Distributions

News and Editorials

Xandros, Inc.: Time for Change?

[This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar]

While working on a review of Xandros Desktop 1.0, the author of this article happened to replace his Matrox graphics card with a new NVIDIA GeForce one. Anyone who has done a similar hardware upgrade knows that a change like that would not go unnoticed during the next attempt to start the X Window system; in fact, even Microsoft's operating systems would be caught off-guard with likely prompts to install a new driver. So how did Xandros handle the change? In one of the most impressive displays of user-friendliness, the Xandros operating system detected the change, installed the necessary NVIDIA drivers, reconfigured XF86Config and booted into KDE -- without as much as a single prompt!

Needless to say, this experience, together with many other innovative features considerably increased the author's respect for the Xandros distribution. Other reviewers felt similarly; an article in the January 2003 edition of UK's Linux Format magazine concluded:

The above examples illustrate two things. Firstly, the distribution decision makers at Xandros have done some usability studies and came up with a range of unique ideas. The highly useable Xandros File Manager, the ability to resize NTFS partitions, the "switch user" option allowing users to start new X sessions and easily switch between them, the Xandros Help Center and many other features have yet to be surpassed by most other so-called user-friendly distributions -- even now when Xandros Desktop 1.0 is nearly one year old. Secondly, Xandros employs talented developers who are capable of bug-free implementation of these ideas. Surely, a combination like that should assure not only glowing reviews, but also a steady revenue from satisfied and loyal users. Why, then, is Xandros Desktop not the most widely used desktop Linux distribution on earth?

Some will argue that the $100 price tag is a relatively steep admission fee to enjoy the benefits. Especially since there is no way to try the product beforehand, while there is an abundance of other distributions which can be had for no more than the cost of the bandwidth to download them. But is that the only reason? Isn't there something else that Xandros could do to gain a larger customer base? Here are a few ideas that might help:

• Establish retail channels. At the moment, Xandros Desktop is sold almost exclusively through the company's online store and, to some degree, OEM integrators. To increase sales and visibility, Xandros will either have to launch a massive advertising campaign in general publications or will have to get their software out to retail stores. Unfortunately, both solutions require considerable expense. Some might disagree with the latter solution; after all, hasn't Red Hat just discontinued its sales of shrink-wrapped packages in software stores? Yes, but Xandros is a different product; it is designed for an average consumer, rather than a technology enthusiast, while its release schedule of about once per year is more suitable for retail distribution than Red Hat's more rapidly evolving products.
  
  
• Create a community. No Linux distribution has ever become successful without making an effort to create a user community. This means regularly updated web site with new information, tutorials, solutions, tips and tricks and anything that makes users visit the web site daily. Unfortunately, Xandros's site has been static ever since the product launch and, with the exception of an occasional press release, no new content has been published. Another excellent way to keep interest high is active interaction with users on public forums. Mandrake has always been good at this and that's perhaps one of the main reason for its continued popularity. The Lindows.com forums is another superb example of effective and frequent interaction between the company and the users of its products - even the CEO of Lindows.com Michael Robertson doesn't shy away from responding to users' concerns and queries. It is amazing how many commercial distributions neglect this simple form of communication with their users!
  
  
• Release source code. This might sound like a too radical an idea, but releasing some of Xandros's work, such as the Xandros File Manager under GPL will do the company a lot of good. Firstly, it will be loudly applauded by the Linux community as a great contribution to Free Software, as well as the right thing to do from the ideological standpoint. After all, isn't much of Xandros Desktop free code written by other developers? Secondly, the excellent Xandros File Manager would surely find its way into many other distributions and this would carry the company's name and prestige with it. On the surface, the idea seems to conflict with Xandros's commercial interests and the benefits of such a non-tangible action are hard to quantify. But at the very least, it should be given serious consideration.

Earlier this week, Xandros launched two new beta programs for its upcoming releases of Xandros Desktop 2.0 and Xandros Networks Enterprise. Both products are expected to go gold before the end of this year. This would perhaps be a good time to make some aggressive changes in the way the company operates. Failing that, the Xandros distribution will continue to generate glowing reviews, while it will remain a product of little significance in the world of Linux distributions.

Comments (6 posted)

Distribution News

The end of the road for Eridani Linux

The developers of Eridani Linux have sent out an announcement that development of the distribution has ceased. "There will be no further updates for Eridani Linux 6.3, and our advice to existing users is to upgrade to a current supported distribution."

Full Story (comments: 3)

Debian Weekly News

The August 5 edition of the Debian Weekly News is out; it looks at the freeness of MPlayer, the philosophy behind Knoppix, DebConf 2005, Debian in Schools, and several other topics.

Full Story (comments: none)

New experimental version of APT with DDTP Support

A new experimental version of Debian's APT packaging system is available. "The DDTP team and the Debian-BR project are proud to announce the new public release of APT featuring support for translated package descriptions."

Full Story (comments: 2)

Gentoo Weekly Newsletter

The August 4 Gentoo Weekly Newsletter is available; it looks at Gentoo's LinuxWorld presence, the first Gentoo BugDay, and the removal of WineX from Portage.

Full Story (comments: none)

Gentoo Linux 1.4 released

The lengthy Gentoo 1.4 development process has finally come to an end - the final version of Gentoo Linux 1.4 is available. There does not appear to be a release announcement as such, other than a brief item on gentoo.org. There you can also find a list of mirrors to download from.

Comments (6 posted)

Knoppix Auto-configuration for Installed Distributions

A Mandrake port of the Knoppix Auto-configuration for Installed Distributions is available. "Knoppix Auto-configuration for Installed Distributions provides ports of Knoppix's Live CD automatic hardware detection system to installed systems."

Comments (none posted)

Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter

The July 31 Mandrake Linux Community Newsletter is out; this one looks at the 9.2 Beta 1 release, a new MandrakeClub benefit, the business case of the week, and more.

Full Story (comments: 1)

OpenPKG 1.3 released

Version 1.3 of the OpenPKG meta-distribution has been announced. OpenPKG now has some 400 packages, and can be run over several Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and Solaris, with "partial support" for several other Unix-like systems.

Full Story (comments: none)

OpenPKG Security Engineering now covering 1.2 and 1.3 only

The 1.1 release of OpenPKG is now officially deprecated. Users of OpenPKG should upgrade to version 1.2 or 1.3.

Full Story (comments: none)

Slackware Linux

This week's Slackware Changelog mentions that updates are available for the latest wu-ftpd buffer overflow security update.

Comments (none posted)

Minor distribution updates

New version of BG-Rescue Linux

Bodo Giannone has released version 0.1.5 of BG-Rescue Linux. "This is a very small Linux distribution that fits on either two floppy disks or one eltorito-boot cd". See the Change Log for details about this version.

Comments (none posted)

CDlinux 0.4.4 released

Version 0.4.4 of CDlinux has been released. The changes include minor bugfixes and minor feature enhancement.

Comments (none posted)

Damn Small Linux 0.4.2

Version 0.4.2 of Damn Small Linux is out. This release adds Xpaint, XzGV, emelFM, and Sylphed.

Comments (none posted)

JACK fix for Audioslack

A new package for the JACK Audio Connection Kit is available for Audioslack. "I have also discovered a very important Jack packaging bug, which had to do with the source tarball used for the original compilation. If you were finding that Jack was not working for you, this should fix the problem of the missing /usr/lib/jack directory, and associated files in that directory."

Comments (none posted)

New Mindi Linux snapshots

Two new versions of the Mondo Rescue version of Mindi Linux are out. "New 1.6x, 1.7x snapshots are out. They fix a couple of silly bugs which were floating around for months but which I could not fix because I did not possess suitable hardware for testing my bugfixes. I do now, thankfully."

Comments (none posted)

Announcing SME Server 6.0beta3

Mitel Networks has announced version 6.0beta3, an unsupported developer release, of SME Server. "The changes in this release include engineering improvements, a new look and feel and Spanish language support for the server manager web interface, and the inclusion of a port forwarding panel." Thanks to Brock A. Frazier.

Comments (none posted)

stresslinux 0.2.2 available

Version 0.2.2 of stresslinux, "a minimal linux distribution running from a bootable cdrom or via PXE", has been released.

Comments (none posted)

Trinux updated

The Trinix ramdisk-based distribution has had some recent changes. The status page says: "Over the last few weeks, the following new packages have been added: packit, disco. The following existing packages have been updated to the latest version: apache, darkstat, amap."

Comments (none posted)

Warewulf 1.12 available

Version 1.12 of Warewulf, an easily scalable cluster implementation, is available.

Comments (none posted)

Distribution reviews

Libranet: TCO-Friendly GNU/Linux (Open For Business)

Open For Business reviews the Libranet distribution. " Libranet is a bit different than the other GNU/Linux distributions we are considering this time around. In an era when distributions are often judged by the glitz that their installer and customized desktop provides, Libranet has neither glitz nor much of a customized desktop. At first glance, the Libranet installer could very well cause one to fear the worst about how long and arduous the installation might be."

Comments (none posted)

Page editor: Forrest Cook
Next page: Development>>