Seriously Considering Xandros
Awhile back I said that I was done with reviewing Linux distributions. I said that because I had nothing but bad luck getting any of the distros to work, and ultimately I had to replace a hard drive. Reviewing free software is fine, but when that free software suddenly costs a new HDD, well, that was going too far.
Today I have two drives running in my Windows XP Home machine. One is the new 100 GB drive that WinXP is on, and the other is an 80 GB drive for miscellaneous files. I also use it as my swap drive.
So what I’m toying with doing is installing Xandros to the 80 GB drive. I do have the ISO downloaded; in fact, it’s probably old by now. This is an idea that I’ve been toying with for awhile now.
I would love to get a working distro of Linux running. By “working” I don’t mean that it boots, I mean something that’s darn well worth being called a desktop operating system. You Linux elitist can just go away, this is not the blog that you’re looking for.
For the rest of us, my focus is finding a Linux distro that will work as a home desktop operating system without all of the needless fuss. I am a gamer so that’s a requirement for me, but I do realize that that’s not a requirement for everyone else. So first thing’s first: Working without the fuss!
That hasn’t happened yet. I have tried SuSE, Mandriva, Linspire, and Ubuntu. In every case I have had to edit system files to do something inanely stupid, such as setting the proper desktop resolution.
So why even consider Xandros? A friend of mine pretty much swears by it. He has also offered to let me take his Cedega for a test drive to see how games play since my PC is much more focused on gaming than his. So this could be a fine opportunity for me to give two decent reviews, assuming that things worked well enough for me to do so. 
I like the idea. It’s a fun though. I’m cautious, but I just may very well do it.
If you’re a Windows PC user who’s curious about what it’s like to switch to Linux from Windows, then this is one of the blogs that you want to read. Check the Linux category from the menu, and poke back to see if I get Xandros a swirl. I’m thinking about doing it, so chances are that I will.
~Steph
Topics: Waste Basket |
March 19th, 2006 at Mar 19, 06 | 4:53 am
Addendum to:
That, or things went seriously south!