Software Free

Today Linux desktop manufacturer Xandros acquired Linspire for an undisclosed amount. Xandros will also be keeping existing engineering, support, and key sales employees and long-time Linspire employee and CEO Larry Kettler will be joining the Xandros executive team as the VP of Business Development. While Xandros didn’t mention their total employee numbers Xandros CEO Andreas [...]

This message on the Debian Eee PC mailing list reveals that Asus and Debian are working together, or at least planning to, on software for the Eee PC. This, presumably, means that future versions of the Eee PC could run a modified version of Debian, rather than a modified version of Xandros, as they currently do.

I think the Asus Eee PC is a fab - and significant - machine, but have never really liked the Xandros distro it uses. Imagine how much better it would be if it used something mainstream like Debian. Maybe we don't have to imagine:

I just received an encouraging note from Ellis Wang of Asus in Taiwan following up on Martin Michlmayr's suggestions to Asus about how they could work more closely with the Debian community. Ellis has assigned Robert Huang the task of putting a working relationship in place between Asus and Debian, with backup provided by five other Asus employees.

Here's hoping.... (Via Linux Loop.)

ASUS today has provided PC World and other guests at a company-run seminar their first glimpse of its Eee Monitor all-in-one PC and confirms an iMac-like design that should cost less than half the price of its Apple-made rival.

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• openSUSE Spotlight » The most popular Linux desktop? The numbers might surprise you - Acccording to Joe: Xandros in about 4th place, but closing rapidly. Ubuntu, unfortunately, doesn’t track —but Mark Shuttleworth has been quoted a couple of times as saying that they have 6 million or 8 million users.
• Canonical makes Ubuntu Netbook Remix official at Computex - Engadget - Canonical has chosen Computex as the expo where it will officially showcase Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Hailed as a “reworked desktop image of Ubuntu built specifically for a new category of portable internet-centric devices
• Xandros Adopts Moblin for 25% Battery Boost on Netbooks - Xandros Works with Intel and Moblin to Bring Energy-efficient Internet Experience to Intel Atom Processor-based Netbooks
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Source: Socialized Software

• openSUSE Spotlight ?? The most popular Linux desktop? The numbers might surprise you - Acccording to Joe: Xandros in about 4th place, but closing rapidly. Ubuntu, unfortunately, doesn???t track ???but Mark Shuttleworth has been quoted a couple of times as saying that they have 6 million or 8 million users.
• Canonical makes Ubuntu Netbook Remix official at Computex - Engadget - Canonical has chosen Computex as the expo where it will officially showcase Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Hailed as a “reworked desktop image of Ubuntu built specifically for a new category of portable internet-centric devices
• Xandros Adopts Moblin for 25% Battery Boost on Netbooks - Xandros Works with Intel and Moblin to Bring Energy-efficient Internet Experience to Intel Atom Processor-based Netbooks
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Source: Socialized Software

Techtarget.com may be delivering this news a little too late, but it incorporates some quotes which the publisher sought from Red Hat, Xandros, Novell and some so-called ‘analyst’.

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A certain pattern has become a bit difficult to ignore. It would be easy to just let it pass or make a quick observation (as we did several times before), but this has gone on for too long and it cannot be coincidence.

The good news:

Xandros is known for its Windows-like Linux distribution, which has been dubbed by one DesktopLinux reviewer as "the best Linux desktop distro for Windows users." Currently in version 4, the distro is bundled with the popular Asus Eee mini-notebook. Now apparently, the company plans to go after the even smaller format netbooks and the coming onslaught of tablet-like MIDs based on the Intel Mobile Internet Device spec, which appears to blur the lines between desktop and embedded realms.

And the bad news:

Earlier this week, Xandros announced a beta of its Xandros BridgeWays Management Packs at the Microsoft Management Summit. The new product follows up on a broad collaborative agreement between Xandros and Microsoft in June of last year, which included a somewhat controversial intellectual property assurance, similar to one hatched between Redmond and Novell, under which Microsoft will provide patent covenants for Xandros customers.

Sigh.

I don't normally blog about heavy developer issues, because that's not the focus here. But I think this news is important:

Asus has launched a software developer kit or SDK for the Eee PC. Let's ignore the fact that the Eee PC uses open source software, so you shouldn't really need an SDK to develop applications and just focus on the fact that this kit includes tools and instructions for writing applications that can be easily added to the Eee PC's easy mode interface.

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the SDK includes the following components:

* Xandros Desktop Open Circulation Version 4.5
* QT
* Eclipse
* QT plugin for Eclipse
* Debian packaging wizard developed by Xandros

The user guide also includes detailed instructions for creating applications and icons that will work in the Eee PC's Easy Mode interface.