“After using LindowsOS for some time, many troublesome issues regarding the future of this particular flavour of Linux continually flood my mind whenever the subject of Lindows surfaces. I’ve followed both the company and its flagship product, LindowsOS, since its introduction over two years ago.” Read the review at DesktopOS.
A Thoroughly Different Review of Lindows
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
This is more of a “Why I hate Lindows” then anything else. Maybe he should have been less subtle in the review since I didn’t really understand how much he disliked Lindows (the last statement was totally tounge in cheek for those wondering)
I’m not sure if this guy came home from work and found Michael Robertson having an afair with his wife or something, but that review is filled with pure hate. I’m not the biggest Lindows fan – their distro never really appealed to me – but this guy is way out there. Any company that is willing to fight Microsoft in as many places as Lindows is gets my respect.
This is not a review of the Lindows Desktop per se, but more a review (and slam) of Lindows the company. Charles Harris got it right – just prattle from someone who believes anyone who would (gasp!) try and make a profit nowadays is evil.
Don’t waste your time reading this.
Desktopos has taken editorials to a new low, shame on them.
Well, this “review” is certainly different from the ones I have been reading on OSNews.com every now and then. Right or wrong, I don’t know.
I was recently converted to be a LindowsOS user and quite frankly, I am rather pleased with LindowsOS and CNR. My only comment is LindowsOS + CNR is so easy to use.
Previously, I was hoping to use YellowTAB’s Zeta as a desktop alternative. While Zeta is really cool, I do not like YellowTAB since they are a Germany company with horrible English. Lindows.com seems much more keen and capable to promote their products professionally when compared to many other companies also targeting the alternative OS market.
a nasty article, BUT
lindows really *only* is good at doing marketing. And they don’t donnate much to the community : THEN they support a project (gaim?), what they give back is really allmost nothing.
What they introduced is an unsecure linux distribution. It’s not good for linux !
I’m using linux because it is free. I’m using it, and I’m contributing to linux. They should do the same – and they *almost* don’t do it!
And what is with their name ? they WANTED microsoft to sue them. And I understand microsoft to do that, thought I really don’t like them. It’s bad for their name.
If lindows want to be a “good” distribution, they should *not* take the name lindows to be famous.(lindows sounds soooo much like windows!) . They should distinguish themselve because of technichle meriths. If I must pay for an unsecure linux distribution, with almost no software, I can also go at microsoft.
They are only spaming my email box with Emails(stop it!!!), and using newspages to become famous.
sorry, but I had to say that !
“And they don’t donnate much to the community : THEN they support a project (gaim?), what they give back is really allmost nothing.”
I don’t use LindowsOS. I have installed it & I am indifferent to it. However saying they don;t donate or support is community is simply not true. Lindows the company does give back & support the community. Lindows is supporting kde-look.org, where you can get all sorts of graphical kde addons like wallpaers & icons. I welcome their support of kde-look as I love to have a sharp looking desktop.
Lindows the company is paying a ex-Netscape/Mozilla employee to continue to develop the Mozilla Composer HTML editor into a full featured separate product called NVu which is MPL/LGPL/GPL tri-licensed. http://www.nvu.com/
Yes, Michael Robertson has all the rights to do whatever he likes to do with OSS (debian in this case) as long as it fits under the rule of the law.
And the same law does allow consumers to compare choose and buy, if this guy doesn’t like Lindows, he should not buy it. It is ok for him to write his view on a web page (freedom of speech).
Freedom is good. But please do not attepmt to give us moral lessons. Suddenly he has discovered that corporations do tell corporate/marketing lies… well welcome to the real world.
Next time write something useful please.
Hi
Lindows might not be a good distro but this is just bashing of lindows in the form of a review. Whether micheal lied or not is irrelevant to the product itself.
Lindows does some sponsoring despite what people claim
gaim
kde-apps.org
kde-look.org
mozilla
Hired developers like everaldo (Designer of the crystal icon set which is the default in kde 3.1 and 3.2)
so if you are going to bash them atleast mention both the pros and cons.
I will not use lindows and do not like their product but i will never ever call this a review of a product
regards
Jesten
That has to be the best Line I’ve ever read in my life Lee…
But on a serious note, Lindows did alot of Bragging when it was in its infancy, and Kevin Carmony has come right out and admitted that here on OSNews stating that Lindows had hoped for Windows compatability but it was nigh impossible, instead going for File compatability.
I don’t run lindows, My wife Dualboots lindows and Xandros 2.0 so its in my network, Lindows works well for who it was designed for..
You forgot to add that Lindows sponsors CodeWeavers (more than 500,000USD) and was the company that ponied up the money for the race to put Linux on the Xbox. This company puts out a temendous amount of support to the open source world.
This article is extremely informative for people looking for a linux distribution to move to when their primary discontent with Windows is Microsoft’s business practices, and to a lesser degree, informative on the current state of LindowsOS with regard to security (however wholly biased).
Lindows and Microsoft have a lot in common ethics wise – and while that doesn’t mean their products are all that bad, it does reflect poorly upon them.
Now, I don’t mean to call Microsoft the devil and Lindows akin. Microsoft has made several sizeable monetary contributions for good causes, in addition to contributing to technology tremendously. They may have done some dirty things to get some technologies, but that’s not to say they haven’t developed some honestly.
Sure – that’s business, but when there’s alternatives then it’s a judgment call on what’s important to you. There’s nothing wrong with LindowsOS per-se, but that’s for people to decide. Nothing wrong with windows either – in fact, it works pretty darn well for most people.
… but I’m running Slack & Arch, and I’m damn happy:)
I, as well…remember the claims of a Linux distro with (WINE-like) the ability to run Win Apps. IF it had worked out, they would probably be the top distro…and the company would probably be “swimming” in cash. So far…not even close. The claims of Michael Robertson remind me of when one of the local newspapers here in Buffalo, NY went out of business: a few weeks later, a slick “con-man” presented to the public what he would attempt: a resurrection of this paper. Never happened…despite all of the promising and the fortune-telling.
OK…so Lindows works. Great. It’s Linux. Even BETTER. If you use it and like it….wonderful. But from what I see…it’s no different than ANY OTHER brand-named distro.
(This is just my opinion. I’m not trying to troll…or become flame-bait)
jm
I’m glad that someone has finally written an honest description of lindows as a company. He states right from the beginning that he is reviewing the company and not the distribution and what he says about the company is all true.
Lindows is nothing more than a bastardized Debian that has been hacked and mauled by lindows.com to make a quick buck, declare bankruptcy and then go on to their next scam.
I have used linux for a long time now,
Recently I downloaded the Lindows OS, and yes, as an experienced user I was rather upset at the fact that it was a bastardized version of Debian, despite the fact that I have never really liked Debian the very first problem I ran into was the inability to install my NVIDIA drivers.
Having the only user on the system is also a bad idea, I might as well just run windows.
But…
Lindows has done wonders with KDE, they have done much UI cleaning and their configuration tools seem to work well. Also I am almost certain that they can effectivly bridge the gap between windows and linux from a user’s perspective, Lindows may have only lasted 1 day on my machiine (I usually run Slackware or Gentoo), but I did notice some good things from the “GUI” perspective.
From the Tablet PC I do recall reading they are working on some good Pen-based PC solutions for Linux, Robertson says they wont release any of it until they can match the producty and usability of windows. We will see what comes of this.
For this guy to slam Lindows at not linux and blah blah blah, he might be right about pointing out some of the marketing stuff but, Lindows has done more for the Linux community than he has (or so I suspect).
As a proffessional I get asked about Lindows more than Redhat or Gentoo or whatever other distro… So they must be doing something right. I dont run lindows, but some people do, and there is no problem with that, so they bastardized Debian, could you take a newbie and get him to actually install Debian ??? I dont think so , that and their install documentation in my opinion is bloated and poorly organized. Keep up the good work Lindows.
R.
If at least his cames were true – but there’s so much errors that he hardly can be considered the right person to criticise ANYONE for mis-information.
A few examples:
– CNR is not $99 / year. It is $49 /year.
– About Tablet versions of LindowsOS this guy says that It has yet to materialize in any form. In fact Lindows.com does have Tablets running with LindowsOS, though they have postoned release in order to work out some more issues and make the experience better.
– Every other operating system runs on laptops. Why can’t LindowsOS just work on a laptop? Well, LindowsOS does run on laptops, but the laptop edition adds some extra functionality that I’ve never got from any other linux dist. Things like hybrinating, hybrinating on lid close, touchpad scroll area and laptop “extra buttons” I have never got working out-of-the-box with ANY other dist.
– However, $99 is nothing more than Lindows getting their beta testers to fund research & development instead of the other way around. In short, the insider program seems to center on increasing revenue instead of controlling the quality of the Operating System.
Since this guy is no insider how can he possibly know what it means?
The time, efforts and money Lindows.com puts into thei insiders program is simply unique.
Several insiders have been hired full-time by Lindows.com, insiders gets exclusive ways of contact with Lindows.com staff and last but not least Lindows.com is currently doing an amazing, and quite expensive, insiders project that I do not know if I’m allowed to disclose. It is simply amazing though and there’s no need for any “outsider” to make claims on what the insider benefits are.
A few words, Forrest Taylor: STFU
There are a couple of things that this “review” clearly illustrates:
1) Author takes things way to seriously
2) Author doesn’t understand who the target Lindows user is
3) Author doesn’t understand the idea behind choice
a: People choose to use lindows and pay for it
nobody is forced to do so
b: If you want to use apt, you still can, but you may
break some Click N’ Run dependencies if you do
your choice
c: You may choose not to use Lindows at all
d: Author believes you may choose as long as your
choices are the same as his.
A note about myself:
I use Lindows, I choose to pay for the OS and Click N’ Run, I signed up for a lifetime membership. I also use RedHat, Mandrake, Gentoo, Slackware, FreeBSD, OS-X, even XP (I have to).
But at home we don’t have any MS boxes, so when I got my new laptop I installed Lindows for my family, our other home computer is OSX. Both of these OS’s cost money, and it was my choice to pay for them. I don’t want my family having to deal with trying to use apt or synaptic to download and install packages, so we subscribed to CNR and signed up for a lifetime membership.
I try to “donate” money to good products, so I have purchased copies of RH, MDK, Lindows, OSX, FreeBSD, etc… as well as “donating” some funds to other open source projects.
If they don’t have money, eventually they will no longer be able to produce the products that we all love.
So you can show your appreciation for open source projects by doing the following:
1) Beta testing
2) Giving back with code
3) Contribution money
4) Mirroring their software
5) Any combination of the above
Again this is a choice. But these open source projects do require user participation on many levels so everyone should try to pitch in any way they can.
Yeah, I use Lindows.
Look everyone is entitled of their own view of Lindows or any other Distro out there, but guys like this give the whole Linux community a bad rap. If you don’t like the Company, don’t choose to support it. I had a good time reading it and had a hard time not LMAO, but seriously if OSNews wants to host his article then they should, since it does not reflect on them…only the Author.
Well. DesktopOS.com withdraw this piece of junk from their first page when they find out it isn’t really what it calims to be – a “review”.
It should have never been published IMHO.
The news item was posted on the front page for a few hours, however, after many complaints from users of this site I had to remove it from the spotlight on the front page. The news item is still in the archive under Lindows and users have been making comments for it there.
The news item is here: http://www.desktopos.com/article.php?sid=117
I did not want to promote this news item, but it’s too late now…
More like a post on some public forum or a an editorial even… some interesting facts were presented though.
The main think I like about Lindows is CNR, and the fact that you can get some commercial applications for no extra cost and some for a real good discount. I also like the looks of it.
The main thing I dislike about Lindows is that you run as root by default and all the annoyances of running as non-root. If you had to ask, it’s a bit different running as non-root in Lindows as it is in, other distros… lot’s of annoyances in it.
I’m still undecided on the firewall thingy… Lindows (the website and that first-run tutorial) basically says “We’ve installed a firewall script… don’t worry about it, we got it covered). Makes me bit nervous there.
About what they have said and proclaimed in tha past… well, it’s a bit like MS’s loo thingy… it happens. You have a vision for the future, something you’re working on and to generate some interest before it comes out, you make a press release or two. But a few months later, you find out that it’s just not feasible or you’re not generating enough demand… then you scrap it. Happens all the time.
At the request of the author I have made the following changes to the editorial:
1. The price of Click&Run was corrected
2. A link to post comments was added at the bottom
3. Changes where made to my disclaimer
For the record I do not fault Desktopos.com for publishing that article.
I also do not fault the author for speaking his mind.
I hope that no one will fault me for disagreeing with the author.
Discussion & disagreement are all good things.
I’ve run plenty of Linux distributions over the years, and the fonts were all ugly, ugly, ugly. It was always a race to install the Microsoft fonts before my eyeballs melted. Over the years things have improved, going from sh*t to sh*t with peanuts, but Lindows is the only distribution I have tried that has decent fonts. I don’t know what they did, but the fonts alone are worth the price.
Since Bitstream made the VERA set of fonts available some months ago, all my desktops use Bitstream Vera Sans, Serif, and Sans Mono. All easy on the eyes, and I replaced the Lindows Nimbus stuff with Bitstream.
“However, Mikey needs credit. He wrote it himself, including all typos. One additional piece of information: They are ALMOST like Windows. Just the W has been changed. Lindows is otherwise the same – insecure, overpriced, and broken. Microsoft has recently run ads here in Canada telling people to replace their old, broken operating system, meaning Windows 98. Lindows has never innovated, only copied. His operating system is, in my opinion, broken, just exactly like Windows.”
Company names:
Lindows.com
Microsoft
OS names:
LindowsOS
Microsoft Windows (yes, that’s right!)
“One truth: Lindows has a relationship with SCO.”
Who cares.
“So you can show your appreciation for open source projects by doing the following:
1) Beta testing
2) Giving back with code
3) Contribution money
4) Mirroring their software
5) Any combination of the above”
Good point. I’d like to add:
6) Writing/translation documentation.
7) Writing a(n objective) review.
8) Porting to other platforms.
9) Help people with their FLOSS related problems.
10) Just use it.
Etc etc etc i just wanted to add that there are even more possibilities. Think about it
I did not like the answer that Kevin Carmona provided to the review. I will quote some other poster on destoplinux’s site, rather than paraprase his well-stated points.
“If you’re really the president of a company, you don’t answer a review or editorial like this one by stating your users aren’t smart enough to use apt-get, so you have to do it for them.
The author of the article seemed a little upset, but it looks like he did his homework and provided a bundle of links to back things up.
Mr. Carmony, I’m wondering why, you didn’t respond to any of the following from Mr. Taylor’s review:
A. Windows Emulation
B. Lindows and the first AOL PC
C. Lindows OS Tablet PC
D. Lindows runs as root by default
E. Lindows is as secure as Debian
F. Lindows relationship with SCO
You stated that, “in fact, I didn’t bother even reading beyond this point,” which I find extremely hard to believe. I’m not that naive. You read it and you know you did.
You stuck to the point that the writer got a detail about Clicn-N-Run incorrect. Yet, with all of the info Forrest Taylor provided, you ignored all of it and centered on a minor mistake.
I do have two final questions for you Mr. Carmony. You stated that Lindows loses money each month.
1. Just how moch money DOES Lindows.com lose each month?
2. How long has this monthly loss been going on & how critical is it?
1. Just how moch money DOES Lindows.com lose each month?
What private company, in Lindows.com’s situation, answers such questions?
A. Windows Emulation
Not again please…
C. Lindows OS Tablet PC
Already explained.
D. Lindows runs as root by default
Also alraedy been discussed to death.
Just wanna ask you guys – are you affiliated with Xandros/Lycoris/Microsoft in some way?
You try to raise non-existant poinst to FUD Lindows.com. I don’t understand your problem. Is it the recent growth of LindowsOS that disturbs you?
Is it the very active community?
Are you afraid that Lindow.com’s upcoming product probably is gonna hit big?
in reply to court rulings in Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) Lindows.com has set up a site for people from these countries and resellers are therefore still allowed to sell LindowsOS. Website: http://www.lin—s.com
Me wondering about Finland…
One interesting thing I have noticed in the general responses now; most of us are speaking in support of Lindows.com, where a few months ago, there would have been complaints about “running as root” and a general dislike.
That seems to have been almost completely replaced by a general positive opinion of LindowsOS and Lindows.com. They are helping the community through funding, employ OSS developers that would have been lost to the community otherwise (Everaldo, Nvu’s developer).
Sure, many of us wouldn’t use it necessarily as our own primary desktop, but we know people who could. Somewhat off-topic, but it’s just interesting to see the opinion dynamics swing so obviously. The Lindows folks are definitely making some smart PR moves.