While UnixReview reviews Xandros 2, Xandros announced the release of OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) editions of the Xandros Desktop Operating System. These OEM editions allow the manufacturer to customize desktop wallpaper and icons, browser home page and bookmarks, and other aspects of thecustomer experience to meet their specific business objectives and regional needs. Read more for the rest of the press release.
“With Xandros it was a simple matter of adding a few sources to the
update list and installing some files and fonts to enable our users to
read and write in both Hebrew and English,” said Aaron Mehl, of
Landmehl. “Xandros enabled us to make the console bilingual as well,
simply by tweaking a few text files.”“Our customers love the Xandros Desktop because of ease of its use,”
said Chander Kant, President of LinuxCertified Inc., a leading Linux
laptop vendor. “Having Xandros pre-installed on their laptops, makes the
overall experience even better. Thanks to the OEM editions, we can
seamlessly fine tune our laptops to the user requirements.”OEM customization can be as simple as selecting a regional setting or as
elaborate as Element Computer’s substitution of the Firefox browser and
a custom Parchment icon theme for their ION® laptops. “After testing,
trying, and working with top Linux products, it became clear that only
Xandros could provide the basis for the customer experience we were
after,” stated Mike Hjorleiffsson, President of Element Computer.“We are seeing an upsurge in demand for Linux Desktop PCs, especially
among sophisticated laptop users looking for a secure, stable
environment free of Windows viruses,” said Dr. Frederick H. Berenstein,
Xandros Chairman and CTO. “With the new OEM versions of Xandros Desktop
OS, our partners can enhance the customer experience and put their own
stamp on the product.”OEM editions of the Xandros Desktop OS provide all the benefits of the
award-winning commercial releases, including clean, well-structured
menus that invite users to get right to work and make it easy to find
their favorite programs. The office suite provides compatibility with
Microsoft features and files, and the Xandros File Manager makes it easy
to drag and drop files, manage folders and archives, access local
partitions, share network resources, set up printers, and perform
numerous other tasks. The OEM edition of the Xandros Business Desktop OS
also provides server-accessed network connections through authentication
against Windows Primary Domain Controllers and Active Directory servers.Systems builders can assure customer satisfaction and first-time ease of
use by configuring regional settings for language, units of measure,
paper size, and keyboard. Branding can be enhanced by customizing in the
login dialog, the first boot wizard, the desktop wallpaper and icons,
and the web browser home page and bookmarks.As a service to manufactures, Xandros can also provide customized OEM
builds, fully tested for quality assurance. To increase marketing
opportunities and build confidence, Xandros can certify hardware and/or
software as “Designed for Xandros!”
I say great! Long live Xandros! Xandros is one, if not the best, linux distro available today. Cutting edge, no, but it is ready to go out of the box and just works like no linux disro I’ve ever tried before. I hope this venture works for them.
No trolling intended, but with almost all distributions it has been possible to customize these kind of things. And most other distributions have been freely available over the internet. For instance, with Slackware you can just add an extra package with customizations, same story for Debian. It would be sad to see a closed distribution like Xandros used by computer vendors. Yes, GNU/Linux would take hold of the desktop, but not with much more freedom (as in speech) than Windows offers.
Yup, but who to turn to when a company has problems with Slack or Debian on the machines they sell?
Xandros is fundamentally different from the ones you named, since they also offer support.
I’m using the OCD version, it works great after I figured out how to replace the limited burner speed version of the included burning software with the full version using the xandros network program that comes with Xandros. all I had to do was turn the view to expert mode, and then I did a search for Xandros and when I looked thru the packages I noticed 2 with almost the exact same name. One of the two packages had -OC on the end of it and the other didn’t. The one with the OC was installed and the other one wasn’t. I clicked the install link for the version of the file that wasn’t installed and to my suprise it worked and I now I can burn at full speed with my Cd burner.
Out of the 4 versions, which version is this guy reviewing? I have no idea, does anyone else ?
I’d say standard, or OC, since he doesn’t mention crossover (from pro or BE) and he doesn’t mention working with star office (BE)
Thanks for the tip about replacing the burner program. It works excellently.
Why would they limit the speed at which you can burn at, when cdrecord is free software. Are they crazy?
“Thanks for the tip about replacing the burner program. It works excellently.”
No problemo.
if you have access to one of the beta copies of Xandros 2.0 or any of the other versions of xandros that come with crossover office you can install it on the OCD version. all you have to do is look thru the CD and find the crossover office DEB file(s) and use the xandros network program to install them.
Although if you already have a copy of the other versions that come with crossover office you probably won’t be using the OCD version. I don’t, but I did have a copy of Beta 2 and the crossover DEB file from it worked just fine for me.
“Why would they limit the speed at which you can burn at, when cdrecord is free software. Are they crazy?”
I agree. you can still burn at full speed using the cdrecord command from the command line, but the included graphical CD Burning program that hooks into their file manager program is limited to a maximum of 4X on the OCD version unless you use the method I described to get the full unrestricted version of this program installed. I also downloaded xcdroast and gnome toaster from the xandros unstable repository that you can turn on in the xandros network program. These were full versions and work just fine.
>Why would they limit the speed at which you can burn at, when cdrecord is free software. Are they crazy?
To enourage people to buy one of the commercial versions instead of using the free OCE obviously.
Yup, but who to turn to when a company has problems with Slack or Debian on the machines they sell
You mean the users. Most larger companies support software themselves. I’ve seldom heard anybody talking about ringing Microsoft because their software doesn’t work OK. People go to their computer vendors. And the reality is, when GNU/Linux is becomming more common-place vendors should be able to support GNU/Linux themselves.
Besides that there are many distributions, like Mandrake and SuSE which are freely downloadable/customizable, and they provide support contracts.
Don’t forget why Linux got relatively popular in, for example Asia, South-America, etc. Because Linux has been customizable since the beginning. Most local vendors, like Connectiva and TurboLinux were customized versions of other distributions (does anyone remember the installer of old TurboLinux versions), tailored to their own market.
Really, there’s nothing new. The only difference is that some companies try to make GNU/Linux propietary. That’s what kills off innovation and localization.
Xandros is fundamentally different from the ones you named, since they also offer support.
It is no problem to get support for Debian. Go look at the Progeny website (or the list of consultants).
“I’m using the OCD version, it works great after I figured out how to replace the limited burner speed version of the included burning software with the full version using the xandros network program that comes with Xandros. all I had to do was turn the view to expert mode, and then I did a search for Xandros….”
Now that you have managed to accomplish the above try paying for it so they may remain in business.
Really they should have just released the OCE without its two minor limitations; no Mozilla and slow CD burn speed. Both can be fixed with a couple downloads from Xandros Networks.
“Now that you have managed to accomplish the above try paying for it so they may remain in business.”
I plan on purchasing a copy of Xandros 2.0 a little later on my friend. I’m on a tight budget and I won’t have any extra money until the middle of next month.
I agree with the comment about them releasing the OCE version without the limited burning speed and mozilla instead of the annoying large ad banner version of opera. This is why I revealed my method of getting the full version of the burning software, not because I wanted to rip Xandros off.
I bought a lifetime membership to the Linspire Click ‘n’ Run library a while back for 100 dollars and I like Xandros 2.0 a lot better than Linspire’s current offering so I’ll definately be buying a copy of Xandros 2.0
I suppose they are aiming at newbies that wouldn’t know how to add proper CD burning support, hence forcing them to upgrade.