What's up with Lindows?

A reader writes "In this editorial at DesktopLinux.com, commentator Malcolm Dean questions whether Lindows is any sort of linux at all, and suggests that the world might actually be better off without yet another proprietary/commercial Windows wannabe (that runs Windows apps, no less). Dean asks how it is possible that, as Lindows.com founder Michael Robertson manages to claims in his latest newsletter, Lindows' ten million lines of code include a Windows Compatibility Module that somehow works better than anything else available today. "Has Mr. Robertson's team accomplished in a few months what took WINE years?" Where is the substance to back the hype? Besides, what if Lindows does succeed: do we really want to perpetuate the use of Windows software on a linux platform?"

Comments

Re:Wine?

[O2n]

It's not very clear. The faq on their web site states that "Some of the LindowsOS code will be Open Source".
No idea if this is - or not - WINE-related.

My registry is prepared for judgement; is yours?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know who to begin with -- the sleazy hypemeisters, the breathless journalism school dropouts of the trade press, or the ignorant pimple-faced gibwads of Slashdot. The story exists solely because the press, its readership and Mr. Robertson have zero knowledge of past practice in the field.

Suffice it to say that the problem was solved while these id10ts were busily browsing for p0rn:

Win4Lin, which has actually worked for the past two years and is going to be distributed with Mandrake 8.2.

Plex86, whose name changes on a regular schedule.

VMWare, still usable despite the developers' best efforts.

Wine, the massive, ongoing masturb^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hemulation effort.

All of these work (listed in decreasing order of compatibility). Lin4Win is actually kept up to date, and is the only solution that runs Windows faster in emulation than in native mode (because it uses the Linux filesystem and block cache). This also keeps the registry from getting trashed -- even after 2+ years, my registry is still clean and Windows hasn't scribbled over itself.

In fact, Win4Lin works so well that some disgruntled Wine developers took it upon themselves to announce Netraverse's demise on f*ckedcompany last summer. That's high praise indeed.

1. -- OrCADet Xilinx

P.S. -- I don't work for Netraverse, I'm just extremely happy with Win4Lin and their free upgrades for life.

Re:Typical response

[Aragorn379]

what non-computer expert can realistically expect to wrestle with Linux when it fails to boot, or they add new hardware, install a new application, or, heaven forbid, they want to upgrade to the latest kernel?

what non-computer expert can realistically be expected to wrestle with Linux when they install a new application by clicking on the package they want in the GUI and clicking on the install icon? Err, wait a minute, that would be easy... don't some distributions already have this? I would be easy to add at any rate.

What non-computer expert can realistically expect to wrestle with Windows when it fails to boot?

Guess what happens when a Windows machine fails to boot. Some combination of: 1) reinstall the OS, 2) take it to a computer store and have them fix it, 3) beg whatever geek you can find to fix it for you. I don't see how these options fail to apply to Linux.

What non-computer expert can realistically expect to wrestle with Windows when, heaven forbid, they want to upgrade to the latest kernel?

Oh, that's right you can't upgrade just the kernel, you have to upgrade the whole machine. Perhaps you should be comparing to upgrading a distribution which is easily within the realm of possiblity of anyone who can hit the enter key.

I do tend to agree with you on the adding new hardware bit. Anyone know any software that makes this trivial?