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Lycoris Linux at ExtremeTech
Eugenia writes "Most of you probably remember Redmond Linux, the user-friendly distro that tried to duplicate the familiar WindowsXP UI feel under Linux. Well, there is no more Redmond Linux. The company recently renamed the product "Lycoris Desktop/LX". ExtremeTech features today a very favorable review of the distro, includes screenshots and information on the installation, network setup, desktop environment etc."
You may not want anything to look like an MS product, but that's what is going to sell Linux to the masses. The more familiar seeming and friendly looking the better.
A wise man once said 'People have an irrational like of rubbish'. Hence Windows is very popular. So if Lycoris can get people to transfer onto Linux by making it 'just like Windows' and then gradually point out its other benefits it should make good progress in the Linux desktop market.
Since when is it about copying stuff? Nowadays it seems that re-implementing others' ideas is the way to go. Ximian didn't invent Evolution, it copied the Outlook (sole decent MS product, hmm, maybe not) application. .NET Framework isn't a Miguel original. It's an MS invention! Where did all creativity go? Can we still come up with new things?
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One of my biggest pet peeves about Linux was that it was always a bear to configure + use. Sure, the command line is useful sometimes - but usually not. KDE + Gnome have come a long way towards putting a decent UI on top of the kernel, and now the user experience is much better. Lycoris goes a step further - there's something to be said for a distro that looks + acts a lot like windows. People who don't know computers (the suits, mostly) are afraid of them. They know Windows, and they're comfortable with it. Give them something that looks + acts like Windows, and they have a much easier time accepting it than something that looks nothing like Windows. While some might complain that it's selling out/pandering to the Windows crowd, I think this distro (if marketed properly) could make some significant inroads into Windoze-land.
Good reviews like this one are going to make those people who are on the fence take a closer look. The "it just works" comment is going to grab at those who are afraid that the OS is just to hard to config for everyday users.
Some people feel safe with the MS feel, but thats all it is a feel. Now people might feel safe with the MS feel and the raw nut of the OS.
-- Snowmen fall from Heaven unassembled.
If I were only smart enough to accomplish the things I dream about.. Or maybe too dumb to care.
Though I get your general point, 'Linux' wants nothing. This particular distribution of Linux wants it, and so do its target users.
Another distro, say Debian, can put together something completely different and yet still be a Linux system.
Cheers,
Ian
Well maybe YOU wouldn't want something to look like a MicroSoft product, and maybe I wouldn't want it to look an MS product either, but I think, since this is being marketed as desktop, the goal here is to make it so average joe user can feel comfortable using it. Like it or not, people are comfortable with Microsoft. For most, that's all they have known. People are going to be skeptical about completly chaging the way their computer looks and feels. If linux is ever going to take over the desktop market, its going to be gradual. I say go ahead and make it look like windows. As long there are still all the bells and whistles for the power users its no big deal. This is like a 'gateway' linux. Draw people in with a familiar look and feel, and eventually, when they have a taste of the true power of Linux, they wont go back to Windows.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
Ximian didn't invent Evolution, it copied the Outlook (sole decent MS product, hmm, maybe not) application. .NET Framework isn't a Miguel original. It's an MS invention! Where did all creativity go?
RMS didn't invent GNU, it copied the UNIX (sole decent Lucent product at the time, hmm, maybe not) system. Selling a stable OS to home users isn't an MS original, or even an Apple original. It's a Mandrake innovation! Where did all creativity go?
The innovation comes from the added freedom.
Will I retire or break 10K?
This could be what we need to migrate linux newbies away from Windows... if it delivers on all the promises.
Example. I am a Win95 trained junkie. Certainly not a clueless one who just uses it to e-mail grandman, but my sumo was insufficent to deal with Linux. Last year, at the advice of a friend, I got a second hard drive and installed Debian onto it alongside my Windows disk. Configuration was a nightmare; it took multiple visits by my Linux guru uncle to get the networking going, THEN we had to try and get Xwindows to deal with my video card, and we never got sound to work properly. In the end, the wholly alien system and configuration woes (try as I might, I couldn't get package manager tamed) led me to disuse the Linux side of my computer, and eventually format over the disk so I could have more Win 9x storage.
But this... this could be what I want. Something that's simple without sacrificing power. It doesn't have to clone windows as long as it's not like herding cats trying to get the thing to work properly. Every feature I could want -- autodetecting of video and sound, installation of various key applications, graphical frontend for nearly everything you could need to do -- is here.
So what's the catch? Has anybody worked with this thing? A second opinion is always key. Does it have weaknesses, stumbling blocks that would leave a newbie floundering around in icy water without a life preserver? I might very well join the Linux hordes if this distro meets my needs in a fairly comfortable manner.
But it's friendly, familiar, and pretty. That's what counts for most computer users.
One of the key points the reviewer makes is that this distro does not take the 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to software it includes. It only includes apps and libraries that are known to work, and work in combination.
Some people might like that other distros give you the option of 5 different CD players, some of which may be in beta, or pre-beta - but most people just want a CD player that works. Ditto with other application categories. It's better to include solid software that is known to work, but might not have every last bell and whistle.
-josh
As usual, yet another review of the latest and greatest, easy-to-use, Windows-friendly Linux distribution XYZ.
This review is a waste. It's purely propaganda. I love Linux, but he doesn't really offer any counter points to the review. No "This is great, but..." and certainly insufficient detail. I wouldn't even call this distribution remotely good. Sure, it's got cool icons and desktop wallpapers, but it looks kludgy and messy at best. The choice of an Aqua-esque theme is only a point on which to confuse users. Doing menus the non-standard way only will cause problems when users want to install packages not supplied by these Lycoris people. I'm sure nobody is really head-over heels for this thing, so I'll stop preaching to the choir...
But what can you expect? The community is producing a dozen new distros ever year and all we're doing is adding dead wood to a lot of existing dead weight. This distro may be organized in a "cool" way, but all it will cause for users is a mess. Linux needs to move forward and as it does, paradigms change. I am all in favor of having lots of choices... but we've got hundreds of distros as it stands now. If half of these people/groups wrote software instead of repacking it for their own self-validation, imagine how far we'd be.
Emulating the way Windows works and feels is not the answer! We need the solve the problem! The problem is Linux is difficult to use for the average user, and not necessarily the Windows user. Let me make it clear: Microsoft Windows is NOT easy to use. It simply is not. The Macintosh is easy to use. That's an example of slick, clean, effective interface design. Windows, however, regardless of MS's BS about how they spend millions researching inferface engineering, is difficult.
Ever watch a novice computer user attempt to use Windows? It's unbelievably clunky for them to do even simple tasks. Some users I've seen still don't understand how to switch between tasks. Others can't use max/minimize buttons. Most can't even figure out where their files went or what those files are! "I saved it, but now it's gone!" Do we really want to make Linux more like this?
If we can create a user-friendly environment, it won't matter if it looks/works like Windows. People will be able to figure it out. When novice users explain they want to "just be able to write email and letters and surf the web", they don't mean they want their computer to "look and work like Windows".
I say again. Solve the problem.
Make it easy for users to write letters and surf. Doing this the Microsoft way makes it hard. Let's figure out something better.
Why bother.
you silly naysayers:
.. and in my opinion .. nothing beats em. But linux on the desktop has always been .. lacking .. for the practical world.
.. the folks that NEED visual interdev cause your office is in bed with M$.
.. in MHO .. is a step in the right direction if all hales as they have reported. I'm willing to spend $30 to find out .. I have been holding off on running a non MS workstation because wine isnt very stable on either of my server boxes. [just a small segway, sometimes people are very suspicious of free things, and in America at least, something with a price tag hold value with the consumer .. seems silly, but we're programmed that way here from birth.]
.. sure .. I breathe ozone for breakfast, but my 80 year old mom can't even install windows - who here thinks she can install mandrake ?
t he-underdog outlook, and take a look at the world around you.
.. conservativly 70%) are sheep, they don't want to learn new things.. they want the world to be comfortable and safe, and to act how they already know it to act. These are not the people who install a new operating system "just-to-see" these are folks that run a p200 into the ground becuase to them its just another 'magic box' that gets them e-mail.
'Why do I wan't an operating system that looks like windows?' or 'where do they get off charging $30?' but this has got me to stand up and look.
I use free bsd/linux for servers
the world that NEEDS photoshop, because its what all your business contacts use
THIS
i especially like the sound of the installer
The fact that the 2 main kicks in the article are about its web-browser and e-mail warms my heart, since this is what the average joe in the world uses their computer for anyways. Appealing to the folks who are afraid of anything new is a good step i think.
As for who would want a desktop that looks like windows ? How about every existing customer who currently USES windows ? Folks who 'poo-poo'the windows look and feel should get off their college-I-need-a-crusade-I-will-commit-myself-to-
Most people out of college (lets say
so anything that can get the mass market less afraid is a victory in my opinion.
--Ne auderis delere orbem rigidum meum, non erravi pernicose!
After reading the comments in this thread so far, I am a little ashamed of most of you. Can we let go the days where every Linux user has this attitude of learning the OS inside and out? Give me a break, this distribution looks great for joe-bob computer user who would like an alternative to Windows.
:-)
A distribution like this can be installed in an office enviroment. Think about it, if you have a small company with little money to spare on software licenses, for $30 you can have a complete turn-key workstation solution for everyone. Just don't give the receptionist root!
Anyway, can we please demonstrate more maturity and wisdom by not instantly bashing a distro that tries to attract new people? These newbies aren't stupid, they just don't want to spend 2 weeks setting up and tweaking out their first linux box. They don't have geek jobs and they make more money being doctors, lawyers, etc.
Victor
Let's see...I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there's two smart-ass responses to this, both of them growing from the same condescending, bitterly hermitic, overzealous group of diehard(read fanboy) linux lovers who can't possibly see that the only thing that can bring Windows down(TM) is to BRING PEOPLE FROM WINDOWS TO LINUX.
No, its not ironic that a linux distro would look like Windows. No, your operating system does not make up for your lack of length. Yes, you do want people to actively explore this option. Unless of course, you like being a bitter little man.
The only way I will ever move the wife and kiddies over to Linux is if it makes sense. It does not make sense to move them to a clusterfcked environment where every dork in a closet wants everyone else to absorb his particular brand of dystopia. It would make sense to move them to a user-friendly, elegant, secure environment where I can turn off options that would let them break things. This is where something that looks and feels like what the wifage and kiddies are used to would come in handy.
But until software developers (specifically free software developers) catch on and learn that new users and people switching to Linux are not going to want to compile every single app, and start providing more binaries, Linux will be a tough switch for the new user.
I'm a long time Windows and Mac user, who recently bought Mandrake 8.1 after I got sick of Windows. Installed beautifully. I love KDE. Plug and Play actually works...
Then I started downloading some usefull apps that I wanted. They were all source. NONE of them would compile on my machine with the instructions that the developer provided. I'm not a computer newbie. I even understand some programming. But I'm not a C expert. Something that most developers seem to think everyone is.
So, this is a message to all you Linux developers, building cool little apps for people to use: We don't all have your development machines, with every single library in existance. You want your software to really catch on and help make Linux attractive to new people? Provide binaries that are easy to install.