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Michael Robertson Interview about Lindows
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.
It looks impressive to me (so far)
No it doesn't. It looks stupid.
I really hope this project fails, because I'm positive that it's destined for failure, and failure is not something that I associate with linux.
I don't want to be wearing a linux shirt and have
someone say--"Hey that linux thing sucks! My version
crashes all the time!"
and I say, "What do you mean, what distro are you running?"
"Distro? What's that? I run Lindows"
Listen, I am All For Linux on the Desktop. As a matter of fact, I don't use windows for anything anymore. At all. My machine is 100% Multimedia Linux. But this Lindows thing that just appears out of nowhere sounds bad for the entire Open Source community. I'm sure it's going to fail, but I just hope it doesn't stain us on the way down...
We dance to all the wrong songs.
--Refused.
I hate to say it. I think competition would be GREAT on the desktop, but this won't fly.
Why? I'm a network admin and I wouldn't switch for ~$50/machine. What happens when one of our apps doesn't work? What happens when the VP of whatever gets a new widget and there is no driver? Now I'm supporting a couple of operating systems.
Also, what happens when an app is flakey. You think the vendor will support me when I'm running Lindows? Good luck! It sounds good in theory, but I just don't see it. One thing people need to realize is that the cost of software is very small compared to support and other things. Saving ~$50/machine is not a big deal. Sure, you may save a lot if you buy 10K machines at a time, but if you do you can get some good deals from other vendors as well.
I think the OpenSource community will have much better luck with a *GOOD* Office type application, not so much on the operating systems. That's where the real money is spent. Since the OS comes on the system the price of that is usually overlooked, and low enough not to matter when a $100 competitor comes out. Give me a good supported Office app for $100 and I'll switch from my $350/user app.