Hi folks, I was a beta tester for Xandros Desktop Linux, which is now shipping (http://www.xandros.com) for US$99 (but see LUG discount offer below). Since I'm no longer under a NDA, I though I might post a quick commentary about it, based upon Release Candidate 4 (the last one prior to going gold). There is lots to like about Xandros: 1) very simple & easy install. Being based upon the unreleased Corel Linux 3, the installer is an enhanced version of the Corel installer. If one is doing a simple install, i.e. not needing to dick around with assigning partitions, darn near anyone can install Xandros. 2) capability to non-destructively resize NTFS & VFAT partitions during the install. I don't know for sure but I speculate that Xandros must have licensed some technology from Partition Magic. So even if you do have to dick around with partitons, say because you have only a single hard drive and the machine came with Win XP or 2K installed, spanning that entire drive, you can easily and safely create room for installing Xandros. Naturally, there must be sufficient unused space within the Win XP/2K to shrink its partition. However, it works, I've tried it. No other distribution of which I'm aware has this capability. This alone is a major feature unique to Xandros. 3) kickass hardware detection routines. No intervention is required, if linux supports your hardware (except for ISA) as of kernel 2.4.19, it'll be detected and installed. 4) very good autoconfiguration, especially for X. There is no need for a user to have anything to do with X configuration. Xandros uses XFree 4.2 and auto-configures it appropriately for your hardware. I have an Nvidia GeForce 2 Ti card and Xandros uses Nvidia's own drivers for this card, meaning that GLX and DRI (i.e. support for 3d gaming) was set up automatically. Also, this detection/configuration is done every time X is run, so that changing your hardware doesn't require manual reconfiguration. This does slow down the startup of X, so you can turn it off. 5) Easy to set video parameters. If you don't like what Xandros auto-configures for your hardware (which will be appropriate for the vast majority of users), they have an excellent manual config tool within their modified KDE Control Centre (Xandros is KDE based, doesn't include GNOME). This tool allows you to set the video parameters as you wish, including refresh rate (which isn't easy to change in most other distros) to your desired settings. 6) Switch user facility. Linux is designed from the ground up to be a multi-user system. Xandros extends that to X, with its Switch User utility. Say you're logged in and doing stuff. Your significant other comes ands says that s/he needs to use the machine. Click on Switch User and up comes a new login screen where she can log in and have her own X session, independent of yours. Everything that you were doing is still running and it is easy to switch back to your session and _vice versa_ The kids can have their own session, too. :-) This will be a major convenience (and security problem, too) for the home user where Mom, Dad and the kids all use the same machine. Mind you, each session can be password protected. There are other uses for multiple independent X sessions, too, in a single user machine. 7) Excellent network client. The Xandros file manager automatically detects networked Windows and Linux/Unix (NFS) machines and gives the user the opportunity to mount shares from either type into the file system. Thus in a corporate, governmental, educational or SOHO setting, a Xandros box can be simply dropped into a pre-existing Windows or Linux/Unix network and things just work. The converse is true as well, within the file manager it is easy to set up Windows or NFS shares for export to the rest of the network. When mounting these shares, there is an option to have them auto-mounted upon login. Unfortunately, there isn't an option yet (though I have suggested to the development team that one be implemented) that if auto-mounting of an NFS share is requested, that it be done from /etc/fstab. Since the NFS share mounting in the first place requires root authentication, there is no breach of security policy. Mounting of Windows shares into your home directory doesn't require root authentication. 8) Crossover Office and Plugin is integrated. Codeweavers products have been licensed by Xandros and integrated into the system to a degree not seen in other systems. Firstly, this means that the user doesn't have to install Crossover by him or herself. And secondly, things work more transparently. Put in a MS Office CD (Office 97 or 2K, not XP yet). Autorun works! The install box pops up and you install Office just as you would in Windows. Afterwards, the various Office programs are automatically integrated to your KDE menu structure. Click on the KDE Start icon on the panel and you can launch MS Word etc. from there. No fuss or muss. While not all Windows apps are supported, many are including Quicken. Unfortunately, Photoshop isn't supported yet, I don't believe. This "pop in a CD and install" for Windows apps is a convenience unique to Xandros. However, the license for Crossover doesn't include support from Codeweavers; if needed, it is available in the aftermarket from Codeweavers specifically for Xandros users. 9) Well setup system with good default choices for apps. Although based upon KDE, Xandros has a simplified menu structure without the bewildering varity of choices that other systems often provide. Many of the menu entries are listed by their functionality, rather than name. For instance, you don't have to wonder what the obscurely named xine does. Instead you click on Video Player. Similarly for things like instant messaging; you click on entries labelled AOL, MSN, ICQ, IRC or Yahoo Messenger instead of program names. Pretty much all the basic software needs are met in the default install; Open Office is the office software provided. Mozilla is the default web browser and Mozilla Mail is the default mail/news client. 10) Auto-detection of new systems and auto-incorporation into the boot system (customised LILO). If you install a new OS (i.e. after Xandros is installed and running) and don't overwrite the boot sector such that Xandros still owns it, Xandros will detect the new system and automatically set it up in its boot menu. I've not tried it with Windows but it works for me for Mandrake, Red Hat and Debian. If you install Xandros onto a Windows machine, dual-boot is set-up automatically 11) Dynamic integration of hot-plug USB devices into the file system. Plug in a USB camera or Compact Flash card and shortly thereafter that filesystem is available via the Xandros File Manager. Unplug the device and it's automatically unmounted and removed from the file manager. 12) Corel Wordperfect Office 2000 for Linux is supported. Under Xandros Desktop Linux, installation and setup of Corel Wordperfect Office 2000 for Linux is as easy as it was under Corel Linux itself, even though Xandros is using glibc 2.2.5. The CorelDRAW for Linux suite also installs and runs well; unfortunately, the necessary upgrading of WPO2K4L to use the version of Fonttastic that CorelDRAW installed fails and has to be done manually. There are lots of other nice finishing touches to Xandros and it is going to be a major entry into the aforementioned corporate, governmental, educational and SOHO markets. It is also an excellent choice for the unsophisticated home user who simply wants things to work, to be productive and not wanting to tinker around with the system. But it is not a system for inveterate tinkerers or hobbyist users who want the latest and greatest. It is based upon Debian woody (kernel 2.4.19, glibc 2.2.5, XFree 4.2) and has all the great package management tools that Debian includes (plus its own networked graphical software management system). However it is based upon KDE 2.2.2 and, just like Corel Linux before it, you can't upgrade KDE without the removal of much of the Xandros specific stuff, in effect turning the system into a Debian Woody system. (I'm well aware that many of you would see this as a plus, not a problem. :-) Nor is it a system for free software purists. Xandros includes closed-source proprietary code (eg. the Nvidia drivers) and hasn't said how its own code will be licensed. About the only things I dislike about Xandros are the KDE 2.2.2 lock-in and lack of a font control utility. Personally, I hope that they do really well. An excellent and inexpensive (US$99) Linux desktop system with the capability of seamlessly running MS Office should keep Ol' Baldy and Billy-boy awake at nights. :-) Feel free to email me with any questions you might have about Xandros Desktop Linux If you are a member of a Linux Users Group, such as VanLUG or FVLUG, Xandros is going to have a promotional discount for LUG members announced next week. -- Cheers, Robert Fargher, Ph.D. Coast Mountain Linux Consulting _______________________________________________ FVLUG mailing list FVLUG@netmaster.ca https://netmaster.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fvlug