Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos said Thursday his company did not agree that its Linux distribution violates any Microsoft patents nor did the software giant ask Xandros to do so as part of the patent cross-licensing deal the two signed Monday.

OVER the past few weeks we've seen a lot of Presto coverage but almost nothing else from Xandros*, which also contains Linspire now (it lumped up two patent deals with Microsoft).

Xandros Launches Presto, a $19 Linux Distribution that should have been just what the Netbook market needed to stave off Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Presto from Xandros just won't work with GNU/Linux and Xandros won't advertise it as such, either

Presto is a fast boot Linux operating system from Xandros. It is intended to be a complement to Microsoft Windows rather than a replacement. What makes Presto a bit of an oddball in the Linux world is than it can only be installed in Windows XP or Vista.

The thing that's disappointing to me is that they all have their own Linux distribution. As a matter of fact, the Eee PC I talk about so much, comes with a custom version of Xandros that is based on Xandros and KDE.

You can categorize most GNU/Linux distributions as either community or commercial. Community-based distributions like Debian, Fedora, or CentOS are maintained largely by volunteers and donations of services or money, while commercial distributions like Suse, Red Hat, or Xandros are backed by a company and compete directly against proprietary operating systems such as Windows and OS X.

Xandros has spent the better part of a decade trying to take Linux to the masses and build itself up as a serious contender in the commercial Linux racket. And now, after the advent of Linux-based netbooks and an evolving new class of devices that are being dubbed smartbooks, Xandros is getting another chance at going mainstream and taking Linux with it.

The Linux operating system is free; you can download it without paying any licensing fees. Despite this, Linux hasn't become a household name. Paradoxically, it may be the perceived dearth of commercial applications which is a cause.