As I sit here writing this on “Laurier”, my trusty, home-built AMD/Debian box, I’m watching “Pearson” (an older, less trusty, mass-produced Compaq Presario with a faulty power switch) install the latest open circulation version of Xandros.
Released on Valentine’s Day, Xandros 3.0.1 OC looks to be a decent if unromantic gift to computer users worldwide, and (as I’m sure their accountants would agree) it’s considerably cheaper than the millions boxes of chocolates and bouquets of roses we might have otherwise expected. Like those items though, the Xandros installer is bright, pretty and inviting. Marketed as a Linux distribution for Windows users, Xandros claims to offer simple installation, built-in functionality, familiar interface, and ease of use. The fact that it is available pre-installed on computers at Wal-Mart gives you some indication in the confidence that they have that their product will be friendly to Mr. or Mrs. Joe Average.
Back to the installer. It’s simple. If you don’t know how to do anything beyond clicking “Yes” to accept a license agreement (and Windows should have given you lots of practice), you can still get Xandros installed and running in short order. I elected to use some of the “expert options” like actually choosing which major software packages I wanted to install. I decided to skip the 30-day evaluation version of Codeweavers [installed by default] but install Apache [not default]. Whiz-bang — the rest of the time has been spent typing this review, and watching Xandros display Windowsesque pictures of concerned looking executives with software categories and features superimposed over top of them. I must say that the anticipation is… is… well, it isn’t. But, were I a full time Windows user, I’d be feeling very comfortable about now, truly believing that this software will look and act just as the captions tell me — which is to say, just as well as Windows (but hopefully better).
Installation finally completes and the installer invites me to make a rescue disk or exit to reboot. Playing the role of a typical excited/lazy user, I decline the boot disk. Rather, I remove the CD and hit [Enter] to reboot my system as requested, and nothing happens. In fact, my keyboard goes dark, and even Ctrl-Alt-Delete fails to work. After a cold boot, I’m greeted with GRUB error 17. In the GRUB vs. LILO debate, I admit that I love GRUB, but its error messages are useless. No problem. I re-insert the Xandros CD and reboot again, pressing [Shift] as the main screen boots up (for other options), and then selecting (from the options list): 11. Restore Xandros. I breifly considered choosing “12. Rescue Console.” but was curious what 11 would do. It asked me to select the installation to restore, asked me if I wanted to change any settings (I chose ‘no’), then asked me to remove the CD and press [Enter] again to reboot. I did so, and it actually did reboot this time. I guess I’ll never find out what “12. Rescue Console” does (never say never). I’m a little concerned about the installation mishap, but pleased that the resue disk was able to fix it. Keep in mind that the open circulation edition has no documentation or free tech support provided, so it would be up to you to solve whatever install problems you have, unless you have a second computer to get help from others in the Xandros user forums.
Anyway, Xandros is booting (with LILO, suggesting that the GRUB had belonged to Debian and hadn’t been written over by Xandros on the first attempt). All of the techically daunting system messages are surpressed (unless you choose “3. Configure (expert)” login), and soon you get the login box. Away we go. Xandros’ branded KDE splash screen appears and Windows users are probably feeling very tickled. With me, on a Cyrix MII/366 box with 128MB or RAM, the bootup is slow, but I’m pleased to hear that the motherboard’s onboard sound is working. The First-Run Wizard prompts me for mouse settings, regional settings, and network configuration. After 5 minutes, it still doesn’t detect my LAN card. Debian Sarge didn’t either, but it (unlike Xandros) was quick to allow me to pick a driver on my own. Effective, and not newbie friendly I guess, but I like “The Debian Way”. After 8 minutes, the screen has blanked from lack of activity. I shake the mouse and see my ZIP 100 drive flick on (I guess Xandros found it). Still no LAN. I bail out, continue the rest of the configuration, and re-try through the Control Center. Same stupid Wizard. After searching the newsgroups briefly, and finding that others have had problems with lack of manual configuation for LAN cards, I power down, and with some disgust, swap my SMC EZCARD10 PnP ISA adpater for a 3COM EtherLink XL PCI (but vowing to reinstall it again, another day).
Re-running the wizard located the changed eth0 card about a second later, but ever after it told me it configured with my router’s DHCP — no Internet. I’m unimpressed. I’m also unimpressed that Xandros keeps insisting on trying to save my root password, no matter how many times I uncheck the “Keep password” box whenever an authorization pops up. In the end, Xandros hadn’t configured itself with DHCP. It hadn’t even enabled the network connection. I’m very unimpressed. After making the changes myself, the web finally comes up.
Time to browse devices. Xandros mounted my ZIP drive but could did not list any files as being present in the root directory. It did however see a folder in the root, and could see both files and folders within it (?). Twice, I tried to load the CD player. When I ejected the CD I’d inserted, it finally popped up. I reinserted the CD, but it said “No Disc”. When I ejected the disk again, the CD Player (KSCD relabeled) presented the title. I reinserted yet again. The disc refused to play, nor would it eject with the software button. I kept having to use the drive’s physical button. Giving the software the benefit of the doubt, I guessed a bum disc may be to blame. Wrong. New CD, same problems. Data CD’s worked fine. Samba seemed to be correctly installed, and allowed me to see and login to other drives and systems within my LAN. This computer is not equipped with a CD-Burner, but I was annoyed to see that (at least while using Xandro’s file manager) burns are limited to 2X speed with the OC version. As Xandros is based on Debian Sarge (3.1), it would probably be possible to add a Debian mirror to your /etc/apt/sources.list file and install K3B. Of course, from the command line any Linux is still Linux, and you can burn discs from the CLI. But if you could do this, you probably wouldn’t be running Xandros in the first place, would you?
Need I say it? I’m unimpressed. If this were any other (free) distro, I might not be bothered by the problems I experienced. Everything is solveable eventually. But as Xandros’s claim to fame is simplicity — ‘Making Linux work for you’ — it needs to be judged by a higher standard. Frankly, a lot of work was required on my part for a distro that was supposed to be working for me. The fact that it has some features removed and/or crippled only increases my annoyance at the features that are installed but don’t work.
Well, there are other distros out there that do work, and require the same (or less) work to work well for free. There are even free versions of releases by other commercial vendors that work better than Xandros worked for me. Your mileage may vary. Try it for yourself and see. But if you’re truly prepared to have to do some troubleshooting anyway, why not just START with a distro that is completely free?
PROS: Quick install, automated configuration, well chosen packages (Firefox, Thunderbird, etc), kernel 2.6.9, X.org
CONS: Slow (at least on my system… any KDE-based desktop is resource hungry), questionable hardware configuration, lack of manual configuration ability (ethernet card), missing and crippled features.
Xandros
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