Linked by Barry Smith on Tue 23rd Dec 2003 20:02 UTC
So far this series has checked out Lindows 4.0, Libranet 2.8.1 and MEPIS 2003.10. Meanwhile both Lindows.com and Xandros have been busy little beavers and spat out new versions of their software, each on the same day. Since I am trying to find the best bang for my buck in a Debian based commercial distro, and since I am already a registered user of LindowsOS, I felt compelled to download a free copy of Lindows 4.5 to have a second look at this thing.
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Adam,
Thanks for the feedback. As far as your suggestion that I am using old hardware, I personally don't consider 2-3 year to be "old" and neither do most of the SOHO end users that I am acquainted with. We are Small Office people. Meaning limited budgets. And frankly a P3-1 gig system does a bang up job of running OpenOffice and Mozilla just fine. The fact that my primary system is three years old, and my secondary system is two years old, just means that any mainstream OS should be able to at least recognize it.
I would not expect Lindows or any other operating system to perform well with my hardware if it were at all unusual. But i810 and Radeon video chips are not really that rare nowadays.
My main complaint is the fact that other Debian-based distros including Knoppix, Libranet 2.7 & 2.8m and MEPIS 2003,10 were able to cope with it just fine. I grant your premise that Intel decided to make the onboard video unkillable for a reason. But that reason does not apply to this situation. And if 4 other Debian-based distros had no trouble with it, or at minimum were able to recognize it, then why can't Lindows.
As I also pointed out, Mandrake 8.0 was able to recognize and configure this hardware 3 years ago. Is Lindows unable to compete with what Mandrake had going for it as much as three years ago?
Lindows is marketing their system for the low end, unsophisticated SOHO user. If they were intending it to be used strictly on the customized hardware that they market, then why sell a boxed version at all? If they sell teh software independent of hardware, and they market their product to target the unsophisticated, non-tech SOHO user, then I am afraid that it is not a good policy to drop the ball on a simple installation issue like this.
I am afraid that I am a bit stunned that you would seriously suggest that Lindows shoudl be commended for failing to produce an installation system that is as sophisticated and hardware-ready as Mandrake was producing three years ago.
But everyone to their own opinion.
Barry