Xandros 1.0 Desktop

Of the lastest Linux distros (Lindows, Lycoris, Libranet, ELX) aimed at Joe and Jane Average, Xandros 1.0 is the King of the Windows Killers. No other distro - including Libranet 2.7, my previous object of desire - comes close.

And why not? Xandros is the brainchild of Ming Poon, the man behind COREL Linux. For those who remember (and love) the KDE-meets-Debian goodness of COREL, Xandros 1.0 Desktop is COREL on steroids, on fire and driving 100 miles an hour through a hospital zone pursued by ninjas and helicopters.

Xandros takes an entire 20 minutes to install from the one CD and requires the user to do five things (2 of them are picking a password and picking a cool machine name). A 220 page user manual written in plain, straightforward English comes with the installation CD, as does a second CD with what is supposed to be KDE 3 but is actually unfinished and unsupported in my opinion.

After installation, you'll find that the included Codeweavers Crossover software will run all of your Word, Excel, Outlook, etc. apps and files with nary a hitch. And if the abundance of apps bundled with Xandros don't please you, jump online and use either Xandros Networks or apt-get to download new software goodies. For me apt-get worked better than Xandros Networks since Networks is online basically to gather feedback from users. A minor niggling point, folks.

Xandros works right out of the box. It's quick, easy, fun and destined for greatness. There isn't a Windows user on the planet who can't install and happily live with Xandros.

Massive cool.

I noted that Xandros does not contain the latest desktop software (it uses a heavily customized version of KDE 2.2.2) and it has a limited amount of software included.

Both of these attributes are choices by the vendor, choices intended to ensure software stability and ease of use, choices that the vendor chose in the interests of creating a very usable and stable desktop software platform.

I believe that Xandros has succeeded in meeting their objectives, for they do, indeed, have a very stable, easy to use, well documented system.

Considering that Xandros using the Debian method of packaging software, it is certainly possible to download whatever additional software that you may need or want, so that further validates the choice, and adds points regarding the flexibility of the software.

Highly recommended. This software is the next generation of what used to be Corel Linux software. This generation has all the positive characteristics of Corel Linux but is much more polished, modernized, and well done.