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Lindows becomes Lindash
Daveh writes "The Register is reporting that 'The operating system Lindows is now available as Lin---s (pronounced: Lin-dash) in those countries where Microsoft has blocked the availability of the desktop Linux distribution. The new name complies with a recent Amsterdam court ruling (PDF), the San Diego company says.' There are a few new sites to reflect the name change, including Lin---s.com and Lindash.nl."
Cases like this boggle the mind. Now all they had to do was change their name to something (albeit strange) catchy, and they get even more free publicity. Windows on the other hand, continues to foster its bully image and ends up really not accomplishing too much at all.
What a waste of everyone's time and money.
I know it's easy to jump on MS, but let's be honest: Lindows, as a word, doesn't mean anything. It's just Windows with an L instead of a W. It is OBVIOUSLY trying to cash in on the Windows franchise.
Oh, and with a neat 95% of the marketplace, I think MS is winning in the free market. I think most Linux users actually dislike Lindows. Its a lame way to commercialize the OS.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
Michael Robertson is as much interested in the fight with MS as the future of his company, which he is using as a vehicle. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing - Lindows is privately held, after all, so he can do what he likes, and I respect his convictions. What Robertson really would like to see, I think even *more* than the success of Lindows, would be for a US court to strip Windows of trademark protection.
I think what they're doing is right on. Lindows tried protesting M$'s ridiculous assertion (that it can trademark a word common in the English language and in computing circles *before* there was ever a Microsoft Windows(tm)) in the courts. Now they can continue their protest of this ridiculous ruling via their new name... and they rightly should protest. The European ruling is idiotic.
The US courts are more reasonable, and likely won't let Microsoft pull words from the English language/computing circles like European courts have. Lindows is a great marketing name for a linux desktop solution, combining linux, a term the average joe may be unfamiliar with, with windows, a term most people use in reference to their computer everyday (not M$ Windows(tm), but those little boxes people are used to dealing with on their desktops in *any* OS environment, when they are instructed to "close the window" etc.). Trademarking the word "windows" is like trademarking the words "mouse" or "cursor".
I don't know much about the distro or the company... but I give them props for their name. Marketing wit is something the linux community can always use more of.
Trademark, not copyright, but you're correct.
All they want is the name changed, they're not trying to stop them from selling it.
Yes, it's a stupid name, however what I think many people here are overlooking is this statement from Michael Robertson:
"Any action from Microsoft to block Lin---s will show their true intentions are not to protect their trademark, but to eliminate competition and maintain their monopoly."
Basically he's bear baiting.
As gay as the name is, I think this is their way of protest. There are a million and one product names that sound similar to windows. Winamp, winfax, windildo. I think it's total 100% bullshit you can selectivly prosecute only those who have competing products. There's a computer repair company in my town called wintech. How MS can selectively sue trademark infringements based on their level of competition and say they aren't a monopoly with a straight face is beyond me.
This is infantile. If you are being forced to change your name, just do it.
No, this pokes fun at MS's insanity.
This seems completely asinine. How many hundreds of products out there call themselves "win"foo, or foo"indows"-bar? Yet who does MS go after? a Linux company.
Microsoft arguably has to protect their trademarks to keep them valid, but the existance of exactly the examples I gave demonstrate that they have already given up their trademark. And that doesn't even take into consideration the outright absurdity of trying to consider a common English word as a trademark in the first place.
So, a jab at MS? Yup. Infantile? Hey, personally I would have gone even further, changing it to something like "Nanosuck Lindoors YQ", with a slogan like "what it takes them a millionth of a second to do, we do in a billionth", or "Bo and Luke may have used windows, but the rest of us prefer doors", or "A full letter ahead of the competition" (okay, those all sound really stupid, but you get the idea - Push the limits of trademarkability to their idiotic extremes).
Earlier today, I thouht the EU came down a bit hard on MS, rejecting the very settlement they (the EU) themselves had proposed. But now? Crap like this makes me long for the revocation of a company's (not just MS's) corporate charter. If they can't all play nice, take 'em out back and put 'em all against the wall.