CraigBoxI like Ximian. Primate instinct, perhaps. They have been putting the polish on desktop Linux for a little over three years now, both with their excellent GNOME mail client Evolution and their GNOME customization platform, Ximian Desktop.
With the 9.x releases of RedHat and MandrakeLinux?, the bar has been released for desktop environments. KDE 3 and GNOME 2 have both made inroads on usability and functionality, filling a lot of the gaps that Ximian's 1.4 desktop release filled over standard GNOME 1.4. With the popularity of Red Hat's clean BlueCurve theme, and the full suite of GTK2 applications that are nearing completion, some naysayers predict the end of XD2's niche. I've decided to install it on a spare computer (which, incidentally, is for sale on the GarageSale page!), have a play, and decide if it's good enough to replace the standard Red Hat GNOME installation I use day-to-day.
The XD2 directory on Ximian's FTP site was a little over 450Mb, so I grabbed it over a fast connection and bought it home. Unfortunately, that's not enough. You also need the ximian-evolution/ and redcarpet/ directories, but this isn't made obvious. Not a problem for those who are just doing an install off the Internet, but a black mark nonetheless.
6 pages link to XimianDesktop:
