Talk With Michael Robertson

Lindows CEO Michael Robertson is vilified by many Linux advocates. At the same time, he is probably drawing more attention to desktop Linux than anyone else in the world. Is he evil? Or is he just a typical American businessman trying to make it big (for the second time; before Lindows, he founded -- and later sold -- MP3.com)? One thing is for sure: Unlike many CEOs, he'll give a plain-talk answer to a straight question. We'll send 10 of the highest-moderated questions submitted here by Slashdot readers to Robertson tomorrow, and run his answers, unedited, as soon as he gets them back to us.

Comments

Why go with Lindows over Redhat.

[hackorama]

If I am a corporation wanting to standardize on a Linux desktop then I will want to make a bet on a company that has staying power. You abandoned mp3.com when it was clearly not going to make any money, what reason do I have for believing you will not to the same again?

Re:Lindows

[grammar fascist]

I thought it was more of a 'make Linux look just like windows to get people adjusted to the OS' (and, therefore, not have any BSOD's or instability).

Funny. I've been using XP for over half a year now both at work and at home, and haven't seen a BSOD yet. I'm a software developer/3D artist, which means I punish the poor things. SQL Server 2000 + Gimp + GtkRadiant (with 200 MB of textures loaded) + two instances of VS .NET + a Quake 3 client AND server + miscellaneous browser windows and other crap doesn't kill it. I use RAM and CPU like I'm munching candy, and I'm still getting months of uptime.

Tell me, why should Lindows interest me? No BSODs? Don't make me laugh.

I use Linux for things that Linux is good at: firewalling, SMB (file and print), web services and mail, and getting it running reliably on cheap hardware with only a CLI.