By Lou Dolinar
Second in a series
Updated Feb. 14, 2006

I keep a museum-quality collection of PCs around my house. Motherboards, graphic cards, memory, disks and so on are frequently upgraded, swapped, and replaced. Processors range from a 450 Mhz Celeron to the 1.2 Mhz Pentium on my laptop, to a pair of state-of-the-art Athon 64s, all with various releases of Windows. I hesitate to call my collection typical of the computing world in general, but it is probably is typical of the home users who follow this column.

A few years ago I installed the first release of Xandros Linux on this grungy menagerie. Or tried to. As I recall, one installation worked out of the box; another, after about a half-day of fiddling. The other computers wouldn’t run Linux at all, apparently because the drivers that came with Xandros didn’t support the hardware.

Not bad, says I, particularly since the functioning installations were faster and more stable than the Windows versions they replaced. A geek’s delight, but not quite ready for normal people.

Cut to a year ago and a second shot with Xandros Linux 1.1. I’ve had worse problems with Windows upgrades. I got Linux onto all four systems in a single morning, without a hitch. Average install time: under an hour. Networking and Internet hookup in particular was creepy good--I usually have to wade in to Windows manually to get a new PC to work on my home network, but these guys located the network card, installed the software and drivers, and set themselves up with IP addresses from the router automatically. Sharing disks to my PC collection was transparently simple.

Judging from my own experience, and from the reviews I’ve read, Xandros is the way to go if you’re looking for a painless (but not free) version of Linux and a complete suite of Linux software.

If you want to see how it works with your hardware, start with the Open Circulation edition, $10 for the standard web-based download, free if you download via BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing system. Xandros doesn't brag about the free stuff, so try their download page directly: http://www.xandros.com/about/downloads.html.

The standard edition costs 49.95 for an all-Linux system that includes an Open Office, a Microsoft Office-style applications package (word processor, spreadsheet, database, graphics) and pretty much everything else you’d get with a top-of the line Windows PC. The $89.95 deluxe edition adds a printed manual, and the ability to install it alongside an existing Windows XP version. It also includes Codeweavers Crossover Office, which lets you install Microsoft Office 2000 and pretend you’re running Windows. Finally, at $129, there’s a business edition that includes networking features to make it play well with others, and a commercial applications package, Star Office, that includes, gasp, real tech support from Sun. There’s more, of course, so read the fine print on features and support at www.xandros.com.

Depending on how you slice the salami, Microsoft’s versions of the above starts out at roughly $90, for an upgrade version of Windows XP with no applications, to upwards of $500 for a full version of Windows XP professional and Office 2003. If you need an operating system for an older PC, or a new one you’ve built from scratch, Xandros Linux is a bargain.

What does Xandros Linux look like? Pretty much anything you want. The graphical user interface (GUI) is largely independent from the underlying operating system; indeed, one of the great charms and efficiencies of Linux is that it can be run without a GUI, from a command line interface, just like good old MS-DOS. Most will probably prefer the Windows look. Instead of a Start button, you get a “Launch” button, but otherwise the File manager and usual Desktop icons and task bar hew fairly closely to the Mircrosoft models on which they are based.

With the basic apps that come with Xandros Linux, the learning curve is practically nonexistent, and Windows users will feel right at home.

Adding new applications isn’t quite as simple. Xandros maintains Xandros Networks, an extensive online library of free software, as well as some packages, like Sun’s Star Office, that you can buy and download. These install flawlessly, since Xandros controls the whole setup process. Problems arise when you go outside the Xandros universe, something the company warns about on its web site. At that point you’re in the command-line mode. Not that I mind, because I’m an old DOS head, but folks who have never seen a c> may be aghast. Still, I was able to get Limewire, a peer to peer file sharing program on the Gnutella network, up and running fairly quickly, even though it isn’t supported by Xandros.

Updates and security patches? Also handled by Xandros Networks, these install about as quickly and simply as Windows updates. The big difference--nowhere near as many of them as with Microsoft wares.

Overall, the operating system is rock solid and crash free. My daughter Ann ran it for over a year without a problem. Security is excellent because most viruses, worms, spy ware and adware are written specifically for Windows, and thus, won’t run on it. Before you decide to jump, however, wait til next week, when we look at software and compatibility issues.