Xandros
Xandros is a Linux distribution company, creator of
the Xandros Desktop Linux distribution. Founded in 2001, the company is located in New York City and Ottawa, Ontario. The distribution is based on Corel Linux, which was acquired from Corel Corporation in 2001 after Corel decided to leave the Linux
distribution market. Xandros is also founding member of the Desktop Linux Consortium.
Product line
Xandros targets both the home user and the business user. The home desktop is targeted at the home user which is lower cost
and less complex than the business edition. There are two editions, the Standard edition and the Deluxe edition. The main
difference between the two is that the Deluxe version includes a user manual, support for running Microsoft Windows applications
and the installer can resize NTFS partitions. There is also extra bundled software included with the Deluxe version.
The business edition is more expensive and includes support for things like active directory and advanced processor features
like SMP and Hyperthreading. There also tools for the administration and deployment of Xandros desktops within a company.
There is also a cut down version of Xandros known as Xandros open circulation edition which can be freely distributed for
non-commercial use. This has a limited set of software, cd-burning is restricted to 4x and the only web browser avalible is the
proprietary Opera web browser which includes advertising.
Desktop
The Xandros desktop uses a modified version of KDE, which includes replacing Konqueror with its own proprietary file manager called XFM. It also uses a
package manger known as Xandros Networks, which handles installation of software. Installation of Xandros is done by a wizard
that asks questions about partitioning and the adminstrator (root) password.
The graphical user interface has many changes compared to other Linux distributions that make look similar to a Microsoft
Windows GUI, including a retangular "launch" button similar to the start button, modified context menus
and the file manager features a Windows 98 style look. While this has been
criticized for making Linux look like Windows, it is also said that this aids the migration to Linux by minimizing the need for
re-training.
External links
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