On the day after Thanksgiving, Xandros will be giving business Linux users an early holiday present: Xandros Desktop Professional version 4.0. This new version of this well-regarded Debian-based desktop is designed to work in both Linux- and Windows-based office networks. It comes ready for use on NT domain, Active Directory, and Linux/Unix NIS-based LANs. This new version also comes with a fancy 3D effect desktop. Expect a review here on OSNews soon.
It comes ready for use on NT domain, AD (Active Directory), and Linux/Unix NIS (Network Information Service)-based LANs.
I feel like I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but can we stop worrying about NIS and start using Kerberos/LDAP on our Linux networks? It’s the 21st century for crying out loud!
xDMS looks incredibly useful though.
I’ve never seen anyone use Xandros, and they’re definitely a for-profit company, and they’ve been around for quite a while, so they must have some sort of income. Does anyone know if they’re actually selling their Linux distro to anyone? Or are they still living off VC money?
Anyone seen any Xandros deployments anywhere?
I’ve purchased every version since 1.0. It’s not as slick looking as Ubuntu but it’s always worked very well for me.
Slightly off topic then, but why would you buy a distro like Xandros when Ubuntu is around for free… I’ve tried Ubuntu and it does seem very intuitive, polished and working well.
?
Just thinking the same as the other reader – what does Xandros live off?
Cheers,
Daniel
It’s been my experience that Xandros is an excellent distribution for users that are switching from Windows, which is their main target.
The problem is, much like Windows, when you start to add software that is outside of their quite limited repositories, it tends to break things.
I would like them a lot more if they supported a Gnome install as well as KDE, they were more compatible with Debian main, and it didn’t cost so much
RE: How are they still around?
Yes, Xandros Desktop is still alive and kickin’ !
I’m using Xandros 2 Business Edition as well as Xandros Desktop 3 Open Circulation Edition on my four computers at home and at work since they perfectly fit into our Windows 2000 Small Business Server LAN ( Active Directory and PD at work ) and my mixed home network ( Windows 2000 Professional, Fedora 5, PSLinuxOS 0,92 and PSDBSD 1.2).
Also I moved couple other computers from MS to Xandros ( mainly Pentium II and Petium III machines with Windows 98/ME) donated to church where I work as a building superintendent. Computers are normal workstations used for desktop publishing, browsing WEB, church kiosk computer/info center and very soon I’m gonna replace Mandrake 9.2 from Dell P III we’re using as our church Children’s Center WEB server.
And to be quite honest *buntu distros are just overkill for systems based on Pentium II CPU and as you know there are many such machines around.
We’re now in process of upgrading our 20 PC LAN with
Xandros Server for our messaging, colaboration, WEB/FTP server, printer sharing and file storage.
Is the OC edition also set up for easy joining a Win Server 2003 domain with AD, or does that only come with the Biz edition?
AFAIK Xandros comes with the binary NVidia and ATI drivers.
Why have the social misfits that nearly had Kororaa shutdown not turned their attention to Xandros?
AFAIK Xandros comes with the binary NVidia and ATI drivers.
Why have the social misfits that nearly had Kororaa shutdown not turned their attention to Xandros?
Yes, so does Linspire, Freespire, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Mint Linux, Vector Linux, and many more.. so I wonder if they wonder too..
I think the issue preventing distribution of non-gpl binary modules is pre-linking/building them into the kernel and installing the kernel as such. If they are distributed seperately then installed on the user’s system, *then* linked/modprobed.. I think that’s ok AFAIK. (In other words, it’s logically equivalent to the user obtaining the package himself and installing it).
Edited 2006-11-24 19:34
/* Xandros Desktop Professional pricing is not yet known. Its price is believed to be in line with the last business edition, which started at $99.99 per desktop.*/
no thanks, i think it’s to much, for $40 dollars more i can get windows xp pro OEM, with a free windows vista upgrade coupon.
Edited 2006-11-24 09:00
No, Xandros OCE cannot join Windows Active Directory and primary domain networks but it runs well withing workgroup networks.
http://www.xandros.com/products/home/home_edition/specs.html
http://www.xandros.com/products/business/desktop/dsk_bus_top10reaso…
OCE is more like scale-down version Xandros Desktop DeLuxe/Premium/Business Ed and something that should be considered Xandros free giveaway to Linux community.
Some other features in OCE are stripped or crippled
( Konqueror built-in CD burner will run only at 2X speed,read-only access to NTFS partitions, missing popular applications e.g. AmaroK, K-Office, Quanta Plus WEB development, Adobe Reader 7 etc.)
You may ask why would anybody wish to have OCE installed on their systems. I don’t know for others but
I’m using it on my home-LAN as sort of NAS ( network attached storage) to keep backup copies of all my documents, mp3 and ogg music files, photos etc. and as printer server.
I’m in Xan 3.0 right now and have 4.0 Premium sleeping on another box. I like the stability, features, easy install, and support (although only used once for what turned out to be an ISP issue).
Their target market is currently Win 98 converts. The 4.0 release is reportedly doing quite well and they are moving strongly into the server market in the US and internationally.
They are expanding the XN repository. I’m glad Ubuntu is kicking ass since Xandros has a history of conservative upgrades and feature additions and Ubuntu is lighting a fire under them and every other distro that plans to stay relevant.
For all the socialist FSF fundamentalists out there–isn’t free market competition a wonderful thing??
“support of not domain and AD authentication, but logon scripts, and group policy profiles, as well. The distribution also supports writing to Microsoft’s NTFS partitions, and integration with Microsoft Exchange email and groupware”
I know of another system that can do the same pretty well, it is call Windows!
Seriously, I do not get the point about this Business Edition …
The point is that if you have a Windows server network but tired of Viruses, Spyware and high prices then come to us and we give you a lot of the same features, stable Linux platform, and Active directory support (Which most versions of Linux don’t provide out the box)
I really like their server, it’s the first version so it needs a little work, but you can give it to almost anyone who is used to working with Windows 2003 and it can be a pretty good replacement.