Slashdot Mirror
LindowsOS Will Bundle AOL Client
ealar dlanvuli writes "BuisnessWeek Online is reporting that AOL/TW and Lindows have decided to work together in bundling a version of Netscape 7 with future Lindows products. One wonders if they should instead be supporting OEone and making it scream."
Whilst the die hard Linjx crowd may be crying into their keyboards at the moment, it'll be interesting to see if a move like this will make Linux more accessable to Joe public.
If this sort of thing could be combined with the Linux PCs being sold at Walmart stores in the States then who knows, might just be the push that Linux needs to get itself a wider home market.
--
Windows XP. From the people who brought you Edlin.
Imagine how many more people the linux community would add if there was a STABLE platform for AOL.
You would have a captive audience. What more do you want?
user@host$ diff
This is a good point to insert Linux onto the desktop of average Joe. Despite Lindows licensing tricks they open a door for open source software.
As Windows licenses are expensive it would be nice to see for example Dell to supply computers pre-installed with Lindows. This would still let the average user to use Excel, Word, etc. But allows easy installation and adoption of applications such as KOffice, Gimp etc.
Today it is hard to get a Windows computer to run *nix (open source) apps in a native looking way, but this could change all that.
Much to our disappointment, companies like Lindows and the other "easy to use" distros are trying to convert those windows users (yes the ones that don't know how to run word if the interface suddenly looked a little funny, like gtk or qt, atleast that's the argument). In other words, having AOL for linux is a good thing for THEM, not necessarily for US the ones that know how to use our machines just fine the way they are. So with this wonderful "ease of use" comes dumbed down applications and windows looking/acting distro's. AOL has been a prime candidate for this for a long time. it was inevitable.
Logik
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
I'll give you one example. My family, until the last two weeks, used AOL as their primary ISP. They have tons of hard drive space, and I could have potentially set up a partition with Linux on it for when I come home, and for my little brothers to experiment and play on.
However, I know from a lot of experience that Linux is really difficult to learn if you don't either have someone right there teaching you or an internet connection, and I wasn't going to be there all the time for my brothers. So I didn't bother with Linux because it wouldn't have been that useful or comfortable for me. With an AOL client, someone like me could get their internet connection on Linux.
Another example is a friend who was curious about Linux after I had talked it up so much. So I installed Mandrake as a dual boot for him to experiment with. His family uses AOL as their only ISP. He couldn't really stay in Linux very long before he found he needed the internet for something. The best way to learn Linux is to use it, and he wasn't really able to use it to learn it.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. The ability to move over slowly to Linux is important, and it's much harder to experiment when you can't get help online (IRC, google, discussion boards are critical resources). An AOL client would help those millions of people with curious kids and AOL as an ISP to try Linux.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
Lindows isn't aimed at your average Linux geek. Its core market will be people who want a cheap, functional OS (at the very least, cheap rules out MS solutions) but don't/can't/won't/ use GNU/Linux.
To misquote the oft-cited Slashdot Linux line - "I'm going to install (%distro) on my parent's home machine!" But would you really? Would you really install Red Hat or Mandrake on your parent's machine, when you know all they need is a web browser, an email client and perhaps an instant messenger client? Would you *really* take the time to install it, secure it, solve dependency issues and then *teach* them step-by-step how to use the OS until they reached the point where they weren't calling you five times a week for support?
The entire reason Lindows exists is to provide a cheap, functional and easy-to-use alternative to Microsoft on the desktop. They seem to have the first part worked out, but it remains to be seen if they can get the last two right.
Linux geeks aren't going to replace their Debian or Gentoo boxes with Lindows, because its not what most of them want (primarily). If Lindows fails to get the "mum and dad" and "I just want to do my homework and then use IRC" groups of people, than it will die a slow and painfull death.
That is why an AOL client on the Lindows desktop would be beneficial. It's a quick, easy and relatively painless way to get normal, non-tech-savvy users on the 'Net.
Of course, this is all rather academic because if you'd read the article, you'd know that the headline is BS and that the linked story talks about including Netscape 7, not AOL.
Janie took my gun...
It seems Mandrake always gets left out in the cold when it comes to hyping a "Linux for the masses" desktop solution.
Mandrake is perfectly positioned to fill all the needs of a home Linux user, from the beginner right through to the advanced user.
As for AOL teaming up with Lindows - all that is mentioned in the article is Netscape 7.0 being 'integrated' with Lindows.
In short, all this means right now is that Lindows will use Netscape as it's primary web browser.
The whole thing is just one ugly "Lets get on the Linux bandwagon to screw Microsoft" marketing stunt.
The last thing Linux needs is meddling and interference by AOL/Time Warner - can you just imagine. If they adopt Linux in a big way, in a few years, they'll be claiming they invented it and will add tons of proprietary closed source bunk.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Doesn't LindowsOS constantly run as the 'root' user?
I didnt mean that this is the mother of all usability. What i meant was the more alternatives the bigger chance of someone hitting the spot.
The world is full of greyscales not black and white.
"I still fail to understand how AOL would automatically make a Linux distribution easy to use, where no involvement with AOL would make it mostly just useful for "l33t h4x0rz""
I complained about how some of us that have used linux a longer period sometimes snear at the average user. I can manage linux quite well but thats because i love it and have the incentive to mock around with settings. For someone that wants a clean tool it can sometimes be a little to complicated and if someone caters that need it will benefit us all in the long run.
An AOL client would make the transition for those used to it much esier on linux. As for mozilla its a developers version and that shows whenever you want to install a new plugin or java. Netscape is more targeted at the normal user of windows and not the normal user of linux. The normal user of windows is what this would target.
HTTP/1.1 400
It's all marketing. AOL has like Apple a great marketing department, anything AOL or Apple does will be called easy to use while the same features will be called "only for geeks" when some normal distribution offers them.
I'm tired of all the Netscape-bashing. AOL has spent a lot of money developing Mozilla -- true, there's some amount of outside development, but the bulk of it has been funded by AOL for use in their Netscape product. The least you can do is lend a few kind words. Personally, I use the Netscape-branded browser (Netscape 7 is a very good browser on all three platforms) and I use their portal site. You should, too. All of this stupid Slashdot groupthink of "Mozilla good, Netscape bad!" completely ignores the fact that if there were no Netscape, there would be no Mozilla. Or the more likely scenario -- if AOL hadn't acquired Netscape, Netscape might have gone out of business without the backing of a big tech player, and most of you would be using Mozilla 0.2 right now.
Give Netscape some credit, folks. They're trying to be a good open source citizen. Don't disappoint them with a childish "take take take" attitude.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!