LINUXREVIEWS USER SchlagwortXandros Desktopsollte hier OS stehen 3.0

A Look at Xandros Desktop 3.0 NEW DESKTOP Xandros, the successor to Corel OS, is one of many distributions that claim to make life easier for Linux newcomers. We took a look at the lat-

est release, Xandros Desktop Version 3.0. BY CARSTEN SCHNOBER

Edition can purchase the manual as a Due to the different approaches that PDF. Lilo and Grub have, only Lilo allows The installation CD for both packages users to run Udev to set up dynamic is identical, however, Deluxe has an device files for hard disks – such as additional Application Disc with a bunch /dev/hda1 – when booting the system. In of and Crossover Office, contrast to Lilo, Grub needs the device which allows users to run Windows pro- file to load the kernel – as Grub cannot grams such as Office. The sup- find this file, Xandros will not boot with ike the last version of Xandros, port included with the packages also dif- Grub. This can cause issues, if you Dektop OS 3.0 [1] is based on the fers. On registering, users of Xandros attempt to specify Xandros as a boot Lcurrent Sarge version. Deluxe can look forward to 60 days sup- option within a pre-installed distribution When version 2.0 was released a year port, whereas users of the Standard Edi- that uses Grub. ago, Xandros executives would never in tion only have 30 days. their wildest dreams have thought that KDE Desktop the underlying Debian version would Debian Clone Xandros uses KDE exclusively as its still be in testing by the time they got Xandros may be based on the free . Although the Xan- round to the next major release. The Debian distribution, but it does change dros server has other desktop environ- major changes to the latest release are Debian in may respects. For example, ments such as Gnome or as down- the new KDE version, a Kernel update, Xandros has its own installer routine loads, a departure from the default is not X.org instead of Xfree86, and a smatter- (Figure 1). The Express Install option recommended; most of the Xandros dis- ing of software updates. simply prompts the user for a few vital tribution tools are not stand-alone pro- Version 3.0 of Xandros Desktop is items such as the root password and the grams but modules for existing KDE available in two variants. The Deluxe name of the first user account. However, applications. Edition costs about 79 Euros or the installer is not much help if you have Besides KDE options, the Xandros con- US$ 89.95, the standard package about any other Linux installations on your trol center allows users to configure the half of that. Both versions include a 10- hard disk. With the exception of Win- Internet connection and the boot man- page printed Getting Started Guide; dows partitions, Express Install will just ager (Figure 2); it even has user manage- Deluxe additionally has a more compre- issue a warning before hijacking the ment. In the control center, users can hensive manual. Users of the Standard whole of your hard disk for Xandros. specify whether to launch various net- The Custom Install gives you more work services, such as SSH or the Samba Xandros Desktop OS 3.0 options. Users can specify a target parti- server, automatically on booting, or Details tion for the install in the partition man- manually. ager and also select which software to The Xandros File Manager (XFM) Kernel 2.6.9 install. Default profiles called Minimal, includes a network browser that sup- Desktop KDE 3.3.0 X Server X.org 6.7 Standard, and Complete facilitate the ports direct access to NFS and Windows Mozilla 1.7 decision, although users can select or shares (Figure 3). This applies both to Firefox 1.0 deselect individual program packages. directories and printers. Additionally, the OpenOffice 1.1 After restarting to complete the install, file manager has an integrated burning GLibc 2.3.2 the system comes up with a GUI boot program that allows users to drag and GCC 3.3.4 screen where users can choose between drop files directly from the file system Crossover Office 4.1 (Deluxe only) Xandros, any Windows installations they onto CDs or DVDs. Price Deluxe: Euro 79 / may have, and other Linux distributions. Windows converts will discover that US$ 89.95; Xandros is one of only a few distribu- the file manager behaves just like they Standard: Euro 39 / tions to use the Lilo bootloader rather are used to. The user does not get to see US$ 49.95 than Grub. the file system. Without removing this

44 ISSUE 53 APRIL 2005 WWW.LINUX- MAGAZINE.COM Xandros Desktop OS 3.0 REVIEWS

Figure 1: The Xandros installation routine makes most of the deci- Figure 2: Xandros adds system configuration to the KDE control sions for the user. center. restriction, the user will only be able to dros has taken from Debian and modi- ware such as Tuxracer or GnuCash is see his or her home directory, plus any fied to suit the Xandros distribution; only available to registered users. network shares. USB storage devices are Xandros does not support the software The restricted selection of software in also displayed here when plugged in. in this category. the Xandros repositories really affects But again, the distribution lacks the localization. Although the Xandros Package Management variety of programs that the original server has international language pack- Xandros has its own software package Debian distribution has. If you do not ages for programs such as Mozilla and installation software. Xandros Networks want to do without this variety, you can Koffice, the KDE desktop has not been (Figure 4) is more than just a GUI-based optionally add Debian repositories as localized. This is bad news for users front-end for the Debian package man- sources. This said, Xandros explicitly with little or no knowledge of English, agement tool, APT. The program advises against doing so, as there is no whether they are looking to install or searches the configured package sources guarantee that non-Xandros optimized just work with the distribution. Users at regular intervals for updates and new packages will work smoothly with the can download non-English KDE pack- software. If the server has something Xandros distribution. ages from the Debian server, but they are new on offer, the tool pops up a KDE Xandros Networks also has commer- no big help, as Xandros tends to add its panel applet to let the user know. cial add-on packages available as down- own modules to KDE applications, and Besides the distribution CDs, Xandros loads. Users of the Standard Edition can these modules are not covered by the Networks also recognizes the official use their credit cards to purchase native KDE localization process. Xandros repository as a default source. Crossover Office or the PDF-formatted If you need more, you can enable the manual. Additionally, programs such as Private Sphere Debian unsupported site option. This StarOffice are up for grabs. What does Nevertheless, the extensions mentioned takes you to a few packages that Xan- not make sense is the fact that free soft- thus far do give Xandros some advan-

Figure 3: The Xandros File Manager includes a built-in network Figure 4: Xandros Networks handles package management. browser and burning program.

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