Linux XP 2006
An updated version of Linux XP was released on December 21 and since then I had been waiting for an English release. There was an English directory on the mirror, so I thought one would be forthcoming. I gave up. I downloaded the Russian version and was able to get it to display in English with a few mouse clicks. So don't let the fact it's a Russian distro throw you off. Test it out anyway... if you want a distro that is based on Fedora/Redhat, comes with a 2.6.10 kernel, Xorg 6.8.1, and gnome 2.12, yet looks remarkably like KDE meets Windows.
Linux XP Professional Edition is described as "a universal and secure operating system for Russian speakers designed for home and business use. It is based on freely available sources from Red Hat Linux and Fedora Core."
The installer is anancoda. As Linux XP is based on Redhat, this is expected. It's not really dressed up very much, although the in-flight slide-show was customized for Linux XP. I couldn't read much of it other than the occasional "Linux XP" or "Red Hat", but it was interesting. I could make out that a lot of it was advertising, and some were an introduction to the system through a few screenshots. The installer is a simplified version I do believe, it asks very few questions. I recall a chance to set up partitions and it asking for a root password, but that was about it. That was enough really. ...if you don't mind running as root. (or setting up your own user after initial boot). There was no network config and after boot, it couldn't bring up the network and then I realized, "hey, there's no nic in that machine!" No wonder... <pause to install nic>.
OK, back to your regularly scheduled review:
As stated, the desktop under English looks very Windows like, but we expected that given the chosen name of the distro: LinuxXP. But it looks more like windows 95/98 than XP. However, they've added a nice theme that makes the widgets kinda 3D and a nice start button. The icons are a bit ...yuk, but after you change the Language, they are of little consequence.
To change the language easily, click on the start button and navigate to the menu item that has a windows' colored logo and the words Linux XP. This will be the control center. When it starts, navigate to the icon in the menu frame that has an American and the (politically correct term for) Russian Flag. You will see three icons, two with flags again. Click on the first one and you will be presented with two readable choices: Russian and English. Click English and restart gnome. (No other boot options are necessary as the default system locale is C, and "us,ru" is in xorg.conf.) There is also an option in the login screen for choosing your language, but one doesn't see that initially because one is logged in automatically as root.
Even after finally changing the language, I still couldn't find a terminal in the menu. However Linux XP does come with gnome-terminal and one can start it from the "Run application" menu item. I looked and looked and was not able to find an application to edit the menu. I looked even longer and harder and wasn't able to ascertain where Linux XP stores its menu list/settings. So, as a result, I'm stuck starting the terminal from the run menu. I wish you better luck.
Speaking of menus, they are quite sparce. There seems to be applications for most popular tasks, but they are clearly aimed at the average "I use my computer to email, im, surf the internet..." kinda person. There are applications to:
- (un)tar/(un)zip file, calculate, look up words, light editing, and syncing with a palm
- edit images and look at photos
- file share, email, surf, im, irc, and video conference
- listen to cds, radio, tv, and watch movies
- draw diagrams and manage projects
There is a software installer/system update application in the Linux XP Control Panel. There was an update available already and a few extra applications available to install. Some included wesnoth, inkscape, skype, and mplayer. For office applications I found Abiword and oo2 (which I assumed to be OpenOffice.org 2.x) listed as available, but OpenOffice must not really be present on their mirrors as my request to install it went ignored. The software installation program seemed to function quite nicely and it looked remarkably like the one I remember from the old Windows days. However, some application(s) didn't show up in the menu, although I was asked about it. An item appeared for Abiword in the menu after reboot, but it did not function. Trying to execute abiword from commandline resulted in an "error while loading shared libraries: libfribidi.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory." I tested the installer with xcdroast as well and although no menu entry appeared, a shortcut did appear on the desktop and it did function, albeit with a non-root operation warning and having to set up the cdrw device manually due to its scanning for obsolete scsi emulation.
During the software installation, a popup appeared that stated something about "my Linux XP wasn't activated, that I had 96 boots left. I could activate thru the control panel > activation". I wasn't able to ascertain the cost of this activation as the site is in Russian. As such, this whole system activation thing put a damper on the whole experience. But with 99 boots, I suppose one could put off activation for quite a while.
The update function installed a "Pack 1," then I was given some kind of information in Russian. When clicked "okay," the system rebooted. Upon reboot, the file browser, eye of gnome and the gnome-terminal opened on the desktop. I shutdown with only the terminal and updater open. The network did not function again as well.
To bring up the network I could run dhclient from the commandline, but I suppose we need to set it up to come up at boot. The network option was already "checked" in the start up services configuration, so setting it up in the Linux XP Control Panel was in order.
The Linux XP Control Panel looks very much like the PCLinuxOS or Mandriva Control Panels, and it has similar capabilities. Perhaps not as extensive and inclusive, but one can set up their basic system with this nice neat app.
The menus were what one might think of as sparcely populated. Linux XP includes about one program per task. For example, they chose firefox for the browsing app, evolution for email, gimp for image manipulation, gaim for instant messaging, and totem for movie playing.
Hardware detection was adequate although my network interface card was not picked up when installed after system install. I do not know if it would have been detected and set up during the system installation or not. Regardless it wasn't much trouble setting it up later in the Control Panel. The machine I tested on was a simple machine relegated to the ranks of spare. I commonly have trouble with anacoda and my main desktop system (specifically my harddrive geometries & partition blocks), and Linux XP continued that tradition. As a result, I installed Linux XP 2006 onto an old ata 66 Maxtor harddrive using a system equiped with a Pentium3 667, 256 mb ram and ati rage 128 video card sitting on an intel 815 chipset mobo.
The performance of Linux XP on this old system was surprising. Given the low specifications of the test machine, I fully expected Linux XP to be quite sluggish. This was not the case. In fact it was amazingly peppy. I was not able to test movie file handling and no flash plugin was included (or functional), however java did just fine.
In conclusion, I found Linux XP to be an adequate system for someone with modest requirements, for example perhaps that teenager who wants to im and listen to music but keeps downloading virii, spyware, and trojans or your granny who only wants to write a few letters, email and look at some pics of the grandkids. I see it as an admirable attempt to sway Windows users towards Linux, and I think Linux XP may have accomplished that. It's appearance would not throw any Windows user into a tailspin of confusion. It was an easy install, easy configuration and easy use. I rather liked it for what it was. Although it has all the feel of a commercial product. The only major drawback seems to the the time limit requiring an activation code (I wonder what would happen after 99 boots). For the right market, Linux XP has a definite use. For experienced users, it's a nice novelty to load up, look at, and then boot back to your normal system. I can't see myself switching. But perhaps you know someone who will.
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www.linux-xp.com was defaced on account of anti-GPL article (in russian) on the web-site...
I can`t traslate this article now because site temporarily down
http://www.zone-h.org/en/defacements/view/id=3185632/
http://www.zone-h.org/en/defacements/view/id=3185633/
http://www.zone-h.org/en/defacements/view/id=3185624/
They deserve to be defaced, n
They deserve to be defaced, no doubt
Translating their articles and license agreement is not an easy task - the guys are productive as Osho, and like to act 90 to 10 scheme - 90 percent of reasonable ideas, mixed with 10 percent of poison making all the stuff evil. Revied here LinXP pro is different, but I want to cover the next stage of this product - Linux-XP desktop, which was the reason for deface.
1. Product. Nothing bad about it, except one thing. In fact it is FC3, with some patches applyed for better russian language support and some proprietory programs (java-based) added - in fact nothing serious, mainly related installation-upgrade process. Desktop theme - "inspired by Linspire", that's all I can say. Not bad, but not my style. Definetly better than default Gnome though. Still could not find anything exceptional in this project, making it close to the distro's they mention as their look-alikes - Xandros and Linspire. No commercial products as CrossoverOffice or StarOffice included, just GPLed soft. But now to the bad thing - the bastards think that their closed-source java update utility give them right to sell GPLed soft as their proprietory product. So they included the hardware analysing module, which require you to activate on their site - same way as WinXP do. And in case you don't - or change a network card for example - it will lock your user ID's (all of them!!!) - in 99 boot-ups (or 30 - depending on version).
Now back to the ideology. The
Now back to the ideology. They have 3 main documents - Linux-XP manifesto, anti-GPL and "who are the real enemies of Linux".
The ideas there are pretty contradictory - so do not seek for logick there except the one - everything that give us money is good, anything that prevent us on getting money - is evil. So point:
1)There is no God but Microsoft and Windows is his messenger. Unix way is dead, long live Windows way!. Strange that those guys sell linux.
2) All they do according to their manifest - they do not together with other linux community - but contrary to it. They claim that they are increassing the linux userbase, improving usability, stability, everything - again contrary to "many other developers/vendors/distributors". So according to their manifesto all other vendors do is making Linux unusable, and all other linuxes are usable only for "unix guru's with long beards and green-on-black terminals" - only Linux XP have user-frendly GUI. It is standard Gnome by the way - but if you are a novice in Linux - you may thing it is special Linux-XP mega-super-GUI, developed by Linux-Online Inc.
3) All the software worth looking at it was developed by professional developers who are being paid for what they develop. Nothing good was done for free, and if you are developing "just for fun" or for any other reason except selling youy code - you are not a professional, but a freak. And your program has no chance to be usable. Mr. Torvalds, guess who you are according to Linux-XP manifesto? Yeah, you are the enemy of linux - because you developed the kernel for free.
So - as a logical conclusion of this - the source code should belong to developer and never be released - because with open source code any freak can develop software for free and do whatever he wants with it. According to Linux-XP manifesto this leads to a lot of dead projects and a lot of choices for end user, which is bad - so close the source!
So that's a philosofy - free software is bad, open source is even worse, linux is ugly - but we trust in linux future, and we improve this - you will get no source, no choice of packages, no freedom (you need to activate!!!).
And the final comment on lice
And the final comment on license. Those bastards are pretty smart - in the way to protect themselves from a lawsuite. So they made some comments to a license agreement - "only system components released under GPL may be redistributed according to their license".
But the EULA - never!!! mention any developers, vendors, copyright holders except Linux-Online. So Linux-XP - modular system composed from many different components - is given as a monolite product by Linux-Online and on "superior" conditions.
Those condidtions are YOU MAY NOT IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES REDISTRIBUTE the components of the system. YOU HAVE TO REPOT YOUR HARDWARE CONFIGURATION to Linux-Online. You can use the system only on one computer. The only situation when you are permitted to install Linux-XP on other hardware configuration is UNRECOVERABLE DAMAGE of the PC you had registered it initially. More than that, EULA require you - if you want to continue to use you Linux-XP license on a replacement machine - to buy the hardware from the SAME HARDWARE VENDOR. And those restrictions apply - reminding you again - to the system as a whole, not just proprietary components.
So - that is what linux-XP is. So remember - buying this product you sponsor the company, which hate open-source and freedom and dreaming of becoming a new SCO. So think twice - before you give a single penny for Linux-XP.
A great review of LinuxXP without Russian(rushing) ?
As usual, many Linux distros are not English but derived their distros from english Linux distros. After simplification and streamlining, they could make the Linux version commercial for their efforts. Some may even succeed. They need more sophisticated consultations, more likely. But this Russion approach may be the beginning of using their portal to activate and run the operating system thru their own portal deriving more revenue. Interesting approach, if they succeed.
The Linux community has two fronts, those who hate Microsoft and those who hate commercial Linux not supporting open source. However, most of these groups are slowly realizing that the open sourced approach can not be locked down, to be bug free Linux operating system. Only the commercial versions can afford the expense to keep their operating system both up to date and free of bugs(locked down by proprietary codes). Enough said here. On patents and copyrights to GNU license; laws have to be obeyed; Linspire forced copier to give up his linux release. But if the copier not only remove the trademark then stick to Debian Sid release with Debian Gnu licence; Linspire can not force him to give up because of license from Misrosoft and others than GNU. It is never idealism, or personal opinion even in Russia(except you have to have trademarks, patents and copyrights protected by their law in Russia; in other words, hire a Russian lawyer to protect your property).
Still I am a bit idealistic h
Still I am a bit idealistic here - and hope that they will not succeed uless they learn to respect other people efforts. I've seen commercial distros like Xandros and Linspire - and this companies have much more work done on the distros first of all, and they do not claim to be the exlusive authors and owners of linux - but, unlikely those pirats, claim thir system to be modular where each module is provided by its author and covered by it's own license. Some of them free ond opensourced, some of them not, and only proprietory modules are a subject of activation/limitation etc, and only those modules are copyrighted by Xandros-Linspire - they do not license you glibc or linux kernel or Gnome at the terms of commercial software.
That's - unfortunately - the big problem in Russia. Nobody respects licenses here - except the ones they own. SO that gus force their license all the way they can - but do not even give a shit to other licenses and copyrights - and think that GPL means "do whatever you want".
More fun from "commercial product"
From LinXP forum. Those guys did not even set up ndiswrapper for their top product. Native support for wifi cards like rt2500 or Atheros they did not install either. Not a big deal for other linux distros - you go - download driver - install. But not for linux XP. Why? Oh, that's so simple - by the license agreement if you modify kernel (it is binary only - so if you want a new module to be built you have to build a kernel from source) , you've got no support you paid for. All you have to do is to wait for the next distro release. Great, isn't it?
Don't use the non-free
So, this distributive is absolutely non-free. If you want to use the non-free software - take Windows. It's really the best of the all non-free products. But if you want free software and Linux - this distributive is not your choice.
P.S. At the DistroWatch.com you can read:
Price (US$) Free
Free download ISO
Hmm, you should be warned: it's non-free. It's the trial version (90 times booting) which can be installed to the ONE computer only. The license payment is approx. 9 USD at the each copy of LXP.
So, now you should think.
I need a cd key for my linux xp 2006
Do you have a cd key for my linux xp 2006
re: cd key for linux xp 2006
Do you have a cd key for my linux xp 2006
No, sorry, I just evaluated the free trial version that was good for like 99 reboots or something. I think you got to buy those.
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You talk the talk, but do you waddle the waddle?