Cobind Desktop Reviewed, With Interview

An anonymous reader writes "Cobind Desktop takes a remarkable turn from other Linux distributions by being one of the first to include Mozilla Firefox 0.8 and Mozilla Thunderbird in their first release. Though Cobind Desktop only uses XFce and not the more popular KDE, its entire design is based on a clutter-free workspace. Flexbeta.net took the time to write up a review and conduct an interview with David Watson, Co-Founder and President of Cobind Desktop. He mentions how the entire design concept of Cobind Desktop is based on a book called the Paradox of Choice, by Barry Schwartz, who is a professor at Swarthmore. David Watson believes that this concept can be applied to software design, and produce more usable products as a result." (We mentioned Schwartz's book earlier today.)

Comments

I don't think this should be on slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Cobind Desktop takes a remarkable turn from other Linux distributions by being one of the first to include Mozilla Firefox 0.8 and Mozilla Thunderbird in their first release.

How is that remarkable? I'm sure if Firefox and Thunderbird were around when Slackware or Debian 1.0 were created they would have included them.

He mentions how the entire design concept of Cobind Desktop is based on a book called the Paradox of Choice

So this distro set's itself apart by including less packages, then allowing users to download any more that they want.

As far as i can tell from reading the article, it's based on fedora, but has less packages, and a few more bugs. It fits on one cd, and doesn't ask you to select packages.

I really don't see a niche for this distro. It seems like the bastard child of a Live CD and a full distro, not really doing either well.

Re:He must hate linux

[BiggerIsBetter]

No, he's doing the right thing... I dunno if I completely agree with his choice of packages, but it does mesh well with the aims of a basic but complete package. With a little polish applied to the installation, I'd imagine it would work just fine for a lot of people, and they wouldn't have to fret over which word processor they want to use today.

Fedora and Mandrake et al couldn't get away with dropping half of their packages - the user outcry would be enormous. But a new distro can. Whether many people will actually use it is something else however. Personally, I think the real solution is not rolling a new distro, but providing a reworked installer script that uses an existing distro, like say Mandrake 10. You get the clean interface and small footprint, but you also get the installation base and user support.

Re:So they illegally BUNDLED Mozilla?

[ewhac]

Two factors invalidate your claim:

1. Cobind and other Linux distros are not a monopoly. Thus, exclusive bundling, though perhaps short-sighted, is not illegal. Once you're a monopoly, the rules change.
2. Microsoft has made much hash of the claim that their browser is "integrated" with the OS and cannot be removed, and that if you try to remove it the system will fall over dead. Linux does not suffer from such a design handicap. Mozilla is not "integrated" into Linux. You can swap out the browser freely and the rest of the system will not care. Thus, forced bundling is not taking place as it is with Windows -- no one is forced to keep Mozilla around if they don't want it.

Schwab
Blithely ignoring the Do Not Feed The Trolls sign