Oracle and SUN Archive

Before I add 'my' two cents worth upon the current heap of Xandros reviews, let me introduce myself... rather my Linux self. I am a noobie. Perhaps not such a newbie as a newbie could be since I have been playing with and learning Linux since 'Corel Linux' (1999-2000?). Before Corel I'd purchased a copy of a 1998 Turbo Linux in a discount store and was beyond elated to find something to mess with.

Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to release midyear the second version of its Java Desktop System, featuring new tools for centralized management of client systems -- and a higher price tag. Sun released last year the debut version of the Java Desktop System (JDS), its attempt to win a share in the desktop operating system (OS) and applications market away from Microsoft Corp. The software is currently selling at a promotional price of $50 per user, per year, but the cost will rise to the product's planned selling price of $100 per user with JDS' second release, according to Peder Ulander, Sun's desktop products marketing director. MadPenguin posted a review with screenshots of JDS.

Business Linux desktop announcements are continuing to come fast and furious at LinuxWorld here, the latest coming from Xandros Inc. with its unveiling of the "Xandros Business Desktop Operating System".

"It's all well and good to call Linux mature, but one of the most painful phrases in the IT industry proves it's not. That phrase is "end-to-end," and among the major hardware players out there, it's a surprisingly taboo concept. That is, surprisingly enough, except for one vendor - Solaris worshipper Sun" says TheRegister, while Computer Associates say that "First we had the PC generation. Then the Internet generation. And now we're in the midst of the Linux generation. And it's not too soon to join."

A few weeks ago, I stubbed my toe on my old Sun Ultra 5 as it sat there lifeless and unused in my apartment. Once my primary desktop, the envy of my geek friends, and a way to woo the ladies, its glory days have long since passed. As much as I would like to let it live out its days looking sexy and taking up space, I live on the island of Manhattan, where space is a premium. Since I can't charge it rent, I decided I'd better use it or lose it. But what to use it for? What operating system would I run on it? Solaris? What about Linux? FreeBSD? NetBSD? OpenBSD? They all run on the SPARC platform, so I thought why not do a quick review.

"If we had to define Xandros 2.0 with one word, we'd pick "usable." This time around, the folks at Xandros have refined their product significantly and come up with something that makes Linux quite comfortable and easy to use, even if you're a total newbie to the OS." Read the article at ExtremeTech.

Some of the more experienced among the readers can surely configure CUPS with Samba by editing configuration files with closed eyes. This kind of exercise is useful and fun the first few times, but it can quickly become a mundane task if it has to repeated often. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a distribution that could do it near-automatically? In other words, wouldn't it be nice if we just used Xandros? And despite our natural resistance to use GUI for any kind of configuration, could we still love Xandros? Robert Storey investigates.

In an apparent softening of its antipathy toward Microsoft, Sun plans to begin certifying its hardware to run the Windows operating system, a Sun executive said on Thursday.

Here's a review of the new Blade 1500 64-bit workstation by Sun Microsystems. Can the UltraSPARC survive in a world with AMD64 systems that are twice as powerful and half as expensive? There is also some commentary on Solaris 8 in the review.

I'm a windows user by nature, I've been playing around with Linux for a little while, I'm no Expert in any way but I've used quite a few distro's. The first distro I ever stuck with for any amount of time Was Xandros 1.0, which a friend provided for me. Except for the fact that it ran an old version of KDE it was perfect for me, but the old KDE crippled my work. Enter Xandros 2.0.

Long-term strategy overhaul may alter SuSE relationship: "I guess we're a little bit disappointed with SuSE's performance in the marketplace," said Schwartz. Asked if Sun would revive its own Sun Linux distribution that it discontinued last year, Schwartz said, "That's an interesting question."

Xandros does Linux sans Tux, but the big question remains: Does being fast, easy, and astonishingly elegant buy it success on a down and dirty desktop? Asks Open Magazine.

"The recent release of Xandros Linux 2.0 marks an important milestone in the company's short history. Not only is the Linux desktop market growing and changing in ways we never imagined, but the inner workings of the distro have been completely updated to more modern standards. Xandros has caught up with the rest of the Linux world and things couldn't be better. In this market, they should turn into a major contender for the Windows conversion revolution." Read MadPenguin's review here, ours is here.

This article is the fifth and final installment of my series on Debian-based commercial distros in a Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) environment. It has been a wild ride (see OSNews' archives under the "Features" menu for the previous articles of the series), and I would rather eat my weight in jelly beans than go through that again. But I think it was worth it. We will see in this article Xandros being reviewed and compared to all previous distros I used and reviewed the past 2-3 months.