Linked by Adam S on Wed 25th Sep 2002 02:21 UTC
The Linux community has been buzzing about LindowsOS since its original announcement over a year ago. With Michael Robertson, founder of mp3.com, at the helm, it was heralded as a Linux that could seamlessly run all of your Windows applications. As details became available, the skepticism of the community grew and with the LindowsOS general release only months away, no one is quite sure what to make of Lindows.com and their product, LindowsOS. We tested Lindows 2.0 and we today present the most in-depth review ever written for this much-talked OS, accompanied by a number of shots.
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Ecureuil, I'll take the bait and take this one step further in this forum, and if you prefer, we can continue offline.
The community you envision is one I'd love to be a part of, but I also recognize that this is not just a magical place where everyone shares out of sheer altruism. Part of the reason Linux as an OS is not more popular --PART OF THE REASON-- is that there's not as much commercialization behind it.
Mr. Robertson can buy a mansion, a car, or even a night of hookers and booze for all I care, I'm buying a product. I don't ask my grocer what he does when I buy a steak, I don't ask my local power company does in exchange for the money I give them, since I get something: electricity. You exchange money for goods, and Lindows.com feels that LindowsOS and CNR are worth money. If you don't agree, you have amazing power as a consumer - don't buy their product.
Put simply: 1) Lindows.com has no obligation to the community, though it would be nice, 2) it's nice to be satisfied for having done the "right" thing, but it's also nice to make money, 3) "Robber baron" is fancy and glorified rhetoric - you're striving to make me look like I'm some sort of sell-out or clueless drone... and it's very obvious. A corporation is a corporation. I don't want to fund Michael Eisner, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdock, or Ted Turner's personal habits, but I buy or recommend their products. How is this any different?