It has become clear (probably even to Xandros) that deals with Microsoft are simply a bad idea. Why are companies still fooled and why do they fail to learn from history? Perhaps some companies are desperate for anything that looks promising, or perhaps they just think alike (the 'Microsoft mindset'). Does Xandros now deserve the name "Xandrosoft". Evidence suggests that it may be so. DistroWatch Weekly sets the record straight and explains why Linux would be fine even without Xandros.

But even before this deal, Xandros had never been a community player (it has failed to release a single piece of its own software under a free licence) and the only raison d'être of this Canadian company was to profit from free software. And while its first two releases of Xandros Desktop brought some interesting advancements into desktop Linux, the company later abandoned its innovative spirit and desktop enthusiasm to focus on business Linux instead. Disappointing, to say the least, from a company that held so much promise in its early days....

The same cannot be said about Novell, which has clearly contributed a fair deal (e.g. Compiz, SLED's GNOME and KDE menus). Why are they escaping Free software though? Is it greed, confusion, or a combination thereof?