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xDMS Xandros Desktop Management Server Now Shipping

From:  "Xenia von Wedel" <xenia-AT-terpin.com>
To:  <lwn-AT-lwn.net>
Subject:  Product release: xDMS Xandros Desktop Management Server Now Shipping
Date:  Mon, 25 Oct 2004 20:39:18 -0700

Xandros Delivers Mass Deployment Tool for Linux Desktops in SMB to Large
Enterprises
						
NEW YORK, NY – October 24th, 2004 — Xandros, the leading developer of
easy-to-use Linux solutions, today announced the release of xDMS
(Xandros Desktop Management Server). xDMS targets any network from small
business workgroups to large enterprise communities with a powerful
remote management facility that can deploy, configure, and update
thousands of Linux desktops through an intuitive graphical interface.
Part of the Xandros business solutions designed to serve the demanding
needs of enterprises of all sizes, xDMS provides secure Linux desktop
management while reducing the demands on network administrators.

“Now that xDMS is released, we’ll begin a major rollout to plants
throughout the US of full 24 by 7 production monitoring machines. The
simplicity of xDMS deployment together with the security and stability
of the Xandros Desktop OS will drastically reduce our administrative
overhead and licensing costs,” said Troy Backus, xDMS beta tester and
Network Administrator for the Kerr Group, a leading manufacturer of
specialty plastic closures and containers to the pharmaceutical,
healthcare, and food and beverage industries. “Our beta trials of xDMS
were so successful that we already used it to deploy kiosks in our
cafeterias where plant workers can check the status of their 401k
accounts and inquire about loans without any intervention from the HR
department. The Xandros replacement is so seamless and compatible that
most users are not even aware of the change.”

“The deployment of secure, stable and virus-free Linux desktops is
expected to quadruple in the next 12 months. We’ve made the decision to
migrate a no-brainer with intuitive xDMS deployment and management tools
that even eliminate command line complexities,” said Andreas Typaldos,
Xandros CEO. “Time is just as critical to a small business with ten
desktops as it is to the multinational enterprise with a far-flung
network of thousands of clients. The savings in down time, staffing, and
licensing fees add up to a fantastic ROI.“

 100% Graphical – Goodbye Command-line 
The point-and-click graphical tools in xDMS enable departmental desktop
administrators to perform sophisticated tasks with minimal training and
technical expertise:
- Set up software repositories from multiple sources
- Manage software inventories from the xDMS console
- Establish managed groups of networked PCs
- Create custom configurations according to departmental needs
- Take snapshots of “golden PC” configurations
- Perform remote, unattended OS installs and updates
- Schedule remote program execution
- View task schedules and the progress of running tasks
- Manage and change system configurations from a central location

xDMS is built to high standards for corporate security: the xDMS
Repository Builder is kept behind a corporate firewall, not on a remote
server, and SSL encryption is employed for all transmissions over the
local network.
xDMS facilitates the phased rollout of the Xandros Desktop OS to provide
a seamless transition from proprietary to open solutions.

“xDMS is as much about power as it is about simplicity. Administrators
perform sophisticated tasks in a timely and less error-prone manner,”
said Ming Poon, Xandros VP of Software Development, “though they are
still free to use the command line or other advanced facilities if they
have the talent and time to write all the custom scripts to handle
multiple scenarios. Just like AutoCAD makes life easier for architects
and engineers, xDMS enables advanced administrators to focus on planning
and pass off most of the routine deployment and management tasks to less
skilled operators or junior administrators.” 

 Free Promotional Offer with Xandros Business Desktop
As an initial promotional offer, xDMS is available at no additional
charge with the purchase of five or more licenses of the Xandros Desktop
OS Business Edition at the regular retail price of $129US. A new Managed
Business Desktop Starter 5-Pack can be ordered directly from Xandros at
www.xandros.com/shopping in either the boxed or download version. For
volume license pricing please contact Xandros sales at
http://support.xandros.com/contact.php?contactname=sales
For more information please go to www.xandros.com.

About Xandros
Founded in 2001 with headquarters in New York and research and
development facilities in Ottawa, Xandros, Inc. is the leading developer
of easy-to-use Linux solutions targeting home and enterprise markets.
Xandros pioneered a low-cost alternative operating system that provides
seamless compatibility with Microsoft Windows programs and networks. For
more information please visit www.xandros.com



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xDMS Xandros Desktop Management Server Now Shipping

Posted Oct 26, 2004 21:25 UTC (Tue) by emkey (guest, #144) [Link]

My observation on this is that GUI's are a horrible way to try to manage "thousands of desktops". I've never seen it work and frankly I don't think I ever will, Just as I don't see the CLI making a big comeback on desktop machines.

I work at a company that manages nearly 5k linux systems with a total of seven sysadmins. We've done it with less though that wasn't much fun. We don't have a single GUI. What we do have is scripts and programs that scale easily to these levels and maintain a consistent configuration across all our systems. This sort of automation just can't be done from a GUI, at least not with the the level of flexibility and scaling that we need.

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