Lindows - What do Linux Users Really Think?

Harry asks: "Last week I had a laps in judgement and subscribed to the Lindows Insider program. After playing with Lindows for a few days, I decided that Lindows was not worth my trouble and un-subscribed from the program. When I did so, I mentioned my disappointments and requested that they take a survey on Slashdot to see what Linux users really thought of their product. They stated they did and received 'great results and mostly positive feedback.' After having a chance to play with Lindows, I can not believe this to be true. So, my question is: What do Linux users really think of Lindows and will they support it?" I'm not aware of any such poll (maybe I missed it) and I don't remember many glowing reviews from our previous stories on Lindows. So maybe it's time to get the answer straight from the horses' mouth. Do you think Lindows is worth it?

Comments

Lindows

[kzadot]

People are going to get this thing, thinking its finally a version of linux that runs windows apps well. But its not! Its reputation will affect linux too. I wish it never came about. What is wrong with debian? Theres lots of other points I hate about Lindows, its name, the way it charges to download free software, debian does this already but it works better and its free! I also hate the way it runs as root.
I believe this is a Microsoft project actually, to get people going away from linux and back to windows.
I hate it so much, I slam it every chance I get to people who ask me about linux.

So Lindows Marketeers Are Dishonest....

[fm6]

I'm, shocked, shocked!

Lindows has always had a big BS factor to it. Absurd claims of Windows compatibility. Silly gimmicks with licensing and fees. Now they've conned WalMart into thinking it's something they can sell to people who'd otherwise use Windows. Which is actually a good thing, since this will blow up in their faces, they'll go out of busines, and we can talk about something else.

Re:So Lindows Marketeers Are Dishonest....

[linzeal]

I can see windows 98 compatibility within their reach though. IF they were to sustain some nice revenue from the Wally Mart deal and instead of lining the execs pockets with it put it directly into research, I give them a chance

Eh

[RevAaron]

As a longtime user of Linux, "easy-to-use" Unices like NeXTSTEP, OpenStep, Rhapsody and more recently Mac OS X, Mac OS Classic, and (unfortunately) Windows, here's my take. I've not used it, but these are my impressions.

Frankly, I'm not sure what the big deal is. Lindows claims more ease of use than your average GNU/Linux distro and Windows compatibility. Having used a couple truly 'user-friendly' (subjective, yes) Unices, I can safely say the experience KDE and GNOME (to a lesser extent) provides is nice as long as you don't do certain things. When you do these things, the user-friendly-ness and consistency of environment breaks down. Even though Linux is my primary OS, it's something that has bothered me about Linux for a long time. Inconsistency.

So in short, Lindows suffers from many of the same inconsistecnies as any other KDE or GNOME- based distro.

I can't imagine it being as "easy" as Windows. Even if it were on the level with WinDOS, that isn't saying much.

But I'm pragmatic. So I don't hate Lindows for Licensing issues. ;P

I know this is /.

[Rope_a_Dope]

Can somebody actually claim to have purchased Lindows, installed it on their computer, and tried to run Linux or Windows apps on it?

While I realize that this forum is a great place to spout rhetoric on whether or not the ideology behind Lindows is true in spirit to the Linux community, it does not offer any real insight into the usability of the product.

Many users such as myself would be interested in using this product if people could tell me that Lindows ran my software. If I were to ask my friends who installed Windows XP on their machines if I should upgrade from Win 2k, I don't expect them to tell me "Don't, because Microsoft doesn't contribute to other closed source projects." I expect to hear whether or not it runs the apps and whether or not it runs quickly.

So please, can anybody tell us whether or not Lindows achieves its intended purpose of an alternative operating system that allows you to run Windows and Linux apps? I'll decide the politics of my operating system for myself.

Lindows Could Work

[metacosm]

I think Lindows has a chance if it does just a few things right.

• #1) Integrated control panel with major services support. This is the key to give people a feeling of "control" over their own system. You should be able to:
  
  • Change your resolution
    
  • Maintain users
    
  • Setup quotes
    
  • Setup apache
    
  • Setup ssh access
    
  • ... much more ...
    
  • in short, maintain your system settings
    
  
  
• #2) Install/Update applications (I think they are focusing on this part), most importantly linux ones. This has to be easy.
  
• #3) Don't focus too strongly on windows compatibility, it is a counter-motivation. I am a developer, and I would never develop native linux application if I knew that I could develop a windows one, and it would work via wine in linux. It removes the motivation to create native applications. This was one of the things that helped killed OS/2. OS/2 could run windows binaries, so developers never learned to use the great tools of OS/2, they just built windows binaries and tested them against OS/2.
  
• #4) General polish, the overall look/feel and tightness of the system.
  
• #5) Fonts... I can't tell you how many times I have heard an uproar over the ugly fonts used on linux, this _is_ a big deal to end users.
  
• #6) Special settings for laptops (reduce bootup time, fatter fonts, hibernation, power-saving mode).
  

Now, that is a bunch of stuff I would like done, but realistically if they got 1 and 2 done, they would be WELL ahead in the game.