Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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42 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Product activation, June 30, 2006
Users must activate this product with Xandros support in order to unlock some of the functionality of the product and receive critical product and security updates. Without product activation, users will not receive access to such updates. Should the user activate beyond a certain number of installations, they will be denied new activation codes until they have contacted Xandros support and explained themselves. Support may or may not then grant further activation codes.
This activation system is currently not documented anywhere on the main Xandros website, and users are not alerted to it during the purchase procedure or in the End User License Agreement.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Making linux [mostly] work for you, August 27, 2006
It's among the most pricey of linux distros. Is it worth it? You could get Ubuntu for free. Oh, but then you have to run out and buy an external modem to run in Ubuntu.
Like most distros these days, Xandros can resize your NTFS Windows partition. Like a few, it can write to NTFS partitions. There is no need to create a FAT32 Windows partition for file sharing. I already have Partition Magic, but for a simple Windows and Xandros system you can probably do without it. Of course linux writing to NTFS could be a mixed blessing. In theory you might be able to destroy critical Windows files without the warnings Windows would give you. I have not tested this theory.
Xandros comes with a nice instruction manual. So does SUSE. I think Xandros is clearer and mostly more helpful.
Software registration is highly recommended. Unlike Windows, Xandros won't self destruct without it, but you will need it to access Xandros Networks for updates and additional software.
My computer is shop-built. It has an NVIDIA graphics card and a hardware controlled PCI internal modem. (Most new computers these days have PCI Winmodems.) Xandros recognized the modem as easily as Windows. MEPIS works with it, but it had to be manually set to ttyS4. I could not get Ubuntu configured for it. Xandros claims to work with some Winmodems, but I have not tested that. MEPIS 6 has shown that it can work with my laptop's Winmodem. Some distros offer excuses and a scavenger hunt for Winmodem drivers.
Xandros came bundled with 3D support for my NVIDIA card! SUSE and MEPIS don't. I have tried in vain to install that in MEPIS. Does it matter? Well, in Xandros it's not obvious. Planetpenguin Racer and Tuxkart don't come bundled. You can get Planetpenguin Racer from Xandros Networks, but you have to enter a search for it. You can apt-get Tuxkart from Debian unsupported. Experienced users may enjoy the hunt, but it's strange for a distro that otherwise appeals to beginners. To use apt-get from Console (Administrator) you must be connected to the internet and have Debian Unsupported selected in Xandros Networks. The book tells you how to select it. Synaptic Package Manager, a GUI version of apt-get bundled in many distros, is not provided in Xandros. You can apt-get install synaptic in Xandros. The only way to open it is using the Terminal Program icon from the panel while logged in as Root. There's a reason why they call it Debian unsupported.
CrossOver Office makes it possible to run some Windows programs. I was able to install MS Internet Explorer. This virtual Windows may not have full Windows functionality. In real Windows XP I can use IE to ftp files to my webpage. IE in linux lacked that ability. A good linux tool to do that job is gFTP. It's provided in MEPIS but not in Xandros. It can be installed in Xandros by apt-get.
Windows is still the champ at playing MIDI files. Xandros is not bad for a linux distro. MIDI Player comes with piano and guitar and plays all notes. There are actually useful instructions in the book to download and install the goemon library of instruments. Some instruments are so-so, but all notes are played. MIDI Player seems to automatically repeat, and I could not find a button to change that. By comparison MEPIS can work with Timidity and Freepats, but if an instrument is missing, notes are not played.
Xandros worked fine with my floppy drive. Most other distros do too, although MEPIS is an underachiever on that feature.
Kooka would not work with my Epson 4490 scanner in Xandros. Other distros that I have tried have not done better.
In conclusion, linux still cannot completely replace Windows unless you have scaled-back wants. Xandros 4 does seem to come closer than other distros that I have tried.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Xandros Linux Version 4 for Windows Refugees, May 30, 2007
I bought Xandros because it is marketed as friendly for Windows-dependent users and I want to wean my wife from her dependency on Windows. Why spend money when Ubuntu linux and SUSE 10.2 Open Source are available for free? The answer is support and quality of provided documentation, along with ease of use and ease of installation.
BOTTOM LINE: Xandros is worth the money because of the ease of use and service provided. If you are less afraid of new territory, get one of the free distributions, such as Ubuntu, SUSE, etc.
For the record, I have played with Red Hat (Version 8), Mandrake (now Mandriva), Lindows (now Linspire), Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Debian, and SUSE 10.1. I still use Micro$oft Windows XP on a couple machines. I am running SUSE 10.1 on one machine, Ubuntu on another, Xubuntu on an older machine and am now running Xandros on main-linux-host. We have a hard wired LAN in the house.
Xandros installed painlessly and recognized my LCD monitor, where SUSE 10.2 would not configure X-Windows at all. Xandros installed my network printers absolutely painlessly.
Support is available only by email / web. However, the quality has been excellent.
I do have one gripe about the product. Xandros version 3 provided support for web hosting. Xandros Version 4 doesn't. They want you to spend over $400 and buy their server edition. Given that Apache (web hosting software) is available online for free and given that Debian, SUSE, and Ubuntu all come with Apache as standard, the decision to not support Apache with Xandros Version 4 seems wrong, in my not-so-humble opinion.
The installation of Apache under Xandros Version 4 has gone well, but you need to be a pretty serious geek to do it.
The Xandros people renamed a lot of programs available under Linux, to make the programs friendlier to Windows refugees. I think that was a dumb decision, but the programs are there.
Xandros comes with a program, Crossover Windows, to allow one to run some Micro$oft programs under Xandros. For a limited set of programs, it works well. For programs written to run under Windows, but not specifically crossed-over by Xandros, I've had limited success.
Updates and antivirus: Updates are painless and automatic. Xandros is one of the few Linux distributions to come with an antivirus package automatically installed. I'm not sure you need it, but it's there.
The desktop is painless to use. They avoid the Ubuntu mistake of not having a Superuser or Administrator log-in, so some functions are easier to use even than Ubuntu. If you want hand-holding and want to try Linux, buy this product. If you are not afraid to venture on your own, get the free version of Ubuntu, or SUSE, or Debian and buy one of the books. (Amazon also sells the excellent official book for Ubuntu.) You can also buy computers with a version of Linux already installed for you. Dell has partnered with Canonical to make Ubuntu available, and there are also versions of SUSE available.
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