I’ve been playing recently with a copy of the Open Circulation Edition (a.k.a. free) version of Xandros Desktop version 3. Pretty cool system.
I’d used Xandros v1 and v1.1 a couple years ago, so I knew to expect a smooth-running, graphical desktop that was an easy transition from Windows. Now, with version 3, Xandros has come out with a real winner.
Out of the box, it supported my Dell Inspiron 8600 notebook when I chose one of its standard install options. It will even make space on your hard drive for the Linux partitions, although I made the space myself before the installation.
With the huge number of free, open-source programs programs, home and business users shouldn’t feel locked into Microsoft’s programs. If you want a free office suite that will do spreadsheets, wordprocessing, presentations and drawings, then OpenOffice.org is the one for you — and it’s included on the Xandros CD. If you want a fantastic web browser, then you can use Mozilla Firefox, Konqueror or any of the other browsers available for Linux.
If you really need to run some Windows programs, the WINE windows emulator let’s you run many of them under Linux. If you insist on running Microsoft Office, you can purchase a license for Crossover-Office, which is a third-party tool that makes Office run within Linux — but why bother? OpenOffice will read and write in standard Office formats!
Xandros even has an easy tool for searching for and installing additional programs. Xandros is Linux aimed at the home and business desktop user, not at the computer geek and webserver market. It’s out there now!