Bye bye Xandros, such a shame but you know how these things go.

I do hope Microsoft are aware they are at risk of catching the "cancer" they warned us about.

Maybe Linux isn't so bad after all, maybe everyone should give it a go before buying Vista?

Is it not obvious what the game plan is...

Every formal Linux distribution that is a formal company will be placed into extreme pressure to capitulate to the corrupt power of Microsoft.

This is a tactic designed to destroy Linux by destroying the company's that produce distributions of Linux.

It works like this... No self respecting user of Linux will tolerate infestation of Microsoft code into the clean code that is in Linux. (yes, its clean)

Therefor any company that crawls under the sheets with Microsoft will be abandoned by its users.

The company dies, Microsoft wins.

Take a close look at Novell... even Open SuSE is now in decline.

This is a tactic of divide and conquer.

It is an attempt to divide the community and make it weaker by creating casualties of this war and causing a serious distraction of attention to the real work of making a better Linux community.

The only company distributions that will survive are those with the guts and integrity of purpose to just say no to Microsoft's dirty money.

The pure community distributions such as Debian are immune.

Many distributions of Linux are true communities and are as such, resistive to invasion.

I actually think that in a short while this type of action will actually backfire on Microsoft. People who use Linux are smart.

And like a smart people who have a community even a diverse one as the Linux communities are... see their world under attack... they will, like most democracy's do.. take a little while to galvanize their thoughts, get mad, feel unjustly attacked and then forge a better sword of defiance by unifying together.

It is the only way to defeat tyranny.

Make no mistake about it, Microsoft is not joining a better and smarter world of unified communications and collaborative computing technologies.

It is trying to destroy that Open Source world of true standards of compatibility with mobster like behavior, Roman Empire like tactics, and the fortunes of its previous grip on the entire world of the Micro PC that has made it richer than some small countries.

This is just an indication that Microsoft is so afraid of the future, it wishes to destroy it.

It is actually an indication of Microsoft failure to adapt.

And like the Roman Empire it is going into decline and fall to a world that is no longer afraid of a dissipated and overextended mono culture of decadence and greed.

Take a real close look at the trends in the computing world and you will see that it is one that represents a very diminished Empire of Microsoft.

That is why Microsoft is at war with the future.

<quote>Maybe Linux isn't so bad after all, maybe everyone should give it a go before buying Vista?</quote>

Or not buying Vista......

gone down the drain called microsoft.

RIP Xandros.

I'd say go for it :)

Personally, go with a distro with a huge repo and easy install (debian net install), but make sure to go dual boot.

I like my regular browsing/downloading done in debian and boot back to vista for my office work (and gaming), and playing with the things I've downloaded.

Soon I'll be going back to fedora and trying to get a vista image working with xen, that'll be fun.

Microsoft come on hit Linux with the IP it has copied. If you find any I'm sure it can be removed in a few days.

Xandros shame on you. I wish I never bought Desktop V2 from you.

Novell you are no longer yumey, I have lost my taste. (quite apt)

Debian and kubuntu rock on.

Once upon a time, Microsoft's behaviour would have been called a protection racket. 'You be friendly with me and give me a slice of your money and I won't bust you'. You get the gist. Mobster tactics. This used to be illegal.

Well it seems that another Linux company has succumbed to the pressure and who knows there may be more to come. Shame on them !

I agree with the references to the fall of the Roman empire. Most of Microsoft's new ventures are losing it money. If they weren't, Vista would not be so over-priced. What can Microsoft add to Linux development, or the betterment of software generally ? I suggest that it can only hinder it.

Lets see how Xandros drops down the list at Distrowatch.

Since Microsoft will never get slack, the obvious choice is Slackware.