OpenIPO and Lindows

An anonymous reader writes "Lindows is using bankers WRHambrecht and their OpenIPO process when they go public. The lower end of the pricing range will net them more than 50MM. But OpenIPO is designed to let ANYONE bid on IPO shares. If Linux can keep investor's attention and Google announces their own IPO, they could raise much more which could have impact on desktop Linux. Same CEO had near perfect timing raising 300MM with MP3.com IPO." OpenIPO is the same route Andover.net took back in the day.

Comments

Lindows? I thought it was not Linspire

[Ra5pu7in]

Ahh, so the real reason they want to avoid a drawn-out battle with MS is revealed.

Hot Potato and Musical Chairs.

[tomblackwell]

It worked out for me. I bought and sold and exited with a tidy sum.

Re:Hot Potato and Musical Chairs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well lucky you.

Unfortunately, many of us, who had large bids at the upper limit got jack sqaut.

WRH changed the rules of their OpenIPO after the fact to basically screw the little guy. Level the playing field my ass; it was all about WRH's greed. And they wouldn't make good on their deal.

A very tough (would've made $600K) lessen to learn - that WRH, and Slashdot owners, by complicity, are about as honest as wooden nickels.

I'm glad CmdrTaco and CBNeal got their millions and millions, but their silence on the whole matter was disgraceful. A shame, given that I was supporting these guys (and their character)since /. was just a geeky blog....

MP3.com IPO was another scam, but that's a story for another day.

Run, run, run from WRH....

Great opportunity to make $$$

[NineNine]

Short it! I mean, c'mon, this company is run by some juvenile jackass who thought that "Lindows" would be a great name, and actually started to try to defend it. That's the kind of stunt that some college kid could pull, not a CEO of a publicly traded company. I know that I'm waiting for it to peak (day 1), then I'm shorting the hell out of this. Lindows will be long gone within a year or two.

WTF Unit of currency is an MM?

[stratjakt]

A Euro, dollar, peso, ruble, what?

Re:WTF Unit of currency is an MM?

[EmagGeek]

I just spoke with a guy in my office who is from Ghana. He explained the plurality rule, as well as the fact that there is no "billion," but rather "a thousand million." I thought that was interesting as well.

Neat, in any case.. me being an American living under the worst unit system on the planet hehe.. I'm surprised we don't use a monetary system that has currency denominations that are neither divisible by each other nor another common divisor.

Oddly enough, Alabama is one of the few states that puts KM markers on the highways... yes... Alabama... scary isn't it?

Damn I have got to stop procrastinating...

Re:Desktop Realitites

[NineNine]

Mod me down if you must, but I hope that a majority of the IPO dollars are spent refining the GUI AND THE FUNCTIONALITY to be more similar to Windows.


I hope so too, since I'm going to be shorting, and this company is going to be nothing but a big lawsuit target for all kinds of copyright & trademark infringements. Hell, leave the name "Lindows", make a "Start" button, and put a big MS logo on the desktop.

Oh, I get it! Buy tech stocks and get rich...

[turnstyle]

Why didn't anybody think of this before? ;)

"Same CEO had near perfect timing raising 300MM with MP3.com"

hmmm, what's the current value of MP3.com stock?

Grasping at straws

[andih8u]

If Linux can keep investor's attention and Google announces their own IPO, they could raise much more which could have impact on desktop Linux.

Its kind of sad how every linux story is always "this will probably maybe most definately finally be the tipping point for desktop linux." Lindows, or whatever their name of the week is, having an IPO for a product that will probably crap out in the near future, certainly won't help linux on the desktop as it will make investors more leary of linux.

asset dumping

[Anonymous Coward]

So is this just another case of corporate execs dumping their investment on the public to cash out? Lindows doesn't seem a large enough company to get much out of an ipo at this time. I would watch if Lindows execs start bailing after the ipo. This could be a bad sign.

Re:Lindows IPO

[_Sprocket_]

...here is an unfortunate precedent for this company: just as users of mp3 sites wanted (at that stage) something for nothing, so linux users are generally still looking at the system as a cheaper, or free, alternative to those on the market. For Lindows to make a decent profit, it will either have to change the culture of its user base, or make serious inroads into the entrenched Windows market.

Unlike all the Windows users who like to "pirate" their applications. The workings of the scene itself may not be about free stuff. But they certainly feed a rather large mass of people who like getting stuff for free. This, of course, doesn't mean that there are no paying customers for Windows or Windows applications.

Enter Linux. Sure - people like free stuff. But that doesn't mean all Linux users won't pay for something. In every environment I've worked in for the last 9 years, the organization I worked for could afford anything they want to include Windows and all commercial Unix products. They ran all these environments... and Linux. They would even pay for Linux support and applications that ran on Linux. And today my Organization pays for RedHat Enterprise.

As for me... my own workstation at home is Debian Linux. My laptop is Mandrake - from a boxed set I purchased at the local Best Buy. I also own several commercial games that I purchased either at a local store or online. I prefer Open Source applications but will pay a fee for software when there is sufficient reason too. And I do the same at work.

Sure - Lindows has a hell of a rough road in front of them. Anybody trying to launch a desktop OS in to this market does. And fighting dominant desktop environments such as wintel and MacOS is tough enough without also competing against other Linux vendors. But whether Linux users will pay is not the issue. They will. They do.

But will they pay for Lindows?

Re:Lindows? I thought it was not Linspire

[DebianRcksLindowsLie]

I read that and thought you said Feature Manure. That would have been entirely appropriate.

The OS defaults to running as root, and you CANNOT run CNR without being root. Not to mention it's set up with insecure Windows Networking compatibility to start with. Really! The preconfigured networking is set with a lot of insecure ports open.

This IPO needs to fail and fail quickly. No one read the article apparently. Spending $6.7 million to get $63,000 in sales is um - BAD BUSINESS.

Re:Desktop Realitites

[DebianRcksLindowsLie]

Mod me down if you must, but I hope that a majority of the IPO dollars are spent refining the GUI AND THE FUNCTIONALITY to be more similar to Windows.

Um - 20% is going right back into Robertson's pocket, and then the IPO firm is getting a big chunk. So no, they won't do that. This is a legal Ponzi scheme and nothing else. Read the filing. They will run out of money in 24 months. This is a dot bomb waiting to happen.