Xandros, the little Canadian start-up that bought Corel's Debian-based Linux distribution and also gave Lindows its start, is going to try to peddle a $129 business desktop that it claims is a full-featured Windows alternative. It's also got what it calls a Desktop Management Server (xDMS) that's supposed to deploy and manage Linux desktops in a secure enterprise environment.

Xandros is something of a guinea pig in trying to flog Linux as a corporate desktop. It'll help test out whether the operating system can make a dent in Windows or whether limited applications packages, migration costs and inertia prevail.

The business desktop, which of course is bundled with StarOffice 7, includes server-accessed network connections through authentication against Windows Primary Domain Controllers and Active Directory servers. The company also says it supports domain controller logon scripts, AMD Athlon 64 processors, SAP and Citrix thin clients and IBM terminal emulators.

It's supposed to become available February 17 from Xandros direct and resellers. Xandros says volume pricing is available.

With xDMS, software administrators are supposed to be able to set up their software repositories and deploy customized desktop configurations to thousands of networked desktops. The graphical program can manage the configurations and deploy updates for Linux installations other than the Xandros Desktop OS 2.0 on which the company's business software is based.

The server offers SSL encryption for all transmissions on the LAN, one-click updates for software repositories and remote scheduled deployments of automatic software updates and security patches.

Xandros said nothing about the server's price or availability.

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