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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> Anyway the logical conclusion to me is that if they are successful enough
> they may fork Linux and take what they have got from the community and
> start hiring more and more of there own developers to the point where
> less and less is GPL.
In a way that is also what the GPL stands for. The FSF wanted to make sure that code was always openly available so that people could use it to learn and to start new projects in addition to many other things. Lindows.com is using the GPL'ed projects to create their own operating system to compete with Microsoft.
To some the fact that LindowsOS is commercial and proprietary makes them rinkle their noses in disgust, but in the end that is what the GPL is all about. LindowsOS is still dependent on the open source software that they sell with CNR, just as they are dependent on the Linux kernel, the windowing systems, the drivers, etc.
Even though they make money, Lindows.com is still forcing Microsoft and the other desktop operating systems to improve their systems. Sharing code is nice, but competition is also a good thing. CNR challenges Linux, and the Linux developers will respond with better package management software while distributions create simplified and more logical menu systems.
I do not think that the anti-capitalist jihads that people tend to engage in actually help the free software and open source communities.