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Buy Lindows, Get Fedora and Mandrake Too?
tacarat writes "Lindows has an interesting deal going on right now. If you go to Linuxshootout.com, you can get Linspire/Lindows 4.5, Mandrake 10 and Fedora Core 2 or a mere $29.95 download or $39.95 for the 8 CD set. Yahoo! News covers this story. Quoting Michael Robertson,'Our emphasis on Linspire is ease of use -- making Linux quick and easy to install and use,' he said. 'Other products may have a different focus. That doesn't mean they aren't great products, just that their focus may be different. Every new Linux computer helps the Linux desktop industry, regardless of what company's product you choose'. Also, 'We want to encourage side-by-side comparisons of the latest Linux products.' Interesting strategy. Will their sales go up because people are buying Lindows plus the other two distros, or will it be the other way around?"
If you "buy" Lindows, you still need to pay $99 per year for "Click-N-Run," which is a proprietary variant of apt-get.
You can download Fedora and Mandrake for free. Don't pay money for software.
Sincerely,
Seth Finklestein
Software Liberator
... if you check their Shootout list their motives seem to be less than friendly towards the other distros...
Moron.
apt-get is still in there. You only need to pay if you WISH to use Click-N-Run.
If you know how to use apt-get, then use it. If not, and want an easy graphical way to install software and see value in the service, then pay for it.
Sheesh.
the shootout site shows lindows with all ticks and all stars when Fedora / Mandrake have mostly crosses and 1 star. even when you Mandrake and Fedora can popup block with mozilla firefox. And players are availably for most of the media it talks about the others not supporting ESPECIALLY flash
If you have nothing useful to say post as AC.
you mean like ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/
Am I the only one who doesn't think 40 bucks for 8 CDs is really cheap. I just bought for half that money FC2, Mandrake 10 and a third distro (Arch Linux) just for fun. In total 10 CDs for 22 bucks with free shipping. Sites like linuxcentral.com or osdisc.com usually charge 2-3 dollar per CD. So, especially since this a shootout deal, you would expect it to be a bargain. And it isn't.
Of course downloading is even cheaper. YMMV, but when I can get a CD set in my mailbox for only a few dollars more than downloading and burning one myself, that has always had my preference.
Browsers shouldn't have a back button!! It's all about going forward...
Most major ISPs do so here in France, at least for MDK and Debian. I'm surprised it isn't so evererywhere.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
you're essentially paying them to do package management for you. Once you've downloaded the software, you're free to back up and use the packages to you're hearts content. From the email:
"You can backup your programs to your hearts content. Just so you know, once you download a program, you will have access to that file forever. Under Click-N-RUn, on the Left, My Products -> All Categories. You will always be able to get these even after your subscription expires."
Oh, and if you want legal DVD playback, they've gone to the trouble to buy the licenses. For home users this isn't really an issue (yet). For system builders, you can't just go bundling libdecss with you're machines (it's also illegal to tell them to download libdecss on their own, btw).
So, no, Lindows isn't Microsoft in the making.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I have tried all these distributions, and here is what I think of them.
Lindows. I got this back at an Osnews promotion a while ago. While it was easy to install, the software selection was limited and if you wanted more you had to pay for click and run. It was just a spiffed up KDE and a few flash demos. Didn't stay on my system for long
Mandrake. The best out of the three, very easy to use, large software selection. I used the cooker for a while but I got bored of Mandrake and tried Fedora Core 2 instead.
Fedora Core 2. Easy to installm but takes a long time. Uses GNOME by default but a castrated GNOME. KDE was screwed too. The Nvidia drivers on it sucked so out it went.
I now use SuSE 9.1, which in my opinion is the best Linux yet. It so easy to use, with a massive software collection, including loads of GAMES, the NVIDIA patch makes it easy to set up, so this is the distribution that has won the shootout.
I have also tried Debian (too hard), Gentoo (too easy to smash the portage tree), Ark (weird), Xandros Open Circulation (Too strange), Windows XP (worst of all, uninstalled in less than an hour).
found here
BitTorrent alleviates the whole problem.
Yeah, it alleviates the whole problem, except that it doesn't :p.
How exactly does bittorrent keep traffic on the ISP's network, and off of their internet pipes???
First off lets just point out that Lindows has a DVD Player available that was built for Lindows. Hrm my 90 dollar copy of SuSE 9.1 does not and it's a pain to get it installed.
Lindows has many packages that provide features that WindowsXP provided such as a pictures organizer and other stuff available to the users.
Other distro's who want to target the desktop enviroment would do well by taking a look at how Lindows/Linspire, Xandros, and Lycoris are pushing their wares.
Some years ago (IIRC something around '96-'98) SuSE regularly produced a multi-CD set with several popular distributions (SuSE certainly, Redhat, and perhaps Slackware and something else, too long ago to remember). Was also not too expensive, something around 25 EUR for six or seven CDs. Back then it came quite handy as downloading a whole distro via dialup was not really fun.
I remember that, our local Linux group used to give it out for free at meetings to the noobs. I got a copy and installed Slackware from it back in 1995, IIRC. It also had a full Linux FTP site on a few CD disks of applications.
All Linspire/Lindows is doing is what InfoMagik used to do, only without the Linux FTP site on a few CD disks.
I wonder if they can include a Linux version of the OpenCD or some other OSS installer disk?
Linspire/Lindows has some customized code to run the same data and media files as a Windows workstation, too bad they did not make the code for that as GPL to share it with other distros.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
When Lindows was first announced, I signed up for the Insider program. Recently I received a coupon for a free copy of Linspire 4.5 and a 5 month full membership to their warehouse feature. Quite simply an offer I couldn't refuse. I downloaded Linspire 4.5 and checked it out, and I'd have to say it's pretty tight. My hardware all worked out of the box with no configuration (other than switching the network settings away from DHCP), and the click-n-run feature is drop-dead simple. In no time I had a queue of software waiting to be installed, downloading and installing using Debian's apt-get utility in the background.
Overall I'd say it's a really good introduction to Linux for less-than-computer-savvy users, as well as a solid operating system for someone who really doesn't care what's running their computer -- just that it works. I think it would work especially well in an office environment for people who just need to use their standard office applications to get their work done.
That said, I remain a die-hard Mandrake devotee.
In the past I've had a lot of respect for this guy. But in the last year, it's been nearly completely eroded. He seems to think that it's still the 1990s, and you can run a business by jumping from one buzzword to another every couple of months.
Michael, here's a clue: concentrate on one thing until it's done, before you jump on to the next thing. And keep your personality out of it!
I've drunk the Lindows/Linspire Kool-Aid. It seems like a worthwhile project. I actually went out and bought copies, and I've installed them on friend's and family's machines. It's a nice distro, as far as it goes. Few Slashdotters would be happy with it, but for someone whose whole world has been Windows-based, it's perfect. And CNR is darn near brilliant.
For a couple of months, a lot of the Lindows developers' focus was going into one of Michael's pet projects, NVU, which was going to be a free, open-source replacement for MS FrontPage. Great idea, right? Well, it got to version 0.2, which almost-works but appears to be completely stalled. The announced 1st-quarter release date has long since come and gone.
This month his focus seems to have shifted over to this silly "shootout" between distros. Hey Mike, another clue: Lindows is a pretty nice thing, but you haven't got a chance in Hell of competing with Fedora or Mandrake. They're aimed at a much different target audience, and that audience doesn't need a pre-installed GUI. And your average Lindows user is going to take a look at Mandrake and run away fast.
Last month it was his VOIP startup, SIP-phone or whatever it's called. It sounds like a great idea, but I'm not buying it, because I don't know if his focus is going to shift to something else while this one falls by the wayside in a month or two, half finished.
I've been using USB flash drives in the "plug and play" manner since Mandrake 8.2!