LinuxTimes.net has published a review of Xandros 2.5 Deluxe Edition with screenshots.
Xandros 2.5 Deluxe Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Period.
Cannot wait for release 3. Linspire 5.0 is also very promesing.
I can’t wait until they come out with an OC edition with both the 2.6 kernel, and X.org. Good times to come 🙂
It does look very promising, Xandros does appear to be creating an nifty complete Desktop Distro
I still need to get around to buying/trying it though. 
Although at this rate, I might as well wait until 3.0.
Missing a firewall? The Firewall is build into the kernal. You can download Firestarter from Xandros networks and configure the firewall from there.
Missing a firewall? The Firewall is build [sic] into the kernal. You can download Firestarter from Xandros networks and configure the firewall from there.
First of all, my country bumpkin, it’s spelled “kernel, NOT kernal. Secondly, having to go online in order to get software to for your first line of defence against the big, bad Internet, is just a really stupid thing to have to do.
Kind of backwards in fact.
Well I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that Xandros came with some sorta firewall package by default. Guess I’ll have to install it again at some point to see for sure.
>First of all, my country bumpkin, it’s spelled “kernel, NOT >kernal. Secondly, having to go online in order to get >software to for your first line of defence against the big, >bad Internet, is just a really stupid thing to have to do.
I’ve been running Linux since 97 without a firewall, nicely.
There is no need for it.
This could be a nice distro if it wasn’t based on KDE.
Just too unstable for my taste…
I’ve been running Linux since 97 without a firewall, nicely. There is no need for it.
Don’t get too cocky there guy. No software is perfect, and I’ve been bitten quite a few times with Linux based systems.
Every layer of security you can make use of is not only a good thing, but a smart thing to use.
but I like Libranet better. I can’t remember anymore why I switched, but there was something w/ Xandros that prevented me from customizing a part of it. I think it was an issue of using an unstable version of something that wouldn’t load correctly (then again, maybe not <shrug>).
I highly endorse Xandros for new Linux users or Windows converts. I like the things I’m seeing in Linux-land.
The Firestarter firewall is included, but it’s buried on disk 2 and you’ve got to manually go look for it and install. That’s something they need to rethink for version 3.0.
I would think that having Codeweavers and the ability to install IE, Office and other Windows stuff would make a firewall even more necessary than for the typical Linux distro. Of course, no matter what Linux (or BSD) you run, a firewall is a very good idea.
You *can* get hacked running Linux without a firewall. Especially if it’s not the latest, greatest, most up-to-date distro. Even on dial-up. I know this because I’ve seen it happen.
My first linux installation was a Debian (Slink) CD — it came with an O’Relly book, and install went just fine. The next free weekend I tried out apt-get, (ironically, in part so I would feel more secure surfing for linux docs). And during the hours-long download of the upgrade I got hacked. Fortunately, there were a couple of clues — I happened to have ‘top’ and ‘plog’ running on visible xterms, and I caught enough to get wise.
So I read up on firewalling rules, and re-installed.
Fortunately this was a cheap box I had aquired just for learning linux, and no significant damage was done.
I don’t know how likely this was, or how big a problem this is for up-to-date installs. But many new users will *not* be starting out with the latest CD, nor will they know how to set up a firewall. They may even have heard that they won’t need one, or that it’s “built into the kernel”.
Some distros are undoubtably more ‘newbie-safe’ than others, and may set-up and load a firewall automatically. But spreading the notion that linux boxes “don’t need a firewall” is only going to cause trouble.
Linux boxes *do* need a firewall. And it needs to be configured and fired up too, (ever see a box running iptables, but no rule-set loaded. You know the default policy is “ACCEPT”, right?) or else it’s worse than not having one.
Sure, Linux *is* better. But it’s not magical!
Linux DOES have a firewall, and it’s BUILT INTO the kernel. However, the question is whether it’s configured properly.
I personally don’t run a firewall at home, as my boxes sit behind a router that does NAT (the router doesn’t have the firewall running either). However, Xandros should have the firewall running and configured for typical home use, with a gui app to configure it – there are plenty around.
Matt
yes, netfilter (or whatever) is built into the kernel.
But iptables isn’t.
And a suitable ruleset needs to be loaded. On every boot.
And the GUI apps (ferm, etc) that I’ve looked at aren’t going to help a newbie; they assume *some* familiarity with the rules format and what they mean.
There may be more newbie friendly GUI config apps, but I haven’t seen them. (I hear GuardDog and others might fill the bill).
Damn, I’ve never even ran a firewall, whether I used BeOS, Linux, Windows, OS X or whatever. As if hackers will choose to attack my computers… Don’t credit yourself too much guys.
Xandros does work fine, it just doesn’t look good. They need to do some serious graphics desgin.
I have to agree on Linspire 5, it is shaping up to be a very nice distro indeed release date is yet to be confirmed
I hope that many Linux distros keep this momentum up in turning out more and more functionality that it easy to use – it’s all good for us the consumer/Mr Joe Average
I always thought that Xandros is based in Ottawa.
>btw, what is happening with Linspire/Lindows? They started releasing
>new versions each 6 months and it seems they’re now stuck in 4.5…
Right now Linspire is in UNSTABLE (so not even ALPHA) release mode, the first UNSTABLE (Thrillseekers) have been around for over 3 months now. (only for Insiders and Members but you can find it maybe on filesearching.com or a.b.w.l). Anyway the latest version is: 4.9.171 and i
used it on several pc. and laptops. Its got a amazing hw detection system, everything just works out of the box.
Wifi, Wireless, Joystick, sound, dvd, vga, network….etc..its also very fast, once booted because booting is still slow.
New theme by Everaldo is original but i do not like it……..
My computer configuaration is almost exactly identical to the author’s except for my primary HD, which is 60 GB, and I have 640 MB of DDR RAM. I recently upgraded to Xandros 2.5 (from Xandros 2.0 Deluxe), and it destroyed my LILO. I had been dual-booting with Windows XP, but after the upgrade, Xandros wouldn’t boot into anything. After a day or so, I reinstalled Xandros 2.0 and everything seems to be back to normal now.
A lot of people like Xandros, and it is user-friendly – when it’s working. Some things work fine, such as Open Office, but I’ve had lots of problems with it, e.g. Mozilla always freezes up within 30 seconds, and Opera won’t open at all. The Xandros forums has been a mixed bag; some very helpful people there, and others who figure that if there’s a problem, it must be the user’s fault.
You big dummy! (See if you can read that word) I was rushing when I wrote my post. Xandros as with most desktop versions of Linux has the IP table or IP chains firewalls configured for basic security by default out the box! Duh! Firestarter is used to CONFIGURE the firewall, not to add it or turn it on.
If you read the WHOLE post first before picking out one typo, you might learn something. LOL! You don’t need to go to the internet to order your software first before protecting your PC. (Must be a windows user)
There is no ADDING of firewalls in Linux. It comes with the KERNEL all you have to do configure it if you want it tighter. But for sure Linspire, Lycoris, Xandros, Mepis and many other desktop distros block most bad ports for you.