Xandros Desktop Management Server is a well-designed, useful tool that can save system administrators substantial amounts of time. Though still somewhat immature, it does a fine job if you are currently deploying the Xandros 2.6 Deluxe or Business editions across your enterprise. Do not attempt to use version 1.0 or 1.01 to deploy Xandros 3.0 without checking with your Xandros salesperson or using Xandros Networks tool to check for and install updates. In my testing, Xandros 3.0 broke xDMS and you may even find that you have to reinstall to get 2.6 installations working again.

xDMS will certainly be updated soon in order to support Xandros' latest 3.0 Linux distributions. Xandros has a unique opportunity to expand into the general administrative market if they would make xDMS aware of Linux distributions beyond their own. Given that Xandros is current giving xDMS away if you buy 5 or more licenses for Xandros 2.6, I suspect that xDMS will be even more flexible and impressive in the future.

Bill von Hagen is the author of numerous books and articles on Linux. For more information about Bill, see http://www.vonhagen.org.

« Back: The Need for Enterprise Desktop Administration