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OpenLindows.com: Wherefore Art Thou?
Joe Barr writes "I ran across a curious website recently: OpenLindows.com. The name alone intrigued me. It gave rise to speculation about a weird mix of free-as-in-beer and free-as-in-speech alternative to the $99/year Click-N-Run software subscription offered by LindowsOS, the most Windows-like/proprietary Linux distribution out there. This is a
report on what I found, and perhaps even more importantly, what I didn't."
Let's pull this apart, shall we?
This is:
A free software, providing an alternative for people who don't want to pay for an alternate Operating system utilizing free software meant to emulate a common interface on proprietary software.
Tell me, if you are tech-savvy enough to get this to work (Even as beta as it probably is), what are you doing wanting the lindows interface?
My $.02 ($.03 Canadian)
Was that OpenLindows was a small group (one guy?), maybe one person that didn't like the idea of having to pay for click-n-run to get many free applications. Open Lindows isn't going to take off because there's allready a website for that. www.debian.org And the few Lindows users out there that want to stick with it most likely can compile the software and so don't need OpenLindows. Nice idea though.
But I think the poor chap who wrote this article found openlindows just a little too early.. Its nice of him to publicise them though, its a bit of a baptism of fire unleashing slashdot upon them so early :)
The name suggests a free version of lindows - functioning similarly. Cute but I feel sorry for the Lindows guys myself - mainly because I think they have the right idea charging for linux (to the masses, not those of us who know this type of thing) - if you know anything about marketing you will know that selling a product for free or dirt cheap price does not really equate to "trust" (and more sales) from the customers. Linux undoubtedly is currently "too good to be true" to many people who might consider the change from MS products.
Seems to me the Lindows market is made up of non-expert users who either sick of Microsoft's inadequacies or saw a cheap PC in Walmart.
:/
Such a user is unlikely to discover apt, so sites like OpenLindows are somewhat redundant.
This does not mean I disapprove of their existence - it's nice for someone with the know-how to have the option and it's an indicator of Lindows' good faith that they keep that option open.
Myself, I wouldn't pay to download open source packages (other than donations) so, again, if you got yourself a Lindows box the option is there.
--
fuzzix posting anon. because of dodgy karma issues
Smart biz move, because here were their options:
A: Sack APT, and get a backlash from opensource land.
B: Allow APT to exist, but don't give it any easier interface than what it comes with standard. Those geeky enough to understand it may have it, but those same people are likely too geeky to want to buy Lindows anyway.
Lindows' product is a closed source program that makes Linux a bit easier to use, frosted with a distribution of the open source programs it attempts to help you with. If you know enough to work around Lindows anyway... then what are you doing with Lindows in the first place?
"Wherefore" means "why," not "where." When Shakespeare wrote, "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" he was saying, "Why are you 'Romeo?'" As in, "Why did you have to be born the son of my father's enemy?"
Well the article's been slashdotted, so all I have to go by is the submission itself. Given the author's comment about the site being OpenLindows, yet the OS is proprietary, I'd say his use of wherefore is bang on.
Couldn't take a moment to make sure your assumption wasn't ill based?
"Derp de derp."
Make Lindows run as something other than root, ludicrous to run as root with Linux.
I think this site is just a way of cutting their development costs.
I'm being serious here. The Linux community seems to think that mastery of the desktop is an automatic thing. Distros like Lindows, Xandros, Lycoris - these are all frowned upon for mimicing Windows. Why? Sure, in the last few years, Linux has become more of what it should be, but there is a large, untapped source of people that would be willing to use it on the desktop, but are put off by the inherent dislike Linux users seem to have for Windows users. Don't you want them to switch? Well, to tell you the truth, you seem intent on damaging your own future, like using Linux is the only way, and anyone else is stupid.
Windows sucks. I wish I could get off of it, but I still use it on a daily basis simply because it's what I know. I've been on MS since DOS 3.3, why is it a surprise that I, just like 90% of computer users out there - am just not comfortable with a community that assumes too much?
Linux is great, Windows sucks, tell me something I don't know, like why one distro likes my sound card and another doesn't without tweaking. Why I can print on yet another distro, but the first two can't even see my server.
Linux has a long way to go, just like Windows does. The difference is a basic usability in Windows that is intuitive for those of us that *only know* Windows. Sure, mom can use Linux (except for her bible stuff and her preferred Mah Jong app). Sure, if I wasn't taking care of two kids, I would probably have the time to learn Linux, but right now, I - and many many others - want to make the switch but get very little help from YOU. You even attack your own "approved" list of Distros. Mandrake lovers bitch about RH. Debian lovers hate them both. Where is the love?