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Comment of the Day - February 6, 2006 - I use Xandros 3.0.2

Posted by tadelste on Feb 6, 2006 3:11 AM
Lxer Linux Meta Forum; By Rajiv G Gunja

When we asked the question: What Linux Distribution do you use as a desktop? We received an overwhelming response. In a short time, a question posed to LXer readers generated unparalleled activity on our site and on other sites around the globe. We now have several hundred replies we can use to create a statistical model to project Linux desktop use.

We also will feature comments from the forum posts such as Rajiv's. He makes a compelling case for his favorite distribution. You can find all the posts in our Linux Meta Forum. Thank you.

I use Xandros 3.0.2 on my desktop to do all my day to day tasks. If I need to run Windows, I have Windows 2000 running under VMware 4.5. I fell in love with Xandros when they came out with their free version at 2.1. It is simple, stable, effective desktop. It does not have 1000s of packages that you get with all other free distros, it is cut out with the applications you really "need" to work as a desktop than "want".

It is extremely simple to install and works awesome as a desktop.

For my server, I run RHEL 3.0. I think RH is good for servers only.

The only annoyance I have with Xandros is that, they are/have NOT partnered with major 3rd party vendors like Nortel or Apani, so I cannot install their VPN soft on my desktop. Apani and Nortel support only RH and SuSe. RH really is a bad OS for a desktop. SuSE, there are just too many pkgs and is not as mature as Xandros for a desktop.

Yes I know what you guys are thinking. I can do a selective install of the apps I need. But think about it, I have download all 4 or 5 CDs of SuSE to really install even just the bare minimum. So its wasteful for me. For me, I want to be able to install an OS in 30 or 60 minutes and get on it and start working, I dont want to spend hours patching it like Windows or medling with the conf files to fix video or audio or some kernel module for 3D graphics. I have done that enough in the last 8 years while working on Linux. Now, in a desktop OS, I expect it to just work right off the CDROM and Xandros provides this for me.

Xandros comes on 1 CDROM and has all the things we need to work effectively or do our work. Office -> OpenOffice, Browser -> Mozilla, CDROM/DVD Burner -> Built into File Manager. Package installation -> Debian and via Gui (Xandros Network) also comes built in with RPM installer right off the menu. Updates to the whole system is one click away and you come back after 20/30 minutes and it is done. Kernel upgrades are also 1 click away, but Kernel source, we have to do couple of things once downloaded from their site. It has awesome crash recovery menus. Install CDROM comes with a menu to restore Xandros if you messed up the install by installing bad libraires to break the os.

If you have not tried it, please do, it is an awesome Desktop OS.

-GGR
Rajiv G Gunja