06.03.09

Xandros: “We Are Kind of Getting Away from Being a Linux Company”

Posted in GNU/Linux, Linspire, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Xandros at 4:23 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Potentially controversial remarks from a manager at Xandros

AFTER its patent deal with Microsoft, Novell became a .NET-oriented company that sells “patent royalties” (Microsoft’s name for SUSE vouchers). But another notable company that signed such a patent deal is Xandros, which later consumed another, namely Linspire. Xandros too has a history of leaning towards .NET (at the expense of GNU/Linux) after a deal with Microsoft.

Oddly enough, Xandros is assuming that Linspire users are Windows users (Linspire is now part of Xandros) and its representatives are publicly saying that they hide Presto's identity as Linux. It’s almost as though they are shy or embarrassed by the very software they exploit without pushing much (or anything) upstream.

Timothy from The Register has just caught another priceless quote from a Xandros manager:

While Xandros is not going to turn down a sale for any of its products, and it fully supports what it sells, just like other Linux distributors. Jordan Smith, product marketing manager for OEM solutions at Xandros, is perfectly frank about what Xandros is doing. “We are kind of getting away from being a Linux company, and we are more interested in presenting a user experience,” explains Smith. “Users don’t care about Linux.”

Truth be told, Xandros long ago moved away from its focus as a “[GNU/]Linux company”. Here are some of its press releases from recent days:

i. Xandros Discusses Application Stores and Ecosystems

Xandros has announced that key staff will present a birds-of-a-feather session on using standard Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) technologies to maximize maintainability on Application Stores projects at the Sun JavaOne conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, June 2, 2009. With the explosion of new mobile computing platforms, from smartphones to netbooks to e-book readers, an application store is no longer optional. It is a key contributor to the success of a platform.

ii. Xandros Creates Enhanced User Experience for Netbook Users With Moblin V2

Xandros today announced it is developing software products based on the recently released Moblin Version 2 project for Intel® Atom™ processor-based platforms. The new version of Moblin will enable Xandros to provide customizations with advanced Internet, media, social networking and graphics capabilities for the ASUS Eee PC. A turnkey Xandros software solution employing new Moblin v2 technologies will be demonstrated for the first time at the Intel booth at Computex, Taipei, Taiwan, June 2-6, 2009.

Accompanying new articles:

i. Xandros Discusses Application Stores and Ecosystems at JavaOne

Xandros today announced that key staff will present a birds-of-a-feather session on using standard Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) technologies to maximize maintainability on Application Stores projects at the Sun JavaOne conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, June 2, 2009. With the explosion of new mobile computing platforms, from smartphones to netbooks to e-book readers, an application store is no longer optional. It is a key contributor to the success of a platform.

ii. Asus unveils all-band 3G netbook running Google Android

It’s easy to see why Asus would continue to seek alternatives to Windows. Google’s Android is free, which helps in the ultra price-competitive netbook segment pioneered by Asus. It’s also economical on resources, and offers one click access to Google Apps online; handy if your netbook has next to no storage space.

[...]

Keeping its bets open, Asus also demo’d a second version of the SnapDragon netbook running Xandros Linux.

Other new coverage:

i. Xandros ‘Presto: No rabbit in this hat

Xandros has announced that key staff will present a birds-of-a-feather session on using standard Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) technologies to maximize maintainability on Application Stores projects at the Sun JavaOne conference, Moscone Center, San Francisco, June 2, 2009. With the explosion of new mobile computing platforms, from smartphones to netbooks to e-book readers, an application store is no longer optional. It is a key contributor to the success of a platform.

ii. Budget travel tech – stay connected on the move for less

I popped an extra 16Gb in the MMC/SD slot in the side, so I have a bit of room to stash personal files without having to worry about partitions on the SSD drive. So, the hardware is good, but the included Xandros OS failed to live up to expectations, so the time had finally arrived for me to start earning my place on this esteemed writing team, and properly get my head around Linux.

Xandros is still selling GNU/Linux, so it would be an exaggeration to say that Xandros, like ASUS, is moving away from GNU/Linux. It does show, however, the negative impact of Microsoft deals. Xandros is not respected among GNU/Linux users. █

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2 Comments

Ty Miles said,

June 3, 2009 at 8:36 am

Man I am glad someone else noticed this! Xandros sucks. They left their “Linux customers” hanging both those who bought their OS products (They have not updated in years) their server products (They have not updated in years) their Linspire customers and Freespire customers etc.

Microsoft has had a hand in the whole life of Xandros. If it were not for MS helping Corel back in the day they probally would of went out of business or they would of kept their Linux division. But as we can see since Corel got MS help they have not done anything Linux since, not even updating word perfect (Which could of been the default office suite over Open Office)

Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 3rd, 2009 at 8:41 am
Leadership was changed too. The usual “put cronies in charge” routine, at least on the face of it.

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