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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?"
Their intentions seem well, and I think it's a great example of how the Linux community, even between 'competing' distros, tries to help the movement as a whole.
I know nothing
I think that anything that furthers Linux deployment on the desktop is a good thing. Whether or not this will have that effect is doubtful.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
When you can encourage consumers to compare your product with others of similar caliber, it must mean you feel you're doing some things right yourself. An interesting move, at the very least.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
I think Robertson's shooting himself in the foot here. Lindows is stripped down so much that probably only the extreme newbie (as in computer newbie, not so much Linux newbie) will find it suitable. The other two allow a bit more breathing room.
He better hope that the people who buy this package try Lindows first and decide not to install Mandrake or Fedora Core otherwise there won't be too many CNR subscriptions coming his way.
In summary, he's going for the wrong market. Stick to bundling it with cheap Wal-Mart PCs, Michael.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
From the site: "Pit the best Linux products against each other!" Okay ... so can I get a CD package with Slackware, Debian and Gentoo on it? /runs away from inevitable distro war
Seriously, I wonder why there's no comparison of other desktop/newbie oriented distros, such as Xandros and Lycoris? Seems like that's the real competition to Linspire.
Then there's the supposed comparisons in their "shootout", which are just opinion in the top section, while the middle and bottom section are just outright lies.
Kinda scummy, in my opinion.
First off, the cost of Click-N-Run *is* far too high. But "don't pay money for software" -- thats a dangerous mindset for the industry. Just because its FOSS doesn't mean you shouldn't pay -- especially if you happen to think the developers deserve it. It's more like a donation to a cause that you support. I also think commercial software has its place, and obviously should be payed for. I'm sure people who program for a living would agree with me.
Wait....you're seriously telling me that a commercial Linux company is trying to make their product look better than their competitors?
I'm flabbergasted. That's just plain...evil. They should tell us how terrible their distro is and just beg us to buy it instead, like any good company does. PLEASE, DON'T BUY OUR PRODUCT, IT SUCKS ASS, but if you insist, it's $29.95. BUT WE WARNED YOU!
1. Hardcore geeks on dialup, a set that's getting smaller all the time, or
2. A corporate IT center who wants to elvaluate multiple distros for a production environment, and it's just easier to buy three distros from a single source.
Moreover, this would seem to be exactly the opposite of Lindows/Linspire's current target market, i.e. people who want a computer that sorta/kinda works like Windows, but is cheaper than paying the Microsoft tax. Joe Blow picking up his $299 Lindows box at Walmart is the last person who needs multiple distros (or, for that matter, even knows what a "distro" is).
What am I missing? Who's the market for this package?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
I actually see this as good/evil marketing.
:)
If you go through the site it seems to be a pathetic means of pointing out Lindows as a better distro.
By pointing out the fact that Fedora takes WAY TOO F'ING LONG to install, and that mandrake and fedora are "harder to use" and lack things like flash, support, and effective auto device finding (I still can't get my prism2 based wi-fi card to work under mandrake 10)
True things like apt, urmpi are freaking easy to use, but they have to be configured, and lindows is a "newbie" os.
The target market for this is newbies, and press/tech editors who don't know any better.
For a real Shootout may I recomend modified fedora and mandrake distros like
Blag Linux - A live Fedora based distro with the stuff you really need, and is only on 1 cd.
PClinuxOs- a live mandrake distro with synaptic, a front for Apt-get
Knopix- A debian based live cd, that has tons of great stuff, and dosn't use the root acount for everything like linspire (which is debian based)
PS. Someone AIM-daphreak07, icq -17654783 if they can help me get my wi-fi card working so i can be free of winblows XP once again... Help a poor college student
come comment on the madness at http://slashdot.org/~phreak03/journal/
Sometimes cdrom set is more convenient than an .iso. But even then, it makes little sense to pay more than a pittance for a distro if you aren't planning on exploiting the support that comes bundled in with boxed versions.
Who's gonna INSTALL the other distros? If you're paying to ship/download Lindows, Fedora, and Mandrake ... chances are, you're doing so because you want to install Lindows. Otherwise you'd just go get Fedora or Mandrake.
Who doesn't like free music?
In my opinion...
I think that is much more clever than including a installable distro...
That does not say that the intention is very well indeed...
To me, this doesn't seem to be helping the others... Anyone can sell a copy of these distros, and make a profit. Your only costs are the CD you need to burn it on. To me, this isn't a way for Lindows/Linspire to help the other distrubitions, it's another way to make a buck. It's not against the rules, but, it certainly isn't helping Mandrake or Red Hat, if anything its taking money out of their pockets.
WANNAWIKI Wannawiki WannaWiki WANNAWIKI!
Not only is this a good idea because it helps to spread Linux as a whole, but it gives a nice taste of the various distros, and gives those who feel they are ready to dive a little deeper two solid distros to try out. I can see a user purchasing the set, starting with Lindows for a while, then eventually switching to Fedora or Mandrake once they are a little more comfortable with their environement... However, both Fedora and Mandrake are fairly easy to use on their own (and Mandrake 10 is just flat out awesome, made the switch from Slack, for now at least), so maybe it really won't matter in that aspect.
That is the single most damaging mindset in the OSS camp. The goal is not for software gratis, but to have software libre.
The ideal Free Software scenario is when companies, governments and indiviuals pay people to write good, quality software. Maybe not a whole project, sometimes even just for minor improvements and bugfixes. It may be even implemented as a subscription model.
The value of software is created when the programmer programs. To make OSS succeed and suplant the commercial model we have to find ways of rewarding this activity. You can't do away with money in this society, maybe in some arachist utopia, but not in the present. For programmers to survive, we need to find ways for them to be rewarded for their time.
:. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
it is free. free as in speech. it's free as in beer as well, but in my experience, if somebody offers me free beer, i end up having to work for it.
free beer linux just means you have to learn your distro's quirks (after i spose you poke your head over the *nix learning curve). i really like free beer, so i run debian/sid on my desktop. that's 200 bucks worth of free beer for me, my desktop box came with winme preinstalled. plus i don't have to buy and/or subscribe to virus dealies. whoa, i can spend more of my money on effin hardware. and i guess my old P-75 can still run win95, but can win95 act as my NAT/gateway? here's a hint, NO.
and when i come up with some code (not likely) that i can contribute, i'll gladly do it. not that anyone wants my inept rather wordy perl scripts that keeps my P-75 up and running when my dynamic IP changes. for us closet geeks, there is a fun variable that is missing in microsoft products.
Serenity now, insanity later.