[sf-lug] installfest Sat. @ Rick Moen's in Menlo Park/ Xandros response

[Rick Moen]

Quoting bob sungib (ffejveg at yahoo.com):

> Got my pclinuxos cd in the mail today and I've decided to go down to
> the installfest @ Rick Moen's in Menlo Park tomorrow. The hours are
> listed as 4 pm to midnight. Anyone who wishes to join me would be
> welcome...I'll be taking Caltrain from 4th and Townsend to Menlo Park
> and walking to Rick's from the station.

I personally find that a pleasant walk, but it _is_ two miles, just to
make sure you're aware.  Hey, when I lived in SoMa, I would routinely 
walk to Fort Point and back in the evening while reading a novel (by way
of the Grace Cathedral plaza labyrinth and Telegraph Hill Park), but not
everyone's up for that.

I _do_ offer to drive down and pick people up at the station.  Details
including my 'phone number are on http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/ .  

> Regarding Xandros, I remember looking at it when evaluating all the
> distros last fall/winter to see which would be the best fit for me.
> Can't at the moment remember the exact reasons why it wasn't quite
> right but it did fit the bill in a lot of ways. I did a lot of
> research back then on all this and pclinuxos seemed the best. And yes,
> I realize I could be eating my words in three months! But for now this
> is what I want to start out on. 

The nice thing is, you can always try distro, then try another one,
etc., and all you lose is time.

Xandros Desktop OS is available in several editions, most of them what I
call "shrinkwrap retail", i.e., not lawful to redistribute by members of
the general public, because of included packages that are under
non-redistributable proprietary licensing terms.  For example, Adobe
Acrobat Reader and Macromedia Flash are not lawfully redistributable
except by authorised agents of their copyright holders.  Xandros Desktop
OS Deluxe Edition ($80 list price) and the new-ish Business Edition are the
top of the line[1], and include (in particular) Crossover Office, a
beefed-up proprietary fork of WINE (for running all possible Win32 apps
from within x86 Linux).  

Comparison matrix:  http://www.xandros.com/products/desktop_matrix.html
Comparison w/apps:  http://www.xandros.com/products/desktop_matrix_apps.html

One Xandros edition, Open Circulation Edition, is downloadable and
redistributable as long as you don't charge for access.  But of course
that means they chop out practically all of the proprietary "extras".

Under the hood, it's basically Debian with KDE.

PCLinuxOS is basically a KDE-oriented subset of Mandriva (a kitchen-sink
RPM-based desktop distro from France) provided on a live CD (and thus
fits 100% on one CD) with an installation-to-HD option.  If you check on
http://linuxmafia.com/cabal/installfest/#distros[2] , you'll see that it's
one of the few commonly mentioned distros that CABAL doesn't (yet) keep
around burned onto CDs/DVDs, for visitors to install with and duplicate.

I'm downloading the generic (no special wacky video drivers) PCLinux
OS p92 release, right now.  FYI, avoid that apparently rather wretched 
main download site in Belgium unless you want 2-hour download times.
I'm using the ibiblio mirror, instead
(http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/texstar/pclinuxos/live-cd/english/preview/)


[1] I'd be really surprised if the stores yet have the version 4.0 boxes
that Xandros released in late June.  They're probably frantically trying
to unload their v. 3.0 inventory.  Caveat emptor.

[2] If you want to duplicate any of those, bring blank media and
patience.  Or buy blank media from me at deliberately extortionate 
prices calculated to encourage people to bring their own blanks.  ;->