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?"

Comments

Nice, but...

[grm_wnr]

... if you check their Shootout list their motives seem to be less than friendly towards the other distros...

Posting anonymously so I can mod you down too.

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

I emailed Lindows about this

[rsilvergun]

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.