Xandros Desktop 2.5 represents the fourth release of the desktop GNU/Linux distribution formerly known as Corel Linux. Xandros prides itself on superior Windows compatibility, and to maintain that reputation it includes some hard-hitting tools for making Windows programs work well on GNU/Linux. It’s a little on the expensive side as far as desktop distributions go, and it feels somewhat like a slightly watered-down version of Linspire, but Xandros 2.5 Business Edition definitely has its advantages.
Xandros Desktop 2.5 Business Edition review
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I feel about the same way towards Xandros – it’s okay.
The author doesn’t see any advantage of Xandros over SuSe. One possible advantage might be package management. IMO: Debian has the best package management in the business. Of course Xandros is Debian based.
Then again, Xandros doesn’t use standard Debian repositories. I tried changing the sources.list in Xandros to debian sarge, and totally broke my system.
I didn’t care for the Xandros install. It’s easy, but it’s also inflexible. You don’t decide on the file system, or the windows manager, Xandros does that.
All JMHO.
I would just like to point out a few omissions in the article.
1) Xandros has created a customized file manager that allows for exceptionally easy browsing and use of network share points, particularly SMB points. This is by far the best browsing solution for a Windows network in a Linux distribution today. It makes it particularly easy to drop a Xandros desktop in place of a Windows one, when the servers remain Windows.
2)The business edition is setup to authenticate against a Windows Domain. If a local user account/home directory doesn’t exist on the Xandros system at the time it authenticates, one will be created. This is behavior like one expects from a Windows NT/2000/XP computer and it was a smart move for Xandros to include it. It makes it much easier to drop in a Xandros desktop into an existing Windows network because a separate authentication system need not be built.
3) Because of customizations done to the file manager, KDE, and other packages, upgrading via other apt-get repositories could indeed break Xandros specific changes. So, if you don’t mind possibly losing the above functionality, then by all means upgrade with apt-get.
Reading the article I generally felt that the author didn’t “get” the unique value-add Xandros has given their distribution. Instead, it was evaluated as just another Linux distro, when that is not its purpose. It is meant to be a Windows system replacement, and it focuses upon different things than a pure Linux system.
Linspire is a much better distribution in terms of polish, price, and features. You can’t beat their Click and Run offering.
I use Xandros BE 2.0 and Its the perfect Linux Workstation in a world of windows 2000 boxes, everything works in the windows environment with the windows “feel” and Domain Authentication makes the whole package work like butter.
The author expected something more from a Workstation class Distro?
I would have to agree with Devilotx. Xandros is a windows replacement and as such it does a great job of communicating with Windows servers and boxes. To tie in with Realplayer, there is a debian package available for Xandros that was packaged by a Xandros User. Its available at Xandros forums.
When you do a review, you should at least spend some time focussing on what is unique to the distribution.
The author does not discuss at all improvements that Xandros makes to samba – right click share directories, windows domain authentication.
Indeed the author mentions that you can apt-get samba! Why would you do that, as it is already installed by default and heavily customised. If you don’t review these features you haven’t reviewed Xandros… What a waste of time.
The author missed the whole picture! omg..and he said Linspire is better and cheaper!!!
“Also keep in mind that any GNU/Linux operating system will tend not to break through updating and installing/uninstalling software, whereas you can count on Windows needing to be reinstalled monthly or yearly depending on how it is use”
I never heard of anyone who needed to re-install Windows XP this often. But maybe this is only my anecdotical evidence. On the opposite I had to fiddle a lot with dependencies and hell after upgrading my RH or SuSE distributions.
I remember the day I updated my RH7.1 system to RH8, which was “perfectly” tuned to my needs (including DVD player, video editing software – that was a pain to configure a few years ago) – _everything_ was broken (I only upgraded for geek’s sake). And even today Red Hat DOES NOT SUPPORT upgrading any of its products. The recommended path is to back up the data and install the OS and all applications from scratch (yes, it’s for the “enterprise” products).
It makes it particularly easy to drop a Xandros desktop in place of a Windows one, when the servers remain Windows.
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isnt that pretty much a bad idea. i mean linux on the desktop and windows for servers. why not just use linux everywhere or stick with windows.
the author is saying this
“The first and most annoying problem I had with Xandros Desktop was the fact that the KDE desktop kept crashing every time I tried to copy something to the desktop directory. Dragging a file onto the desktop caused it to stop responding; re-logging got me back to normal. I was fully updated through Xandros Networks, and the problem occurred on two drastically different machines.
”
but then he says this
“Yes, Xandros Desktop 2.5 is a pretty good GNU/Linux distribution. If it didn’t have so much competition, I’d give it higher marks”
so either something is seriously broken in Xandros or Desktop Linux is light years behind
How is it anal?
Imagine an organization with 1000 computers. 300 of those computers are for people who answer phone calls from customers, look things up on a database based upon the customer questions, and give the customers the answers. The database is an application that only runs on a Windows server, but it has a web interface, which is why these 300 users are able to switch to Xandros desktop and use Mozilla/Firefox to run the database frontend. They also use the computer for email, which is easily provided with a variety of apps, but because the company has an Exchange server, they decided to use Evolution with the Novell Connector.
The other 700 computers continue to run Windows 2000, and continue to authenticate off the Windows 2000 Domain controllers. Thankfully, because of Xandros’s setup, the 300 Xandros desktops will also be able to authenticate agains the Domain controllers. The users didn’t need to have accounts created, passwords changed, or anything special setup to create an authentication server for Linux that would then need to be maintained separately from the Domain controllers.
Linspire may have more polish and some click and run thing, but I’ll stick with one that doesn’t recomment logging on as root.
Xandros seems pretty good, except I find the look very bland – KDE is capable of so much more. I guess it’s meant to look like Windows, but I think they could have made it a bit more glitzy while retaining a similar feel.
I’ll second Staples’ posts .
Both are more informative and Xandros specific than the Jem Matzan’s article/review which failed to answer question why is this distro aimed to BUSINESS workstations.
I’m using Xandros Desktop 2.5 Bussines on my mixed ( win98/Win200/SuSE9.0/Linspire 4,5 home-lan).It was a test drive. I gave it a try before I started with Xandros installations on five computers connected to our small (19 PC) church LAN with Windows 2000 Small Business and MS Exchange server. Computers were mainly donated to the church and Xandros proc=ved to be the best method to avoid messing with Microsoft licnecing schemes.
Xandros runs well with Windows networking and integrates in that environment bautifully.
Linspire may have more polish and some click and run thing, but I’ll stick with one that doesn’t recomment logging on as root.
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stop spreading FUD. it doesnt recommend anything like that. the setup allows the creation of user accounts. i dont like linspire either but this particular bit is a myth