“I always keep a number of machines around running different versions of Linux and one of them is a Lindows box. Lindows 3.0 was pretty good, but it had a bunch of shortcomings. But the new version, Lindows 4.0, is a much improved, desktop OS with a lot more polish.” Read the review at MSNBC.
Lindows 4.0: Getting Better
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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This is great news for everyone in the linux comunity. Even though most of us nerds like a little more advanced linux distro this is really what strengthens linux in terms of users.. And lets not forget the excelent distro Mandrake..
a good review of Linux on Microsoft owned MSNBC?
Does MS know about this?? Or Did it just sneak into their newsroom? That’s pretty funny!
Actually not new, MSNBC has actually historically not been very MS-friendly, seems to be held quite loosely by MS. A Good Thing.
It is the second or third time they have a Lindows review, it is not a new thing.
Here’s the previous one: http://www.msnbc.com/news/813350.asp
From the same guy.
Good article, but a few comments about the “new” features of Lindows 4:
“The new Control Panel lets you change your background or monitor resolution, add a printer, make shortcuts, etc”
It’s simply the KDE Control Panel renamed to Lindows Control Panel.
The KDE Control Panel was available with previous versions of Lindows; they’re just weren’t any links for it. Making a link to kcontrol would give you the control panel.
“Universal Messaging: The Lindows Instant Message program lets you connect to all of the popular networks, including AOL, MSN, Yahoo!, ICQ and more, simultaneously.”
AKA Gaim 0.63, which was easily installed with previous versions of Lindows using APT.
I agree with the review, though. Lindows may not be for everyone, but it’s becoming a nice distro.
I think I will be giving Lindows a shot a little down the road when they ship with the 2.6 kernel, GNOME 2.4 and KDE 3.2. I believe when those are in, Linux desktop has arrived and I will feel confident put it on my family’s and neighbors computers.
The primary reason for waiting around is that I just finished setting up Mandrake 9.1 for a bunch of my friends and I don’t feel like going through it again, since most of them are pretty happy. Admittedly, some of my friends are already running Mandrake 9.1 without issues.
Lindows is beginning to sound like a great distribution. My only concern is I have not heard much about whether they support any other languages out of the box, specifically I need Spanish and Portuguese support.
If they do, I’ll be willing to give it a go.
I’m impressed that Lindows 4.0 even recognized three digital cameras I plugged in, allowed me to listen to Real Audio streams without any hiccups and, a first, allowed me to watch DVDs with no problems at all.
OK…this is 2003 and you can still impress people with this? We heard the promise of everything working out of the box in the early 90s from every OS vendor and still we find it remarkable if it really works. IMO it’s a shame, we really should be able to take this for granted by now.
I actually just replaced my Mandrake 9.1 with Lindows 4.0. The Lindows control panel isn’t just the KDE one, it’s been cleaned up quite a bit with additional features and options.
Dean
“OK…this is 2003 and you can still impress people with this?”
Actually, yes! Even Windows XP can’t always do those things without errors.
A few weeks ago I bought a printer, followed the installation instructions, and… it didn’t work! After lots and lots and lots of tweaks (which also involved rebooting to Linux), I finally got it work in Windows XP.
Another issue: my *mouse and keyboard* don’t work correctly in Windows XP, while they do perfectly fine in Linux! No it’s not a hardware problem, otherwise they wouldn’t work in Linux either (and I’ve already replaced my mouse and keyboard several times). As a workaround to get them more or less working, I have to remove and re-add the keyboard at every boot (using a second COM-1 mouse).
No guys, hardware doesn’t always work correctly in Windows, no matter what the hype tells you.
The only other desktop computer system without that kind of problems is the Macintosh, since the hardware is controlled by Apple.
“A few weeks ago I bought a printer, followed the installation instructions, and… it didn’t work! ”
HP printers are particularly annoying in this way. Good printers, crappy software setup.
Mr Anonymous who replaced Mandrake 9.1 with Lindows 4.0, can you comment on whether Lindows 4.0 is fully internationalized as Mandrake is? This is a major issue for me. By the way, is there a way to download and try Lindows 4.0 to see if and whether it will work for me?
“”” quote “””
Actually, yes! Even Windows XP can’t always do those things without errors.
A few weeks ago I bought a printer, followed the installation instructions, and… it didn’t work! After lots and lots and lots of tweaks (which also involved rebooting to Linux), I finally got it work in Windows XP.
Another issue: my *mouse and keyboard* don’t work correctly in Windows XP, while they do perfectly fine in Linux! No it’s not a hardware problem, otherwise they wouldn’t work in Linux either (and I’ve already replaced my mouse and keyboard several times). As a workaround to get them more or less working, I have to remove and re-add the keyboard at every boot (using a second COM-1 mouse).”
“”” quote “””
That sounds like some serious shit. Please tjek your motherboard for errors. remember the never the windows os is, it becomes less tolerant for errors. Take for instance win98 “I had it running with my memory totaly screwed(it was unstable but ran) I tried loading win2k it wouldn’t even boot.
Maybe linux is more tolerant to errors then winxp is?
I would think it is. With the higher level of control in linux it is easier to work around a problem.
Or maybe you have totaly screwed your windows….try reinstalling it.
Or maybe just load the drivers, XP’s driver suppot is very bad all most every USB device I have used in XP requirers a 3rd party driver to be loaded. Microsoft drivers never seem to work very well.
I’m with you. While I don’t see why I would ever use Lindows at this point (I like having total controll. I like Debian and Gentoo for this reason), I think that they are doing a very good job and I would like to try it (although, like I said, I can’t see myself using it). But like them or not, they are trying to get people to use the Linux platform and that only means one thing.
More people using Linux -> more demand for commercial software and games -> more commercial software and games for Linux -> more people using Linux.
It’s an UPWARDS spriral, and that’s a good thing. Especially if it gets us more commercial games (frozen bubble is nice and all, but it won’t hurt to have half-life, warcraft III, splinter cell, and other high quality games on Linux).
I use Lindows on a desktop for some time now and i noticed
that Tuxracer Deluxe was free (cnr) in v. 1,2 and 3 and now in version 4 its no longer free!? anyone noticed this? strange..
Exactly how is it that Lindows doesn’t give you full control?
“I noticed that Tuxracer Deluxe was free (cnr) in v. 1,2 and 3 and now in version 4 its no longer free!? anyone noticed this? strange..”
Why is that strange to you? The subscription cost for the Click-N-Run warehouse is now 49USD yearly and before LindowsOS 4.0 the C-N-R yearly cost was 99USD. So now you pay if you want the commercial stuff they have, and those who don’t want them don’t.
Simple? 🙂
I’m dissapointed in Lindows for the reason this distro was all fluff from the moment it was being worked on. It’s main goal was to run Windows apps natively and doesnt even come close. It’s comes as close as every other distro and thats that. Second is Lindows downloadable yet? Last I seen with version 3 the Lindows ppl still didnt release it for download. I’m not big linux fan but still doesn’t it bother you all that they still haven’t released lindows for download?
You can download lindows for what $40.
So what’s your point? That it’s not free? It’s not required to be free.
“While I don’t see why I would ever use Lindows at this point (I like having total controll. I like Debian and Gentoo for this reason),”
FYI, Lindows is based on Debian.
GNU/LindowsOS 4.0
gives me full control I can have root and normal users no problems. It is debian.
The only problem I have is that it takes 3min 55sec for it to boot fully on my machine (power button -> to a kde desktop)
I think this is because it is checking every module against my hardware. If this is true, what the Lindows people should do is have a clever program monitoring this process so that any boots afterwards would take less time by not checking all modules.
I really wish I knew how to get rid of the Lindows splash screen so I could see what it is doing.
Also does anyone know how to move lilo from the MBR and place it in the root partition?
I like using my windows 2000 bootmanager.
But seriously I was impressed by this distro. If I had two distro’s that I would like to keep on my computer it is LindowsOS 4.0 and redhat9.
Also I don’t like the Lindows font rendering because they don’t use the bytecode interpreter which redhat uses by default. Although without bytecode interpreter they look good, they look crap with white text on black or dark backgrounds.
Yes Simple..i overlooked that…thank you!
MSNBC is very much independent from Microsoft as a whole, in the sense of news. In other areas, where Microsoft is actually interested, MSNBC is intgerated more and more into Microsoft, specifically MSN.
Urgh, I’ve already reinstalled Windows XP 3 times in a row, as well as reinstalled 2000 twice before that.
Actually since the GPL requires that the software be redistributable, you can download Lindows for free. You just still have to pay for Click n Run.
Actually, that’s not quite true…
The GPL stuff is redistributable but there are some parts of LindowsOS that are proprietry and would need to be stripped out before you passed it around.
is the way they rename all of the GPL programs they include to “Lindows” whatever. Lindows Office, Lindows Instant Messenger, etc. I know they _can_ legally do it but it’s still pretty slimy to take the credit for all that development.
GPL only requires that you make sources available to any individuals that ask for it but does not state that you need to provide a link on your website or anything. Just that you allow them to get a hold of it if they contact you. Also GPL does not mandate that those sources be pre-compiled into binaries ( aka rpm’s ) at all or neither does it state what method ( snail mail, or ftp intall boot disk install ala SuSE anyone ? ) in which you have to deliver those sources. Oh yeah just like wakeupneo mentioned you’d still need to rip out all parts that are proprietary stuff to belongs to Lindows as well if you plan on distributing it freely.
I know they _can_ legally do it but it’s still pretty slimy to take the credit for all that development.
Well, although I do think they should have some kind of ‘based on mozilla [mozilla.org]’ or ‘based on gaim found at gaim.sf.net’ in the help files (I don’t know if they do or not), having every app named ‘Lindows…’ does give the OS some uniformity. Also some names of programs are not very descriptive, and giving them descriptive names helps.
I know they _can_ legally do it but it’s still pretty slimy to take the credit for all that development.
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How do you know they are taking credit?? Have you checked the help files and or changelogs? Be sure to be fully informed before making bold statments like that. I think it is slimy to pass judgement with out clarifing the facts first.
Can anyone briefly summarize the features/capabilities that are unique to Lindows 4.0 that other distros don’t have?
For example, in Xanrdos, they have that nifty file manager and (AFAIK) is the only distro that will let you share folders across the network simply by right clicking on them.
lindows if you ask me is garbage, easy setup, but if you want an easy setup you dont need to be using linux. why pay for click-n-run when you get all the same apps from debian mirrors using ‘apt-get’? plus you get more than whats on click-n run. if you pay for cnr youre getting ripped, period. why would you want a linux os that doesnt have utilities like finger, whois, man pages etc… not even a compiler. blech! its disgusting for us real linux power users to sit back and watch ms-migrated linux-newbies who use garbage os’ like these and call themselves ‘linux users’. plus the security on oob lindows systems is worth a cry or 2.
well werd… go compile your kernel… and go to dependency heaven… you are a power user… then fine for you… am a normal user…
AND … I can get things true apt-get… I am not forced to use CnR… and I think you are been a communist…
I have used both Redhat and Mandrake versions of Linux, and have now installed Lindows 4.0 on my test computer. The installation was much easier than other versions of Linux, but doesn’t even compare to the hard drive formatting controls in the Mandrake version. I never liked Redhat. Lindows’ subscription based software selection (click-n-run) is a good effort to make a lot of software available to the everyday user. I don’t think it is a Windows replacement.
I have had no luck getting Linows to work on my Windows network. maybe I’m being a dork, but it keeps asking me for a user name and password to access the network – and I don’t have any reqired passwords set to access the network (it’s just a simple WinXP pier-to-pier). I may try reinstalling it again and see if I missed something. Anyhow, I will continue evaluating the Linux programs, but won’t switch over completely until they have Windows program compatability.