To encourage users to switch from Microsoft Windows products to the new Desktop/LX Operating System, Lycoris is now offering the “Moving On” competitive upgrade for all users of Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2k/XP. Users simply send in their original CD or restore disk along with their Certificate of Authenticity, sticker, or original product key papers from Microsoft , and Lycoris will give them 50% OFF the retail price of Desktop/LX Update 3. This offer will only last two weeks, until November 30th.
Lycoris Offers Competitive Upgrade from Windows
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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This would never work, because what if you want to just TRY IT?
I’m pretty content with other distros (Mandrake, Fedora, Redhat) but I might check this out anyway. I have a copy of Windows ME that came with my laptop that’s never been used.
Trying to get Windows users to make the leap, but have to send in their restore disks, so if they decide they don’t like Lycoris, they’re screwed. I’d be surprised if they get any takers.
A user could simply burn a copy and send in the original disk
Pay to get into troubles
so, i send them my xp box/cd worth $269 (amazon, full ver) so i can still pay for theirs on top of it, and not even be able to go back to xp if i want?? err.. i’ll pass.
yeah, i could burn a copy of it, but then after i’ve installed it too many times and i have to call to activate the stupid thing and they want me to read a # back to them off of the box.. then what.. (this has happened to me before, only i still had the box).
This is targeted at home users, most of which dont know what linux is. If Lycrosis wants more marketshare, their going to have to work on advertisement and getting their OS installed on computers by default.
Interesting offer, but as mentioned in several posts before, this is a blatant ripoff, seeing as none of the previously mentioned versions of Windows can be bought for $20, not even Windows 95.
This begs the question… what’s happening with these Windows CDs complete with the COA? I fail to beleive they would throw away a copy of Windows 2000 with it’s COA (worth $200 – $300), a full copy of XP Home or Professional, and any other version worth a reasonable sum of money.
You could write down all the numbers that you’d need, and copy the cd, before sending it off. Although I’m sure this isn’t the intent of the offer, there isn’t much they could do to prevent it(other than maybe reporting the change of ownership to MSFT somehow, but I don’t think they would be receptive to a competitor.).
There are absolutely no compelling reasons to switch. A quick look at the partial list of software offered with Desktop/LX, there are no advantages whatsoever:
* Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
* RealPlayer
* Macromedia Flash Plugin
* Java Runtime Environment
* Desktop/LX Network Browser
* Desktop/LX Remote Access Control
* Koncd CD Burning Software
* KAddressBook Contact Manager
* KOrganizer Time Management Software
* XMMS MPEG/MP3/Ogg Vorbis Player
* Xine DVD/DiVX Player
* KIT AOL Instant Messenger® Client
* Koffice Light Office Suite
* KPresenter Presentation Software
* 10 games, including Solitaire, Tetris [tm], Asteroids [tm], and Galaga [tm]
* Gimp Photo Editor
I believe they have abused the word “upgrade” since upgrade usually mean moving up to somthing better.
I pass.
They aren’t going to get any takers. This move is just a sign of desparation. Lycoris _still_ is using KDE 2.2. Their pigheadedness will drive the company out of business.
I’d rather keep my CD, I paid good money for it, and it makes old machines feel alive. Whereas if I use any linux not just Desktop LX, it would make it feel extremely slow.
I think a lot of that has todo with using modern applications. It’s harder to setup say XFree 3.1 and Gnome 1.4 now’a’days than Windows 98. And it’s harder to maintain those old enviorments well playing with some modern applications. With Windows 98 it’s not.
What about the EULA? Since you get a discount you are in fact selling your copy. Is it legal to sell your OEM-copy of Windows?
Send us your commercial software, we’ll replace it with a discount for software that is available free for download from the internet (There are minor exceptions for some Lycoris packages afaik), and then we’ll get to sell on your commercial software at a discount to someone else.
Does every CD come with a little sticker saying “thank you for being a sucker, our wallets appreciate your custom.”?
Please, as others have said above, we can see this is a rip-off of free software. I would take Xandros over Lycoris anyday if I was ‘moving on’ from windows. You don’t want to know how Lycoris compares to Xandros in that aspect. Plus, Xandros 2 IS coming out with a trial version.
Lycoris should call this the “Burn Your Bridges and Jump Off the Cliff With Your Eyes Closed” offer. Give up your license that makes everything you have work and march into the unknown armed with absolutely nothing. Anyone who takes this “offer” shouldn’t own a computer.
i have an authentic Windows 2000 Professional CDrom in its origional Jewel case, if i sent that expensive POS in to them i would expect a 100% free copy of their 2.8.1 flagship OS…
This sux! Although I don’t use windows anymore on my systems I still keep the restore CD-s. There are tons of good Linux distros out there. I don’t think that Fedora, Mandrake or SuSE (which is available from ebay cheap) would be a problemm to set up. They are so easy to set up…. And they comme whith more software, more apps and more everything that Lycoris.
Whoever goes for this is a sucker, and Lycoris sux altogether. A Linux distro shouldn’t try to copy Windows, but offer a better alternative. I could go on for eons…
Some software companies offer a cheap or free upgrade if you send in the first sheet of the instruction manual that came with their competitor’s product.
Lycoris’s asks “switchers” for a much more “committed” stance. In this context, a bad idea. The “switching” has been touted for everything from computers (PCs to Macs), cigarettes, cola, sex partners, etc.
Myself, I’d rather kick MS & Gates the hell OUT of my life on my own steam, by my own choice, free of silly incentives which are potentially more harmful than useful. The money saved on this “deal” is absolutely insignficant, BTW.
“What about the EULA? Since you get a discount you are in fact selling your copy. Is it legal to sell your OEM-copy of Windows?”
Actually no, it is not legal to sell an OEM copy of windows, without selling the hardware that it is connected to the same. OEM copies are tied to the hardware for legal purposes, although it will work elsewhere. With an OEM copy, say the copy that is pre-installed on a system when you buy it, should you ever sell that system then all the software that came with it MUST go with it. If the system is destroyed then the media must be destroyed as well. This “offer” can only be targeted at people who have purchased retail boxes, so I am thinking they have a very poor legal department, since the majority of home users only get the OS that is pre-installed when they purchase a computer.
This is a smart move, sorta…
At least it gets people thinking about Linux as an “Upgrade” from Windows of any sort.
This may be enough to get the Average Joe to pick up the box when they are at your local Best Buy/Frys/Circuit City/etc.. but Lycorix or any Linux still can’t answer the questions like “Can I run Microsoft Office on it?” “What happens if my Professor insists I run Windows”
Yes you CAN do all those things, but it isn’t easy enough. (I was at the local Apple store, and they ask the same questions, and have to give the same “Sort of…” answers.)
This is a farce. How can they possibly think that this is a good deal? They really expect me to give up rights to my copy of WindowsXP to save $20 or $30 on their little unproven, unsupported, farce of an “OS”. Oh yeah, it’s an “OS”, and not a linux distribution btw. This offer, from these guys, is quite possibly the silliest thing I’ve ever seen. They’re insane.
Desperate people commit desperate acts. Figuring out how to inject a money source into a dying cause might be one reason for committing a desperate act. It takes inovation to keep a company moving ahead. Those without inovation usually fail. (What version of KDE are they still using?) Fear is a funny motivator.
If you want to give Linux an “enema”, put it in Lycoris!
That POS OS is going down for the count.
Give up my MS CD’s and licenses…for that trash…NO Way!!
First, I don’t disagree with your reasoning. However, the 2.8.1 you seem to refer to would be the latest LIBRANET release, not LYCORIS. LIBRANET is Debian based, and includes KDE3 from the Debian sources, and uses apt-get and the Debian archives for software. LYCORIS uses KDE2.2 and has its own sources provided by the lycoris.com and lycoris.org sites. Two entirely different flavors.
Judging from enthusiastic responses here and no doubt elsewhere, This incredible offer will only last two weeks, until November 30th… will die a horrible death.
..in exchange for the full edition of Xandros with Windows application compatibility for running Office.
If Lycoris came up with an offer where I could trade in some of my spare Windows 98 licences fora Linux distribution containing Crossover Office I’d jump to do that too.
But to expect us to trade up a commercial OS in exchange for apps which can all be found in free ISO downloads is laughable.
Actually, their download edition which is free isn’t the same as their non-free version. You people need to get facts straight.
“If Lycoris came up with an offer where I could trade in some of my spare Windows 98 licences fora Linux distribution containing Crossover Office I’d jump to do that too.
But to expect us to trade up a commercial OS in exchange for apps which can all be found in free ISO downloads is laughable.”
I hesitated to dignify you with a response.. being usually of the opinion that a person incapable of keeping a civil tongue is undeserving of considered response, but for the record.
http://www.lycoris.com/press/movingon.php
As can clearly be seen, unlike Xandros, Lycoris’ consists solely of OpenSource and Closed Source Freeware apps.
ALL of which are available to download for free elsewhere.
I don’t know about other people, but I’ve got over two hundred Windows 95 OEM COAs and dozens of restore disks. I’d have more restore disks but I usually throw them away because the next thing I do to an OEM machine after it comes out of the box is reformat the hard drive and do a clean installation from scratch. Considering that many of the machines I have a COA from went into a dumpster long ago, this sounds like a pretty good offer to me. Before they were discarded, power supplies, hard drives, memory, NICs and CPUs were stripped so I assume if I sent a couple 8Mb SIMMs and a 90Mhz Pentium in with the other stuff I wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. Sure I could download an ISO and burn it, but the book that comes in the box is probably worth $20.00. Those so critical of this offer need to take a non-stupid view of it and reconsider.
Wow. You apparently think that a press release where they list “Includes Software such as…” means “Includes only…”
Get a clue, get a life, and learn how to comprehend. You can read, but you can’t comprehend.
And apparently you haven’t tried Desktop/LX. It has…My Linux System – not freeware, not available for download elsewhere. Would you like me to shoot your post to pieces and enumerate many more for you or would you like to quit while you’re still behind, but the closest you’ll ever get?
And for all of you who think I’m just ranting – what OS have YOU made? Matt from bluelinux – I know about you and you go off on tangents about the non-legally binding GPL FAQ – so don’t bother to speak up.
WOW. You should send them in if you’re serious! WOW! I take it you do some sort of sales of computers? I bought my copy of Lycoris and it did come in a neat box and everything. I’d say the packaging was worth it.
Their offer even says that businesses can take advantage of the offer, and on as many computers as you want.
Wow – I didn’t know anybody had hundreds of Windows 95 CDs complete with the CD Key!
This really shows a good amount of competitive marketing against Microsoft. The problem, though, is that they’re not willing to make it a policy rather than a short gimmick. Why not just always do this? I mean, it’s a good offer if someone’s wanting to check out Linux on an older computer.
On one hand, I commend Lycoris for having the ba!!s to believe they can replace Windows with there “OS,” but on the other hand, until they can offer an OS that will replace or run the programs people need Windows to run, it seems like it will be a hard sale. Who will trade in there Windows OS if they need to run a program not ported to Linux (yet). They might need the Windows disk to maintain a dual-boot.
If one has a extra Win95 or something laying around, $20-bucks is probably not a bad deal for boxed OS, that is, if it were an up-to-date OS.
Why not just offer Lycoris “OS” for twenty-bucks and be done with the foolduggery of sending in, confirming the Windows CD as installable, and then sending back to the customer the Lycoris “Upgrade OS?” What a hassle.
It’s likely you might need that Windows CD to straighten up a problem with your install while waiting for your new “Upgrade OS.” (;-)
Then again, maybe they want to corner the market on the used Windows OS CD’s? But it sounds like Bayerwerke (earlier post) already did that.
Lycoris, your OS is what needs the “Upgrade.” Upgrade to KDE 3.1, throw in CrossOver Office, Apt-get or something, and few other updates and then make an offer to sell at a reasonable price and maybe you will be taken seriously.
If you want to be like Windows, why not simple get a license and sell Windows. Ater all, you are in the right town for the way your mind is working.
It must be the Water in Redmond!
Can you get your cd back?
just gotta toss in my two cents of slam
as a cross over linux user (i still use windows for audio production only)
i must say this is a sad move by Lycoris. i wouldnt give them
an old burned copy of open linux for this joke of a “competitive” upgrade
ill keep my old windose disks and thanks all the same…
now pardon me while i go off and regain my composure after laughing so very very hard
I am a System Administrator for a company with over 100 desktops, most of which run Windows 95, with some on 98, several run “other” (OS/2, DOS, QNX, Linux, W2K, XP). We have a single business critical legacy app that won’t run in NT/2K/XP. The cost of replacing that app is well over half a million USD. We have replaced a lot of older computers and I think our lowest powered desktop is a 233, which does everything the user needs it to do just fine. We have junked well over 100 machines that shipped with Windows 95 pre-installed. Four things would prevent us from upgrading to Linux;
1) The legacy app, which could run in bochs on FreeDos.
2) We never switched from WordPerfect since we were running 5.1 in DOS 5.0 and then switched to Windows 95 and WordPerfect Suite 8, if OpenOffice.org had QuattroPro and WordPerfect file conversion capability or if we could convert our WordPerfect Suite 8/9/10 licenses for Windows to WordPerfect Suite 9 for Linux this would not be an issue.
3) Novell Groupwise for groupware, but we all know about Novell and Ximian, right?
4) NDS authentication from Linux, which I assume Novell is working on right now.
Once those issues have solutions we could be 98% free of Microsoft. There are a lot of companies in similar positions. So many people observe the Linux vs. Windows issue with blinders that prevent them from seeing the issue from a corporate view. How long do you think it would take me to consider making a switch that would;
1) Save the company money
2) Give the user a more stable desktop
3) Prevent users from installing Bonzai Buddy, etc.
?
Most of my users would probably be very comfortable with Lycoris. Probably 30% of our users don’t understand that they are using a “Windows” computer, they just think of it as “a” computer. Switching platforms without changing the interface (much) would probably go almost unnoticed and they really wouldn’t care which version of KDE they were using. If some of you pinheads would quit looking at this through a pinhole, then you would understand why things like this are significant.
Anyone interested in buying a MultiTech MultiMux set, a RAD ASM-11 set or some Shiva LanRovers? I’ve got a really nice Ampex 230 plus on my desk that still gets used twice a week. Anyone here old enough/experienced enough to even know what I’m talking about? No? Then it’s not likely you understand corporate computer use, so shut T.F. up.
If they sent me the full-blown commercial version for free, I *might* consider installing it, but probably wouldn’t.
Right now, I’m typing this on my audio workstation (P4 2.8ghz, WinXP), which Linux isn’t going ANYWHERE NEAR in the forseeable future.
However, I’ve got another box sitting right beside it that I use for recording TV shows (AverTV capture card) and grabbing binaries from newsgroups, amoung other tasks .. I might consider installing Linux on that, but probably wouldn’t, unless Linux has something singnificantly better than WinDVR3 and Newsbin.
But Lycoris? Why? IMHO, there are better, free distros elsewhere.
Bayerwerke
Your post started off with a wonderful hint of intellect, but quickly dwindled to a level that revealed your true mentality — I’m smarter than you-ooh. Nah, nah, nah–nah, nah–nah!
I once read: Speak little and listen much and those around you will consider to think you wise, but a fool always opens his mouth and proves a fool.
You said, “…so shut T.F. up.” Well, now that certainly taught everyone a lesson — didn’t it? You know, if you use all caps you could pretend like you are really yelling. Cool, huh!
Did anyone mention this is not just about the, “corporate view?” Maybe you need a vacation?
The funniest joke of this week is reading the forum here: http://www.lycoris.org/viewtopic.php?topic=9306&forum=33 . It’s like the supposed Steve-Jobs-Distortion-Field syndrome. All except one guy seriously believes this offer over there!
I have to repeat this with emphasis to the Lycoris users: WINDOWS 98 IS STILL MORE USEFUL THAN LYCORIS RIGHT NOW!
I assume Lycoris will destroy the disks to avoid any legal hassles. It is a bit like a weapons buy back – they are simply getting old copies of windows off the streets.
I’d have to agree with Bayerwerke, he’s got a great exapmle of what it takes to convert a truely serious user or company. Thing is…if they could hold off on this about 3-6 months they could actuall pull this off! What he’s asking isn’t unreasonable…it just requires a little cooperation and working together of the linux distros!
1.) First like many posters have said, any version requiring your Windows COA had better deiver the goods…the $189 SuSe pro ALMOST comes close to being a windows direct replacement [star office, crossover…] and SuSe still has issues. As much Windows and Dos compatibility as they can cram in needs to be included, updated, and supported.
2 & 3 & 4.) I think Novell will surely work on this when the dust settles. But, they had better share their updates with the other distros. My opinion would be for Novell to include Linux client updates for all current and future versions of their servers…that’s their cash cow, not the desktop yet. Hopefully they will understand that linux is about choice, and play nice with the other distros. Secondly, I’d be cool if they set their sites on Corel [maybe collect Xandros too?]. MS was right to buy them off, but they’re still in trouble, and striped of their future direction. Corel would be perfect for their stable, they already had “Wine-ified” most of their software. That’s not as good as native Linux, but a great way to cross-compete! Now that Novell is building a stable, Corel is a steal. And wordperfect is widly used still by many old-school corperate types…i.e. old-school Novell fans!
I agree with the rest of his post too! The odd, older bits are quite often necessary to many companies operations. most of this stuff is abandon or unsupported by it’s makers…the best support you can get is fellow users. Also, the price to replace much old-school 8-bit controllers is still outrageous. The big companies [like Allen-Bradley] that bought up all the small controller companies basicly killed the markets [and sacrficed all the support] when PC control took over. If you’ve got anything older, you can’t replace it or upgrade it without paying big $$$, way more than costs for shiny new stuff. He’s right, the REAL world isn’t about supporting the latest DX9 benchmarks properly that’s easy..only a few compaines have to do it, it’s about gluing 15 year old $100,000 [more to replace] machines with 8-bit controllers to a brand new shiny Sun or HP Java box the upper management had to have! [with a COBOL ERP package to boot!] …and we tackle something different next week!
If they would use programs that aren’t ancient (I.E. KDE 2.2), Lycoris would be interesting. Why would I want to use KDE 2.2 when I can use KDE 3.2 soon (or Gnome 2.4).
It really isn’t what he said, but his behavior that is the issue.
“…you pinheads…” and “…so shut T.F. up.”
This behavior serves no one.
Which just so happens to hose the MBR. Regardless of if you install GRUB on the partition or in the MBR it destroys NTLDR on the windows partition. So much for an Eval
>> WHY WOULD THEY WRITE THEIR OWN OPERATING SYSTEM IF THEY THOUGHT WINDOWS WAS BETTER?
Problem is, KDE and MOST of the other software in Lycoris was written by OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPERS. They do it as a HOBBY! Lycoris, Red Hat, and all other commercial distributions are making MONEY off of the FREE WORK of many, many open source developers.
I’m sorry, but in my book, that doesn’t constitute an OS written by Lycoris.
Anyway, you’re sort of missing the point. The point is that Lycoris wants to give us $20 for their product, in exchange for $60 (for an OEM CD with Windows 98) all the way up to $300+ (for Windows XP, and ALL the software which you run on it.)
Additionally, if there are so many Linux distributions that it’s possible to mistake one for the other, maybe it’s time that a few left us forever.
Linux has great potential, but not in the hands of large companies trying to get tons of cash with very little work of their own.
Okay, I took too much inspiration from “The Colbert Report” (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central) for my closing remark which distracted greatly from my message. Sorry. But it still comes down to the difference between what a computer can do and what it needs to do. If you are a System Administrator, your number one responsibility is to make it easy for the user. This means it doesn’t matter what version of KDE is being used as long as the person using the computer can do their job while being required to learn as little as possible to interact with the computer and to produce the data the company needs from that user. While this may not be just about the corporate view, my message was that this is not just about the hobbyist view.
That being said, yes, I do need a vacation (very badly) and your dislike of my style of prose does not predispose me being smarter than you.
“Which just so happens to hose the MBR. Regardless of if you install GRUB on the partition or in the MBR it destroys NTLDR on the windows partition. So much for an Eval
”
OK, install Gnome, and when you decide to go back to Windows, just type in “lilo -u /dev/hda” at the command prompt with no quotes. Lilo will be removed from your bootsector, and it will be replaced with the bootsector that was on the machine before Lilo installation (the Windows bootsector).
“”Which just so happens to hose the MBR. Regardless of if you install GRUB on the partition or in the MBR it destroys NTLDR on the windows partition. So much for an Eval
“”
Haven’t tried this specific distro, but I had a similar problem with the FreeBSD bootloader. Windows REALLY doesn’t like its partition to not be set with an active flag in the MBR. With FreeBSD the problem is that the bootloader sets the currently being used partition active on every boot (If dual booting) so wiping the FreeBSD partition before making sure the Windows partition is active leaves you with fun problems to solve.
Perhaps what’s happening here is that as part of the installation the MBR is being changed to mark the Linux partition active (And it will change the MBR during installation to mark partition(s) as type 82/83), but failing to mark the Windows partition as also being active.
Simplest fix is to grab a recovery disk (tomsrtbt has been good to me in the past), use fdisk to change the Windows partition to active, and (If you’re removing Linux entirely) use the Windows recovery console to reset the MBR for the Windows loader.
Neat trick: Install GRUB to the Linux root partition not the MBR, dd the first sector of the partition to a file, copy the file to your Windows partition and use the NT loader to boot Linux :>
I’m coming to the conclusion you’re an ill-mannered jerk but kindly continue and list for me the software in Lycoris which makes it worth having and can’t be downloaded elsewhere.
… even the example you gave doesn’t count
“My Linux System” is not a piece of software by any description I am familiar with, it is a hack to the KDE Project’s Konqueror file manager which makes it display all drives in one page in the manner of Windows Explorer.
Identical functionality is available for other distributions, freely.
I think the move is not bad for Lycoris since it is trying to take market share from Microsoft. Granted I don’t think it’s better than Win2000/XP since they are still stuck on KDE 2.2, but it’s worth it if your trading in your old Win95/98 disks.
I think they should keep the offer open for good and also post on what will happen to the old software. There are companies out there that pay top dollars for used software, so this could also be a way for Lycoris to make money of Microsoft products which would not look good for a Linux Company. I don’t think there will be many takers, but hey every MS user that comes over from the dark side is a plus for the Linux Community.
Why (this is aimed towards Anonymous (IP: —.lanset.com)) do you have such a problem with Lycoris selling their distro? That is the nature of the GPL. People are completely free to sell other peoples’ software, and they aren’t entitled to share any of their profit with those authors. All they have to do is give out copies of their source when requested.
If you don’t want people to sell your software, then don’t release it under the GPL. Keep it closed source.
and not a very good one, either. Lindows is much better at doing this sort of thing. Not that there’s anything wrong with Lycoris looking shooting publicity, I just wish they could do a better job. I mean, if you’re not at least getting dragged into court by microsoft, what’s the use
.
Bayerwerke
Thank you for the great informational post. You truly know and understand what is happening. We all need to hear what you have to say, and take guidance from it. You have a worthy voice in this matter. Thank you.
Have you seen this news: http://tinyurl.com/v895
I have no problem with those companies just packaging it and selling it as a Linux distribution.
What I have a problem with is making the license seem to be what it isn’t.
RedHat is an extreme example, but as everyone now knows RedHat Linux is replaced by Fedora, and everyone is supposed to use Fedora or RHEL. Have you *read* the RHEL license? (redhat.com/licenses) I realise that it only covers services with RedHat… problem is that every RH EL product is sold with a service contract! I’ve read RH employees defend this, but I don’t think that RedHat should charge so much for open source software. They should keep a resonable price, then let service, support, etc., be on top of that.
If I were a developer of Linux and open source projects, and saw many companies getting money from my code, I sure would not be happy. Look at what is being advertised by Sun: “$100/employee/yr with the Sun Java Desktop.” It might be a good price now (I’m not a business customer, how would I know?) But just wait until RedHat, SuSE, and Sun have large shares of the market. They’ll increase their prices to be at least on par to those of Microsoft. I’m sorry, but that’s the way business works.
By the way, selling Red Hat Linux for $40 would have worked if RH only supplied source code for RHL instead of full ISOs anyone could just download and not bother paying for RHL, then even get away with RHN service by using the “demo” accounts. Of couse a company can’t survive just giving anything away, but a number of business customers have been told that Linux is “free” by people who don’t bother to specify “free as in freedom.” I’ve talked to some people who can’t even retain the idea “free as in freedom,” but will only remember “free.”
Sounds like you the Free Software community needs to stop abbreviating “free as in freedom” as “free,” and stick with something more descriptive- like “Open Source.” “Free as in freedom” also implies I can do whatever I want with it, since it is free, which is also incorrect. “Free as in open source?”
How much is this version of linux and how well does it work?
I was a big fan of Lycoris, its not a distro that I personally use (other than just having a look once in a while and saying “aww cute”), but I personally feel they’ve done a very decent job of presenting Linux for the non technical user. It’s the sort of distro I could give my grandmother to browse the net with and I feel that she would find it quite comfortable. Regardless of KDE 2.x or 3.x or whatever, as long as the gui is something granny can navigate and feel fairly comfortable with. Pretty sure Lycoris’ target market is people who don’t really know the difference between version X and Y of various software anyway.
As I said “was a big fan”, the recent attitude displayed by their CEO on the user forums with regard to the company decision not to continue the free downloads of Lycoris/LX with the exception of a somewhat crippled “Evaluation” version changed my view. (The Eval edition from what I hear has “Evaluation version” plastered all over it and whines about needing to be uninstalled after X number of days). Anyway getting back to my point, Joe Cheek (CEO) was seemingly very rude, abrupt and generally nasty about the complaints of users with regard to the whole policy change, virtually giving the impression that in his opinion all the non paying users were a bunch of freeloaders. Seems he quickly forgot how important members of the Lycoris community have been with regard to helping out new users, advocacy of this distribution, bug tracking and beta testing. Many many people gave their free time to Lycoris and their community only to be insulted like this.
That being said, I have no problem with companies making money soley off GPL software, but Lycoris’ references to Lycoris/LX being “”their” “proprietry” OS “based on linux”” is insulting. In my opinion if you want to work within the OSS community by distributing OSS based products you need to respect the fact that in most cases 99% of what you distribute you don’t own and its the goodness of a community of many, many users and companies who contibute, that makes it possible for you to exist. So take care of the community who helps get you to where you are and give something back, else you more than anyone are a freeloader.
As for the Windows upgrade promotion… bad idea I think, they should’ve just had a bit of good faith and let users send in a photocopy of their Windows licence.
Lycoris seems to be showing desperation for cash lately, I’m curious if this has anything to do with them being based on SCO/Caldera’s linux distro and the whole FUD machine surrounding SCO atm. Maybe they’ve been stupid enough to sign some agreement.