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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."
I got my brother started on Redmond Linux on a P2/266 just before they changed their name. (Yes, I sprang for the $30. fsking non-existent broadband options.) Installation was a breeze, even for him, and his transition from the Windows UI to the modified KDE took very little time. And once I added StarOffice, he didn't need to go back. I'm slowly pushing him towards increased use of the CLI, and eventually to Debian, but Redmond Linux has been a good first step so far.
Reading these comments here, I'm not surprised to see a few whiny comments ("We don't want it to look like MS!"), but I *am* surprised to see so much feedback for "starter" distros (like Mandrake, RH, or Redmond). Good. We mustn't alienate as we conquer.
P.S. Why'd they change to "Lycoris"? Someone needs to restore some dignity to the Redmond name. Besides, "Lycoris" sounds like a disease. ("I'm sorry, Johnny, but you have lycoris. You have six weeks to live." "Gosh, Doc, what do I tell my family?")
*****
There are many people in this country who, through no fault of their own, are sane.
I agree with your sentiment, but this thing doesn't look at all like windows. The default desktop background looks like windows, after that, it's just another distribution with one of the Linux desktops on it. Nothing new, nothing startlingly "like-MS."
Judging from the review, the best feature is that it works. The reviewer seems accustomed to Linux distros that fall apart when they're used. Printing sucking, no spell checkers available, difficult-to-install tarballs (I'm not clear on how he found that simpler, but, whatever.)
Making something simpler to use and less broken out of the box is a worthy goal Making things look like things that they are not is not a worthy goal. As I've found myself posting several times over the past couple of days, making something look like something whose functionality it poorly copies is a worse sin than making it look completely alien. If a user sees something, he brings a large set of expectations of behavior with that. When the look-alike doesn't function like he expects it to, he becomes frustrated and rejects it more completely than he would reject something that looked new. I've seen it happen plenty, and it's a foolhardy path down which we travel if this becomes the custom.
There should be a moratorium on the use of the apostrophe.
Max V.
NeXTMail/MIME Mail welcome
I am an Unbeliever, by nature. Tell me that a distro is easy to use, and I will ask you what your biases are that lead you to make such a statement.
SO I ordered a CD of Desktop/lx to run my own tests. I built a box from parts, just so I could have something to test it on. And then I ran my own little lab using Mandrake 8.1, Windows 2000 Professional, and Desktop/lx.
The machine is this: Abit SL6 motherboard, Intel Pentium 4 1GHz processor, NetGear FA310tx NIC, ATI Rage128 Pro AGP card, Maxtor DiamondMax 30GB HDD, a generic 1.44 floppy, HP cd12-series CD-RW. Total RAM: 384MB.
The first install was Mandrake.It installed, but didn't recognize the card on installation. I got it working, but only in 16 color, 640x480 resolution. It did not recognize the VIA onboard sound, nor the CD burner. As an out-of-the-box install, it wouldn't have won any prizes. I purposely did not spend any time on it, as I was testing the distro's ability on a clean, simple install.
Next, I tried Win2K, just to give myself a benchmark. After all, hardware manufacturers almost universally create their wares for the MS world. Surprisingly, the Win2K also did not handle the Rage128 correctly, leaving me with the job of downloading and installing the new driver. Same for the cd-burner. I have to say, I was pretty shocked. I expected the machine to install right away.
The Lycoris distro happened to arrive in the mail that same day, so I blew away the partition for a third time and popped the disk in.
Installation was a breeze. After answering a few questions, the file-copies started, leaving me with a Caldera-like configuration, answering network and user-creation questions. Having answered all those, I got to play solitaire for a bit. After the copying was finished, I started the X configuration. The card was recognized and configured on the first try with no input from me. After I rebooted the system, I was left with a KDE system which had been themed like Microsoft's XP. And here's where things got interesting.
On the desktop was a cute little Network Browser icon. I clicked on it, largely to see how much it failed in my work environment, where I have Win2K servers and workstations, Linux servers and workstations, and Win98 laptops. The Win2K servers are running an Active Directory tree. The browser not only found them all and displayed them, I received access under my normal user account to all resources on the network. On the first try.
All in all, I think this distro is one to watch...
Believe nothing, not even if I say it, if it violates your sense of reason -- Buddha