15 June '04 - + 16 - 26 My favorite Linux distro
After working in a few different Linux distros the past few days, I have decided on a favorite:
Xandros Open Circulation.
As a converted Windows user, I found that Xandros was a very natural
environment for me. Installed on a dual-boot system, Xandros
easily identified my Windows partitions, and created entries in
/etc/fstab for each seamlessly. For example, my C: drive was
mounted as /disks/C, and it even shows up in the Xandros File Manager
as a base drive (and the
File Manager
looks a lot like Windows Explorer - too much like the fancy XP Explorer
for my tastes, in fact). Xandros also recognized my printer (a
used Lexmark Z43) and CD-ROM drive flawlessly, a problem with some of
the other distros.
What really works well in Xandros, though, is the ability to install
new programs. This has always been a worry for me in migrating to
Linux, because running makes and handling package dependencies always
seemed troublesome. However,
Xandros Networks makes this easy. It's really just a nice client on top of Debian's apt-get, but it does it very well, as
other reviewers
have noted. One weakness is that the default source is Xandros's,
which is a limited mirror. For example, basic applications like
wine were unavailable by default (I suspect that particular choice is
because Xandros wants
users to buy CodeWeaver CrossOver from them). However, by adding
the
following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list, I'm able to access the
extensive
catalog of Debian's offerings:
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
The only other weakness I've found so far is a weird problem with my
scanner, a Microtek ScanmasterX6. It scans great, but the system
crashes when I turn off the scanner after I scan. I guess I'll
live with that.
So, what did I find with the other distributions?
- Lycoris Update 3 also had a Windows-friendly interface, but I couldn't find anything as helpful as Xandros Networks, so it didn't make the cut.
- Red Hat Fedora Core 2
is a major player with many packages installed from the CDs.
However, I couldn't get it to work with my printer, and sound didn't
always work.
- SuSE 9.1
was similarly loaded with packages on the CDs, but I had similar
problems with my sound. Also, the printer setup was difficult -
when I was done, I had a working printer, but the driver was
unacceptably slow.
In conclusion, Xandros Open Circulation is a freely-downloadable
distribution that presents a friendly interface for migrating Windows
users, and yet is has the full power of Debian behind it. I
suspect I'll use it for a long time, and now the challenge will be to
get my parents to migrate to Xandros from Windows.
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