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Buy Lindows, Get Fedora and Mandrake Too?

Posted by michael on from the too-many-linuxes-spoil-the-soup dept.

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?"

13 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Ikn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:Well... by nametaken · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's really not so much a goodwill gesture. If you look at the last section of the site, you'll see a rather sales oriented comparison sheet. In it, it points out how redhat and mandrake don't come with flash support, in-browser video streaming, etc. The idea is that they give you three distros in the hope that you'll compare them as per their chart and realize that Lindows is the one to pick.

    2. Re:Well... by Eric+Damron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "it points out how redhat and mandrake don't come with flash support, in-browser video streaming, etc."

      Their "fact sheet" seems a bit inaccurate. I use Mandrake 10.0 and it came with flash support. I wonder if it's the old trick of compairing their version that you pay for with Mandrake's version that gets downloaded.

      User's really need to compaire boxed versions of equal cost.

      --
      The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
    3. Re:Well... by opkool · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Absolutely.

      Both "boxed Mandrake" and "Mandrake from MDK Club" (that is, paying Mandrake) ship with Flash player, RealPlayer, J2RE, nVidia drivers, Winmodem drivers... all that non-GPL stuff.

      I have yet another problem with this 3-in-1 distribution. They are distributing Mandrake 10.0 **Community** edition, that is, the "preview" version for the Official Mandrake 10.0. The Official version (the one that goes into official mirrors (in the form of ISOs and rpms) and into the boxes that you can buy.

      The Community edition needs a ton of updates to fix all the bugs found during the development step "Community-to-Official". So they are kinda giving Mandrake a bad name (insert your conspiracy theory here), as they are shipping a "kown broken" (release candidate with already located and fixed bugs) distribution, when there's available MDK Official version, with all those bugs corrected.

      Aside from that, it's a nice thing to ship 3 distros together. Lots of PC users are still on POTS+Modem, and all those ISOs are a pain to download.

      Peace!

  2. Promotion by deutschemonte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

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    The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
  3. I applaud their initiative on this one. by LazloToth · · Score: 5, Insightful


    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.

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    It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
  4. Not Too Bright by illuminata · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
  5. "Have your own shootout ..." by Cyburbia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  6. Rather disengenuous by damiangerous · · Score: 4, Insightful
    They refer to Lindows in the third person throughout the site, in the same way they refer to Mandrake and Fedora. There's a small copyright notice at the bottom, and of course when you get to the store it's Linspire.com, but the site reads like an objective third party site. "We chose Lindows because..." Well, you chose it because you're selling it. Then there's support and referring to "their [Lindows] forums." They're not "their" forums, they're your forums.

    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.

  7. Re:Don't be fooled. by Averron · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  8. Nice, but.... by MP3Chuck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?
  9. Re:Don't be fooled. by iserlohn · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Don't pay money for software.

    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.

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    :. Ultimate Control Dedicated/VM Servers
  10. Re:No help at all. by PaulBu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, I would not necessarily agree... People who buy into Lindows do not (usually) download FC2, and they would not get a RedHat boxed set, so no lost sale to RH. OTOH, after they figure out that "this Linux thing" is not as scary and quite useable they might decide to try more advanced distributions and they will have a chance to do this immediately.

    Paul B.