I have been using KDE since version 1 came out and have always liked it over Gnome. Until recently, I would not even consider switching to or installing Gnome on my desktop. My choice of distributions always depended on a strong support of KDE: Mandriva, Xandros, PCLinuxOS, SuSE, etc.

"It should be widely known by now. No matter why, when and where, join MS and you will be dead." Abe
Richard Hillesley has just published "The lost world of the Xandros desktop," which is an article that looks at Xandros' past and present.

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 is a distribution of Linux descended from Debian and built on the Debian framework. Unlike Debian though, Xandros is built more with a profiteering mindset, a philosophy that has slowly alienated it from the Linux community, more so lately after their announced affiliation with Microsoft."

The latest release of the Xandros Linux desktop edition was in June 2006, which is several lifetimes in the history of Linux. Is this the end of the line for the Xandros desktop?

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 article I am writing is about PCLinuxOS, but probably is not very different for other Linux distributions. A few weeks ago I installed PCLinuxOS for the first time and was impressed by the ease of stabilizing my internet connection and the speed of installation. Since that first day PCLinuxOS managed to surprise me several other times.

I originally intended this post to be a review of 2007 Final for PCLinuxOS. However, after finishing it up, I realized that posting a review wouldn’t have the desired effect of truly showing off PCLinuxOS to everyone. It would just be a “business as usual” type of post. So, I decided to do a analysis on what I feel sets PCLinuxOS apart from many Linux distributions.

You may know of Xandros Linux; for many people exposure came through the Eee PC, with this being the distro chosen by Linux-turncoat ASUS. Yet, what is Xandros' stance on open source software? Might Xandros be a thinly-veiled Microsoft tout as Linspire reborn?