LXer: Xandros 4: relief for Windows 98/ME orphans

LXer · 07-12-2006, 09:33 PM

Published at LXer:

Today, July 11, is the day Microsoft is ending all support for Windows 98, 98SE, and ME. And, when they say ending all support, they mean ending all support: "Microsoft will end public and technical support by this date. This also includes security updates."

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deancicca · 08-04-2006, 11:11 PM

I have bought X4 and installed twice. It is a complete disaster. DO NOT BUY OR INSTALL THIS! If you want Xandros stick with X3. Support is nowhere to be found either. This release is definatly not for a windoze user.

I already started a nasty thread over a Xandros about this release.

slacker9876 · 08-05-2006, 10:48 AM

As could be said about any distribution on a given platform, there could be issues. In fairness, I would also like to convey my experience with Xandros Home Edition - Premium:

I have one of the newer Compaq laptops available from Sam's club, the Presario V2000. I have spent the better part of the last 6 months trying to find a distro that will work with it. I have tried and hacked up Mandriva 2006, Suse 9.3, Suse 10, Fedora, Ubuntu and of course Xandros 4. I am SO GLAD that I found this distro!!! It is the only one where all of my hardware worked right "out of the box."

After getting Kubuntu 6.06 working fairly well on this same hardware, I would note that the only reason Xandros worked so well is its very limited packages. It does however have everything I need, but not everything I want.

If you are a power Linux user, no this distro is not for you. If you are a windows user or just someone who wants to try Linux ... I would say this is your best option. You will be able to learn the basics of Linux before trying other distros.

slacker9876 · 08-05-2006, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deancicca

I have bought X4 and installed twice. It is a complete disaster. DO NOT BUY OR INSTALL THIS! If you want Xandros stick with X3. Support is nowhere to be found either. This release is definatly not for a windoze user.

I already started a nasty thread over a Xandros about this release.

What issues did you experience and on what kind of hardware?

deancicca · 08-05-2006, 11:44 AM

I put X4 on my laptop. Which is an Acer Aspire 3005 wlmi. X3 worked perfectly!!!!! The only problem I had was that the volume controls didn't work, either on the keyboard itself or in the sound mixer. You could only control volume control with the headphone slider. That as more to do with alsa and is fixed in the 1.0.11 release.

My X3 setup was great, Xmms was preloaded as was xine. Both worked out of the box without a hitch, not one. Installed kaffeine (not a problem there either) mplayer and the plugin ( still no problems). Kde worked as it should with no glitches whatsoever. Firefox worked, not a problem. Kde was Aok as well.

Now on to X4 and the supposed multimedia experience and upgrade it is not! X4 is loaded with past problems from kde that was fixed in X3 but apparently ignored in X4. Such as file associations not staying, not being able to choose what applications you want to open what.

Gone in X4 is xmms and has been replaced with music manager ( nothing more than a glorified amarok) which by the way is loaded with flaws and problems. Do not load any internet applications from Xandros for they will be nothing but problems. Firefox is about 3 releases behind and it doesn't give you the option of updating it. Not too mention whatever Xandros does to applications to "tweak" them for their system you cannot always use upgraded applications or it will render your system inoperable. Way to go guys!

I used to be able to watch embedded videos on Yahoo and cnn with X3, sorry NOT with X4 you don't. Xmms is constantly giving error messages, xine barely plays a dvd and kaffeine does nothing but crash now. Realplayer works sometimes, but most of the time I would say not.

You can't use XN (xandros copy of synaptic) to upgrade anything because most of the stuff is outdated or tweaked beyond usability.

How about we talk about boot time now. In X3 I was booted and ready to go in under 45 seconds. In X4 let's just say I could cook a 3 minute egg and still have time to pour something to drink before the login screen appears.

Let us not forget about their socalled support. I wrote to them about the kde association problem and they told me to right click and choose use this application all the time. Well, thanks for the help! Since nothing is being saved that'll work. Right. Wrote back to them not once, twice but three times to hear nothing. Others on the board have been writing them as well to not even get an auto response from them. They haven't even posted one thing saying they realize there are problems and they are working on correcting them. Nothing, not a peep. Xandros is not free and I even got the premium at $80. I don't mind supporting distros but when you come out with a release make sure that you fixed flaws that were problems in other releases first. This is just common sense.

Xandros "tweaks" kde and other applications for their system. So going to kde and loading in things that may fix problems does not work, you will crash xandros. People have also stated that they beta tested things and it worked in beta. When the release came out, they now don't work. Why? What did they do? Xandros took a very good version (X3) of their distro and completely destroyed it. All that was really needed was upgrading the kernel, kde, adding and upgrading additional drivers and updating their applications in XN. Why they decided to completely redo the entire distro is beyond comprehension.

Broken packages, broken applications, missing basic applications, "tweaked" beyond repair applications. X4 was just not ready to be released at all. It is a complete and utter disaster!

I still have X3 on my desktop and I have NO intention of "upgrading" to X4 and trashing my desktop as well. NO THANK YOU! It runs perfectly just the way it is.

X4 is definately NOT for someone just switching over to linux. X3 would be your best bet. There are people on the forums now complaining of problems who are way way wayyyyy more advanced than myself and can't seem to fix this. If by basic you mean only being able to say watch it boot up then you're right X4 is for you. If you want to actually use firefox to see and read things, play videos from sites or dvd, play music or games, use instant messenging programs or use open office I suggest using X3 or another distro.

slacker9876 · 08-06-2006, 01:40 PM

I still did not hear about any hardware (the hard part of linux) not working. It looks like you mostly do not enjoy the newer version due to changes. Even Windows 2000 and XP had differences. Perhaps you should stick with X3 like you propose.

I stand behind my post that X4 is a great alternative for those who have lost support for 98 & ME, which is the topic. I never used X3, but I have used X4 and it is the only distro I have tried where all my goodies worked out of the box. This was not the case with Mandriva, SuSE, Fedora or Ubuntu. In fact two of those required special install parameters where an amateur (like me) gets really lost!!!

I understand what you are saying, I just feel your advise my be incorrect. I say this as a 13 year veteran of the IT workforce.

deancicca · 08-06-2006, 02:58 PM

Well the topic is X4 is relief for windoze users. So I am right on topic. It certainly is not. X3 would be a better way to go is my point. As a user of both X3 and X4, X3 is way better out of the box. No I didn't have hardware issues though others have. X3 on the other hand had very very few hardware issues. X4 even though it is touted as an "upgrade" is still far behind in actual up to date applications which make for too many issues.

On X3 the main complaints about getting apps to work was dependency issues. X4 it has become a whole host of issues. As you state with someone with "13 years as a veteran in IT" you should know that most windoze users do not know how to do anything but hit yes or no. So that being the case and the flaws being very advanced even for the seasoned linux user how do you propose that a newbie just trying linux will fare? Not very well and in fact will most likely make them hate linux never to return. The fact they released this with flaws that were fixed in previous releases is horrible. They should not tout this release to windoze converts until they have updates to fix the problems, bottom line.

slacker9876 · 08-06-2006, 04:08 PM

I am not arguing that what you are saying is not valid for your situation. I am saying that I have found the first distro that actually works ... period. For a laptop, this is nothing short of incredible, based upon my personal experience.

As far as X4 being viable for 98/ME people, it is. I have no broken packages, no broken hardware and no broken anything. This is for my situation, granted, but I had to do nothing to install and little to configure. Someone who has not used X3 would have no way of knowing X4 is broken ... as is my situation ... I am using it to post this very reply and I am nothing but pleased. It is not like I am using it to surf the web and nothing else, check out my processes:

Code:

  PID TTY      STAT   TIME COMMAND
    1 ?        S      0:00 init [2]
    2 ?        S      0:00 [migration/0]
    3 ?        SN     0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
    4 ?        S<     0:01 [events/0]
    5 ?        S<     0:00 [khelper]
    6 ?        S<     0:00 [kthread]
    8 ?        S<     0:00 [kblockd/0]
    9 ?        S<     0:00 [kacpid]
  129 ?        S      0:00 [pdflush]
  130 ?        S      0:00 [pdflush]
  132 ?        S<     0:00 [aio/0]
  131 ?        S      0:00 [kswapd0]
  722 ?        S<     0:00 [kseriod]
  957 ?        S      0:00 [kjournald]
 1028 ?        S<s    0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
 2916 ?        S<s    0:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth0 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
 2917 ?        S      0:00 [pccardd]
 2923 ?        S      0:00 [khpsbpkt]
 2932 ?        S      0:00 [knodemgrd_0]
 2940 ?        S<     0:00 [wq/tifm0/0]
 2948 ?        S<     0:00 [khubd]
 2952 ?        S<     0:00 [wrap_wq]
 2953 ?        S<     0:00 [ndis_wq]
 2977 ?        S<s    0:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth1 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
 3010 ?        S<     0:00 [kmirrord]
 3353 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/cardmgr
 3802 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/portmap
 4076 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/syslogd
 4080 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/klogd
 4271 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/acpid -c /etc/acpi/events -s /var/run/acpid.socket
 4290 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd -F
 4294 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon-1 --system
 4310 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth0 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
 4317 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/ifplugd -i eth1 -q -f -u0 -d10 -w -I
 4382 ?        S      0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe
 4419 ?        S      0:00 /usr/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --user=mysql --pid-file=/var/run/
 4420 ?        S      0:00 logger -p daemon.err -t mysqld_safe -i -t mysqld
 4565 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/postfix/master
 4591 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
 4601 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/X11/xfs -daemon
 4694 ?        S      0:00 /bin/bash /etc/rc2.d/S20xprint start
 4700 ?        S      0:00 /bin/bash /etc/rc2.d/S20xprint start
 4701 ?        S      0:00 /usr/X11R6/bin/Xprt -ac -pn -nolisten tcp -audit 4 -fp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1,/usr
 4704 ?        S      0:00 /bin/bash /etc/rc2.d/S20xprint start
 4735 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/rpc.statd
 4755 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/mdadm -F -i /var/run/mdadm.pid -m root -f -s
 4759 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/rpc.nfsd
 4761 ?        S      0:00 /usr/sbin/rpc.mountd -P 703
 4768 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
 4772 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
 4782 ?        S      0:00 /usr/sbin/dvmonitor -d /var/tmp/dvmonitor.pid -qQ -f /usr/share/davinci/dvmonitor/dvmonito
 4786 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/XandrosSMA
 4788 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/kdm
 4832 tty7     RLs+   0:37 /usr/X11R6/bin/X -nolisten tcp -dpi 96 :0 vt7 -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-VKYGsG
 4840 tty1     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
 4841 tty2     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
 4842 tty3     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
 4843 tty4     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
 4844 tty5     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
 4845 tty6     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
 4854 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/XandrosSMA
 4855 ?        S      0:00 -:0
 4859 ?        SN     0:00 /usr/sbin/automount --pid-file=/var/run/autofs/hdc.pidfile --timeout=3 /var/autofs/cdrom.1
 4886 ?        S      0:00 SMA/XandrosUpdateBa
 5406 ?        S      0:00 [netserv]
 5408 ?        Ss     0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/x-session-manager
 5473 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent x-session-manager
 5500 ?        Ss     0:00 kdeinit Running...
 5506 ?        S      0:00 dcopserver [kdeinit] --nosid
 5514 ?        S      0:00 klauncher [kdeinit]
 5518 ?        S      0:03 kded [kdeinit]
 5535 ?        S      0:01 /usr/bin/artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -s 5 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi -l 3 -f
 5537 ?        S      0:00 kaccess [kdeinit]
 5538 ?        S      0:00 kwrapper ksmserver
 5540 ?        S      0:00 ksmserver [kdeinit]
 5543 ?        S      0:00 kwin [kdeinit]
 5551 ?        S      0:01 knotify [kdeinit]
 5555 ?        S      0:00 khotkeys [kdeinit]
 5563 ?        S      0:02 kdesktop [kdeinit]
 5566 ?        S      0:00 hotkeys --no-splash
 5568 ?        S      0:15 kicker [kdeinit]
 5570 ?        S      0:00 kio_file [kdeinit] file /tmp/ksocket-chris/klauncherUTfFMb.slave-socket /tmp/ksocket-chris
 5571 ?        S      0:00 gnome-settings-daemon
 5575 ?        Ss     0:00 autorun
 5578 ?        S      0:00 xav --starthidden
 5581 ?        S      0:01 xss --hide
 5590 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/XandrosUpdateApp --update-status
 5632 ?        S      0:02 /usr/bin/kmix
 5661 ?        S      0:00 /usr/lib/gconf2/gconfd-2 14
 6274 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/bonobo-activation/bonobo-activation-server --ac-activate --ior-output-fd=20
 7661 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/bin/xandrosncs-agent lan2
 7696 ?        Z      0:00 [rm] <defunct>
 9173 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/kdesktop_lock
 9720 ?        Z      0:00 [rm] <defunct>
 9757 ?        S      0:00 pickup -l -t fifo -u -c
 9758 ?        S      0:00 qmgr -l -t fifo -u -c
 9955 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/wpa_supplicant -Bt -i eth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.eth1 -D wext
10123 ?        Ss     0:00 dhclient3 -cf /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.lan2.conf -pf /var/run/dhclient.eth1.pid -lf /var/run/dh
10290 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D
10293 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
10295 ?        S      0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
11122 ?        S      0:21 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
11633 ?        R      0:00 konsole [kdeinit]
11634 pts/1    Ss     0:00 /bin/bash
11643 pts/1    R+     0:00 ps -ax

So my opinion remains the same. You and I will stop arguing (well I'll not participate) and allow other to post their experience. However, I would think that with no Xandros forum here and their own on their site ... this will be of little consequence.