Introducing Xandros Enterprise Linux

 Today the PC/OpenSystems Development team is pleased to announce Xandros Enterprise Linux 22.04.2.  This line replaces our PC/OS line of products  for our Enterprise customers.  Xandros Enterprise products are based on the Ubuntu 22.04 base for LTS support. These releases are intended for our enterprise and business customers.  Customers can rest assured that Xandros Enterprise has a longer support cycle and is supported even past the Ubuntu End Of Life.  In these releases we utilize the Linux standard Flatpak application management vs the Ubuntu SNAP application management.  Xandros Enterprise Linux products are 64 bit Intel and AMD compatible with ARM support coming within the next year.  PC/OpenSystems LLC is a highly trusted distributor with clients in many educational facilities, law enforcement agencies, as well as small to medium sized businesses with some Fortune 500 customers among those ranks.  PC/OpenSystems LLC continues our tradition of providing our customers with easy to use and high performance software.  There are three releases for Xandros Enterprise Linux that we will break down right now.

Xandros Community Edition

Xandros Community Edition is free to download, free to distribute and free to install on as many systems as you like.  Xandros is a free community enterprise operating system.  We already distribute a free OS in the form of Freespire, so what is the difference?  Xandros Community Edition does contain binary only code and non-free drivers.  Freespire does not.  Xandros Community Edition follows the same release cycle as Xandros Enterprise Desktop meaning we release new versions every 12 to 18 months.  New releases of Freespire come out every 4 to 6 months.  

Xandros Community Edition contains the following features:

• Kernel 5.19.0-42
• Firefox ESR 102.11
• Thunderbird 102.11
• OnlyOffice 7.3
• Additional UNIX shells, KSH, Fish, CSH
• OpenJDK 19
• DWM tiling window manager
• Customized GNOME interface

A full list of packages is available here

You can download Xandros Community Edition here

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/CommunityEdition/xandros-community-22.04.2.iso

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/CommunityEdition/xandros-community-22.04.2.md5

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/CommunityEdition/xandros-community-22.04.2.sha256

This release is a self support release and aside from community and forum support no other support options are available

Xandros Enterprise Desktop

Xandros Enterprise Linux is an extremely easy to use Linux desktop.  Used by many of our Enterprise customers it is used for point of sale systems, developer workstations, and general purpose desktop use.   This a paid release of Xandros Enterprise Linux.  Users of PC/OS OpenDesktop will be upgraded to this release immediately and for subscription customers you will get an additional 12 months added to your subscription.  Xandros Enterprise Desktop is shipped via physical media only.  USB drive, MicroSD or SD card.  There are no digital download options BUT we will make a download available to customers upon request but you will get physical media regardless.

Xandros Enterprise Desktop has the following features

• Kernel 5.19.0-42
• Microsoft Edge 113
• Thunderbird 102.11
• OnlyOffice 7.3
• Cockpit Remote Administration
• Powershell 7.3
• .NET 7 SDK
• Visual Studio Code
• Remmina Remote Desktop administration
• OpenJDK 19
• DWM tiling window manager
• Customized GNOME interface
• JFS, XFS, and ZFS Filesystem support

You can get a full list of packages from here

You can order a copy of Xandros Enterprise Linux from our webstore or contact pcopensystems.sales@outlook.com  Xandros Enterprise Linux is supported for 10 years and paid support comes in 12, 21 and 26 month increments.

Xandros Enterprise Server

Xandros Enterprise Server is our premier server product.  Being a dedicated server platform it has been optimized for many of the server hardware configurations on the market.  Xandros Enterprise Server can be used in a headless configurations, command line interface or with a full graphical user interface.  This is our most popular release for our education clients as well as our small to medium sized clients.  Xandros Enterprise Server is a paid release.  PC/OS OpenServer customers will be upgraded to this release free of charge and an additional 12 months added to your subscription.

Xandros Enterprise Server has the following features:

• kernel 5.19.0-42
• GNOME interface with DWM as an alternative for lower resource systems
• Zram enabled 
• GNOME Web
• Visual Studio Code
• Powershell
• KVM virtualization
• Cockpit Remote Administration
• OpenSSH Server and client
• MySQL
• Postfix
• LDAP Directory Management
• Samba

A full list of packages are available here

You can order a copy of Xandros Enterprise Server from our webstore or contact pcopensystems.sales@outlook.com  Xandros Enterprise Server is supported for 10 years and paid support comes in 12, 21 and 26 month increments.

Installing Linspire, Freespire, PC/OS and Kubuntu

 When it comes to Linux it is very different from a Windows or MacOS install.  Some users get confused about the install and sometimes some give up.  So we are going to walk through a fairly simple and straightforward install of our products.  Now these instructions apply to Linspire, Freespire and PC/OS as well as our mother distribution Kubuntu.

When you first boot your system you will be greeted by the "checking integrity" dialog and what this does is makes sure that the install media is good and that there are no errors or mistakes in the media itself

Next, you are greeted with a screen that asks you if you want to try the distribution in live mode, which runs the OS from the USB stick or install the OS.  Now, when you try the OS none of the work you do will be saved.  Live mode is good in case you have issues booting, or if you have an issue with your install afterwards such as you forgot your password and need an important document from the computer for work or whatever.  It also gives you a chance to make sure that your hardware works with the distribution.  Since we do include a lot more hardware drivers in Linspire, Freespire and PC/OS you will notice more hardware is supported then Kubuntu.

The next screen is your keyboard and language selection.  If you speak any other language than English, this is where you would choose it.  If your keyboard is anything other than the standard US layout, this is where you would choose it.

The next screen you will choose a normal install or a minimal install.  On a normal install you have all the features and applications that are listed in the release statement and on the product description page such as office suites, multimedia tools, games etc.  This of course takes up a lot more space than a minimal install which only includes the web browser as well as multimedia players.  The minimal install is adequate is you need to deploy a special type of desktop or if you are installing a "chrome OS" or web based desktop or if you are installing the system on a machine that may have limited resources and storage space.

Next, you choose how to format your drive for usage.  The most simple and straightforward path is to use the entire disk.  If you want to get into dual booting or partition your drive for whatever reason make sure you know what you are doing.  For a beginner, I would highly recommend to use the entire disk.

When you get done it will ask you if you are sure this is what you want to do.

On the next screen it allows you to choose your country as well as your timezone.

Next screen, you put in your credentials.  You put in your real name, username, password as well as the computer name.  Make sure your password is strong and complicated for system security.  You can also choose to automatically login but we do not recommend that option if multiple people will be using the same system.

After that is done, the install starts.

After the system is installed you can go ahead and restart the system.  Note:  With PC/OS you will see this error when the system starts to reboot:

This is safe to ignore and after a few moments you will be prompted to remove the install media.

PC/OS Server 20.04.4 Released

Today, the PC/OpenSystems LLC Development team is pleased to release PC/OS Server 20.04.4, this is our server solution for small to medium sized businesses. This release replaces PC/Server 2018 R4 and includes many enhancements and security updates. This also brings the base to Canonicals 20.04 LTS from the 16.04 LTS base. As with our desktop distributions we have put the cloud front and center in this release and have broadened the roles for the server operating system. 

Some of the changes users will notice is that for virtualization we have dropped Oracle VirtualBox and went with KVM solutions instead. We have also improved support for Microsoft SQL Server for Linux. We have also improved ZFS support for OpenServer 12. So whether you are a new customers or one of our longtime customers PC/OS Server 20.04.4 is a worthy upgrade. 

PC/OS Server 20.04.4 with its new base enhances security and broadens hardware support. Falkon replaces Google Chrome. 

We have replaced GNOME with KDE, which is the gold standard of Linux desktop environments, and we still include DWM and first boot now brings you to DWM as the default desktop.  If you dont wish to use a desktop environment you can run Xandros OpenServer 12 command line only or headless. PC/OS Server 20.04.4 comes in a paid supported release as well as a no support release which is free to download and use. 

The Server includes : 

• KDE 5.18.8 
• DWM 
• 5.13.0-35 Server kernel 
• Muon Package Manager 
• Falkon  
• Cockpit 
• Apache Web Server 
• MongoDB 
• LDAP Directory Services 
• NFS, JFS, XFS, ZFS filesystem support 
• Powershell 
• Ansible Automation Services 
• KVM Virtualization with GNOME Boxes GUI frontend 
• OpenJDK 17, Build Essentials, Clang preinstalled
• Visual Studio Code 
• Samba for Windows networking 
• Support for Microsoft SQL Server for Linux 

All security and feature updates applied until March 18, 2022. 

For more information on PC/OS Server 20.04.4 you can go here 

For the no-support release you can download the ISO from here. 

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/server/pcos-20.04.4-2022.03.18-server-amd64.iso

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/server/pcos-20.04.4-2022.03.18-server-amd64.md5

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/server/pcos-20.04.4-2022.03.18-server-amd64.sha256

To purchase PC/OS Server 20.04.4 you can contact pcopensystems.sales@outlook.com or you can go to our webstore

PC/OS Desktop 20.04.4 Released

Today, the PC/OpenSystems LLC development team is pleased to announce the release of PC/OS Desktop 20.04.4, our newest incremental release for this desktop product line - a fully commercial supported release. With a great application lineup for the enterprise environment, PC/OS Desktop paired with PC/OS Server makes PC/OS a very compelling solution for your school or business. 

We have listened to our customers and have included the most requested contemporary services and applications, as well as a change to the KDE Plasma desktop environment. PC/OS Desktop 20.04.4 also includes tools and resources to help users switching from legacy distributions from other Linux providers. We have also included a new minimal install feature that allows users to install PC/OS with just the web browser and essential system services for specialized deployments. 

PC/OS Desktop support comes in 1/3/5 year support subscriptions, with incremental upgrade and ISO refreshes every 6 to 8 months and new releases every 12 to 16 months. For security, reliability and long term viability, PC/OS Desktop is an attractive and well-supported solution.

The distribution includes : 

KDE Plasma 5.18.8 - The fast and lean Linux desktop, fully functional and performance enhanced; peerless in terms of speed and user friendliness. 

Kernel 5.13.0 LTS - Long Term Support kernel designed to stand the test of time. 

Flatpak - Alternative package manager to SNAP, the current Ubuntu standard. 

Microsoft Edge 99 - Web browser from Microsoft engineered for privacy, web app integration and performance

Thunderbird - Mail client that you can use to sync your e-mail (IMAP or POP) calendars or Microsoft Exchange services

Kpat - Solitaire game 

Knights - Chess game 

OnlyOffice 7 - Office suite that can handle even the most complex documents and is compatible with Microsoft Office. 

DragonPlayer - Multimedia player 

Juk - Music Player 

PowerShell 7.2 - Alternative shell thats a free/open source project from Microsoft 

Balena Etcher - Utility for writing ISO’s to a USB stick 

Kbackup - Backup utility to save valuable and crucial data to a NAS, USB stick or other device

Timeshift - System rollback type functionality

Active Directory integration - Use active directory in your infrastructure? You can add PC/OS clients to them  

This release also contains many functionality / security updates to secure the system against outside intrusion. 

You can find more information about PC/OS Desktop and whats different and available in the free and subscriber release here

You can download the free self support release of PC/OS Desktop here

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/pc-os-20-04-desktop-amd64.iso

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/pc-os-20-04-desktop-amd64.md5

https://distro.ibiblio.org/blacklab/pc-os/pc-os-20-04-desktop-amd64.sha256

If you need commercial support you can purchase PC/OS Desktop from our webstore. When you purchase PC/OS Desktop you get physical media with your support subscription.  If you have special license requirement you can contact the sales team at pcopensystems.sales@outlook.com