Switching to Linux has never been easier
The key features of XPressLinux are:
Well, there it is a screen shot from pre-alpha (thanks mike). Notice the awesome watermark in the wallpaper. As you can see we went with a windows feel and I think it turned out nicely (dont freak out if you dont like the layout over the next two weeks im making some other layouts). Can you believe one week since we started the project we have a screen shot ready for everyone. If you have any suggestions email us at ([email protected] or [email protected]) its still in very early stages of development. Expect to see the beta sometime at the end of November!!
Well I finished recording the sounds in Garage band, I found some wallpapers, Mike got the site up and made a banner, I guess all Im going to do now is work on the wallpapers and add watermarks. Unfortunately the only computer I own at the moment is a B&W G3 350MHz 768mb ram, runs OSX fine but, thats about it. It had issues with graphic converter and garage band was painful. Hopefully I will be getting a custom PC November 2 so I can help Mike out some more. (Also i know I’m getting a 19″ widescreen flat panel YAY) So not much i can do for the next week or so as far as developing and testing goes. Its up to Mike to package up the Distribution and make it an ISO and send it to me. We where thinking about releasing it with the Dapper release first then a couple weeks after final we’ll do an Edgy, looks like theres some issues with that release, so where thinking about waiting to let Ubuntu resolve those and we’ll have a separate release. Also heard of Xserver issues Mike had some serious issues upgrading his server from Dapper to Edgy, apparently clean installs work okay, its just the upgrades that are getting botched. Email= [email protected]
The Xpress Linux project was set forth on October 26, 2006. The Idea was simple, give Windows users a Linux Distribution that is very easy to install, is flexible and advanced at the same time, and it needs to have a Windows style layout. The idea harvested its self into a big process that started with using the reliable and secure Ubuntu Distribution and breaking it apart and building on it to make it even more simplier. What we ended up with was a secure, reliable, and simple distrubution. Not only did we want it to be simple we wanted Xpress Linux to be elegant so we added nice boot progress load load bars at start up (Think OSX), A login that is unique and fresh but also one that a Windows user would feel right at home in. We decided to use KDE and made a whole suite of themes, sounds, icons, Window Glowing ect.., that is somewhat reminiscences of Windows but cleaner. One very impressive feature that will be in the final version is a Wine Automater, so when you install XpressLinux you have the option right then and there to check off the Windows applications you want to be imported into wine. Now we dont want advanced users to think where all about Windows, in the final version there will multiple flavors, during the install process you can choose to make your dekstop look like Windows XP, or other custom Flavors we are developing.
We are very excited to produce this Distribution and possibly bring Linux to the main stream.
We hope to have an RC1 beta out by the end of November with,
Progress bar style bootloader
Custom login screen
Sounds, WallPaper
Core programs implemented
A Custom KDE 3.5.5 GUI Layout
Easy Installer
ISO ready to download
Mike Cohen: Lead Developer/ Designer, Project Coordinator [email protected]
Taylor McNeil: Co-Designer, QA Engineer [email protected]
Felipe: Co-Developer, Beta Tester
We have finished recording the sound clips. We have collected a decent amount of wall papers, we found a login screen, and the site is up! It seems we will probably make our deadline of a public beta RC1 by the end of November.
If you have any questions or comments email me at: [email protected]
The XPressLinux project is just beginning. We’ll keep you posted on the progress here.