Xandros Desktop

Boot from the Xandros CD, be greeted by a sleek installation wizard, accept the license agreement, select 'express install', select 'administrator password' and you'll be ready to start working on Xandros. Or, you can go for an intuitive custom install to have greater control over the install process. If you have Windows installed, Xandros can set up your machine for a dual boot. If you have Windows and some other Linux distribution installed, Xandros sets it up for multiple boot. What's more, if you don't have any free space for Xandros, the installation wizard allows you to resize a windows partition (whether FAT or NTFS) from within the installation wizard. There's no need for partitioning tools such as Fips or Partition Magic. 

To provide a fast install experience, the mouse, date and time, Internet connection and printer setup have been moved to a 'First Run Wizard', which shows up when you log in into a new Xandros installation. Thus, there are minimum prompts during the main installation. Most Linux distributions and MS Windows present these options during the installation, while some Linux distributions present them both during the installation and upon the first login. 

On this month's PCQuest DVD, you'll find an ISO image of Xandros Open Circulation Edition. To install Xandros, you should burn this ISO image onto a CDR and boot your machine off it. 

The desktop

Under the hood, Xandros is a Debian-based distribution and KDE is the default and only desktop environment that comes bundled with it. 

The Xandros start menu (named Launch menu) is short and uncluttered. The philosophy behind Linux, open-source software and Linux distributions is to have more than one option for applications. This often leads to a long list of applications to select from, which may be intimidating for non-Linux or casual users. For example, the need to select from a long list of MP3 players. A good distribution should select the best MP3 player and install it for the user. Xandros does this. It has a small list of installed applications that are sufficient for basic requirements. 

Xandros also does not name the applications by their name (such as Xmms, Xine and OpenOffice.org Writer), instead the applications are named as MP3 Player, Video Player and Word Processor. Thus, users who are not familiar with the names of Linux applications can still find them.

If you have a Windows partition on the same machine, Xandros makes it accessible to you through the File Manager (Launch>Xandros File Manager) as C: and D:. But, the drive letters may not be the same as the actual drive letters seen in Windows. 

Xandros automatically mounts the inserted CD/DVD and even an unmount is not required to eject the CD/DVD. Xandros bundles Xine, which can play DVDs, VCDs and DivX movies. Besides Xine, Xandros bundles XMMS (MP3 player) and RealOne Player 9. 

If you have a CD Writer installed on your system, Xandros File Manager provides options of burning music CD, data CD, clone a CD and erase a CD-RW, all available under My Linux>CD Writer. However, the Open Circulation Edition limits the writing speed to 4X. 

Connecting to the LAN and the Internet

Configuring a network card and Internet connection is intuitive and wizard based. The Control Center (Launch>Control Center>Network) is the one-stop place to start with. 

For Web browsing and e-mail, Xandros bundles Opera Web browser and Opera mail. Opera is able to display Flash pages and Java applets without the need for any additional plug-in configurations. Not used to Opera or Opera mail? You can download the Mozilla suite comprising the Mozilla Web browser and e-mail client (see Xandros Network). For instant messaging, Xandros bundles a multiprotocol instant messenger called Kopete. As of this writing, the version 

bundled with the Open Circulation Edition was not able to connect to Yahoo. ICQ and MSN messenger accounts worked.

Also note that there was no default firewall protection.

Browsing a Windows network and sharing directories is a breeze. All can be done from within the Xandros File Manager. To browse Windows shares, click on Windows Network in the File manager. To share any directory across the network, right click on the directory in the File Manager and select Properties>Windows Sharing. There are similar options (namely NFS Sharing and NFS Network) for sharing and browsing Linux directories via NFS (Network File system). 

Xandros networks

This is the one-stop tool to update and patch your system as well as to install/remove applications. You can fire it from Launch>Xandros Networks. Under Installed Applications on the left pane, you will be able to see all the applications installed on your system, and clicking on these applications will give you an option to remove it. A click on the 'Install All Latest Updates from Xandros' will update/patch up your system. A single click is all that is needed. 

Want to install a new application, say Mozilla? Click on New Applications>Internet. Select Mozilla Internet Suite and click on the Install link. Note that the application is installed across the Internet. So, the install experience with heavy packages like that of Mozilla (about 40 MB) depends on the speed of the Internet connection that you have. 

Bottom line: A very intuitive and uncluttered Linux distribution that works out of box. Its installation is easy, so is the
navigation across the system, launching and using applications.

If you want to run Windows applications, want to burn at speeds more than 4X and need manuals and technical support, then you will have to upgrade to a commercial edition (Standard, Deluxe or Business
editions) of Xandros. The Deluxe and Business editions ship with CrossOver Office and plugins that let you
run Windows applications such as IE, MS Office and Windows-based games. For more refer to www. 

xandros. com. 



Shekhar Govindarajan

IT4Enterprise