The latest blast of great distros continues with Xandros Desktop. Xandros is another debian based distro, geared toward the desktop and promising good Windows compatibility. Our initial impression of Xandros is very positive. It lives up to a lot of its potential, with a few drawbacks. Read the review.
Xandros Desktop 1.0: Another Winning Debian Distro
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
The author (and my online friend
seems to lose a bit the point regarding Xandros and Gnome. He lists this as the No1 problem of Xandros, but I can’t agree on this.
Xandros, as Lycoris and Lindows too, are _not_ the “traditional” Linux distro were they install by defaulty 4-6 DEs or window managers. The whole point of these “desktop-oriented” distros is to only include and support a single DE (but with the full ability to run GTK+ apps).
Simplicity and consistency is imperative for these distros. They had to make a choice, and they chose KDE for its resemblance to Windows (as this is the market these companies are aiming for). Not including Gnome (or any other DE/wm for that matter) it is very understandable and logical for these kinds of distros.
I do not expect any of these three companies to include other DEs/wms in the future.
I’ve been playing around with some Linux PPC distributions on an old Mac I picked up, and I’m very unhappy with the quality of them. It looks like some of these modern x86 Desktop Linux distros are really starting to shine. Xandros seems particularly appealing to me. I’ll see if I can find a PC to put it on.
Jared
Does anyone know how the Fonts look on Xandros out of the box?
Check default shots here:
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1762
They are not AA, it is just the plain Helvetica font.
The mailman deliverd Xandros today and i must say
for now..its the best i have seen for a new user.
I think the price of $99 is very good but i do dislike the
license a bit.
But you can turn on AA, right? And doesn’t Debian have msttffont package available in apt?
The more I think about these non-traditional distros, I think I like Xandros a lot. It has a lot to offer and it seems pretty darn full-featured.
Has anyone tried the KDE3 supplementary CD?
Looking pretty good…
🙂
A thing that impressived me is with Nvidia driver. That’s what it’s supposed to be on each Linux distros and *BSDs. If Xandros, Windows, MacOS X and other can do then the rest Linux distro can do it too.
With this kind of review will open many of users’ eyes!
No, I did the preview. I think Nicholas Heron, a contributing writer here, is to write a review. But I have no idea if and when it will be published.
now that is cool … a linux desktop running Tribes 2. Personally, the $99 US (ala $200) price tag is very off putting. Yes it comes with Office, but am I going to pay $200 just to test something out ?!? I’d prefer to download it for free and play with it for free and if I need support (both customer and developer), then I have to pay.
So according to this article, it is better to ship no GNOME at all than to ship a pretty much default, uncustomized GNOME as SuSE did. I find that remark incredibly strange. In both cases, you’ll end up having to configure it to make it really fit in the with the system, they say so themselves in the article. Yet SuSE saving you the download and also including a whole chapter for GNOME in their User’s Guide (something I’m sure the guy “forgot” to mention in the flamebait editorial about GNOME and SuSE) is somehow worse.
I can’t help but think that the people at ExtremeTech have some agenda against SuSE. I sure as hell can’t think of why they would have such a thing, but what with the earlier editorial that they even graceously linked to in the review and now this, it’s obvious something is wrong.
One thing I wonder about these Debian-based distros is whether they can serve as a way to get Debian easily installed by shelling out some cash. If you add Debian unstable (or testing, etc) lines to /etc/apt/sources.list and fire off a few sweeping commands (apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade), would you wind up with a straight Debian system? I suspect that apt wouldn’t touch any Xandros-specific packages due to safety precautions. It seems to me that someone who tries Xandros and likes Linux overall could move to “real” Debian pretty easily in this way. It might require stripping the system down to a bare-bones (console) state and then using apt to reinstall whatever you want.
Of course, Xandros’ target audience probably wouldn’t dream of doing this, but there probably are a few who will want to connect with their inner geek and join the Debian crowd.
>I can’t help but think that the people at ExtremeTech have some agenda against SuSE.
No, they have no agenda. I wish people stop critisizing editors based on some things they say overtime. Each week, I am accused of “supporting” a (different each time) OS.
Jim likes SuSE a lot. But he also likes Gnome, a lot. That creates a bitterness to him, I would guess, seeing SuSE not supporting Gnome more. And he writes about it.
I just went to their website and saw a message: “Xandros is not currently able to keep up with incoming orders. However, if you order today, your product will ship by: Wednesday, Oct 30.”
I guess they have created quite a bit of interest.
Can any of you who have bought Xandros send me the package list of software and versions included in Xandros 1.0? I’ve been trying to get hold of it for a week without any success at all. Xandros doesn’t bother to reply to emails, so my only option is to ask the Linux community to help.
The output of ‘find . -name *.deb’ from the installation CD is all I need.
I’d appreciate your help — thanks very much 🙂
Ladislav Bodnar
http://www.distrowatch.com
It’s all good but I don’t like the fact that they restored the “KDE default look” I believe they should have kept the Windows 98 look and feel because it’s more consistent with OpenOffice and the Windows programs XandrOS is capable of running.
>No, they have no agenda. I wish people stop critisizing editors based on some things they say overtime. Each week, I am accused of “supporting” a (different each time) OS.
ah, the irony… Eugenia, editor of OSnews, is accused of “supporting” an OS… isn’t she, in fact, supporting ALL OSes???
just an observation 🙂
I have the impression it’s the same people who bought RedHat 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0. And perhaps Lindows as well.
I understand you want people to understand the positives about all OS’s out there. But really I wouldn’t give credit to companies like this who work to make Linux look like Windows, I mean they don’t really innovate, the improvise.
Us nerds should strive to see more innovation in Open Source software or it will die out, people lose interest of things that aren’t innovative, it’s the reason why we are looking for alternatives to windows, because it’s always been there done that.
All the old greats, (I won’t name them cause I don’t want to get flamed for forgetting one) were innovative and they were interesting, installing a Windows look a like Linux isn’t innovative, we all know that KDE is themeable and that you can change source code to differ features.
I’m trying hard not to troll, it just seems unfair that all the original innovaters somehow lose out to people who can clone and present their idea better, but can’t integrate it as well.
How does Xandros compare to distros like ELX Linux, Lycoris, and Lindows?
Since somebody asked:
apt-get install msttcorefonts
Jim likes SuSE a lot. But he also likes Gnome, a lot. That creates a bitterness to him, I would guess, seeing SuSE not supporting Gnome more.
And how is not including GNOME at all supporting it more, as Xandros obviously pleases him better in that regard? That’s what my main gripe is here. These two distributions are definitely not being compared on even terms, if such weird logic enters the picture.
Now, I do confess to being a very devoted SuSE fanatic, but no matter how objectively I try to view this, I don’t see a basis for this difference in attitude.
looking at the negatives, it looks like an editor told the writer to com eup with a few negatives so that Xandros does not get a perfect score…to me, the negatives are more like design desisions rather than problems.
I give it a 10 and plan on using my cupon to buy Xandros.
only problem I think I might have is what about Xandros 2.0? will I get things like kde 3.0 backported to X1 or will I have to pay for networks or will I have to pay for X2 to get KDE3?…I guess I am saying….do I get incremental updates for free?
Huh??
> How does Xandros compare to distros like ELX Linux, Lycoris, and Lindows?
Just read our reviews for Lycoris, Lindows and Xandros (we haven’t reviewed ELX yet).
Lycoris: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1774 and http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=806
Lindows: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1803
Xandros: http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1762
I’m awaiting my copy of Xandros and am excited by the review.
The only problem I have with Jim’s reviews are that his love of Gnome colors or shades his reviews. I know he isn’t doing it on purpose, but these distros that are KDE specific – the fact that he always brings up Gnome in them tends to obscure the intent and basis of the distro. He always has great sceenshots, which I like!
Being a small business owner I’ve found myself somewhat trapped in the Windows platform.
But… I have been keeping a serious eye on the Linux community waiting for a good point to slowly start the migration process.
-Xandros (if it keeps like this) seems to be it !!
(any moment now… I am getting psyched-up)
File manager looks decent. Probably can’t touch Directory Opus on the Win32 platform, but at least it’s pleasing to the eye
Does anyone know if XandrOS supports tv-cards? They didn’t answered my eMail…
I’m suprised. Didn’t they said, when Xandros was all new and hippie, that GNOME would be loaded for N. America customers?
Anyway, on the KMail and GIMP not as default issue, I’m not sure about KMail (never used it, never even installed it), but I don’t think GIMP is a essential desktop tool. The user interface is way to hard for the average user, and not really needed in the corporate market. If Xandros simplifies it and removes all the clutter – maybe it should be installed by default. Other than that… wasted MBs.
You really need to call a social working…. and hire a team of shrinks.
—
Anyway, Eugenia, you don’t support any OS. You just hate Linux in general (no, no, I’m kidding…. don’t bite my head off)!
Personally, I wish I could buy a license and then download this distro. Looking at the shipping cost, it is more than half of the original price of the box. Jeezz…. at times like these I wish I was in Canada…
just a comment concerning the cost of international shipping. Xandros has just put up an offer for free international shipping. I just canceled my own order (just in case) and asked for it to be reordered to take advantage of the offer.
cut and paste:
Welcome to the Xandros Store
To purchase Xandros Desktop, please click here.
To check your order status, click here.
Xandros is not currently able to keep up with incoming orders.
However, if you order today, your product will ship by: Wednesday, Oct 30.
Special Introductory Offer!
Free FedEx shipping anywhere in the world!* Save up to US$50
Is anyone else really bugged by the format that Extremetech uses in its reviews.. where all the interesting screenshots are in Javascript popups.. meaning Opera users cant use them without adjusting settings…?
I think its a bit pants, really.
All this arguing about the DE is silly and is looking in the wrong direction.
The real worth of this distribution is what’s under the hood; namely, all the patching that Xandros has done to make KDE and included applications work well, the Xandros File Manager, and their discovery & configuration routines for hardware.
As someone who is interested in the applications use & development side of OSen, and absolutely NOT interested in tweaking & configuring the OS itself more than necessary, these are big plusses. If Xandros continues this trend with their next few releases, I will likely invest in a full-time workstation running Xandros Linux.
I suspect there are quite a few others that feel the same way, although perhaps will purchase Xandros Linux now rather than later.