Xandros 2.0 Community Edition

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Contents

Target Machine

Eurocom Viper D270S laptop

  • 1.7MHz CPU, 196MB RAM, SiS 650 VGA
  • Onboard NIC and 56K modem
  • USB, PCMCIA, etc.

Dual-boot with Windows XP on first partition.

Getting Xandros

Downloaded ISO from Xandros.com (full 650MB). Burned to CD.

Installing Xandros

Booted from CD into a slick installation environment. It correctly detected all hardware with the exception of the onboard "Winmodem" (no great loss as it needs a non-GPL binary driver to run).

Ran through the options in under 10 minutes, installed in under 30.

A quick reboot and Xandros was fully functional.

Running Xandros

A rather modified KDE is the desktop environment. All applications were in an easy-to-find location. Most default settings would be very comfortable for the average Windows user.

Installing new software is a snap with the Xandros Software Server application. The only drawback is that the application isn't that great over a slow link.

Most everyday tools were available, and readily recognisable in function.

Overall Impression

As a Desktop Operating System, specifically for migrating Window's users, Xandros is the perfect solution. Based on Debian, it has all the power of apt-get/dselect for administrators to be able to set up a non-standard installation, with all the ease-of-use modern GUI's can afford.