well. We'll see what happens. I may be looking at Zimbra (unless MS buys Yahoo) or (sadly) Exchange again in the near future.Edited 2008-07-01 20:51 UTC Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bproven2) Comments RE: This is Spin http://www.osnews.com/thread?320892 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320892

Having been the President of Linspire for six years and their CEO for two, I can tell you that this Q&A has a lot of "spin."

No, Really? Between the no holds barred questions and the informative, specific answers I was convinced I'd read an honest account of the bright future of one of the world leaders in Linux desktop solutions.

For my "color" on this, visit my blog:

Short version: You're bitter.
Long version: You present some interesting bits of information but I'm not really convinced that you're more trustworthy than the other party. You can hardly be called impartial. Although you are more specific than the official press release, erm "Q&A", which is helpful. Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:52:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nutshell42) Comments Comment by sbergman27 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320893 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320893

Q: How many Linspire employees are coming to Xandros?
A: All of the engineering, support, and key sales staff have been retained, apart from a small number of administrative and related resources, given redundancy with Xandros in a number of such areas.

Translation: Expect many angry blog entries to be posted as news stories.

Q: Will Linspire CEO Larry Kettler and other Linspire managers be joining the Xandros management team?
A: Yes, Larry Kettler will be joining our executive management team as VP of Business Development.

Translation: Expect many self-congratulatory press releases written in market-speak to be posted as news stories.

Q: What are the financial terms of the deal?
A: Like many private commercial transactions, the financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.

Translation: When we submitted the news to Forbes and Business Week they didn't care. So we are looking for a news forum which does.

My advice, humbly offered: Keep looking.

---

Edit: Sincere apologies for the poor subject line. I wish the forum would warn when one posts without providing a title.Edited 2008-07-01 21:20 UTC Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE[2]: This is Spin http://www.osnews.com/thread?320929 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320929 Look at the product I resell, Desknow

www.desknow.com

Runs on Linux, Unix and Windows. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:07:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Windows Sucks) Comments The Linspire Users Will Suffer. http://www.osnews.com/thread?320966 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320966 I hope I'm wrong, but I believe that Xandros will leave the Linspire customer base out in the cold.

This opinion is based on a the previous acquisition of Lycoris by Mandriva in 2005. The CEO of Lycoris, Joseph Cheek, was given a position with Mandriva and was never heard from again. Poof! The former Lycoris customer base was treated quite poorly by Mandriva. Many who contributed refused to be treated poorly my Mandriva and moved on to greener pastures.

For years Lindows/Linspire had the attention of many. Like 'em or love 'em, they were much talked about. They did a lot for the average users who sincerely enjoyed Lindows & Linspire.

Linspire's user & forum populations seem far less active compared to last year. Was this change related to Kevin Carmony's departure around the same period? I can't say, but the two events seem to coincide.

In the last year, has Linspire been an innovative company? Not in my mind and I've seen nothing noteworthy.

Linspire has become less & less significant to the degree that this acquisition will not have any impact other than their present customer base soon being abandoned by Xandros.

Funny thought: Will a name change happen? How does "Xanspire" sound? Maybe "Lindros"? (sorry - couldn't resist) Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Ranger) Comments RE: This is Spin http://www.osnews.com/thread?320971 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320971

Having been the President of Linspire for six years and their CEO for two, I can tell you that this Q&A has a lot of "spin." For my "color" on this, visit...

Yes, Kevin, we know who you are. But why should we care what you think? You've come to the wrong forum for that. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:50:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sbergman27) Comments RE: Andrea... http://www.osnews.com/thread?320972 http://www.osnews.com/thread?320972 Eugenia, you speak Greek!

Kai den diafono katholou me auto pou grafeis

Mallon biazetai poli o Andreas. Ektos kai an to etoimaze edo kai kairo. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:17:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (sonic2000gr) Comments RE: The Linspire Users Will Suffer. http://www.osnews.com/thread?321125 http://www.osnews.com/thread?321125 I always wondered what happened to Joe Cheek. Funny you mentioned this, because there is some guy from Lycoris posting in the comments on the linked article.

On the two companies:

Xandros, after all, had basically stolen $1m from Linspire and was being sued for the return of the money. Plus Robertson had managed to grab some huge settlement from Microsoft, and I seem to recall the insurance company as well, although I don't remember the details of the latter lawsuit very well.

I remember reading an article about a Xandros lawsuit, but can't seem to find it on Google. EDIT: Found it! See http://www.linux.com/feature/35926

On the demise of Lycoris:

At Lycoris we never really topped our success with Desktop/LX Amethyst Update 2, and our competitors gradually replicated all of our better ideas. Meanwhile, we we stuck in this huge engineering hole trying to go to kernel 2.6 and KDE 3.x.

And later:

Every distro worth its salt is pushing off into the enterprise space. Hell, we even tried to at Lycoris with the short-lived takeover of SME Server, an initiative I spear-headed (what a let-down that was!).

I remember SME Server briefly went to Lycoris before Ruffdogs became its corporate sponsor, but I don't know what he means about a let-down.

Anyhow, interesting stuff if he really is ex-Lycoris. A quick Google search suggests he may have been.Edited 2008-07-03 00:49 UTC Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (davidiwharper) Comments