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

A spawn of an unholy marriage.

[Nuteater]

...Malcolm Dean questions whether Lindows is any sort of linux at all...

In fantasy terms:
No, Mr. Robertson. If you breed an angel with a demon, you don't get an angel able to cast death magick.

In my book, Lindows is not any sort of Linux at all. If it is commercial, then even if it runs Linux software, has a Linux look or even if it is somehow related to a true Linux, it ain't Linux.

Linux is not the penguin. Linux is the smile on the penguin's face.

// Ego sum Nucivorax, me clamare audi.

People are forgetting.. Lindows = WINE

[Ndr_Amigo]

The author of the above editorial obviously didn't read the page too well... No wait, I take that back. The page has changed.

Here's the quote, from a Wired article. It's a doosy. Apparantly Lindows has taken Wine, under the ever-so-exploitable modified BSD licence (there has been talked of changing to the LGPL soon, to ensure people like this DO feed changes back into the main tree...) and (rumor) stuck some chinese developers behind it to hack on the functionality Wine has been missing.. DCOM (supported somewhat by Transgamings WineX) and some extended Shlwapi functions. Woop.

Lindows achieves Windows compatibility by using pieces of Wine, which is software that allows Windows applications to run in Unix that has been in development since 1993.

Wine is only a part of the overall Lindows compatibility layer, Robertson said. The rest will come from software developed in-house. .

I've Tried It

[t_allardyce]

I've tried Lindows and its amazing!!! Seriously - even the setup program looks _exactly_ like the real windows setup program. Every part of the system looks the same as the Micro$oft version, it even crashes in the same places!! infact, if you covered up the 'Lindows' logo on the CD case and gave it to an expert, they wouldn't be able to tell the difference!! - you see, as a joke, the creators used the title 'windows' instead of 'lindows' on every part of he os - the start-up the EULA, even the help files, these guys managed to recreate the look and feel of the entire oparating system, they are gods! infact its almost like they just copied windows bit-for-bit - amazing!