Lindows Media Computer: Power to Strike Microsoft?

Augustus writes "LinuxHardware.org has just published the first review of the Lindows Media Computer from iDOTpc.com. The review covers the hardware behind the machine but also goes through all of the machine's claimed functionality: "After looking over all the media hype, I went searching for one of these little machines. Could the Lindows Media Computer really pull off meeting the new Windows machine in a pitched battle? It did boast "Instant on" DVD, CD, MP3, and VCD playback as one of the prime features. And, it was only a fraction of the price for a Windows Media Center system. At the time, only one vendor had them available, iDOTpc.com. After some communication, the folks at iDOTpc.com were kind enough to loan me one of the units to take for a spin." You can find the full review over at LinuxHardware.org."

Comments

I'm seeing a theme here...

[Lendrick]

Bored with my musical endeavors, I thought it was time to watch some movies. I put in an older DVD movie, Spaceballs. It was all down hill from there. Anyone familiar with the movie will remember the opening sequence where the large spacecraft moves across the screen. The video playback was quite stuttered, though the audio did not seem to suffer. As the movie went on, the stutter wasn't as obvious but was still there. ...

First they release an AOL Computer that can't access AOL, and now they're making a Media Computer that can't play media.

Just because they're pissing off Microsoft doesn't make them a good company.

I don't trust Lindows

[DeadSea]

They picked a name that is obviously supposed to resemble Windows. While they may legally be able to do this, it seems pretty slimeball to me. Especially since announcements like this make it clear that they are trying to compete head to head with Windows.

When I was working for a .com that was trying to choose a name, the marketing folks made some very strong points for why you don't have to choose something that people are familiar with. Given that we were promoting widgets, they recommended we not name ourselves widgets.com, ourwidgets.com, or ewidgets.com. Their argument was that if you have a good product you can create your own name. Does Yahoo! need the word "directory" in their name? Does Ebay need the word "Auctions" in its name? Using something wacky wasn't going to hurt you, and it would allow you to later branch out into other markets.

Software developers really need to look at this lesson. Repeat after me, "The name of your program doesn't have to start with 'Win', 'g', 'k', 'Java', or 'X'".

Somebody replied to a similar rant of mine here on slashdot. They said that if you wrote a program that browsed Ebay auctions, you should be allowed to put ebay in the name. Maybe you should be allowed to, but that might prevent you from also supporting Yahoo or some other auction site in the future. Its not a good idea.

In the case of Lindows, the fact that they are using the name of their competitor cheapens them. I have to wonder why they don't think they can't create their own hype. Is their product not good enough?

Flawed approach

[The Bungi]

Lindows seems to think that somehow the fact that the OS that they use is free automatically gives them the higher ground when going head to head with Microsoft on any given field. Saving yourself $40 (or whatever the bulk OEM cost for an XP license is) is hardly the proverbial silver bullet.

And who buys these "media PCs" anyway? Does anyone have any info on the size of this market?

Re:Text

[ilctoh]

Sounds like they're trading necessary power for low cost. For example, does 128MB of SDRAM sound like enough for a multi-media computer? A 20GB 5400 RPM hard drive won't win any awards, especially if folks are seriously into MP3 storage. A CD Burner wouldn't hurt. At least a motherboard with a 4x AGP slot and USB2 support. IMHO, this computer would better be suited for a web browsing/email/word processing computer, not a "Media Computer".