ELX Power desktop 1.0 is ready to be shipped. The first 100 users will receive an official ELX T-shirt as an early bird offer. Prices for the three versions of ELX are between $70 and $105 USD. Here is a comparison chart between ELX, Windows and the rest of the Linux distributions.
ELX Power Desktop 1.0 Final Version Released
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
ELX is a product of Everyone’s Linux Pvt. Ltd. (formerly know as 3T Solutions Pvt ltd), a highly progressive Hyderabad, (India) based organization of young, dynamic and hardworking professionals yearning for perfection.
hey cool, my old boss is from hyderabad! he said there was a lot of stuff going on over there
Specifically, the “scattered program menu” and “complicated learning curve” comments. Guess they’ve never used Lycoris Desktop/LX. Other than that, looks like it’s worth a try.
lol, thats a very cute comparison chart
its elx vs windows vs “other distros”..descriptions of other distros feature amazing praises like “Complicated procedure.”,but usually “Not available”.
Anyway, Eugenia I love this website, but I’m wondering why you are trying to present elx in such a favourable light, especially considering that they assume ease of use == like windows in every aspect.
Anyway, lol !
>Anyway, Eugenia I love this website, but I’m wondering why you are trying to present elx in such a favourable light, especially considering that they assume ease of use == like windows in every aspect.
You assume too much. I am just presenting their distro, I did not favour it in any way. I have never used ELX in my life.
In fact, they heard it from me today, I sent them an email asking them to take down their obscure comment they have on their comparison chart about Windows stability: “Needless to mention”. It is very unfair for the Windows2k/XP line of OSes, and only true for Win9x/ME. Windows has evolved as well, not just their distro.
nothing to more to say….
Lycoris is for dead barins as ELX is and if you are a bit better (e.g. you can understand written instruction) much of the complicated CLI task are dead easy (join an NT domain in Samba is 1 line command + 2 settings change on swat (GUI)).
>>if you are a bit better (e.g. you can understand written instruction) much of the complicated CLI task are dead easy (join an NT domain in Samba is 1 line command + 2 settings change on swat (GUI)).<<
Yeah the command line is easier for most tasks. Sometimes it is much more efficient to do something through a GUI than it is to do it through a CLI – Like joining an NT Domain. I reduce the risk of typos, which if used as a switch can have unintended effects. If I’m adding 1 user to a system – hey GUI is the way to go. If I’m adding 50 – I’ll whip out my handy “adduser” script.
I have grown SO tired of “if you don’t do everything at the command line your a pathetic loser” elitist snobs such as yourself. I was probably hacking at a command line before you even knew what a computer was, let alone a command line. Sure it’s powerful, but it simply is not the best tool for all tasks – in a lot of instances it is overkill. Like grandma buying a 4×4 V-8 2-Ton SUV with the off-road package to get back and forth from church and the grocery store. Sure it will do the job, but wouldn’t a V-6 sedan have done the same job for her, more efficiently?
Lose the ‘tude lu_zer. Flame away.
In fact, they heard it from me today, I sent them an email asking them to take down their obscure comment they have on their comparison chart about Windows stability: “Needless to mention”. It is very unfair for the Windows2k/XP line of OSes, and only true for Win9x/ME. Windows has evolved as well, not just their distro.
Yes, Win2K is more stable than Win9x/ME. But, that’s like saying that straw is stronger than grass. On any machine I have ever run Win2k on, it has crashed more than once. I used to run Win2k on my machine at work, and it would crash on a weekly basis, unless I rebooted it every monday. Now, I have linux installed, and it stays up and running, only being rebooted when I install a new kernel. And, I have seen WinXP crash just as bad. I installed XP on my machine at home, it ran for 2 days, now it won’t boot anymore. I changed nothing, and installed no additional software. It just blue screens during boot now.
Granted, I think they should change it table to:
Windows – known to run for weeks at a time
Linux – known to run for months/years at a time
Now, I still use windows, it’s just in vmware now
Like grandma buying a 4×4 V-8 2-Ton SUV with the off-road package to get back and forth from church and the grocery store. Sure it will do the job, but wouldn’t a V-6 sedan have done the same job for her, more efficiently?
nah, a v-4 would be more efficient (better gas mileage)
To arougthopher:
You are insane if you expect anyone who has used Windows 2000 and/or Windows XP to believe that it “suddenly” won’t boot when you installed no software. I’ve used Windows XP since last August and never had any major issues. I abuse the shit out of my machines – installing, uninstalling, hacking the registry, running a web server and ftp server, sharing out directories over my home and work networks… In fact, the only time I had a problem (well deserved, there is definitely a bug in the networking portion: go ahead and try to get to an NT share that doesn’t exist), I was able to use the built in restore utils to recover EVERYTHING. I’ve even upgraded the freakin MOTHERBOARD on a PC without so much as a flinch. I hate Microsoft, but don’t knock their product just because you don’t like them. And if you insist on it, at least tell me something realistic.
> Yes, Win2K is more stable than Win9x/ME. But, that’s like saying that straw is stronger than grass. On any machine I have ever run Win2k on, it has crashed more than once. I used to run Win2k on my machine at work, and it would crash on a weekly basis, unless I rebooted it every monday.
And I crash my RH and Gentoo Linux on a weekly basis, sometimes more than once. And I can crash BeOS with closed eyes. And I have also seen our FreeBSD 4.5 server crashing once also. I still have to see a WindowsXP RPO crash since I installed it in this machine, at the end of March, though.
to Adam:
Well, call me crazy. I installed WinXP pro at home, and played around with it a bit. I did not install any other software on it, or any of my other partitions. It did not even have to screw around with BootMagic, since, it added itself to the NT boot menu, as I already had/still have Win2k installed. A day or two after installing, I went to boot it, and it blue screened during boot. it is on the same drive as my win2k partition, and win2k still boots w/o a hitch.
So, I guess I must just be insane.
And, to eugenia, yes, I have crashed linux in the past, and beos as well, but not just from normal usage. usually when I’m working on an app, and accidentaly do something stupid. I’ve crashed windows, the entire os, by just surfing the net with IE! Never, ever, never, have I crashed BeOS or Liinux or BSD or any other os, just by surfing the net, though the browsers themselves have crashed, but that alone has never brought down my os.
I never said I didn’t like MS. All I was saying is that their OS is far from what I would consider stable.
It definitely looks like they’re trying to do some good GUI work and I applaud their efforts, but that comparison chart was such a complete joke that I don’t see how anyone could take it seriously. They picked the random features they support and made them sound all self-important and glossed over the myriad of things that are still difficult or impossible to do in Linux. And I love how they mention no built-in zip support (have they even seen Me/XP?) and stability.
Windows is not very stable and no amount of claiming it is will make it true. I am running Windows 2000 right now. I have to reboot every week or so because anything with Explorer ties starts taking over a minute to load. No, it usually doesn’t crash, but I would hardly call 486 responsiveness on a Pentium 4 stable. Progressive degredation is NOT stability.
As for the, “You are insane if you expect anyone who has used Windows 2000 and/or Windows XP to believe that it “suddenly” won’t boot when you installed no software.”, comment: No, he’s not insane, I have had that happen to me with Windows XP on three different occasions. The registry hive becomes corrupt for no apparent reason. Now I won’t touch XP anymore. It’s unstable and slower than frozen, syrupy slow stuff.
Having supported, sold, used and programed for Windows for the last 12 years, Linux for the last 6 and *BSD for about a year I can say without any doubt that Windows is by far the least stable and least secure of the three. Its only enjoyed wide spread use because its easy to use and is viciously marketed. To say otherwise is to admit to being stoned.
I smell trolls…
-G
> Windows is by far the least stable and least secure of the three.
Funny that you are working for a company that sells Windows services.
what does who you work for have to do with anything?
also, I am not trying to troll. I was responding to a previous post made by the poster of this article. if anything, that’s what started this argument, and should be considered the trolling comment!
Oh, really? You know Paul, you should know better.
I did not start ANY argument, neither I trolled, people just jumped on after I just *mentioned* my email to ELX.
In fact, I am pissed off of these arguments taking place on OSNews everyday. It really shows that most of the readership can’t have a logical discussion, and that really makes me sad.
If you do not like me or OSNews, or you think I troll too much, I suggest you do not come over here.
They sound like they are having some strange licensing thing:
“License required for business use only.”
I think this violates the GPL does it not?
Darn, only the pre-gold is currently available for download.
>>The registry hive becomes corrupt for no apparent reason. Now I won’t touch XP anymore. It’s unstable and slower than frozen, syrupy slow stuff.<<
Stop using crappy motherboards with VIA chipsets and you won’t have a problem.
“Its only enjoyed wide spread use because its easy to use and is viciously marketed. To say otherwise is to admit to being stoned.”
I got 2 words for you. Hardware. Software. You can always get Win drivers for the latest hardware. And I really don’t care how stable Linux is. Why? Software. As someone who is into computer graphics I find the selection of graphic tools for Linux leaves alot to be desired. There are a few high end 3d apps, Gimp and a few other average apps for Linux. Font support is still a mess on Linux as are printer drivers and color management (not to mention that I am not aware of any private individual (read, not a cg studio who can hire programmers) who has gotten a tablet to work well with proper pressure/tilt support. Windows and Mac rule the computer graphics world right now. Better graphics hardware support and a much larger (and better) selection of graphics tools. It doesn’t matter how fast/stable Linux is if it doesn’t do what I need it to do. I use an OS to get at applications. Without the applications the OS is useless.
So, there are absolutely reasons to NOT use Linux. Choosing Windows was not a dumb move. It was the ONLY move since I won’t pay the inflated prices for Mac hardware. Having said that, the ONLY company that has any chance to hurt MS on the desktop to any serious degree is Apple IF they would ever release OS X for Intel. They do that and those of us who want the added stability/speed AND the hardware/software will be happy campers.
Satori.
Well I am a linux user through and through, but windows2k has great stability without a doubt.
Oh need proof well here you go: http://www.deskmod.com/?show=showskin&skin_id=17
And Eugenia, when you say you crashed gentoo do you mean the kernel crashed or X crashed and you had no way to kill it?
> And Eugenia, when you say you crashed gentoo do you mean the kernel crashed or X crashed and you had no way to kill it?
It does not matter for the user. I have no telnetd or sshd running on Gentoo, so the kind of crash was one and the same for me. For the user, these things don’t matter if you have no means to get out of a crashing situation.
It does not matter for the user. I have no telnetd or sshd running on Gentoo, so the kind of crash was one and the same for me. For the user, these things don’t matter if you have no means to get out of a crashing situation.
This is like saying that a life vest is faulty because you didn’t put it on. At some point the user must take responsibility for his/her actions/inactions! This is especially true ifsomething the user did led to the crash. The last time I had an X server crash, it turned out to be a faulty video card. I had purchased the card, I had installed the card, and when I replaced the card everything was great.
Regarding Windows “stability”, I think that anybody who has worked in Netware or UN*X shops snickered just like I did when I saw the (overly) proud display of 70 days uptime. 70 days ain’t much when you’re accustomed to uptimes that regularly exceed a year, and would probably go longer if it weren’t for the need to upgrade disks or move to a new data center.
Also, uptime doesn’t necessarily mean stability. With NT systems it’s easy to stay running in excess of 47 days, with a working desktop etc. The problem is that the Service Control Manager simply can’t control runaway or frozen processes. When you lose your service, you’re going to have to reboot.
Terrible. They claim their product has all the features Windows have, but I checked and see, they are comparing with old Windows, Windows 98. And they don’t have all the features Windows have.
Secondly, their clone on Windows is so lame, all they clone is their highly critized file hiearchy and icons. Windows != ease of use. I have found many who just don’t know how to do things on Windows. And why would they move to Linux? To be equally confused? The only people they can target is those who are so used to Windows, which is proven anyway they could move to an OS like OS X, plus, if they were so used to Windows, most likely their apps aren’t available on Linux.
I have been attempting to install a Linux of any type just to see what it is all about. This is the only oine tyhat actually did get me to a desktop — I left the command line when I moved off of DOS (Paying the MS tax on a computer with Windows 95) I have been using BeOS for 3+ years and Windows 95/98/me/2k/xp at work.
After having tried several Linux distros that all end up looking like greek, ELX actually installed and I was on-line in under 3 hours — BeOS takes 20 minutes from CD to loading a web page.
You’re right, they try to make it look like Windows, but any newbe to Linux will need a gui interface to do mundane things like mounting a disk, mounting a Windows share, and installing a new software package.
ELX is a step in the right direction, but it aint no Windows killer.
why are people always trying to clone WindowsXP looks , i think the win XP look sux and the clones suck even harder … then i’d prefer MacOSX ( although it’s prolly to hard to clone ) …
I think BeOS actually is the yet most suceeded free user-friendly os , that’s the way an OS should have to be to be user friendly , although beter TCP/IP stack is wished , it’s easy for everybody but you can still access a terminal to change something …
Win2k’s stability is ok over here , althoug after running it a while with lots of apps and stuff , it start to run slowly , and a reboot is necessary ( I hibernate as much as possible ) .
Linux command’s are oftenly much easier and better than people think … people should just have to search stuff over the internet instead of using gui progs that won’t give a descent error orso ….
any system can be crashed if you want to crash it.
Some just happly crash when you are doing normal task.
I’m curious what is the level of crash on the system you mentioned (Graphical provider, kernel, application…)
and what are you doing while that “crash” happened.
“Zip files on Windows… Only after installing WinZip, right click and follow the wizard.”
What? XP uses compressed files and folders, and 98 with plus pack. Copy plus pack files to Win 2000 and you also get integrated zip files.
Humm…ever wondered if these “desktop oriented” linux distros are REALY headed the right direction? :….I mean… i’ ve tried to teach the “linux basics” (how to use X-Windows, Kde, Gnome, etc…) to a few friends (the king of Joe users that don’t know a sigle DOS command). One of the gratest obstacles is the lack of a consistent desktop interface…QT1,2,3 apps often present a totaly difrent look n feel from GTK+ apps! A common “control center” is needed, aswell as a universal Theming format, and a standard GUI designed from the ground up to be a Unix GUI, (the kind that makes life easyer for both the Sys Administrator and the Joe User), not a 20 year old “windowing system” designed with dumb terminals in mind. Next when you want to do your thing, on YOUR computer (remote admin not included here), forget about Bash, forget Emacs, Vim, mpeg123 and other CLI related bulls#i+ in general…try to use the GUI… If you == suceed{the_guys_ behind_the_GUI == “have done a great job”} Else {the_guys_ behind_the_GUI == “have to try a bit harder next time”} sorry about the fuzzy english (i’m from portugal, give me a break
Oh, really? You know Paul, you should know better.
I did not start ANY argument, neither I trolled, people just jumped on after I just *mentioned* my email to ELX.
In fact, I am pissed off of these arguments taking place on OSNews everyday. It really shows that most of the readership can’t have a logical discussion, and that really makes me sad.
If you do not like me or OSNews, or you think I troll too much, I suggest you do not come over here.
Geez, Eugenia, you have got to learn to take a joke, or did you just miss the little smilely face I put on the end of that sentence.
I was just responding to a statement you made, in which you sent an email to a company expressing your opinion. So, I was just expressing mine, and, explaining why my opinion is the way it is. That was it, and nothing more. But then, people started jumping down my throat, including yourself. So, does this mean that only the editors of this site are allowed to have opinions, and the readers should be droids, just taking your words as gold? I sure hope not.
You wrote the comments area. If you don’t like what people are saying, remove it from the site. And, your one to talk about having a logical discussion. I see you bringing more emotion to the table than almost everyone else here. Being an editor of this site, I think you use more profanity here than anyone else.
But again, this is my opinion of things, which I’m sure, you will never agree with
<- notice the smilely
Probably NT/2K/XP isnt at its best on an Athlon/VIA PC ( mine ) but its still highly stable in what I use it for.
The truth is that Windows of any sort is mainly a home user and Desktop OS.. serious servers run varieties of Unix, VMS, Linux etc. OK so some businesses use NT server or later variants… but who minds a 6-monthly reboot?
XP is AS stable as I need it to be, and a damn sight more usable than any Linux of my knowledge.
The truth is that Windows of any sort is mainly a home user and Desktop OS..
I agree with you that Windows NT/2k/XP is all that the desktop user could ever want for stability, if not complexity. The problem is that Microsoft markets Windows as a product suitable for everything from mainframe replacements to medical devices.
OK so some businesses use NT server or later variants… but who minds a 6-monthly reboot?
Most shops reboot critical NT servers weekly, or when something fails, whichever comes first. You also can find NT servers tucked away in closets at branch offices. If one of those fails every 6 months, that means that somebody has to get on a jet, fly out to the office and then go hunting for the damn closet. In general, a needless PITA.
XP is AS stable as I need it to be, and a damn sight more usable than any Linux of my knowledge.
If you can’t use Linux, it’s not a trait of Linux, it’s your trait. The topic really isn’t your knowledge, or lack thereof…
First of all, I like this site. It’s not the best of it’s kind I’ve seen, yet I try to visit it on a regular basis. I do that just for the purpose of finding out what news on the OS’s market appear. Sometimes I read the comments. Eugenia’s comments (which I’d like to ask what country is she from ’cause her name sounds very Romanian to me) and sometimes other visitor’s comments too. What I never liked is this never ending, idiotic, boring and after all useless way of talking about the different OS’s. I found (not only here) comments that actually make me believe that the posters of some messages are either at school age or fanatic extremists. I have about 12 years in IT by now and in that time I’ve used some of the OS’s commented here. In time, using them I’ve come to a conclusion. No matter which OS or application we’re talking about, we all have to accept that they all have glitches, they all have some tough features and weak points, some of them are more innovative than others and so on. In the end the BEST OS and the BEST Office Suite and the BEST other-kind-of-app is the one that SUITS you BEST. Comments like “I’ll never touch Windows again because it crashed on my PC with no particular reason” or “I’ll never use Linux because I’m affraid to admit that it’s too complicated for my small brain” are only proving that those people are just curious. Nothing else. They only want to see/feel how a particular OS or App looks and if it doesn’t work from the very start the software is to blame, no matter what. A little bit of advice: Just think about the relation between hardware components and different software, think about different hardware manufacturers that sustain (sometimes only) certain software developers (example: Intel & Microsoft) and you’ll probably have a better idea of what you’re all talking about. I’m affraid that few people here have enough real&tough experience to post reliable comments. Yes, the messageboard is free to use and yes, it’s one way to prove there are visitors that have their own opinion on this site, but please, try to understand that sometimes by posting such comments one would only prove to be absolutely stupid instead of an impartial well-trained computer user. I suggest that anyone who wants to post a message here or somewhere else to provide (for the potential reader of his/her message) some brief info about his/her IT experience in time. This way, many of the comments will appear in the real light and many of the potential posters will prefer waiting a few years and learn something more about computers BEFORE they post a message that buries some product just because the woke up in a bad mood in a particular day.
I installed the pre1, 2 and pre-gold iso’s. It had potential but was a moving target as far programs working or working right, the base install was stable. What got me was the lack of notices and updates to packages (php, zlib,etc) that where showing up on bugtraq and cert with vunerablities. When I couldn’t get an answer from them on this I dropped the distro. I have no problem paying for a distro but if they aren’t going to worry about leaving me open to attack I’m not going to support them.