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Michael Robertson Interview about Lindows

Posted by Hemos on from the making-it-work dept.

unclegus writes "I ran across this article talking about Michael Roberston and Lindows. Says a "Sneak Preview" will be available in a few weeks. Release 1.0 will be $100 for single user ..." Dan Gillmor, the author of it, has said that it appears to be the real thing - I'll be interested in getting my hands on it.

10 of 384 comments (clear)

  1. Is this legal? by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Apparently some parts of the OS will be proprietry, but the OS will include the Linux kernel and be reliant on it presumably, unless they intend to provide FreeBSD running in Linux kernel emulation mode with it.

    Is this (serious question) a GPL violation? If Apple can't make BASH the MacOS X command line shell (apparently they asked, RMS said no, that would be a violation), how can Lindows make Linux the kernel?

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  2. Interesting work, from a technical aspect by Marx_Mrvelous · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the info in the article, it seems that they are either erverse-engineering the Windows APIs, or mimicking the functionality with their own code. This is a time-consuming task.

    Also, they said they are focusing on only 10 or so applications. They list Work, Excel, etc. But what about future revisions of these programs? I wonder if Ms would purposefully change them to break under Lindows, which Lindows would have to change to accomodate.

    So will this become a perpetual 'chasing' game, trying to catch up to Microsoft?

    --

    Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
  3. I know where my money's going by the_radix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    He ran several Microsoft Office applications on his IBM ThinkPad, though some functions of those programs still aren't working properly under Lindows. They'll come in time, he says.

    So, instead of paying $100 for a Windows upgrade that crashes occasionally, but runs everything, we can pay $100 for an OS that crashes occasionally and can't run everything.

    --
    This .sig is either false or a paradox.
  4. missing the point by _UnderTow_ · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I know I can't speak for anyone else here, but for me the attraction of using Linux is not having to worry AT ALL about licenseing issues. If I have to worry about how many licenses is have I might as well use windows, then the windows apps I might be using will work (as well as they can).

  5. ok, great. it runs windows apps. but the cost? by garcia · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Honestly this is a fine achievement if it does what it says. But for $100? To run on slow machines so that companies don't have to upgrade their hardware?

    Come on.

    Unless it supports things like USB for devices Linux doesn't already support, etc. I really don't see this being a viable competitor.

    My main beef w/Linux at this point is that I can't sync my Casiopeia via USB cradle (I have to use the serial keyboard "cradle") which is slow and painful.

    My god damn parallel printer (HP 960c) is not very well supported and making a /etc/printcap entry w/printtool is not helping (even w/the drivers from the HP sourceforge page).

    If Lindows will solve those problems for me I would be less weary... For $100 though? I will suffer w/my serial cradle and using WP8 (which works w/the printer just fine).

    Just my worthless .02

  6. Screenshots by jwilhelm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are two screenshots of Lindows in use here:

    http://www.lindows.com/lindows_products_screensh ot s.php

    It looks impressive to me (so far).

  7. Think Lindows isn't 'real'? by Havokmon · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If it weren't for the freaking regressions happening in Wine, I would be running 100% in Linux right now.

    The current WWN is convering the progress for some new testing tools for Wine..
    But what if Lindows.com already HAD those tools? They could have fixed those regressions already, and boom, you have a 'more complete' Wine.

    I don't think LindowsOS running Win32 apps is all that impossible. All the parts are already there, they're just not all working at the same time.

    --
    "I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
  8. Approach reminiscent of Transgaming by Eloquence · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Lindows seems to follow an approach similar to that of Transgaming: Get a few Win32 apps to work well and ignore the rest. (Contrary to Transgaming, however, Lindows appears to be proprietary with no intention to ever change that.) Whether this approach is really sufficient is doubtful: If private users can't run Fooster to trade MP3s and cannot play their favorite games, and commercial users can't run their in-house VB/Access stuff, they might quickly want to get rid of Lindows (which will probably change its name sooner or later). $100 also appears to be too expensive to just try it out to see if you can live without Windows. One of the advantages of Linux has always been that PC magazines could bundle it, and that you could download it from various websites.

    There may still be a Linux market for Lindows' extensions to WINE or whatever they're building on, though. There are certainly worse ways to burn VC.

  9. What's the relationship between Lindows and WINE? by Ryu2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I heard Lindows is at least partially based on WINE.

    Is Lindows just a WINE repackinging, and if not, what new code does it add that WINE does not have?

    --
    There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
  10. Re:vmware does it by kma · · Score: 3, Interesting

    No. Linus has allowed binary-only modules into the kernel provided they communicate with the kernel using well-defined APIs. For instance, the vmware package includes a binary-only kernel module.

    Hmm, funny. What is this /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source directory doing on my system then?

    Keith Adams
    (VMware engineer)