DesktopLinux.com, the driving force behind the upcoming Desktop Linux Summit, scheduled for February, is withdrawing its support, after changes Lindows.com did without asking the Advisory Board which was formed a few months ago.
DesktopLinux Drops Support for Lindows Desktop Linux Summit
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Lindows is always pissing someone off.
Lindows is permanently crossed of my list.
It’s not so much that this is more annoying than their other
transgressions, it is just one too many.
Xandros is better anyways for an uber-newbie distro.
It sounds like Robertson wants a LindowsWorld Expo.
More and more it appears that this Robertson/Lindow/mp3.com guy is just trying to make a quick buck, and doesn’t really care about the long term.
Mp3.com was an interesting place for a short while, and then as soon as profits fell and lawsuits loomed, he’s off to start Lindows, leaving behind others to clean up his mess.
It appears the same here… “Hey! This Linux thing seems to be getting a lot of press! I wonder if I could make some easy money riding its coattails!”
And so sure enough, he goes for the ‘low hanging fruit’ by offering a cheap, arguably troublesome version of Linux via everyone’s favorite purveyor of cheapness, Walmart, and voila! Quick, and relatively easy money.
Now he’s trying to turn this conference into a “Lindows is a legit version of Linux” presentation, rather than garner some professional acceptance of his creation.
I’ll bet money that in two years Lindows users will be left behind in the dust trying to get their non-standard Lindows installations to work with newer Linux offerings, while Mr. Robertson’s going to be off trying to drum up more money with whatever his latest project is.
Which of course means more people -Who haven’t really seen the plus’s of real Linux- moving back to Windows, and telling others of their bad Linux experiences.
This kind of thing is bad for the community. I sincerely hope the guys gets taken down for tax evasion or something. I can’t see him offering anything truly worthy based on his past achievments (or rather the lack thereof).
I also agree that there are far better versions of Linux for newbies and pros alike. It’s too bad that these distributions haven’t contacted retailers as Lindows obviously has.
My 2 bits…
Lindows… Ugh.
Those users will never learn the bad experiences they can have with standard linux distros
who really considered Lindows a Linux distro anyway ? I have boycotted it and anybody that asks me about it I do not recommend the OS to anyone. You get a stripped down KDE, No Dev tools a cheesey look and you pay $129.00 for it with Xandros you get everything for $99.00 iun a professional looking desktop. Why doesnt Lindows use the FreeBSD kernel and quit bringing linux down they can call it Findows or Bindows, Or better yet Free Bindows. As for Lindows.com they are always trying to get their names in the news and they like to step on toes well people are getting tired of it and they are going to step right back, Not much to worry about tho just a few more months and Microsoft will crush them in court. They need to be careful because that crap they pulled with AOL a few months ago is still in peoples minds. Consumers do not like dishonesty. Mikey boy wants to impress me, get Sony to ship his OS with their computers then I will be impressed. Till then let the Bill Gates wannabe just pretend he is the big boy on campus.
SOMEBODY wants to be Steve Jobs!
here’s what the article says
” The agenda was a completely new one, with major changes such as substitution of Lindows.com CEO Michael Robertson for Open Source advocate Bruce Perens in the conference welcome keynote slot.”
Now that says that CEO MR was substituted (replaced) FOR (in favor of) Bruce Perens, that looks like Perens is doing the speach instead of the Lindows CEO. Unless they totally screwed up their wording (which I kinda believe could have happened) why would they be upset that Perens is doing the speech instead of MR? Seems rediculous to me. So their speaker decided not to do it and he found a replacement. Would they have pulled if one of the other sponsors decided to substitute one of their speakers or is it just hostility towards lindows.com?
Linux is starting to look and sound much a lot like one of those reality based TV shows. Could you imagine it, all the various distros are dropped off on an island and are forced to do stupid things in order to survive untill next week – hmmm, wait a minute….Its all much clearer now. Does Jason Spisak(lycoris) have something to do with all of this Linux based entertainment;-)
The wording indicates that Robertson is replaced the speaker with himself. Robertson has made some kind of bold moves, but this one was really stupid.
It’s a pretty bold statement. But, I can can never see myself paying for a copy of Lindows just on the principle I hate the name. It sound’s stupid. The company also strikes me as being no more than a marketing shell wrapped around a load of nothing. If this company were anything I’d call it a troll as it’s an attention seeker with nothing to offer.
I wonder who IBM, Sun, and HP are more interested in having as a friend, Rick Somebody from Desktoplinux.org, or Michael Robertson? This announcement would be like the local highschool paper saying they don’t support COMDEX.
Has anyone ever noticed that Lindows.com always takes the HIGH road on these silly Linux Drama’s? You can find tons of comments from their competitors, here on NewsForge, from Bruce Perins, etc. claiming all sorts of nasty things about Lindows.com, but I have never found even ONE negative thing ever said by Michael Robertson or Lindows.com about Linux, the community, or their competition.
There is only one company I’ve found them take on…and that’s Microsoft.
While the Linux ants fight between themselves over crumbs, has anyone noticed Michael Robertson and Lindows.com are in the REAL game with the only competitor that matters?
Lindows.com has been incredibly successful in their short, one year in business. It’s pretty clear to me why.
Mark
Intelligent comment. Certainly I respect what Lindows has achieved and if Lindows brings more support to Linux then really it can only be called a good thing.
I’ve seen it said a few times that Michael Robertson must be in it for the easy money. I have just one question: What easy money?
So far, Lindows.com has put out half a mil working on WINE. They have about 40 employees. At an average salary of $3000 a month, that would be $120,000 a month. That’s at least another million, maybe $1.5 million. They make commercial applications (most notably Star Office) available as part of their CNR membership. Obviously, they aren’t paying full price ($75 for Star Office + $79 for Photogenics + $99 for Bitstream Fonts + $15 for Hancom Sheet 2.0 + $25 for Tux Racer Deluxe = $293). However, I would say that is safe to assume that they are paying at least $40 per CNR membership. That would equate to roughly $60 per membership that they can use to pay the bills. Using the low estimate of costs ($1 million salaries + $.5 million on WINE), they would have to sell roughly 25,000 memberships just to break even. And this ignores other expenses, such as rent, servers, and marketing expenses (like the Summit, for which Lindows.com is paying).
Microsoft was scared enough of the Desktop Linux Summit to tell HP they didn’t want them to go. If MS thought this was just a stunt so that Michael Robertson could make a few books in Linux and then make a break for it, they would be trying to get more people at the summit. Nothing could make them happier than for Linux to get a black eye.
P.S. LindowsOS has plenty of dev tools. They just don’t install them in the initial setup. Remember, their target audience is people who ask questions like “What’s dev mean?” I.e. MS users. The whole point of LindowsOS is to have a distro that does not pretend that the only people who want to use a computer are people who can “Use the force, read the source.” LindowsOS is building a product that is simple to use, that can run the same software as the more robust Mandrake, Sun, Red Hat, etc. server distros. Since their target market is the same as Windows, they price their product accordingly. If you would prefer a free distro, there are plenty available and they will tell you so.
Word dat….
I for one am sick and tired of linux distros that only the hardcore can use…I want a Linux OS that works as easy as pudding pie. One that I can accually do stuff on, like read e-mail, surf the web, type letters, play games and work and play on…..I have no desire to compile a kernal.
I am not a representative of the majority of civilization…..but I feel pretty confident in assuring the “ol’school” linuxheads that this is without question…the overall and overridding needs/wants and desires of your average everyday money computer user.
Lindows…fits this bill nicely…and I can install it on as many of my comps as I want to….take about 10 mins to do.
So if you don’t like Lindows cause they didnt stroke Perens or cause they are telling the developers that this confrence is NOT for them….then tough nookie!!
If the developers and serius linux heads who want to “feel the hurt” everytime they use they Linux distro dont like it….then they are more then welcome to support whatever other type of distro they want to.
I for one am moving into the future….it is a bright future and it is a future WITHOUT gates or windows and I can tell you this for damm sure…no scrunny little geek with a slackware t-shirt on is going to get in my way of finally getting and supporting a linux distro in my house that can be used for my daily computing needs.
I’m still relatively new to Linux but I found there are a number of distros that are easy to install and use. For my home use I use Lycoris Desktop/LX and OpenOffice.org. Other good candidates would be RedHat, mandrake and OpenLinux Workstation, based on their ese of install.
I think Robertson’s move was just stupid. Yes, they were footing the bill but now the cost to them in bad PR may ofset any good that would have come from a desktop conf.
In support of Lindows, I think the suit by MS may backfire on them: they stand to lose the “Windows” trademark! So Robertson’s no dummy when it comes to slick legal manuveurs.
Just as always in the community – People are quick to jump to conclusions. This deal with DL is nothing more than sour grapes. They wanted more power to run the show, when they weren’t paying a dime, so they took their ball and went home.
DL is 2 people, and as someone else said, it’s like some local newspaper withdrawing support from COMDEX – Who cares!?!
Lindows is doing more than any other distro has ever done for the desktop – Good or bad, its name is out there. How many times do you see Xandros in non-geek news coverage?
Lindows isn’t the best – I’ve used it (my dad uses it) and can atest to that. I still find Debian to be my best friend. Fact is, we don’t need another kickass distro – We need a dumbed down, easy to use, root only, unsecure desktop version to get people on the Linux side of the fence and let them get their feet wet. Once they do, they can move on to a “real” distro. (As if Lindows isn’t – It’s Debian for the most part people)