OSNews today hosts a very interesting interview with Xandros‘ Vice President Michael A. Bego, discussing about the new Xandros Desktop and Server 1.0, the Linux market, Microsoft and a lot more. Read more to also see a full size screenshot of the Xandros Desktop too.1. Please tell us about the interoperability between Xandros Desktop 1.0 and Xandros Server 1.0. How similar and how different the two products are? Please describe to us their pricing schemes as well.
Michael Bego: Xandros Desktop is designed to be an end user operating system. By being an end user operating system, it naturally comes with an easy to use graphical user interface for users to navigate through and operate on the desktop environment.
Xandros Server, however, can be operated with or without an graphical user interface and it can be run “headlessly”. Both Xandros Desktop and Xandros Server can be remotely managed and administered from any web browser using our DaVinci (product code name) remote management tools that will be shipping with the server product.
Xandros Server will also come with many ready to use DaVinci plugin components that will allow an administrator to setup and perform all the common server services (e.g. Apache, FTP, DNS, DHCP, … etc.). Both products can receive enhancements and security updates online via Xandros Networks with a simple one mouse click.
2. In what ways Xandros Desktop’s KDE differs from a stock/default KDE installation? What tools/features Xandros have added/modified? In what way the default KDE UI was modified?
Michael Bego: We have touched almost every single KDE app that we are shipping. For KDE apps, we have concentrated mostly in fixing usability problems, app crashes, or features that just do not work or are missing. Up to today, we have discovered and fixed well over 1000 of these bugs/enhancements in KDE. In a way, our enhanced KDE Desktop is more stable and more user friendly than the stock KDE
from an average user’s view point. On top of that, we have added our own Xandros File Manager which, in our opinion, will cater better to someone that is an average Windows users. We have also added several control panel modules that will make an end user’s configuration experience much
simpler and smoother than the competition as ours are all tightly integrated with the KDE Control Center. In most other distros, the end user are usually very confused as they have to do their configuration from two to three different tools. There are also many other features that we have added to Xandros Desktop 1.0 – User Switching and Time Based User Login Control are just a couple that come to mind.
KDE has always been an excellent desktop choice. However, it is always lacking the tight integration with the underlying operating system since KDE is designed to run on almost any favours of UNIX. We, at Xandros, have completed this tight integration so any low level operating systems events will be handled nicely with our enhancements. For example, by plugging an USB storage device into the USB port, the device will immediately be available in the Xandros File Manager.
The user can then manipulate the files on the USB storage device use the same drag and drop technique that one uses on hard drives.
Xandros Networks is another great application/service that will be available in the final version. It allows an end user to obtain feature enhancements, bug fixes, and receives the latest Xandros news all online via a single mouse click.
3. Xandros is based on Corel’s Linux, which is based on Debian. Will Xandros also support RPMs, in addition to apt-get, or will you introduce a new or modified packaging system?
Michael Bego: In addition to supporting apt-get for the way in which seems to handle dependencies so effectively, Xandros Desktop 1.0 will also support RPMs given the wide variety of packages that use them. We feel that as ISV’s, consumers, and corporations catch on to the many the strengths of Debian and apt-get, that it will continue to enjoy growing popularity.
At the same time, I believe that at this stage, all competition is a good thing:
The market for desktop operating systems and applications was well over $10 Billion in 2001 and has been increasing over 10% a year. While Microsoft has done a fantastic job at meeting the needs for many, we are in contact with hundreds of thousands who have not fit into the mold that Microsoft made for them.
Given the size of this market we do not really feel that we are competing with anyone at the moment. The march of Linux onto the desktop has been similar to an expedition in the wilderness. There is an enormous space that we are going into and the more explorers, the better.
Even today, with our substantial successes, most people’s eyes begin to glaze over when you start to talk about Linux, let alone the desktop. I’m sure there were many obituaries written about Columbus as he set sail. The more people that you have saying the Earth is not flat, the more you will be able convince to travel to a New Land. The more that make the change, the better off they all are. We hope that millions will soon set sail for Xandros.
(It’s probably also good to point out here that I don’t consider myself to be some famous explorer, though I’m sure people will look back on people like Linus as one).
4. Xandros’ two big competitors in the “Linux desktop” market, are Lycoris and Lindows. Lycoris recently unveiled IRIS, while Lindows uses its own packaging application, ClickNRun. Will Xandros offer something similar for a fee or for free?
Michael Bego: First of all, it is important to point out that we do not see them as competition. However, our Xandros File Manager and Xandros Networks coming out in Xandros Desktop 1.0 will be above and beyond what the anyone else is offering by a long shot. We will also be making some key feature updates exclusively on Xandros Networks only for our subscribers. These services will be made available for free to Xandros customers.
5. Reportedly, Linux only holds 0.4% of the computer market, and only a part of this 0.4% is actually consisted by desktop-seeking users. One of the most influencial developers in the Linux community today and creator of the Enlightenment window environment, The Rasterman, said recently that Linux has lost the desktop battle to Microsoft, and all what’s left to fight for, is a
niche. What is your opinion on this? Can the tables turn?
Michael Bego: Microsoft certainly has won their share of battles, but if there’s only a niche left, from what we can tell at Xandros, it’s ENORMOUS! Linux and the Xandros Desktop are developing at a significantly faster pace than Windows is and that’s not going to change any time soon. Furthermore, general of acceptance of Linux and Xandros is growing by leaps and bounds. This will further make Linux and
Xandros viable solution as the various ISV’s, system integrators, and VARs pick us up as well.
It’s also important to point out that we aren’t trying to compete with Microsoft or replace them.
Depending on who’s numbers you go by, Linux has somewhere between 0.4% and 5% of the market. We hope to substantiate the market size better shortly with registered Xandros users (note that we also hope that the other Linux desktop players are equally successful. We consider each and every one very helpful to the cause).
6. In a recent interview you spoke of “a spectacular office suite” that will come with Xandros Desktop. Could you talk about it a bit more?
Michael Bego: I believe that quote came from an LGP spokesperson and did not pertain to Xandros.
We are very excited about our plans for the Office Suite and are planning an imminent announcement.
7. In your opinion, what the Top 5 points are, points that will need to be addressed by developers, in order to bring the Linux kernel and KDE/X11 closer to Joe Average User?
Michael Bego: In general, both the kernel and KDE group of developers have been doing an amazing job in keeping up with and leading the industry trends. KDE has been addressing the needs of most Linux/UNIX desktop users. Since many open source developers usually have their own specific development goals in mind, Xandros finishes the tight integration, QA cycles, and remaining tedious work that
remains.
One area that I would like to see addressed sooner rather than later is better ACPI support so things will work better on more modern laptops. Accessibility is another area that KDE can put more focus on.
All that said, we believe that we are very close to meeting Joe’s needs. See what our beta tester group has said so far: www.xandros.com/quotes.html
8. We read that Xandros’ corporate goal is “to be among the first crop of profitable Linux companies”. How do you expect to do this? Could you explain to us briefly your business plan?
Michael Bego: I believe our goals as a for-profit company are very simple. We are developing an excellent solution to meet the growing needs of a very large market. While we do invest a great deal of effort in open source elements, we also realize the need to maintain ownership of some of our work. Xandros is basically pursuing a hybrid model that espouses the best of both worlds. It further applies this across an integrated suite of desktop and server platforms and applications. We gain from and contribute back to the open source community; and we maintain proprietary aspects so that we can make money from our software. This seems to be a trend in the industry that even Red Hat is catching on to.
9. What is your opinion about FreeBSD and MacOSX? Additionally, while older version of Windows were unstable, it seems that Microsoft has addressed most of these problems with WindowsXP and 2000. Do you perceive as true competitors other Linux distributions, or other OSes, like OSX and Windows?
Michael Bego: FreeBSD and MacOSX are both very powerful solutions and each has several elements that make them the world-class OS’s that they are. I believe that Linux-based distributions (and specifically Xandros) have a higher potential to succeed on the desktop for several reasons:
. Linux’s success in the server market creates an environment where Linux desktops can be more easily integrated and support in corporate environments
. Xandros and Linux have a higher critical mass of applications, competition and solutions for the desktop.
. I always felt that Apple had a tough proposition because they are not only competing against other OS’s but also all the hardware vendors (and their partners).
. Linux further has more attention, developers, and momentum behind it that all make it a safe bet.
An additional interview with Mr Bego, gone live also today, can be found at LinuxOrbit.
Something about this guy – probably the way he doesn’t really give direct answers and seems to shy away from making any criticisms, smells of corporate bullshit. They might have a great product, but I give them a year till they go out of business and this guy blames someone else for his failures.
In the computer industry, technology has very little to do with long-term viability…it’s all about the management…and this is why Red Hat will rule Linux, and Sun will rule big-iron UNIX.
Red Hat has focus…Xandros wants to be all things to all people…very stupid…
too bad really…Corel’s technology is VERY good…but it will forever be doomed to die at the hands of mismanagement
-bytes256
Yuck, looks like Windows without an ounce of class that Lycoris brings to the idea.
A C: drive? Puh-lease….
Actually, I think it looks like a marginally updated version of Corel Linux 1.0. The only difference I see is that there are more gradients, it’s less beige, and the fonts seem less ugly.
Heck, even the icons are largely unchanged from Corel Linux.
Well, maybe that’s a good thing. It was almost good enough, maybe Xandros will add the polish that Corel’s distro so badly needed.
One thing about Corel’s distro: it wasn’t that heavy. They did a lot of good things, and their file manager was way better (though uglier) than Nautilus… It never seemed to work 100%, but when it worked it was great. The Network Neighborhood equivalent was for real, and the samba integration was excellent.
Good luck to them! If there’s a download I’ll certainly try it. If it’s less than $50CDN I’ll probably buy it. I’m guessing that it won’t replace pure Debian for me, though.
I wonder if all the recent hacked up KDE’s means the ability to theme them is lost? konqueror’s over integration makes windows look like a minimalist approach but I can always install commander on other Linux distros and slap on a windows XP theme anyway (not that I’d want to). What I want out of a Linux distro is not just 8 CD’s full of RPM’d apps, but a solid, clean, fast base with a packaging system that works. Such a packaging system will never see wide spread adoption if it’s based on proprietary technology and no Linux vendor will mirror every app out there. I think if Linux ever does become a major contendor on the desktop, it will take Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse, Debian, and Gentoo to put it there.
“We are developing an excellent solution to meet the growing needs of a very large market.”
What ‘large market’ is this guy talking about, and what growing needs is his distro meeting? I am assuming desktop/applications needs? I’m sitting here pondering this and I can’t think of a single non-server task on Linux that can’t be accomplished elsewhere.
IMHO, they’re (the Linux community) making a big mistake by trying to turn Linux into a Windows clone; not only is it not a very good fit, but there’s also no need for it.
I wonder if they have given the code back to KDE in compliance with the GPL.
I am sure KDE would love to have a more “Stable” project.
“We have touched almost every single KDE app that we are shipping. For KDE apps, we have concentrated mostly in fixing usability problems, app crashes, or features that just do not work or are missing. Up to today, we have discovered and fixed well over 1000 of these bugs/enhancements in KDE. In a way, our enhanced KDE Desktop is more stable and more user friendly than the stock KDE from an average user’s view point.”
Xandros runs KDE 2.2.2, AFAIK (not 100% sure though). If this is indeed the case, their changes are a bit too “old” for the KDE Project to care. And someone would have to go through ALL these changes to see if some of their fixes might be applicable for KDE 3.1 or not. And that’s a lot of dirty work that no one wants to really do. 😉
They will distribute the sources when they distribute the binaries.
You know, if they hired someone with talent to replace the purely butt ugly default theme, then this may look like it has the goods to be a desktop OS. But then again, I haven’t used it, i’m basingmy opinion on the included screenshot.
That c: drive in the sidebar though….. heh, dunno what to think of that one.
“You know, if they hired someone with talent to replace the purely butt ugly default theme, then this may look like it has the goods to be a desktop OS. But then again, I haven’t used it, i’m basingmy opinion on the included screenshot.”
Man, what in the bloody hell does an ugly default theme (or a pretty one for that matter) have to do with a good desktop OS? Is this really what makes or breaks an OS for you?
People don’t just convert from from windows. They have to be wowed away from it. Why the bloody hell would someone choose this over windows XP when it’s just plain old not as good to look at? Have you installed linux on someone else’s machine? As soon as one little thing doesn’t behave or look like the person wants it to they practically order you to put windows back on.
If an OS is to succeed on the desktop, it needs to be the complete package from the very beginning.
Why does everyone want to critize this company? The screenshot looks great to me. And why would anyone complain about the C drive icon? That is what windows users need. I don’t see why people want to critize an effort that could have the potential to grab new users. That is the problem with the linux community; most think that if it’s pretty, easy to use, and intuitive, it stinks!
These people fail to see the huge leaps and bounds that need to be made in improving the usability of KDE, Gnome, and all the others. Why condem something that could only IMPROVE the desktop and not do a thing to HARM it?
Xandros can’t be downloaded! I followed the link, accepted the licence agreement etc, click on Download, “Page Not Found” What is going on??
The download page is for Corel Linux 1.2 (ancester of xandros, that iso is 2 years old), NOT for Xandros. The Xandros version of Linux is not out yet. It will be released to the public in October.
“People don’t just convert from from windows. They have to be wowed away from it.”
And if they could be ‘wowed’ by it just from its looks, I would imagine the entire Windows community would be using Lycoris right about now, no?
“Why the bloody hell would someone choose this over windows XP when it’s just plain old not as good to look at?”
Well, I can think of plenty of reasons, and looks aren’t one of them
Besides, even if you were to make it look identical, it would take most users about 10 seconds to see what’s really underneath – a wanna-be knock-off OSS ‘alternative’ OS that tries to emulate something that most of its users apparently hate to begin with.
“Why does everyone want to critize this company?”
I see Xandros as a leech of sorts, just like Lindows. After about 10 years of work goes into the OS, these jerk-offs come along and add their own ‘extensions’ to it, trying to profit off of it, *without* giving anything back the community from which it stole from.
> After about 10 years of work goes into the OS, these jerk-offs come along and add their own ‘extensions’ to it, trying to profit off of it, *without* giving anything back the community from which it stole from.
Agreed. But without these corporations and big companies investing on Linux and hoping to make some money, Linux would have been nowhere today (that is, on 0.05% instead of 0.4%). Have you checked the Linux kernel, KDE source code lately?
It is FULL of source code from Sun, IBM, Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE. Not from Joe. The days that Joe was trying to reverse engineer a Windows sound driver in his bedroom, because he did not have the specs for it to write a driver for his sound card under Linux, have largely passed.
It is the way of the corporations, or Linux’s flame will go away as it came: slowly. And Linus knows that, and this is why he encourages help from companies.
Companies like Lycoris and Xandros will give back their changes they did to the GPL programs they modified. But do not ask them to open source everything that it doesn’t have to be open sourced. They need to live. They have employees. And they need to build a company that has a product that can differntiate them from the other company.
Linux needs these companies and you need to help them. Not shoot them down. The BSD people have understood this. The Linux people haven’t. You shoot your own foot.
Ok, so I finally have a look at a 1024×768 Xandros desktop screenshot. I know you can’t judge an OS by an screenshot, but anyway how can you spend $30million on a desktop OS to make something even uglier than Licorys? Where the hell are the GUI designers at Xandros? Among many things, I know you can rename that C:, but that simply cannot be taken seriously as a default setting. I was going to analize with more detail, but all the ugliness feels to me so obvious I’ll rather watch The Vampire Lovers on TV.
I feel bad, honestly, I had great expectations for Xandros, I used to think this company had great potential, that they could really make something neat and fresh and pretty with KDE, not eyecandy (I hate Aqua) but clean lines, clean icons, an smart GUI with new ideas like OEone’s, and now I see this horrible KDE monster. Themes won’t fix it.
Maybe it’s too early, Xandros1.0 is not even out, but after a year waiting for it I start thinking I’m just going to forget about Xandros and focus on the coming RedHat8 as a favorite Linux distro for the desktop, with GNOME2. As you know OEone is going to make their environment installable within RedHat, once GNOME2 and OEone finally get to solve the fonts mess they are going to deliver a very usable and pretty Linux desktop.
Again, I feel bad and sad for Xandros, they are putting great effort and risk on their Linux distribution, I want to be very much mistaken about this, I want to be positively surprised by Xandros1.0, but take a look at that so called “tightly integrated interface”, pay for that? I wouldn’t even download it for free.
Indeed you can’t judge an OS from a screenshot. But a desktop OS *has* to be sexy. Why? Not for other reasons but for competition ones. XP looks better, OSX looks better, *my* KDE 3 looks better than the Xandros one.
Xandros is a new company and need to *attract* new
costumers. To attract, you need to be sexy. I am a woman, I know about these things… 😉
I have already emailed the Xandros VP for it. I told him I how I felt: It looks like it is 1997 and Win98 all over again. I do not know if he got offended, but that is the truth.
Xandros need to get a UI designer. Or Lycoris or my custom Gentoo Linux’s KDE, will always look better. And there is always XP and OSX…
“Linux needs these companies and you need to help them. Not shoot them down. The BSD people have understood this. The Linux people haven’t. You shoot your own foot.”
Well, I do personally understand this. But I also understand that the companies that build up Linux are also going to bring it down. Corporate interest = greed and greed = the same problems that currently plague Windows.
How long do you think it will be after Linux ‘catches on’ that Bonzai Buddy, Gator, and Cydor and all of their ilk are ported from Win32?
And, oh yeah .. about the sexy OS thing …
If you could judge an OS/desktop by it’s sex appeal, Gnome and it’s butt-ugly GTK toolkit would’ve been dropped a long time ago
And Win98 & 1997 were a good thing; much less bloat, IMHO.
> Corporate interest = greed and greed
Of course you are right and there is nothing you can do about it!
Linux corporations try to make Linux a “free” “product” in a capitalistic society. There are only two solutions:
1. Corporations abandon Linux and it becomes obsolete by years end.
2. Assimilation of Linux to capitalism and possible catch up to what Windows represents today.
If you are more romantic than that, and you want Linux to thrive and still be free and ‘clean’, there are only two options:
1. Move Linux to an alternative dimension where a kind of healthy communism works. Because in this reality, it doesn’t.
2. Allow it to be an “underground” OS, used only by weird geeks, as it used to be back in 1995/6. Kinda like the Matrix computers and the Zeon mainframe…
But as it stands today, it is the corporation’s way, or the high way. And Linus knows it.
Thx Eugenia for that info regarding downloading Xandros.
I love Aqua but really, if I’m going to use a computer all day, I want it to be visually appealing.
> It is FULL of source code from
> Sun, IBM, Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE.
> Not from Joe.
And why on earth would anybody complain about this? You have all these huge companies, motivated individuals, and even governments, collaborating to build and strenghten an OS. How can that possibly have a down-side? Its like using google: you get a billion-dollar encyclopaedia for nothing! If you are going to rail against corporations, try to at least say something intelligent for Xt’s sake!
> Linux needs these companies
> The BSD people have understood this.
> The Linux people haven’t.
Which ‘Linux people’?? Linus, Alan Cox, kernel developers, we users, who? If anything, and despite the propaganda from Redmond, I would say Linux has done a good job attracting and smoothly assimilating corporate support, at the same time remaining open-source. If anything, I would say BSD is years behind linux and Apache on this one. And no, I am not saying that linux is better than BSD, so hold the flames!
“what’s really underneath – a wanna-be knock-off OSS ‘alternative’ OS that tries to emulate something that most of its users apparently hate to begin with.”
Exactly, if this wasn’t the internet I would give you a sticker. The “alternatives” are being shot down because they are all trying to target end-users. I see my mother and grandmother as those end users; they both have USB scanners, digital cameras, various photo editing and printer software, CD writes, Kazaa (lite), webshots desktop, various other media software, any random program someone sends them an email about, and a whole slew of other stuff it would cost these companies _billions_ of dollars to replace. An all out attempt to try and emulate windows features (bad and good) may gain some additional market share, but I honestly feel that Linux will be a replacement desktop for people like me long before it’s a replacement for people like my mother or grandmother. There is a huge market out there of part time Linux users that just want a more usable Linux and don’t need or want a C: drive and a fisher price desktop theme. But ultimately, the success of these “Lindows” vendors will depend a great deal on one huge thing “OEM partnerships”.
“Companies like Lycoris and Xandros will give back their changes they did to the GPL programs they modified. But do not ask them to open source everything that it doesn’t have to be open sourced. They need to live. They have employees. And they need to build a company that has a product that can differntiate them from the other company.”
This is interesting. Does it mean that the only way companies can survive is by having something proprietary? Isn’t that what the FSF tries to get rid of? Maybe one day they realize that things aren’t as black and white as they make it seem to be.
It also seems that the GPL is in the way of running a successful company. I think that an operating system should be open-source because it is what everyone has to use before they can do anything useful with a computer. Everyone should know how things work and how one can add their own stuff to it. The type of license is an interesting issue, though. Personally, I think that a BSD style license is the most open approach and it has worked well for FreeBSD, for example.
“Xandros need to get a UI designer.”
Maybe they do. What do WE know? Would you give away everything even before it is released? They knew that the beta would leak, and it did. So maybe they are just hiding the theme somewhere. I will wait until the official release is here. I also heard from a beta tester that they are going to address the icon issue. So maybe there is more in store.
And Win98 & 1997 were a good thing; much less bloat, IMHO.
Ye ghods, it must be a cold day in Hell today. I never thought I’d hear someone say that!
Now, where’s my 256K ROM with TOS on it? That was truly less bloat.
>Maybe they do. What do WE know?
All *I* know, is that screenshot they sent me to publish in a web site that attracted today 60,000 visitors, SUCK. That’s all *I* know. And I do not need to know anything more than that.
>Now, where’s my 256K ROM with TOS on it? That was
>truly less bloat.
256k? Bloated! Serious people lived with 192k, and real men loaded the TOS from floppies (external floppy drive, of course)!
🙂
JBQ
Eugenia: Are you saying you dont believe that linux will become mainstream without losing its “cleanlyness”? Do you consider GPL code by IBM to be dirty? Should it be something that we the users should feel bad about? Sure companies want to make money off of linux, and i think they should have the right to. But because of the nature of GPL software, they must give allthe editions they made back to the public when they want to give their binaries. If they want to add their own proprietary stuff ontop of the GPL stuff, i think its only fair to let them. They modified the public’s code, they gave back, let them have their fun.
There will always be 100% clean distros out there, for example if you give apt only free sources in your sources.list file, you have a 100% free system (says the richard stallman virtual machine).
No, I do not feel it to be dirty. I was merely replying on Darius comment who said that Linux will become as Windows is. Some corporations will try to release “dirty” products, based on linux, other corporations will be ok, like IBM and Red Hat. It is a risk I am willing to take. Not sure if all the people who do not like distros like Lindows, Xandros and Lycoris (as Darius earlier) feel the same way though.
I wonder sometimes – if the bigger Linux distributors like Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, etc. – are watching these these little outfits like Lycoris, ELX, Xandros and yes, even Lindows, to see which model works best for the desktop or what combination of good features works best. Then, when they access that, they’ll wipe them out by putting resources into that model and put out their own slick desktop distros <g>.
I for one can’t wait to get my hands on this when it comes out. However, by the looks of that screen shot I will be changing the look of some icons and the background real quick. Here is to hoping Xandros realizes how crappy those icons look and hire some professional graphic artists before the final release. Seeing that screenshot on the back of a box isn’t going to sell it, that is for damn sure.
“Eugenia: Are you saying you dont believe that linux will become mainstream without losing its “cleanlyness”?”
I can’t speak for Eugenia, but that is EXACTLY what I’m saying.
“Do you consider GPL code by IBM to be dirty?”
In the realm of the desktop, GPL code from IBM don’t really mean shit for two reasons:
1) IBM isn’t a major mover/shaker in the Win32 desktop application market and
2) Linux hasn’t caught on enough to get the attention of the big boys. And by that, I mean the likes of Roxio, Musicmatch, AOL, th guys that make Kazaa & Bearshare, etc. But once that happens, then you’re going to find out pretty quickly how much ‘clean’ code there is floating around. You think Joe User is going to use the free OSS office suite when the next Commercial New MS Office comes free with his computer & Linux distro? Hell, their not using it now, why would they then?
If/when Linux ever does become the dominant desktop OS, there’ll esentially be two kinds of distros:
1) The ‘clean Debian’ kind with .04% of the desktop market, being developed by the OSS community and leading the ‘revolution’ against …
2) The bloated, idiot-proof (INERT YOUR MOST HATED CORPORATION HERE)-Linux variety with 99.6% of the desktop market.
Why would everybody flock to the corporate version? Because only a corporation who seriously puts its weight behind Linux will have the resources to send (ie ‘idiot-proof’) Linux into the mainstream. Once they’ve got enough foundation laid out so that they can stop donating back to the GPL and use what they’ve created as a canvas to put their own proprietary hooks into the OS, they will. Why? Because corporations don’t give two shits about open source or ‘the revolution’ – they care about one thing, and I’ll give you one gue$$ as to what that is.
So once the corporation gets some decent apps ported (and don’t think for a minute they’re going to waste their time porting to the ‘clean Debian’ version – there’s no money in that), it’s going to start attracting people. And with people comes more corporations. And with more corporations come almost ZERO free software, more bloat, more spyware, and more security holes.
So, I’ll say it again .. you cannot, and I repeat .. CANNOT have a ‘free’ and ‘open’ desktop OS dominating the marketshare – The Corporation is simply not going to let that happen.
You think this isn’t the case? Just look at the WWW as an example. What once was a goldmine of information with literally ZERO ads, shared only by a small percentage of the population, has exploded into a cesspool of banners, pop-ups, useless frills and stupid gimmicks. Yeah, it’s gotten a few really cool things along the way, but now it’s much too commercialized for its own good, and in many ways, was better the way it used to be. And Linux will end up being the same way – just as Windows is now.
And to those of you who think that Red Hat and Lindows are going to be saviors of the world …
Take a good godd**n look at Red Hat and you will see that it’s only Microsoft in a different suit, with much less power. And Lindows? As someone else already said, they (supposedly, I haven’t seen it) got an EULA that would make Bill Gates proud.
And why would anyone complain about the C drive icon?
Because it is pointing towards /home/user. On Windows, it points to the first hard drive partition on the first hard disk. So on Xandros, C: is different for each user, that’s not the same with Windows. The best thing for /home/user is My Documents.
Besides, Microsoft lately with release after release had tried to cover up the C:, D: etc. in Windows (and does that very successfully on Windows XP I might add), why Xandros want to implement something that even Microsoft admits that confuses users. Beats me.
That is what windows users need.
If Windows users see something that is close to a Windows clone, they would use it like they use Windows, and would have a bad experience. Why? Because it ISN’T a good Windows clone. If Windows users can go through huge UI changes with the Win 3.1 to Win 95 transition, and again now with Windows XP – why must something that act the same way as Windows should help them? Beats me too.
Windows users need something they can do their work on. They would move in hordes if they found out they are more productive on Linux. But there is no reason why the would move to Linux if it is just a cheap clone, it doesn’t have anything special over Windows except “being free from the evil empire”.
Have you checked the Linux kernel, KDE source code lately?
Yes, they contributed back into the community. What Darius said is those who don’t contribute back into the community.
Companies like Lycoris and Xandros will give back their changes they did to the GPL programs they modified.
If they are like Corel, they would tie NDAs all over it, making it close to impossible for the community to use their modified code.
Lycoris contributes all code back to the community under the GPL, except its icons and logo. This is to protect its distinct identity, and is no different from Red Hat not allowing abuse of its trademarks (see http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/guidelines.html for more info).
How can there be so many halfwits posting against a distro that hasn’t even been officially released?
Beats me. For some people though, they’re still a bit suspicious after the Xandros/Lindows tie-up.
Xandros is a very good effort and the betas I have seen are better than most production releases out now.
I agree. That doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to winge about something; one has to keep life amusing after all 😉 Me, I’d say that from the single screenshot we’ve seen, they could have had a better first impression for $32,000,000. That doesn’t mean that it won’t, on final release, be anything other than spectacular (nor does it mean that it will be, either), but it does imply that other companies such as Red Hat and Lycoris may have a prettier UI.
Some of you out there wouldn’t know good if it was smacked up side your dense skulls.
He he he if only you knew….
Good god.. it has to be the ugliest massacre of the kde interface i have ever seen.. it’s horrible.
Lycoris contributes all code back to the community under the GPL, except its icons and logo. This is to protect its distinct identity, and is no different from Red Hat not allowing abuse of its trademarks (see http://www.redhat.com/about/corporate/trademark/guidelines.html for more info).
Lycoris is the good company. Lindows is bad (in that terms). I don’t know about Xandros.
The C: icon on the Xandros File Manager does not point to /usr or /home. It points to your Windows C: drive. I’ve just tried it and confirmed that; it opened my Win2K partition. (Yes, I’m a beta tester.)
As for the $32 millions, the original quote stated that sum was the total invested between *both* Corel and Xandros on the Corel/Xandros Linux over its lifetime. I rather suspect the lion’s share of that amount was spent by Corel during the dot com boom love affair with all things Linux. Since the dot bomb fallout, I rather doubt any company is so profligate these days.
One clear common theme in feedback to the article is that a lot of people think the icons and some of the look is lacking. That is more than fair and we definitely want to improve the look and feel to make the desktop appearance as sexy as the underlying technology.
We have a world-class team at Xandros, but one that has to date been 95% focused on technology and engineering. To that end, we are very comfortable that we have put together some very exciting technology and we are looking forward to extending the reach of Linux on the desktop.
We recognize that we need to make important growth in the company to make it more well rounded. That will include sales, marketing, and, yes, more graphics design. In the course of putting together Xandros Desktop, we have solicited several hundred beta testers for feedback. 99.9% of the feedback that we received was technology oriented: compliments, enhancements, and suggestions.
What I would appreciate is that if anyone has specific comments (e.g. I really dislike ‘this’ icon, here are three that I like better and here’s why), we would really greatly appreciate them. We make a good effort to include all constructive suggestions. This has been part of our policy and it will continue to be so.
If you have specific constructive criticism or positive feedback, we would love to hear it. You can reach the team at [email protected]
Sincerely,
Mike Bego
hey!!
sorry for deviating the topic.I always feel that linux under any circumstances shouldn’t emulate windows in looks.Why should it be ?? its not a pros to attract a customers.It needs money. At the same time, its getitng support from freelancers, big companies and governments.They why should it imitate windows in appearance and function ?? Linux is far better than windows in its function.It needs only neat GUI development and its tight integration with the application. It is as straight as that.I dont understand why even kde wants to look like windows. Like osX, it can develop new UI and become linux rather than windows-look-alike
Silly penguins, ‘NIX are for kids!
Quote – “How long do you think it will be after Linux ‘catches on’ that Bonzai Buddy, Gator, and Cydor and all of their ilk are ported from Win32?”
1 – It’s not Bonzai buddy, it’s BONZI buddy
2 – LOL -> Bonzi’s purple ape icon actually looks better than any of the icons on the xandros screenshot
3 – HELL!!, it looks better than any of the standart kde icons ;-), i think I.R Baboon would do artwork for kde
4 – Hey! maybe there’s something to learn from this…
5 – yes, that’s it, linux is the OS used in more than 99.6% of the desktops in the planet of the apes
no seriously, i like linux, but i’ve allways wondered who’s in charge of the artwork design (or not…)
Hi there;
Since you’re obviously reading these comments here are a couple.
You guys sent me a Beta 2. I’m stil waiting for the passwords to send in bug reports.
By and large I’m very pleased with Xandros. It’s by far the easiest to install and use of the distros I’ve tried.
As a general note Linux, not just Xandros, has to do more work in the graphics area. I’m using Opera right now in Windows and when I switch to the same program in Linux it looks amateurish. It feels incomplete and lacking. Every program I’ve used feels pretty much the same. Whatever is going on the the graphics department needs work.
Looking forward to Beta 3
As you didn’t provide your email or ID, I can’t have someone contact you directly.
Please send an email directly to [email protected] and we will make sure you are squared away.