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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
If you check my ebay auction, I have sensitive and important information on how to get a FREE download of Fedora Core 2 and Mandrake Linux 10! That's right!
For only $4.99 + $2.00 service charge, I'll email you a very secret link, not found anywhere near www.redhat.com or www.mandrake.com.
Or... something...
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.
This isn't a terrible plan if you a truly confident in your product. I think we've seen that Robertson is confident in Linspire, and although he may be controversial, I think he's done a lot to promote Linux. Promotion is not a bad thing, and from my experience, Linspire is not a bad introductory distro, so this is probably a good thing.
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.
... if you check their Shootout list their motives seem to be less than friendly towards the other distros...
Bill Claybrook vice president at market research firm Harvard Research Group, said he can't see the point to Lindows' three-in-one packaging. "Who is going to pay money to download three Linux distributions?"
...
Retail-box is also useless because one order mandrake and fedore CD from chapbytes.com and host of other websites for less $$
Looks like lindows is having hard time selling their *own* product
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.
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.
In fairness, it looks like The "Click-N-Run" is $49 initially for one year. Not sure what the renewal costs, but I think you just buy another one year licence.
Apt-get is free and great for experienced users, but it can be tough for new users to understand. Packages aren't always organized cleanly, and there is lots of old kruft on the Debian tree (How many text editors would a non-techie need?).
I've easily spent more then $49/year of my personal time dealing with problems from Apt-get.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
The site is produced by Lindows, and the bias is obvious. What makes me laugh even more is the example shootout with the "magic eraser" that makes it clear that they think Lindows is the best distro available. There is no talk about compensating the Fedora and Mandrake products, and there is only minimal support included. If a site doesnt clearly display such an important bias, I normally write it off (just like MartinLutherKing.org ... yet another example of where a (very important ) bias is not discussed)
I agree in that this seems to be a great idea. However, it would be interesting to see the "comprehensive" checklist they've included with that bundle. Notice how the screenshots on the Web site only show pictures for Linspire.
I think it's clear that Michael Robertson believes in Linux. I don't think he intends to compete with other distros in a dishonest fashion. Lindows are clearly entitled to use this bundle to promote Linsipre not only over Windows but over said other distros... I just wonder how are they doing it? (If they are doing that to being with)
In any event, it's a great marketing trick. Hope they manage to attract enough customers with it!
The revolution will not be televised.
The Gentoo folk would have liked to issue a statement but were unavailable when the story went to print because they were too busy compiling.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
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.
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/
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?
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...
This seems like a pretty clever plan to get people to try their distro. They give the user the "comfort" of being able to thing "Oh, this is good... at least if I don't like Linspire I can try out the others... there's bound to be one distro I'll like," and even if that person does end up choosing one of the others, at least they made a profit.
Were I a newbie looking to try out Linux, I would probably test drive Mandrake or Fedore before giving Linspire a spin, so this seems like a clever way to profit off that tendency.
"Pornography web filtering available?: Yes ( Linspire ) No ( Mandrake ) No ( Fedora )"
I'm thinking a big no on Linspire.
Slashdot sucks
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 wonder how long it takes before our beloved mr Gates gets the same idea and offers a couple of linux CDs with every Windows to "try them out"...
That'll be the day!
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
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!
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
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.