The following is an Interview that was conducted over e-mail during the past week or so. Questions come from Tim Mullins & Jason Prince of DesktopOS.com the answers are by Rick Berenstein, Xandros Chairman & CTO, Ming Poon, VP for Software Development, and Stephen Harris, Director of Marketing & PR.
Thank you for agreeing to do this Interview with DesktopOS.com. I'll start with asking you to tell us about what Xandros has been planning for future releases. Can you tell us what the next product or software release is that will be coming out from Xandros in the near future?
Thank you for giving us this opportunity to address your readers. I take it by "future releases" you mean beyond the just released Open Circulation Edition, which we're terribly excited about.
Our defining product for the near term is the Xandros Desktop Management Server (xDMS), now in early beta. xDMS will make it incredibly easy to set up and deploy Linux desktops in enterprise environments with hundreds or even thousands of users. Hook the Xandros Business Desktop together with xDMS, and you've got not just the tools to transition desktop users to open source but the means to convert desktops en mass as well. xDMS will be a breakthrough product for Xandros that provides the most comprehensive desktop support in the industry to our core constituency - the desktop user.
Beyond that you’ll see a Xandros workgroup server which, like all other Xandros products, will integrate into heterogeneous networking environments and will be incredibly easy to use. As for future desktop OS releases, these will continue to evolve as the underlying technology matures, plus you'll be seeing some exciting new features which we can't disclose at this time. Some you won't see until the V3 release, but others will be made available to Xandros Networks subscribers as they roll out of QA.
How will xDMS compare with competing management solutions from competitors like Novell and Red Hat?
As far as we know, Novell does not have a Linux management solution yet. We will reserve our comment until we see what they are doing to do with their YAST effort. Red Hat Network does provide some provisioning capabilities if you buy all of their modules. However, it is more or less designed for the Linux server market where xDMS is designed to serve the desktop market for deployment and desktop management. For example, you can deploy and change e-mail client settings on thousands of systems all at once with a couple of mouse clicks in xDMS, whereas it is not the case or not supported at all in other competitor's product.
Regarding the Open Circulation Edition, could you please tell us more about it?
The Open Circulation Edition is a freely-distributable release largely based on the Standard Edition of the Xandros Desktop OS. Its license is strictly for non-commercial use and e-mail installation support is not included. It uses an ad-sponsored version of the Opera web browser and drag-and-drop CD burning speed is limited to the minimum burning speed of your CD burner.
Where can we download the Open Circulation Edition of Xandros?
For further Open Circulation desktop details and download links, please visit the Xandros web site at www.xandros.com/products/home/desktopoc/dsk_oc_intro.html
Would a user who has Microsoft Windows XP be able to install the Open Circulation Edition of Xandros on their computer?
Yes. The OC Edition has full NTFS partitioning capabilities. The user can set up a dual-boot Linux-Windows machine, and then compare the future with the past. OC can also allocate install space from a FAT, VFAT, or FAT32 partition.
One nice feature of the Xandros File Manager is that it permits seamless access to your work on Windows partitions.
I am particularly interested in the relationship Xandros has with the Opera Web Browser. Am I right to be assuming this product has been released because Xandros has found a way to make money from a freely distributable version of the Operating System? Is that true and does it involve the Google AdSense program?
The Open Circulation Edition entails considerable bandwidth expense, plus it could harm sales of the Standard Edition upon which it is based. So are we nuts? Hardly. The Open Circulation Edition will liberate countless thousands of Windows users, and once that happens new revenue models kick in.
So, yes, we do plan to make money from the Open Circulation release, but I don't want you to think that it depends on Opera. Having an Open Circulation Edition lets us toy with our desktop, and Opera with Google ads is one such experiment. Open Circulation users are free to switch to any browser they choose, including Mozilla or Firefox. They can also buy the ad-free version of Opera through Xandros Networks.
Can you tell us more about the other possible new revenue models you may be considering for the future?
Our basic revenue model has always been tied to our planned product rollout. Unlike other major Linux providers, Xandros tackled the hardest part first: we addressed the needs of the everyday Windows user who demands ease of use and seamless network integration in order to transition to open source. From there, we’ve moved up the food chain to the enterprise desktop, with server-accessed network connections and simple mass-deployment using Xandros Desktop Management Server (xDMS). After that, we’ll deliver the easiest-to-use workgroup server in the business. It all starts with the user interface - you might think of Xandros as a "front-end company", although it takes a lot of work on the back end as well.
The Open Circulation Edition - we don’t say "free" because of all the connotations of that word -- has it’s own revenue model based on upsells to our commercial products, and sales of everything from Xandros Networks subscriptions, to t-shirts, to services such as web hosting and photo processing. We also believe it’s a great way to keep Xandros embedded in everyone’s short and long-term memory.
May I ask what happened to the 30 day evaluation version of the Xandros Desktop OS Business Edition? I've noticed it is no longer available...
It’s still around, but it’s something our sales staff privately doles out to potential business customers. I annoyed some folks by publicizing it, but it was too good to resist.
We hosted an Interview with Element Computer about their new ION Linux OS which is based on Xandros, and from the screenshots it even includes the proprietary components of Xandros Desktop OS. Could you please tell us more about the deal between Xandros & Element Computer?
We have a straightforward licensing arrangement with them. Element took the Xandros Desktop OS, configured it for their particular hardware, and modified the icons, browser, and update mechanism. We’re two independent companies and all ION support is provided by Element.
Some reviewers and users have reported that the response times for support requests are sometimes fairly lengthy. How are you planning to reduce the waiting times on support requests?
I believe most of the complaints initially came in during the Xmas and New Year holiday times when we were short on support personnel. We have increased our support staff since, and tickets get attended to in a very timely manner these days. Sometimes people send in a request on Friday evening and still expect a 24 hour turn around time. It’s just not a realistic expectation. I think a lot of it has been exaggerated as well.
We also only provide free installation technical support with the product purchase. Quite a bit of the support requests came in as more like consulting questions or professional services work. Those are not support questions. Once we launch our paid support program and professional services later this year, we will be able to answer inquiries of these kind as well.
Will CrossOver Office Professional 3 be available in Xandros Networks in the Shop section? Or do we need to wait until the next version of Xandros Desktop OS to be released?
The new version of CrossOver Office should be part of our next release.
Are there plans to resell TransGaming Technologies WineX & Point2Play products through the Xandros Networks Shop section?
These are among the products we’re looking at. We plan to greatly expand the number of offerings in our Xandros Networks Shop as more high-quality commercial applications become available for Linux.
Could you please tell us what other offerings are in the works for Xandros Networks?
We just launched a new Premium Membership which offers instant access to the latest Xandros features and enhancements, and guaranteed top discounts on version upgrades and third-party products and services. Members also get to propose new features and vote on what applications should appear in Xandros Networks.
As to particular offerings, we’re looking at third-party commercial apps all the time, but, frankly, you'll never see the number of items on Xandros Networks that you'll find at some competitor’s sites. The reason is simple: we never post a product unless (1) it passes our rigorous QA process, and (2) it provides real value to our users. We’re not simply out to make a buck. We do have to get (quality) Xandros t-shirts up there - a lot of our fans are asking for those!
What else is planned for the next version of Xandros Desktop? Will you be including groupware support in Ximian Evolution, for example?
We are not ready to make any public feature announcements for our V3 release yet, but you can be sure that there will be many exciting and really useful features, just like in our previous releases.
Finally thank you very much for participating in this Interview over the past few weeks, I know our readers are going to enjoy it.
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3.20 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."
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