A mini-review of Lindows 3.0 can be found at MeetTheGeeks.org.
Review of Lindows 3.0 at MeetTheGeeks.org
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Seems these people are clueless about Linux
but then again those are the exact people we are trying to get to pay attention
And another view…..this is Lindows
but we all know its just a stripped down linux , they didnt put enough of their own work on top of the open source that is Linux
to qualify for giving their creation anew name , also it is not a fork of linux
so from most angles its wrong to call it LindowsOS
I nearly broke into a scream of terror when I looked at the cd in my friends hands. there, staring out from the CD jewel case was the program from hell, and all you needed to do to let it take over your PC was double click a couple of times and kiss your sanity goodbye.
the nasty piece of digital scurf in question is known as lindows, a fancy linux, and there are plenty of sad types who will tell you it is the future of personal computing.
do not fall for this bizarre line in geek thinking.
even my friend, after making it so easy to enter the twilight zone without a return ticket, saw fit to enter a few caveats. “Don’t even think about it,” he said, “unless you are technically proficient and have backed up all your PC files beforehand.”
but you know what people like me are like. we never listen, and just sling in the CD-Rom, click on the install icon, and hope for the best. and if you are now looking at a blank screen with a few impenetrable commands where you once had a working PC, then all I can say is: “you have only yourself to blame.”
linux is a version of that old computer donkey known as Unix. If you need to run big computer Unix tasks then it is, I am told, not a bad solution at all. equally, if you believe there is no point in doing easily something you can achieve the long way round, it is doubtless the way to go.
imagine a tougher version of MS-Dos where the commands are even harder to memorise and less forgiving of errors and you are starting to get there. and if you want to cheat a little, you can put on a pseudo-graphical front end and bingo, you might just manage to turn a modern windows xp capable PC into a passable imitation of windows 3.1 circa 1992.
however, if you believe Lindows’ Michael Robertson, you might think that Microsoft’s Bill Gates is quivering in his boots at the idea that Linux will do what IBM and Apple never managed to achieve kick windows off the everyday desktop. he stole their name and now he wants to steal their market. do you think this will happen. I don’t, I think Lindows is the flavor of the month with the geek community for two reasons: it’s getting constant media attention and it’s not from Microsoft.
for a certain breed of bug-eyed computer user, that is really all you need. trivial details such as usability, the lack of decent everyday software, and the plain fact that, when things go wrong, you are on your own are not setbacks for Linux addicts. these are the very reasons why they like the wreched thing because it sets them apart from the mainstream of tedious, ordinary users who just uses PCs to get on with their job.
personal computers seem to have attracted some strange and obsessive people along the way to becoming common or garden information tools. If Linux hadn’t been invented by a finnish student a few years back, something equally strange and esoteric would have appeared to take its place.
computer geeks despise simple, common standards. Gates is the object of their hatred simply because he won the operating system war. If Apple or IBM had come out on top, the people now buzzing so excitedly around Linux would have treted them to the hate mail they reserve for Gates today.
fads like Linux are diversionary characters in a digital freak show on the sidelines of modern information technology. the idea that great developments in personal computing will be invented in some dismal student bedroom in Helsiki might make nice bedtime reading for people who dream in hexa-decimal. but if all you want is a comptuer that you can apire to understand, chuck that blasted Lindows cd-rom in the trash right now.
if these are the upcoming geeks that would take over the future, we’re done for.
Your commment shows that you are obviously totally clueless about Linux – just because you’ve tried a dumbed down version for Windoze users like yourself – you think you can write a fancy comment about that OS – sure !!! to compare Linux with DOS and Win 3.1 just shows that you haven’t got a clue. And the fact is that there is tons of Software available under Linux for everyday’s computer needs – in fact most of the innovation comes from opensource and shareware-programmers, which then normally gets stolen by M$ – look at the whole windows GUI – first Xerox, than Apple oh and then what a revolution Bill Gates finally caught onto it and blessed the World with an OS that has this revolutionary idea of windows. You also obviuosly haven’t got a clue about the history of windoze, in fact just like Linux, the core which Windoze later built around was developed mainly in the summer holidays by the students Paul G. Allan and Bill Gates (although Bill Gates was more using his holidays to play cards and get drunk) and so was Apple developed either in the garage or one of the bedrooms of Steven Paul Jobs stepparents (either way – in a private little home) by Steven Paul Jobs (21) and Stephen Gary Wozniak (25). So spare us with your comments and banging the Microsoft drum (because obviously it has been and is the most ‘innovative’ cooperation that there is – yeah right, where do you live man ???) , that just shows that you do not know a lot about OSs. If you want to use Windoze – fine, be happy with it – but please no more badly researched commments !
Someone criticises Lindows, someone Linux, someone Windows.
How typical.
I prefer Linux, find old versions of Windows extremely frustrating (note: old), and haven’t tried Lindows. What intrigues me is that people who have never tried Linux before, like Lindows. I look forward to spending a few days playing with Lindows so I can try and understand why. I don’t expect to adopt Lindows, but that’s only likely to be true if it is as restrictive (software-wise) as everyone claims.
On the other hand a Linux setup that just works in it’s entirety is what I want. I get fed up setting up Samba time and again, setting up all the little kparts so they work well etc. I used to have to do similar things in Windows, and it was twice as hard because there was no way to tell what was broken, Linux actually tells you whats not working most of the time, thank God for that!
..Anyway, what’s my point? I spose I’m saying that the people who enjoy the most success in this life seem to be the ones who embrace more than one way of doing things.
(I realise that its from a completly different point of view, but I thought it was amusing
“Built into the OS already is your email applications, mainly Netscape..”
“.. instead of MS office you can have the Lindows designed Star Office suite. ” (emphasis mine)
Maybe I’m just nitpicky, but I can never take an article or post seriously when they refer to Microsoft as M$. I would expect this of some teenager but when you’re writing a review of a product it just makes the reviewer look childish. It would be the same if a person who was anti-Linux writing a review of a new Windows OS and keep referring to Linux as Linsucks.
One minor point to clear up. Based on your statement the core which Windoze later built around was developed mainly in the summer holidays by the students Paul G. Allan and Bill Gates, you seem to think that Gates and Allan actually did some creative work on Windows at some point.
The only thing that Gates ever designed was GW-Basic and it was almost universally declared to be one of the worst Basic interpreters designed. Microsoft bought DOS from a small company and filed off the serial numbers. The product was called QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System). Microsoft used this product as the initial input to PC-DOS and MS-DOS. What Gates did better than anyone else was market and promote his then-inferior product on a then-inferior hardware platform.
Microsoft developers wrote the initial Windows code after looking at Xerox and Macintosh work. In neither case did Microsoft innovate anything; the company copied. They continued to copy and, from the open-source community, they will continue to copy.
Or buy the competition outright.
Anyway, sorry to ramble on when we essentially agree.
Later!
Lindows is the AOL of Linux distros and Michael Robertson is the sleazy used car salesman of the open source world. I used Lindows 3.0 for one day and the only reason anyone would choose it over the better, newer, faster, more complete, less restrictive Linux distros is if they never used anything else. I hope Lindows/Robertson get wiped off the Linux map soon, but you never know. AOL became very successful with an overpriced, restrictive product that did nothing (compared to a regular ISP) but assault users with extra advertising, so anything is possible in this world.
“imagine a tougher version of MS-Dos where the commands are even harder to memorise and less forgiving of errors and you are starting to get there. and if you want to cheat a little, you can put on a pseudo-graphical front end and bingo, you might just manage to turn a modern windows xp capable PC into a passable imitation of windows 3.1 circa 1992.”
Are you even discussing Lindows here? Why are you using the command line exactly? And Lindows looks, if anything, like Windows XP… certainly nothing like Windows 3.1. Have you even used Lindows? Judging from your troll, err, I mean post, my guess would be no.
And what exactly does “pseudo-graphical” mean?
Lindows might suck (havent used it) but it certainly has the right marketing department.
While Xandros and Lycoris seem to have the superior distros, they have inferior marketing.
^ True
The Lindows packaging is extremely appealing.. and if a user hadnt heard all the background to this sorry saga I’m sure, like these guys, they’d rush to grab it.
/. are covering a Lindows Laptop.. built by 2 companies and preinstalled… Its the usual cheapo PC standard.. VIA C3 933Mhz/128MB/12’1″TFT.. but with USB 2.0, Firewire and Ethernet on board, and designed for light weight and small size.
Obviously it’ll be no speed demon but if it could run – and presumably it can since a lot of Linux drivers are OSS.. other version of Linux, like Xandros.. it wouldnt be a bad buy
Its priced at USD $ 799.. although if and when it makes it to the UK that’ll probably be GBP £ 799 😐
David, you are right on the money. I, particularly, like this part:
imagine a tougher version of MS-Dos where the commands are even harder to memorise and less forgiving of errors and you are starting to get there. and if you want to cheat a little, you can put on a pseudo-graphical front end and bingo, you might just manage to turn a modern windows xp capable PC into a passable imitation of windows 3.1 circa 1992.
Death to the fanboys!
The processor is relatively underpowered, it doesn’t have integrated 802.11b, and I’m sure the construction is horrible. If you’re looking for a good subnotebook I’d suggest you’d invest the extra money and purchase a Portege, as it’s one of the nicest subnotebooks available.
I have been reading further since I spotted that. The lack of WiFi is an obvious one.. but also the 933Mhz C3 cant stand comparison with the 800-900mhz PowerPc and Pentium 3 chips used by the comparison examples.
I’m not really shopping for a lappy anyway – I’m more of a desktop person. I just thought the idea of a sub-£600 UK laptop was novel.
Also, the laptop doesn’t come with a modem or CD drive standard, these cost extra. While this may not matter to some people, the selling point of LindowsOS is the click-n-run service. I’ve used it and it installs applications very easily and is a great asset to people who are not familiar with Linux. To use the click-n-run service you either download the apps from the Lindows.com website or I believe Lindows 3.0 packages the apps on a separate CD for you to install from. On a laptop with no modem or CD drive included it’s kind of hard to do either of those. Sure it has the RealTek ethernet card but not everyone has fast internet connections.
Makes no sense how else are you supposed to restore your system if the HD goes bad and you have to replace it? Whatever. One thing the review did not mention is No developer tools by default and you have to pay $99.00 for a membership to click and run so that you can install free software.
..its a very Lindows product 😐
Looks like a quality product at a bargain price, looks all the same as the opposition…. until you get it out of the box.
…although the phrasing on the sales site suggested to me that it had a CD drive but you had to pay extra for CDR/DVD
Lindows has a better version of apt working out of the box, KDE 3, and click n run while Xandros has the XFM (Xandros File Manger), NT partition resize, and Crossover Office.
Damn, I wish some of these distros could merge
Lindows is like AIDs to the Linux community. Its something you really dont want and its something you cant get rid of when you find out you have it. Xandros is doing fine leave it alone. I just wish Lindows would just go away, cant Robertson take a hint, NOBODY wants him around.
Well, be fair: HE wants him around…
Excuse me if anyone else has noticed this, (couldn’t be bothered reading through all the Linux Zealotry) but the mention of “Star Office, designed by Lindows” it absolutely shameful. Did your mother not breastfeed you?
Another classic example of the drivel meetthegeeks.org produces.