I'm a Linux user but not by any stretch of the imagination am I an expert. I have a job interning as the system administrator for a nonprofit organization and am the only Linux user in the whole building. A few days ago I read about XandrOS 2.0 on the net, then again in eWeek magazine. I decided to shell out the $89 and give it a try.

This distribution should put the fear of God into Microsoft. There's no fussing with config files to do Windows file & print sharing. On my home network it took 20 minutes to install and 4 minutes to set up sharing with my Windows PCs... including the printer which, for the first time ever with any of my Linux distros printed beautifully! It's a Lexmark Z52.

Next to Libranet, I've never found anything easier to install. The best thing, for all those Windows users afraid to leave the safety net of what's familiar, you can install and run Windows inside of XandrOS. This is what I'm doing so I can still run Adobe PhotShop.

I realize that the die-hard Slackers, BSD, and Gentoo users will find this distro mediocre but I've found info on MadPenguin that tells the right wing Linux crowd how to make XandrOS no different than any other Debian distro. For the rest of us who don't want to fuss with configuration files, and for the person aching to get away from the grasp of Microsoft, this is the answer and well worth the price.

My next step is going to be getting my work to adopt XandrOS by the end of 2004.

I've just tried Xandros and my review is here - http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...php?product=59
What worried me was the unpredictability of the install.

You could do with the benefit of that MadPenguin article on how to tweak XandrOS. There was a guide on using Synaptic. I guess I'm too much of a newbie to even attempt to fuss around with root files. I've configured a few files for Apache, Samba, and VSFTP server. That was a headache. I like how effortlessly XandrOS makes setting up Windows file & print sharing, which is a big plus when that's what you have to work with.

I too have a USB wheel optical mouse but had no trouble with it during setup. My trouble was with the install disk. It would spit out the cd and reboot. Then I changed my motherboard setting so that it wasn't on a plug & play OS. This seemed to do the trick. Another issue it had though, that I just discovered, is that it won't install XandrOS from my cd burner (ASUS 52X) but will from my DVD drive (ASUS 16X).

I'm wondering if your cd might have been a beta release. I had issues with hardware on my computer when I had Mandrake 9.1 beta. I'd like to see XandrOS utilize some of Libranet's hardware detection to which I've yet to see an equal.