The New York-based company will begin shipping Xandros Server Standard Edition on May 1, targeting the product and small-to-medium businesses, and attempting to transfer its ease of use on the desktop to the server.
The release of Xandros Server follows a long beta testing program that began in April 2005, although the company originally started talking seriously about Linux server products in July 2004.
It had originally promised a Linux server product in 2002, following its acquisition of the Debian-based Linux assets of Corel Corp in August 2001.
The intervening period has seen a lot of changes in the Linux market, with Red Hat Inc consolidating its dominance, Novell Inc acquiring SUSE Linux, and MandrakeSoft becoming Mandriva SA following its expansion from France to include South America.
Asian Linux distributors including Red Flag Software, Miracle Linux, Haansoft, Turbolinux, VA Linux Systems Japan, and Sun Wah Linux, have also established or consolidated their positions while Xandros Server has been in development.
The company therefore needs to differentiate itself if it is to make a dent in the market with Xandros Server, and it is doing that in a number of areas, such as targeting SMBs including RealNetworks Inc’s Helix Server and RealProducer software, and bundling its xMC, Xandros Management Console, which is designed to deliver Windows-like administration in a Linux server.
The company is also offering what it calls a Managed Community approach to server management, designed to automate management and administration tasks. Traditional departmental server products, even from leading vendors, act as though accounts receivable operates in a vacuum from marketing and engineering, said Xandros CEO Andreas Typaldos of the approach. The Xandros Server platform was designed to map that vision of how modern businesses really work. Our platform connects communities of users, services, and IT architectures, whether they are local or dispersed.
