The operating system company makes a further move into the hardware business, offering Linux on a desktop computer with flat-panel monitor for $449. The computer has a 1.2GHz Duron processor, 256MB of SDRAM and a 20GB hard drive.
The operating system company makes a further move into the hardware business, offering Linux on a desktop computer with flat-panel monitor for $449. The computer has a 1.2GHz Duron processor, 256MB of SDRAM and a 20GB hard drive.
I think for Linux to succeed on the desktop, 2 things need to happen, and Lindows is in a good position to leverage this:
– ditch X windows
– close the source
I know Linux zealots will complain, however it is the only way to ensure concistency and deep integration like in Windows. Especially the second point is important since it seems the days of legal open source are numbered, especially in the US.
– ditch X windows
Agree, but not a very easy job/task. We need a very hard standard and a very good api to attach the more companies to port their apps.
– close the source
It doesn’t make any difference as long the authors add a sentence in the license of avoid the fork.
why on earth ditch X? it’s becoming faster, and because new modules are replacing the old dated methods, it’s also becoming a more modern system. the next incarnation of x (v 5) will be a pdf based rendering system, allowing for mac os x style effects. keith packard and hp are doing a lot of work.
replacing X will take a lot more work than fixing any problems with the current system. and don’t winge about not needing the x remote stuff, if you don’t use it – it doesn’t bog your system down anymore than a windowing system that is local.
oh, and lindows can *never* be closed source. sure, they may add their own programs, and not open those – but all elements that are gpl can’t be closed.
/rant.
I think for Linux to succeed on the desktop, 2 things need to happen, and Lindows is in a good position to leverage this:
– ditch X windows
– close the source
Why ditch X? sure, XFree86 really sucks badly but why not simply license or buy out XIG and use that? it has all the drivers one would need, great 3D support and very good performance.
X’s issues isn’t related strictly to the protocol but the really crap architecture of XFree86. There are numerous examples of X’s that are of good quality. The X included with IRIX is one example.
As for closing the source, why? why not simply fork the code then maintain and change the direction of the code in the direction you like.
There is nothing stopping anyone, for example, grabbing GTK 2.2.2 and doing something really radical to it.
I know Linux zealots will complain, however it is the only way to ensure concistency and deep integration like in Windows. Especially the second point is important since it seems the days of legal open source are numbered, especially in the US.
Consistancy and deep integration like Windows? are you dellusional? We have Exchange 2000 that runs shithouse on Windows 2003, numerous people moan that they have actually seen a PERFORMANCE DECREASE after installing Windows 2003, people finding that their hardware – VERY COMMON HARDWARE like 3COM network cards not working, lets just jump onto Active Directory, a one platform solution. They *COULDN’T* even make it LDAP compatible, they had to screw it, lets movee onto their SOAP implementation – they promote themselves “embracing openstandards” and couldn’t even implement it according to the specifications, lets now move onto Kerbos Authentication – Again, they couldn’t for one moment stick to the MIT specifications, they *HAD TO* screw it up for no good reason. Worse still, they haven’t properly documented it thus making interoperability impossible.
Linux’s problem ISN’T integration and other buzz word crap, Linux’s problem is a lack of suitable ISV’s and IHV’s. If you have NO commercial application support and have LITTLE support by hardware manufacturers, what do you think is going to happen?
Lindows is in no position to leverage anything, seeing as how they’re a minority within a minority. Now if we were talking about Red Hat and SuSE and Mandrake, the big three for desktop users, yeah, what you said would make sense.
Right now it just smells like you havn’t the slightest idea why you’re saying what you are, unless it was all bait from the get-go.
P.S. — The day open source is outlawed in America is the day that freedom is shackled. This is not a closed vs. open debate I’m trying to start, but it’s extremely ludicrous to think for one minute that something as harmless as shared development through an open model is something that needs to be stopped by legal means. Open source should not be legal for the very reason that if you make open source illegal, you may as well make the sharing of ideas and how to perform those ideas illegal. That’s all that open source is.
I typoed and meant to say “Open source should not be illegal for the very reason…”. My bad, I lost my train of thought about halfway through that paragraph and had to re-word the last half since it sounded messed up.
look at what dell is offering at that price point. Not exactly a deal.
Ditching X would be a big mistake, rather tehy should improve X. X is extrememly fast, faster than windows once a few tweaks are applied. http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=1905&page=1
I really hope someone will take those suggestions and stop all the unecessary calls to X.
Creating a better solution from scratch costs an immense amount of money and it would take a long while befor eit could get acceptance and have apps ported to it. it would jsut cause furhter fragmentation for Linux.
Closing the source is even stupider, taht means they couldn’t take advantage of many OSS advances and would have to do it all on their own. They are only 53 people and this is not viable. In addition, doing this doe snot make business sense, because what tehy are really selling is their software warehouse not the OS itself.
Lindows is like the Windows ME of the linux distros. But that is just my opinion. As long as we a standarized os, red hat i think would be a good leader. Although i prefer gentoo and/or debian.
Or are you blind?
Duh, he’s a troll! See subject. Obviously he is incapable of reaching logical conclusions, following a conversation, or contributing meaningfully to a conversation. The name implies that.
The way the US economy is performing? hell, you might as well invest into Zimbabwe Dollars for good measure.
Sure, I *COULD* buy broadband, however, I don’t purchase it because I can’t justify *WHY* I should pay an extra $50 a month so that I can get webpages 2 seconds faster.
I have also noticed a disturbing amount of these posts have usernames as well. The noise ratio coming from “Anonymous” is much lower than the crap I see from folks with attached usernames. Therefore, all posts with usernames other than “Anonymous” should be immediately and automatically moderated down.
Or perhaps OSNews should have a “living with parents” detector . Would that make you happy? Or maybe we could just discriminate by age (what do young people know?), gender (what do women know?), income (what do those snobby rich kids know?) operating system (what do linux users know?) or race, or some other random factor. That would be great. Anyway, thanks for you awesome, condescending post, we at OSNews look forward to more.
That’s nice. No one cares why you have decided to not have broadband. Maybe you’d like to write an essay on the topic, and submit it to OSNews?
Hey, im with you. Dialup has been working fine for me. The speed is fine, my only annoyance is the random disconnects.
Another weird off-topic flame war on OSNews.
Anyway, this KooBox looks pretty cool. You’d think me, being a Mac “fanboy”, would look upon this cheap beige box with disgust like I do most cheap PCs, but it actually looks like a pretty good deal. For Joe Blow user with simple needs (browse the Web, check e-mail, listen to some music, write a few letters, play some card games, whatever), this looks like a nice little computer. It’d also be good as a second computer, maybe for the kids. They don’t need a dual 2Ghz PowerMac G5 or a 3+GHz Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading.
And, of course, it runs Lindows. While it’s no OS X, it’s certainly preferable to Windows in my book.
Jared
he computer has a 1.2GHz Duron processor, 256MB of SDRAM and a 20GB hard drive.
Wow,, thats faster than my current computer, and it has a flat screen! AND its at least 3x cheaper than my computer was..
The KooBox won’t dig a large hole in my wallet. The Deluxe version has a dvd player and a cd burner. Why not include one of these elements in the cheapest option instead of a plain cd player ?
Also, it has VirusSafe from Central Command. Now, how many linux viruses are there in the wild ? Add to this the fact that unless somebody runs their system as root, there probably won’t be any reason to worry about these viruses.
Why is it that whenever Lindows comes up with some hardware idea, there is always something fishy about it ?
Maybe some people here don’t mind standing behind what they say instead of ducking behind “Anonymous” like some sort of coward.
People who use “Anonymous” are as bad as people who post on news groups using x-no-archive=yes so that people can’t post a link from google and prove the original poster wrong.
Also, it has VirusSafe from Central Command. Now, how many linux viruses are there in the wild ? Add to this the fact that unless somebody runs their system as root, there probably won’t be any reason to worry about these viruses.
I think, Lindows is on root by default if I remember it correct.
Wow. So quickly we degenerate into name calling! Its always good to not let your emotional side take control of your brain (unless you are women, because then that side is not present). And you know so much about me already, and we haven’t even implemented the SSN#.NET login system yet. I feel like I have known you for years! Please tell me more about myself. Do I use Windows? Or better yet, do I use that dead operating system, BSD?
bsdrocks: That’s correct.
http://www.hlb.com.au/people/?people_code=26
GNU/Linux is a welcome alternative for MS Windows, but the only way to make this alternative accessible for wider audiences is to sell people computers with Linux already installed.
BTW, does Lindows use other desktops beside KDE? I prefer Gnome, XFce4, and WindowMaker (in Debian). Also, is VirusSafe any good? I scan my system from time to time with F-Prot.
http://www.f-prot.com/download/home_user/
256 MB of SDRAM and a oh so huge 20 GB drive. Looks like a crappy deal to me. The $670 model is decent…especially since it doesn’t cost much more. The memory choice still leaves something to be desired.
I always enjoyed the relatively troll-free discussions on osnews. But now the signal to noise ratio drops below slashdot levels. It seems that OSNews needs a moderation system similar to slashdot, since eugenia does not have time to moderate everything herself.
Should be not that hard, since there are plenty of existing systems that just have to be adapted to the OSNews layout.
I like what Lindows is trying to do. Make a really consumer oriented computer by packaging their OS with hardware and keeping the price down.
What would be nice is to see them work with a company like Dell to give people the choice of either:
A) Forget Windows and just have Lindows
B) Dual boot between Lindows and Windows.
That way they can get in on a popular vendor and get Linux more recognition. The low end machines they keep packaging with just look like trash to me.
Dell already offers dual boot or Linux only options to corporate and government contracts for high-end workstations and servers. Why not offer it to home office/consumers?
I think the problem with Microsoft trying to yank Windows licensing to companies who offered Linux as an alternative has been taken care of in court. If I am wrong, please let me know. It is something that I have lost track of. It seems as though Dell (insert other PC manufacturer name here if you want) and Lindows could really offer some nice package deals.
“The day open source is outlawed in America is the day that freedom is shackled. ”
That happened the day the DMCA was passed. If you want to live in a free country, look elsewhere. (Russia?)
I agree 100%. No matter how easy you make the install, a pre-installed, pre-configured setup will always be better. Especially from a support perspective, you have a set of known hardware that you can manage. As much as some computer oriented folks (read geeks) like to disparage Lindows, they are trying to package Linux as an easy, friendly operating system, and they are contributing real money and code to popular open source projects.
I’ve been meaning to put together a computer for my kid’s room, and this looks like an easy way. Since Lindows is Debian-based, I’m sure it won’t be too hard to apt-get dist-upgrade it into a “real” Debian machine like the one she is currently used to (i.e. her account on my own home box). If she ever fills up the 20 gigs I can go to Best Buy and add a bigger disk for a whopping $40 or so.
Is it just me, or can someone else see Lindows moving towards an Apple business model? They are moving into the hardware area, and although they can use off-the-shelf components, they can guarantee that with their systems, Lindows will work. This is good for the general public who want something “good enough” and “just works”.
And since they are based on a standard that won’t go away (Linux, and of all distros, Debian), they guarantee that they can evolve the software easily. Also, the power users can add more software easily.
I like this move from Lindows.
I think that Lindows is taking things in the right direction. But for almost that price, can go to Dell and get a much better system. For example:
http://www.edealinfo.com/Misc/dell.shtml#D11
Yeah, I’ve got to go through some shanangins with rebates, but $610 for a P4 2.2GHz and a 15″ LCD nain’t bad…
I really think lindows (while not completely agreeing with all their decisions) is proving linux a favor by getting it on the shelves in stores and in computer magazine’s aimed at end users.
Sometimes when i walk by a computer store (here in .be) i step inside and have a quick glance over their shelves to see if their is any linux/open source software to be found. Almost never i see any.
Staroffice and other alternatives to software running on windows are starting to show up, but it’s quite hard to find a boxed linux distro in a computer store that is not aimed at the experienced user. (I only know of 1 major chain that is consequently shipping a few distro’s and bsd sets)
Regular Joe users just walk in a shop and ask for the cheapest solution that will fill their needs, and thus if the store only provides boxes with XP preinstalled that’s all they can choose from. Getting linux visible in stores is a much needed step and while it seems that in the states some ditributors are beginning to provide preinstalled systems i call on mandrake and suse to take similar steps in Europe. I know mandrake offers preinstalled boxes on their website, but that would presume the user already knows and wants to use mandrake. It should be a fair choice in a regular shop to choose between preinstalled systems, then it will be considered an option by much more users
>>it’s quite hard to find a boxed linux distro in a computer store that is not aim<<
Well, got to live just around the corner of SuSE. like i do (-;
Good to see LIndows moving along nicely. There version 4 of there distro is very nice for people that just want it to work and not learn much.
The folks over at Yellowtab should be doing this with BeOS
Joe User would much rather run BeOS ,he just doesn’t know it yet,and what better way to showcase it than a nice system pre-configured to run it.
For one there’s none of that X windows slowness about it,and also the user friendliness factor equals or surpasses Windoze or MacOS
plus theres so many free apps and stuff on BeBits it’s not funny,never mind click and run, how about unzip anywhere and run, for free?well almost,a few good apps cost a little something like SoundPlay but they are worth the small price you pay.
The biggest obstacle in running BeOS is hardware support,so what if somebody else went thru that hassle for you and didn’t charge outrageously for it?
with the right promotion and distibution(like Tigerdirect or Walmart.com) this would work!
“close the source”
Idiot – You cannot close the source for the Linux kernel together with the GNU libraries and tools as they are GPL’d if you close it you can no longer distribute legally distribute Linux. You can fork them and take them it in any direction you want or are capable of but you cannot legally close it without facing the theat of legal action from the enforcers Eben Moglen and Bradley Kuhn.
You possibly could close the source of a fork of Xfree because of its MIT license or produce a new closed source replacement. But then you have lost all possibility of community support
“it seems the days of legal open source are numbered, especially in the US.” When the GPL has the backing of the largest hardware company in the world – IBM and its mass of attack lawyers your statement is pretty clueless.
linux or whatever you wish to call the beast is not even out of beta testing!
The MAC OS is miles better, so is Windows XP! Even Amiga OS4 knocks linux into never never land.
Admit it, Linux is not for non techies, windows is for all, so is Mac os, and amiga os4.
linux or whatever you wish to call the beast is not even out of beta testing!
The MAC OS is miles better, so is Windows XP! Even Amiga OS4 knocks linux into never never land.
Admit it, Linux is not for non techies, windows is for all, so is Mac os, and amiga os4.
What’s your criteria for “beta testing”?
Also, define “better”? Each OS has their strengths, even WinXP and *shudder* classic Mac OS. Each OS also has their weeknesses.
Recompiled your own optimized version of Mac OS X lately?
Trimmed out all the fat you didn’t need? Tried out a different filesystem that’s better suited to your tasks recently?
Oh, Mac OS X only supports TWO filesystems? Bummer dude…no Reiser or XFS for you!
And before you reply with something retarded, yes I realize there are many advantages to Mac OS X, you have native versions of important commercial software, hardware detection works a lot better…blah blah blah
In the modded down comments people stating we should all use our real names– I agree! Been doing that for a while
!
Really? Who is the idiot? You for responding to someone who said “I am a troll” (that comment may have been deleted though, or modded down), or you for getting all emotional over a stupid post? I guess that leaves only you.
I like the profecional way that OSnews handles the forum… and their site… even though it might not be evident at first… Their rules are cool… at least my comments don’t get deleted… or banned (as long as I don’t do something realy domb…)
… now… I wonder what was it that got my comment moderated?… oh well… it is their… some line must have been misinterpreted… or am a big moron at posting here… lets see if I avoid it in the future! No big deal anyway…
Now… It would be grate to see more options been offered at your local computer store, and Lindows is leading the way (in their own aproach) and now their are good options at hand than 3 years back… so now their are PC from HP with Mandrake… and Lycoris in a Toshiba tablet… and bunch of PC with various distros “preinstall” at several “.com” stores… all good for linux… actual market plase for linux… Could that have been considered 3 to 5 years before? …
Now… Who is going to review this koobox? I want a review… It looks good. Lets test its performance!
I hope to see more distros in it… since koobox.com is not a Lindows.com company. That means that if ask… they might provide other options… and that would be good… I mean, I lake LindowsOS… but for those who don’t…
Anyhow… good thing for Lindows prospective users… (target audience)…
Look at the good things… fix the bad by yourselfs, thats the linux way…