Here is OSNews' review of Xandros Desktop Home Edition Premium version 4.0 (a mouthfull). Xandros Systems was so kind as to provide OSNews with the top of the line version of their product, which includes, among other things, complete copies of Versora Progression Desktop, CrossOver Office, and various non-Free drivers and utilities. Read on for the complete review.
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Member since:2006-04-21
Member since:2006-06-27
For me, the main reason I would pay for a Linux distribution is to have more things "work out of the box" and not to have to fiddle around setting up various basic functionality myself.
Sadly, this is not the case with Xandros - you pay a hefty price and still things don't work (e.g. DVD playback, multimedia playback within the browser, etc.) There are hacks to get these things working in Xandros, but if you still have to do this then you may as well just hack around in Freespire or Ubuntu for free.
As also noted in the review, Xandros is badly behind the times in terms of its choice of packages and software, most are not the latest versions and therefore lack much of the functionality that other very stable distros with more up-to-date packages can offer. If you try to update to the latest stuff within Xandros, you seriously risk breaking the many customizations and tweaks Xandros have made (e.g. the Xandros File Manager).
Then there is that whole issue of "product activation", which leaves a nasty taste in the mouth for many.
Given the great strides being made by distros such as SLED and openSuse, Fedora, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, Freespire, Ubuntu, etc., I don't really see what Xandros has to offer which would justify the high entry fee they charge. Maybe most of the "cost" is covering included commercial software like Crossover Office and Versora, but then it makes more sense to buy independent copies of these which can then be installed on any distro and are not just tied to Xandros.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-06
Making things work out of the box is generally long tedious work that requires access to a large collection of test hardware. Basically it's the type of work that volenteers working for free can't do as well as companies how can afford to buy lots of different hardware and pay people to do the boring work.
Member since:
2005-11-13
Based on this review and some others like it, it seems that commercial distros seem have an easier time with hardware detection and overall just making sh*t work than the free distros. Why is this? I mean, it's all still Linux underneath, right?