Lindows Agreeing to Change Name

xandroid writes "It looks like Lindows.com has thrown in the towel for the fight to keep its name: the Seattle Times reports that they 'would not continue a worldwide legal battle with Microsoft.' They will announce the new name next Wednesday, although a favorite is Lindos -- 'because it's the W that is causing all the problems'." Update: 04/07 19:37 GMT by S : This is worth clarifying - Michael Robertson is claiming "...the company will go by a different name outside the U.S. until it can win the right to use the Lindows name internationally."

Comments

fo shizzle

[WormholeFiend]

Lindizzle!

This a good thing.

[Krik Johnson]

Lindows is very underated by the Slashdot community. I got a free developers edition from OSnews a while back. While it didn't include click and run in the free version, the whole operating system screamed I am Joe's Linux. Yes it rocked, yet most slashdotters don't try it because they heard that a beta version ran as root. Which is not the case. It tells you to make an account. Quite good, and I'm Glad Mandrake 10 has learn't from them because thats what I use now!

Giving a more respectable name will give it a better reputation, and will make it more recognisable as a brand. Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE and Java Desktop all are famous Linux brands, Lindows will have to follow in their footsteps!

marketing

[MenTaLguY]

When Inkscape forked from Sodipodi, we were fortunate enough to have folks with both solid technical and marketing/graphic design backgrounds, so we put a lot of thought into branding up-front, as well as the technical issues.

That probably wouldn't have happened years ago -- "Inkscape" could just as easily have been named "VectorPIMP".

There's a similar increase in Human Interface factors in recent OSS work. Classic projects like the GIMP are simply beholden to old (bad) UI and marketing decisions.

So, just give it time. Things are improving.

Re:Lindovvs

[jrockway]

I think you meant "L i n d o vv s"

That's actually a pretty good idea :)

Re:rhyming isn't the issue.

[NanoGator]

"We all know that Microsoft doesn't have a leg to stand on regarding rhyming OS names."

That's not true. There may be a weakness there, but saying they don't have a leg to stand on is ridiculous. Don't believe me? Then think about a company you don't hate, like Palm. Why is their trademark okay but Windows isn't?

That's not the real crux of the matter, though. Simply put, Lindows' motivation was malicious. Here's a few little facts:

- Microsoft has had the Windows trademark for a few years now. Not to mention that their de-facto monopoly status strengthens the notion that they own that name.

- Lindows is meant to be very much like Windows, to the point that users can have a hard time telling the difference, especially if they went to Walmart and bought one of those PCs.

- The CEO of Lindows put up $250,000 to reward somebody for hacking the X-BOX. I don't know if that would make it into court over this matter or not, but he still intentionally set out to do Microsoft harm.

It would be awful if Lindows won this case without any reprecussions for the intentional bullying they were trying to do. I know it's fun to hate Microsoft and all, but this form of litiguous bs is exactly what you're mad at SCO for. Don't let Lindows ruin the reputation of the Linux/Open Source Communities.