“Along comes Xandros 1.0. Xandros is the love child of Ming Poon, the founder of Corel Linux. Some of you may remember the old days when Corel Linux was one of the easier distributions to use, as it came bundled with Corel WordPerfect and some other niceties you just didn’t see in the other distros. Ming Poon and Xandros pick up where Corel Linux left off, and ‘kick it up to notches unknown’ (thank you, Emeril). I should also point out that Xandros is based on the Debian Linux distribution, which is known as one of the most secure and stable distros around.” Read the review at BeyondUnreal.
Xandros – Linux For The Masses
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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BUt Standard debian is just fine for me.
if I was considering a dostro for a newbie or my mom, I would pick Xandros (she has problems getting XP onher computer, a new one I built for her a year ago….it won’t copy files for some reason)
deb-man: I was considering a dostro for a newbie or my mom, I would pick Xandros (she has problems getting XP onher computer, a new one I built for her a year ago….it won’t copy files for some reason)
What is a “dostro”?
The good thing about XandrOS is that although they never claimed (as much as Lindows did) to run Windows apps, yet it seems like XandrOS runs Windows apps just as good as Lindows if not even better
Hello,
I was wondering if xandros includes all kind of binary only 3d drivers ? such as the nvidia ones, the kyro 2 ones,etc ?
do you have the option to install those one if you want ?
what about the multimédia stuff ?
does xandros deal correctly with Divx’s movies using mplayer ? what is their option with the mp3 ?
what is their cd writing software ?
what is their mp3 encoder ?
did they the choose the redhat option ?(to use only the best tool ?
I think those question are importants ….
Cheers,
Djamé
I mean, honestly, you couldn’t possibly resist Ransom Love and Ming Poon *grin*
SCNR
monty
xandros not being available as a free download hurts it I think…. i dunno. you could argue that both ways though….
i think xandros only has two advantages over lycoris:
1) better networking
2) apt-get (which we might fix soon enough through community efforts)
For simple desktop use though, on a stand alone computer that just needs web, mail, and light wordpro…I really think Lycoris is hard to beat.
How big is a default xanros install?
I bought Xandros from their store with their coupon for $79.80 and received it yesterday. It set up nvidia 3d drivers by default so my GeForce 4 worked perfectly off the bat.
It set up dvd and cdrw with ide-scsi to work. It set up autofs for the floppy and cdrom/dvdrom DivX,SVCD,VCD worked with Xine
I upgraded with their Xandros update tool which is like synaptic, but cleaner look not as functional. So i added synaptic from unstable and xine-ui xinedvdnav with the css.
XMMS for mp3 is on there called mp3player it uses XCRoast as default CD Software, but I apt-get CDBakeOven. They show up in the menu cleaner
If you have questions about the distro I will try to answer them. I’m not a linux power user so you may have to explain some of the stuff.
How impressed are you with this distro?
I am seriously thinking about transitioning my wife to Xandros with Office 2000 and Publisher 2002. What do you think my chances are of this working? I have seen the success by others and I am stoked…
I have to say of ALL the distros I have seen and used over the past 7 years I am most impressed with the reviews this one has. I am currently reviewing Lycoris on my laptop and not totally happy. I have RH 8.0 running my web server and am very pleased with that. The UI on RH8 is much better than it has been but it is still a long way from being an XP replacement.
Sorry for rambling… last question…
Do you know of ANY Linux app that can accomplish the same things that Windows Publisher 2002 deluxe does?
Thank you,
Greatoak
I am very happy with this distro it set up all the things I had to go back and setup in debian. It installed easily it didn’t ask a thing about my hardware. It found all that was supported. Easy to use like Mandrake, but more stable not bloated, and you can apt-get what you need. The mount points are a little strange. I had to fix a symbolic link for a dev for xine to work properly. since dvd and cdrom both pointed to the same drive. I pointed them correctly to my dvd and cddrw.
I think this the best distro I have tried.
RedHat 5.1,7.2, Mandrake 5.3-8.2, Suse 8.0, Debain Woody, Caldera. Publisher might be supported by the Wine Office plugin.
I was a beta tester for Xandros. Yesterday we recieved our copy of the new 1.0 release. Last night I installed it on my sons computer which had been running Mandrake 8.2. Mandrake 8.2 never did work properly on his system. It couldn’t ID the sound card, numerous problems with Supermount and on and on. My son basically lost interest in using Mandrake because it just didn’t work worth a crap. He started using his Win98 partition more because of the problems with Mandrake.
Well i’m happy to say that there were zero problems with Xandros. All devices including his NVidia GFroce2 card worked correctly right off the bat. (using the NVidia 3d driver) Total time start to finish for working system was 25 minutes. (its an older slower system) and that was everything working logging into our home network, on the internet and all devices working.
Xandros is miles ahead of most other distributions out there and points the way where those other distributions need to follow.
I know there is no Gnome for Xandros, but is Evolution available for install through the Xandros Update or Xandros Network thing?
Evolution was listed on Xandros Update and works smoothly.
Evolution 1.05, but you can always add to your sources.list just like Debian and get what you want.
Flash and Java was even already setup. Dual Monitor support and it detected my monitor with all the correct settings.
Thanks for the info on Evolution! two more questions, and you may not be able to answer: how does Xandros work with TV capture cards? Are the cards configured correctly? What TV and/or video capture stuff is there, like xawtv, mplayer, etc.?
Second: how about wifi support? Specifically, anyone have info on orinoco or linksys cards working?
Overall, sounds promising to me.
The TV Card was detected and setup. I use an old wintv card which uses the bttv modules and msp3400. I haven’t tested to see since I haven’t used it in ages. I didn’t see a tv program listed, but the hardware was setup so I guess you’ll have to apt-get xawtv. Mplayer is not installed by default it installs noatun.
Wifi is supported if linux supports the hardware and it has modules in kernel 2.4.19 it has a wizard to set it up.
After reading all the favourable comments about Xandros, I have to admit that I am tempted to try it, but first I would like to know if it can run MS Office 97 or is it limited to Office 2000? Thanks. Too bad it cannot run Access DB.
What do you dislike about Xandros? What could be improved? What should be dropped? Thanks for the info! Xandros sounds like it’s a real Windows killer…
I bought it becasue I wanted to support yet another Linux Distro that is actually trying to do something. I am very impressed and pleased.
I do have some problems. My built in sound module on my Intel board was detected but not laoded. My two Realtek cards were detected and configured during installation, but not loaded afterwards. However, I found out today that after putting a 3Com Boomerang NIC with the Realtek works perfectly. All the setting I had configured for the 2 Realtek NICs now work with the one Realtek and 3Com card. PPP doesn’t connect.
The modem detection and ISP account setup was too simple (that is a good thing) but I still don’t connect even though it dials and so on. Yes, I have checked the password a million times.
But all in all, I am very impress and spreading the word. Oh, the Filie Manager (with Windows and NFS amoung other things) is well worth it.
The CrossOver Office support couldn’t be easier. Application installation starts automatically as expected in Windows on CD insert and so does my music CDs.
This is really worth it. Support if you can afford to. If version 1.0 is so promising, what will is in store for version 2?
.v
Office 97 is supported by codeweavers the makers of the Crossover Office wine that is inlcuded in Xandros
My biggest gripe with most of the Linux distros I’ve tried is that they all seem sluggish (running apps, opening folders, etc…) when compared to Windows.
How does Xandros compare?
I haven’t noticed being slow or sluggish it seems to be running quite smoothly too me. I remember mandrake ran quite sluggishly due to the bloat of all the uneccessary processes it run by default.
I find that all linux distros are slow to start apps when using either kde or gnome. in alot of apps, like IE, the code is already preloaded in memory making it seem like it starts faster. although yes, it is still annoying….
however, while they start slower, you can run more apps and do more things at the same time do to much better memory handling.
I see they updated their “Support” section on the website to include a FAQ, but I still can’t find a list of included packages. Anyone know where of a list?
Is there an easy way to install .ttf fonts?
Greatoak wrote:
> Do you know of ANY Linux app that can accomplish the same
> things that Windows Publisher 2002 deluxe does?
The closest thing I can think of is Kword.Its interface is vaguely Pagemakerish and doesn’t have a whopping amount of “wizards”. But in my limited experience it’s fairly effective at doing more complicated layouts than would be practical in a word-a-like like Abiword.
There are lots of other options for layout and typesetting but they may not be practical right off or for the tasks you have in mind. An introductory overview of these might make for a good article here or on Kuro5hin.
Is there any mechanism within Xandros to upgrade to the newest version of Crossover Office (1.3.1) ?
You can get the list of more important packages at
<a href=”http://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=xandros“>http:….
Sorry, the hyperlink didn’t work out 🙂 Copy and paste might:
http://www.distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=xandros
It sets up ttf for you when you uses crossover office or crossover plugin and click on the fonts to add.
I meant installing ttf separately from the office ones. Say I’ve got some ttf fonts that I’ve accumulated over the years. Is there an easy way to install them? At the very least, is there a kfontinstaller?
I’m sold. I am going to get it and give it a whirl.
I hope you can elaborate on the “slight” changes you had to make. (Xine, Debian updater change, etc). Aside from that I am very HOPEFUL.
I did not fully explain my problems with previous distros. Most work very well on my workstation and my server… BUT and this is a big BUT… I have a Toshiba Satellite 4090XDVD laptop that I have YET to get ANYTHING other than RH8 to work on. Well, XP works but I am not going to say more about that here.
Suffice it to say… I feel I have the laptop from hell for Linux distros and if this works… I will praise the God and Goddess for a happy laptop free of XP and tell all those I know that care what a great distro Xandros is. 
I actually have an older version of Corel Linux that I tried.
So, I will try it when I get it in the mail.
How do you cross your fingers with ASCII?
:)Greatoak
Can we expect an OSnews review of Xandros from you? I would be interested to see your thoguhrts about it, it clearly has thee asiest to use File Manager and networking, too abd it’s using an antique KDE though.
Is some sort of comparison of the various Debian-based distros designed to be easier to use/install. The ones I know of include(correct me if I’m wrong on any of these, I’m doing it from memory – it’s the only one that has a current version available for free): Lindows, Xandros, Libranet, Knoppix (which I’ve actually played with, but haven’t tried installing it to disk yet).
It seems relevant to me – I’d like to know (and I would think others would want to know as well), How they compare for ease of use, configuration, hardware support, general interface, etc.
BTW, is it known how far off the Debian desktop distro is? I realize it was just announced recently, but it’s something I’m really looking forward to.
Russ
I changed the symbolic link from
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 fo dvd and cdrom to
ln -s /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 dvd
ln -s /dev/cdroms/cdrom1 cdrom
those were linked to the scsi in
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target1/lun0
I then changed the sources.list which Xandros update uses which is a gui just like synaptic to apt-get and pulled the debian xine to get the css and dvdnav
She said in a earlier thread that she won’t. I guess she want to keep some friendships over there at Xandros.