Choosing a Distribution, Part VII

Choosing a Distribution, Part VII

Xandros is another distribution aimed at beginners. This one comes with support for Windows built in to help people with the transition, in the form of CodeWeavers products like CrossOver Office and CrossOver Plug-in. If you ever used Corel’s Linux distribution, Xandros is the company that Corel licensed that product to when it gave up on doing a distribution. This distribution’s hardware requirements are lower than those in Lindows, so my laptop actually meets them.

Once again, I’ll put on my newbie hat and see how it goes with my laptop. Time to open the box! Now there’s a good sign. This one actually comes with a manual. Not just one of those tiny quick start guides either. But, hey, I’m an end user. I don’t read manuals. So, let’s open up the disk pouch and get started.

On the back there’s a sticker that includes a link so you can read the full EULA (which is also in the box on its own sheet of paper) before opening up. That’s cool. Now what’s inside? Two CDs, one installation disk and one “technology review for advanced users,” along with a registration card with the info I’ll need to register the product. I’m not wearing my advanced user hat so I’ll stick with the Installation Disc. Let me pop that into the CD-ROM drive and reboot the machine.

There’s the Xandros installer’s boot screen. It gives me a steady stream of information so I know that it’s still starting the installation routine, which is good. Eventually I reach the pretty blue Xandros Installation Wizard’s Welcome screen. I click Next to proceed, accept the EULA, choose the Express Install (why make my life difficult?), enter the administrator password, and change the name used to identify the machine to something I like better.

It’s suggested to create a user account as well, so I do that too. After clicking Next, I get a summary of my setting, and a scary flashing red warning that my disk will be wiped once I click Finish. That’s fine, that’s the point! At least if I wanted I could click Back to check out my other options. There’s the usual handy explanation text as the installation progress bar marches on, and then I’m offered the chance to create a rescue disk or reboot. I’ll just reboot. Who needs a rescue disk? (Always create one! says the advanced user.)

This installer also gives me a big screen that says to remove the CD and then press Enter to restart. Smart stuff. I do so, and when it restarts, it gives me the option for the desktop, safe video mode, and configure (expert). No way do I want the expert! When I don’t touch anything it proceeds with the desktop boot. There’s a couple of beeps during hardware detection that I hope are a good thing, and then I ultimately see the login screen.

Time to try out my user account! I choose it from the handy drop-down list box, enter my password, and click Login. There’s even music as the desktop finishes loading.

So what have I got here? Ah, the usual First Run Wizard thingie. I tell it what hand I use my mouse with, set the usual language and keyboard information, select my location for the date and time information and tell it to automatically change the time when I change a time zone (pretty cool). After this, I come to the printer setup section. I have a printer but it’s a network printer. Let’s see if this works.

I click Add, tell it that this printer’s over the network, select Next, and it needs some information that I can only get from my (mythical) 13 yr old network administrator, so I’ll Cancel out of that for now. My mouse is giving me trouble so this is a bit of a chore, but I manage it and proceed to the System Behavior section. It seems I can tell my Linux system to behave like various operating systems, but I got Xandros so I could run Linux so I’ll stick with the defaults.

Next is registration. I’ll skip that for now. Then I see the Finish dialog. This offers me a chance to open the control center, to update the installation, or to finish the wizard. Let’s see if I can fix this mouse problem in the control center. I think a mouse is a peripheral, so I click on the Peripheral Devices menu item to see if it’s in that list. Yup, there it is.

I have to say that for a system that meets the minimum recommended hardware requirements, it’s pretty painfully slow!

Ah, there’s the mouse menu. There’s a second tab called “advanced” that I can try, so I’ll nervously look at that. Hmm, I don’t see anything useful there. I know I have a USB mouse, so maybe under USB devices in the Hardware Information section. I can’t find anything and the mouse is working, it’s just really slow and jerky, so I decide it must just be the slow machine.

After selecting File | Quit I’ll try the Xandros Networks update button. It seems to start, I get a little planet icon and everything, but then it seems to die. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but I guess I’ll just click Finish and get on with my life. I think I’ll start by surfing the web. Let’s see if that works. It doesn’t, and I’m wondering if this is a problem with the slow as hades laptop, so I’ll go try it on the faster machine I’m setting up for something else.

Boy, is that better! Works great. The Quick Start Guide has a nice Xandros tour, everything works as it should, and the installer finds that machine’s serial mouse with no problems. So, if you’re going to use Xandros, don’t use a lowly PII 450 laptop! Use a more modern machine.

Next week: What readers say about their Lindows experiences.