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The author states: "I was a huge fan of RedHat, and was very upset that I would have to start using a different system."

I know it's a tired subject, but I think it's worth clarifying that RedHat's desktop distribution didn't disappear. Rather, it was opened up to the community and became <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com">Fedora.

No, Fedora is just a testbed for Red Hat... it's way too buggy. Maybe release 2 will be better.

Now that you cleared up this, please direct the discussion to Lycoris and stay on topic. Thx.

It's probably been a year or more since the issue of Lindows and the default root login was resolved. It gives you the option at install time to create users, same as any distro.

I'm not a user nor a fan of Lindows, but that myth is perpetuated a bit too much to let slide.

I tried an older version and it really worked great...The only issue I see is that the smaller, newer distros seem to be able to keep up-to-date quickly from original packages. Also, it makes a problem for those who want to use the "server" or "leading edge" packages because they aren't "exactly" like the default versions using RPM or apt-get meaning that a new user is quickly discouraged from running "new" stuff without learning the system specific tweaks.

This is where the Debian-based systems like Knoppix, Morphix, Mepis will always grab the lucrative group of early adopters because they work as much as possible with the Debian system rather than reinventing stuff "just because". In a way being not "Debian based" is really more of a bug lately than a feature. Some of the great cleanup jobs done in Lycrois, Xandros, & Lindows are really a great thing...they make Linux feel like a polished, professional, user friendly OS package...versus the "pro-sumer" distros like RH or SuSe. Without working together they are all creating thier own "fiefs" meaning that "advanced" linux users just can't quite recommend or support them without extra legwork per package. i.e. in a business or "screwdriver shop" setting you should be able to mix-n-match the basic boxed and free versions depending on user needs...servers should get the free-but-difficult stuff, and users should be able to grab Walmart PCs with Lycrois and plug right in [or take the box home] as well as use the cool user-friendliness!

That said, Lycrois seems to be advancing quite nicely. They have a game bundle with WineX from Transgaming, and an office suite package too...and they're CHEAP compared to RH or Suse [rapidly droping home/SOHO users]...they should be trying to get on shelves at CompUSA...they do Tux proud!

I have mixed feelings over this distro

PROS:
-very fast(even faster than my debian installation!)
-good default apps
-very nicely intergrated

CONS:
-ugly default theme
-worst distro at handling dependencies(**packages are so out of date)
-config tools arent that polished or functional

If I were to suggest a distro for a newbie, I'd point them towards Mandrake or Fedora.

**I havent tried the newest version so they could very well have included more up2dated packages in respect to the other distros.

you gotta problem with Geeks...hey this is OS News after all. I'd venture most readers here get excited about installing a new OS...something about that name???

...I would have to start using a different system.

Have to? Why, did your old install suddenly stop booting? Heck, even if you're using RedHat 7.3, someone like Progeny is supporting it. Perhaps you should rephrase your statement to something closer like "...I wanted to start using a different distribution since Fedora doesn't meet my needs."

I thought most OS's gave you a list of City/time zone selections?. why was this such a huge deal that a hole paragraph had to be added to this review? Otherwise the rest of the article was informative.

@madhatter,

sometimes it worries me how much I like installing OS's.
I think I might be a little wierd.

The reviewer mentions no uptodate software. One should also mention that GTK2 is NOT included, nor is anything resembling a compiler, kernel source/headers, and so on. If you wish to do ANYTHING from source, this is NOT the distribution to try unless you opt for the DELUXE package. Any KDE3 specific package (e.g. kopete, k3b) also will not run, since the base desktop is KDE2.2.

Why was my comment modded down? It's a completely valid observation.

If Lycoris is trying to be like Windows, they're missing one of the most important elements to emulate, the task bar! Instead they leave that as it's ugly KDE default and try to copy the control panel far too well.

>>
If I were to suggest a distro for a newbie, I'd point them towards Mandrake or Fedora.
<<

I think the best choice for new joe-blow users out there is Xandros. The 2.0 desktop is good enough to not even want Crossover installed on it. Now, *that's* cool! Everything, and I repeat e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g works out of the box! Worth a look. If I were to suggest a hard-core Windows user to try Linux, it would have to be Xandros. Also, unlike Lycoris, they do not try to maintain the familiar look and feel either.
If the user is getting all the functionality as easily, they don't care much about the looks. And what good is looks without the brains behind it :-) Lycoris is the most outdated, overcharted linux distro out there -- I mean KDE 2.2?? You must be joking if I want to try it!!!

I have been using Lindows since Version 3 and unless this was in version 2 or one Lindows OS 3 and above give you the option to make other users. Lindows has always included the user manager and even in 3 poped up an advance menu on the first boot that allows you to change the host name, root password, add users (Using the KDE user manager). Now I have a problem with the fact that they don't tell you that it is best to use a regular user. But you CAN make regular users.

I have used Lycoris and I liked it cause it was based on Caldera but Lycoris is always behind on Libraries, and finding apps that will fit the Libraries and all that crap is a mess!

To : Tried it!

Lindows and Xandros are both Debian based. Lycoris is Caldera based. (Meaning they pay a fee to SCO) Which is the other reason I won't use it. LOL! Sorry want to help but I am not going to support SCO.

I find Lindows much more easy to use then Lycoris. Once you show someone how to use click and run and how to add a normal user then they are good to go. It feels more like Win 98 / ME (Which is what they are trying to do.) the other versions of Linux. Remember regular users don't want to know about how Linux works, they just want to get their e-mail, use IM, surf and play a few games. Very easy to setup and do in Lindows. With the 10 minute install you can be up and on the web before you even get 20% through installing Lycoris. I can install Lindows, go to click and run, hit my Library, select all and install my apps, all that and then configure my e-mail etc before you can get almost any other OS even out the box. LOL! The only one close is Xandros.

That is just my personal feeling. I have 15 people I know running on Lindows 4 now, all non Linux users and all like it (Besides some short falls like Gaim can't show video or transfer files like in Yahoo or AOL. But that is a matter of time. To not have to reboot , or crash near as much as with windows etc makes all the diference. And NO VIRUSES! Wooooooo HOOOOO. But I have Virus Safe that Lindows sells. 29 a year to cover all my computers (7) it's worth it to even kill Windows worms so I don't send them to fiends. (Which I have done with a couple e-mail worms)

Any I know I will get blasted for this comment but so what. LOL!

Personally I'm fan of $0 stuff, but it's nice to know there're Linux distros that appeal to home users. BTW plural of virus is viruses not virii.

ok i would like to clear up a few things

while the distro it self may not have kde3 or gtk2 or some new stuff there does exist rpms for those for lycoris

i know texstar has packaged up kde3 also i rpm up kde3 but was unable to get alot of lycoris featurs to work at the time with kde3 most of wich i think we have figured out now and some of the communty members are working on a updated set of kde3 rpms that are preconfigured and should have all of lycoris stuff working in them www.claydoh.com is the site for the latest info on getting kde3 for lycoris

also i have working rpm for gtk2 along with gaim 0.70 and a whole bounch of other stuff including thunderbird all sitting in a apt-get server and will be updating the stuff here in about a week as soon i get my box back up
apt-get rpms are here ftp://207.251.100.93/boford/apt/

a current listing of all my rpms for lycoris are here
ftp://207.251.100.93/boford/apt/lycoris/beta/RPMS.boford/

and if there anything that ya would like i can take a stab at packing it up

Besides some short falls like Gaim can't show video or transfer files like in Yahoo or AOL.

Gaim has file transfer capabilities. Are you using an older version?(current=0.74)

Xandros looked good. Took 3 levels of clicks to find out that they wanted 89 bucks for the pro version, that also ran windows apps like MS Office.

Still looking to find the best app for diehard windows users like myself. Last Linux I ran was slackware, some years ago now.

N

I think he was very much ON topic. He corrected an error made on the "topic".

I will continue to use Windows XP until someone can pry it from my dead lifeless fingers. All Lycoris looks like is a Windows XP knockoff.

This is what is on Gaim's website in their FAQ:

Q: Can Gaim send files?

A: TOC can, in a limited way, and OSCAR can send files over AIM in 0.60 and higher. Most protocols are capable of it, but Gaim hasn't implemented anything yet. Support is being worked on and may partially work for MSN and Jabber.


Q: File Transfer for xxxx doesn't seem to be working.

A: File transfer for all protocols is still buggy. This is being worked on, but has no set date for completion.

http://gaim.sourceforge.net/faq.php#q24

:-O
lol I guess im wrong. I've tried it /w yahoo/msn and they seem to work fine.

Meh. At least it's not as ugly as that last big BSD thread...

(This may be the first of two posts)

It wasn't Fedora that made me switch, it was the the idea that I didn't want to keep using "GeekOS", rather I wanted to be able to just sit back and relax when I got home from work.

About the time-zone thing, it's a personal pet-peeve, and as a review of a system, I did reserve the right to complain about such a thing.

About the "non-updated" packages included: A home user doesn't care about what packages are updated with what, because they dont know the difference between GTK 2.2 and GTK 2.4, so it's not a big thing to them. It all looks the same, and to a home user thats what matters. If it looks good then it's good. (if you dont believe me, think of how many people use WinXP because it's Xtra Pretty) Also, Beryl (the next Lycoris release) is focusing on updated [i]everything[i], including KDE.

Now for the "ugly theme" mentioned. As someone who uses the system, it is something that you get used to very quickly. I thought it was butt-ugly when I saw it in screenies, but I found it was easier to come to grips with the red box being close, etc. Blue being a color for visual kindness (again, XP and Aqua have the whole blue thing going on, psycological stuff) allows one to say "i need to see more". They hit the nail on the head with their little window management if you ask me.

Also, I only used Lindows 2 in the past that a friend bought, and it always logged him in as root. So it's not so much rumor as it is lack of personal experience. Sorry if I was unclear on that too.

I appriciate your support, and I have see you in the forums at www.lycoris.org. You seem a huge help to the Lycoris community, and I am very happy to have you comment on my review.

As a matter of fact, I would love to see a Lycoris version of zSNES, because I can't seem to get it compiled on my system

Thanks again,
~Rory

I've tried Lycoris several times but I just can't bring myself to like it no matter how hard I try. I want to...I really do...but there are some fundamental flaws:

a) Old packages - no getting around this. There are new versions of the software for a reason...the old ones are buggy, lack features and can potentially be a serious security problem!! Enough said.
b) Inconsistent - I can't believe there are still parts of the system that refer to RedmondLinux...and they changed the name what...2 years ago?????
See http://img.osnews.com/img/5517/lycoris3.jpg for just one example.
c) Installing software (without ponying up for IRIS) - Without the dev tools...good luck mon ami. It's almost impossible to find compatible software because it's based on Caldera and...let's face it...who's gonna develop for that POS now that SCO's shot itself in both feet. Got the devtools and want to compile from source? Good luck...NO Guarantees anything will work... See comment above as an example - "As a matter of fact, I would love to see a Lycoris version of zSNES, because I can't seem to get it compiled on my system "

There are other things that bug me but the above gives you a good idea. But if you've got a couple of days to waste...download the thing (if they'll still let you) and knock yourself out....and you will

The ONLY redeeming feature of Lycoris is it's incredible community. There are people there who will go out of their way to make you welcome and will help you to work through the issues you will come across...which is a good thing coz there's plenty you'll need help with...hehe...sorry..couldn't help myself.

I wish them luck but with the competition that's coming through now (Xandros, Lindows et al), I don't see much of a future for them if they continue on as they are.

Besides Mandrake, Lycoris always was one of my favourite Linux distro's, it was easy, clean, and it just worked. The fact that they used KDE 2.2 never seemed like great problem to me, they made it look good.

However, it's almost 2004 now. For the first time in my life I felt Lycoris was lacking. I know they promised us KDE 3.x in the Beryl release, but still. Update 3 is a good distro (tried it myself as well), but the lack of KDE 3.x is too bad. It's been said over and over, "KDE 2.2 is too old", but I never took those comments seriously. Now, I do, actually.

I would say that KDE 2.2 is the major drawback, and not the lack of Gaim.

I am looking forward though to a Lycoris KDE 3.x based product, it would be fun to see what they van do with 3.2

Isn't there a free version of Lycoris or hasn't it been realeasd yet?

Are you off your rocker? The best distros for a newbie are the ones that let you do things right out of the box. Lycoris is a distro like that. fedora is not.

"hey, why can't I play mp3's?" etc, etc, etc, etc....

The best desktop linux for newbies is either xandros, lindows, or lycoris.

personally, i think the best is by far xandros, as it's fully up to date, can install debs and rpms, has all the crossover stuff which allows you to have the same kind of internet experience that you can on windows.....

lycoris just needs to update to newer versions of all it's software and start including the gnome libraries so you can run apps, but not the desktop. and they have to make it so that you can install gnome if you want to, though it would be unsupported.

I work in a company that writes software that runs on Red Hat. But I use Lycoris at home for these reasons:

- works out of the box for my computers, no need to tweak or to "vi /etc/anything.conf"

- don't have to select between 5 text editors, 12 window managers, 3 office suites or 65 instant messenging clients. Lycoris pre-selected the ones they think works well. Which is I think what each distro should do, instead of giving you too much choice. (Yes, the Iris software library may look limited, but, hey, is the slow KDE 3.x really better that 2.2?)

- works marvelously in a Windows network: you can see and mount shares from your Windows machines on your network as easily as when you use WinXP.

- works also well with the Win partitions on your machine: they get automatically mounted in the "My Linux" icon

- Mime types and other associations are also well thought of: just mouse over an MP3 file and you get an "audio-preview" of it! Also, double-click on an .exe file and Wine will automatically try to run it. Now THAT is integration!

In short: I use it because it does what an average user do (Surf the Web, write emails and letters, listen to MP3s and chat) easily, whithout hassles.

No, Fedora is just a testbed for Red Hat... it's way too buggy. Maybe release 2

Ok, yes, it's a proving ground for new technologies. However, RedHat only steers the project, they don't control every aspect of it. And It is not that buggy. I have it running on a production server that does a lot of everything, and several workstations, w/o as much as a whimper. Very Very stable. I've even loaded up Kernel 2.6 on it.. I bet you can't say that about Lycoris.

Aside from this HUGE 'had to change distros' flaw in logic right at the beginning of the article... It is.. all in all.. a decent read.

I have complained miightily about Lycoris's slowness in moving to KDE 3.x but, I have to admit, it is still my favorite among the Mom & Dad distros.

I haven't used Xandros 2.0 yet, so I won't comment on it. I do have 1.1 and like it very much.

Lindows has made big strides and, for average home users, I cannot recommend against it. However, speaking pesonally, there is still too much hype and contentiousness coming out of management for me. But, that should not stop a new user from using it.

Lycoris is something diferent. Despite being called a Windows knock-off, there are actually just a couple of places where this is true, like the The Control Center. And, that is really only to make it "familiar" to the new user. If you look more closely, you see they have gone to great lengths to painstakingly create their own artwor to provide a friendly, welcoming, breezy sort of look. The same is true of their Productivity Pak.

So, despite my own ravings about moving to KDE 3.x, I have to agree with the poster who suggested that Mom and Dad aren't going to care about that or what libraries it does or doesn't have. As also mentioned, the community forum is great for friendlines and help. And finally, the IRIS download library is pretty good for the new user - just enough apps for those true newbies not to get confused, although, of course, it could use a bit more.

With what I have used of the Mom and Dad Linux distros, I prefer Lycoris because of its ease of use, familiar and inviting look and the Lycoris community itself.

Ok, another thing people dont really comprehend is this is not to be compared with Fedora or RedHat. I clearly stated earlier that I didn't switch from RedHat because of it no longer existing, I switched because I couldn't take the time to deal with it.

On the subject of KDE 3: It isn't exactly the most stable, which is why they use KDE 2.2.2. After all, they still continue productivity so far as stability on Kernel 2.4, even though 2.6 is out. It's about a stable system that wont crash just because of an internal flaw.

Anyone who develops software may release products that are unstable and then fix them as the releases go along (take Windows for example). It's not that way here. They are sticking with KDE 2.2.2 and are probably doing extensive research and configuration of KDE 3.x to make sure when they DO update with it, it will be stable enough to use.

Just because YOU want to use latest and greatest, mom and dad dont NEED to know what latest and greatest is. I bet if aim.com had a development section with a version 14.6, and the main page still showed version 5.x because a user may not be ready for 14.6.

If you like Fedora, cool. If you don't like Lycoris, thats cool too. The point of this whole thing is not to give a user "Linux" but rather to give a user "Lycoris". Lycoris is an operating system, and they decided to go with what they use because of stability, ease of use, and overall fun.

~Rory Griffin

OK, you have gone a bit astray here regarding KDE 2.2 vs 3 -- The reason for not having KDE 3 is not a stability-issue since the entire rest of the world is on KDE 3 without such problems. The reason is that Lycoris has only very few developpers who can only do so much. They had other products to get up and running in the past like the office and game pack and they had to meet deadlines with their partners for factory pre-installing their system, etc.. there was no time to care about KDE 3, plain and simple. This is no secret in the Lycoris community either... Like it or not, Lycoris is pretty slow, but as has been said already, the target audience doesn't even know about KDE 2.2, 3, or alike in the first place, so it's not that much of a problem.

Apart from that, I cannot imagine that there are many well known distros out there which you could not use of out of the box these days on a mom + pop-demands'-level.

I feel sorry for you, after spending your time writing, being criticized for every little thing. Much of this attitude did not used to be on here, but it seems more slashdot trolls are coming over to OSNews. I would like to thank you for spending your time writing the article, and I think it was a well written one, despite the comments of others around here.

To the others: I've never seen most of you write an article and submit it, so don't complain about his, if you don't have the guts to put your own up there to get cut to pieces by others.

That's some seriously ugly theme! Anyway, Lycrois *is* nice for the Windows to Linux switchers, but I prefer Fedora. Btw, when updated with up2date or apt-get, Fedora isn't unstable anymore.

>> PS: I can't believe there are people out there (with what I assume a somewhat technical background) that like Windows XP.

This comment made me fall out of my chair laughing. In fact the whole post did. The Luna theme in XP is a theme just like Classic. One is blue, one is grey. Whooopety dooo da day. XP comes with better driver support, is more stable, boots faster, has a better support life expectancy, emulates dos better, is the target platform of all modern applications, integrates seamlessly with the .NET platform.

Oh, but cause there is a "blue" interface, certainly no one with a technical background would EVER use it right? LOL. Grow up.

This is secure, easy to use, and overall fun. Give her a spin and share your thoughts.

At what point does the author tell of his testing of this distro's security? He has no idea how secure this distro actually is. It seems incredibly biased too. He only took away one point because of gaim, but what about the lack of the GTK development packages, and the update program that stalls? He mentioned that all update programs never work properly, which if false, because I've never had a problem with windows update. I give this article a 4 out of 10.

>> PS: I can't believe there are people out there (with what >I assume a somewhat technical background) that like Windows >XP.
>
>This comment made me fall out of my chair laughing. In fact >the whole post did. The Luna theme in XP is a theme just >like Classic. One is blue, one is grey. Whooopety dooo da >day. XP comes with better driver support, is more stable, >boots faster, has a better support life expectancy, emulates >dos better, is the target platform of all modern >applications, integrates seamlessly with the .NET platform.
>
>Oh, but cause there is a "blue" interface, certainly no one >with a technical background would EVER use it right? LOL. >Grow up.

XP Professional is a decent OS, XP home has a lot of problems, but then again what do you expect when they took the codebase for XP professional and hacked and slashed out a lot of the stuff that makes XP Professional so stable.

Having said that however, comments are supposed to be about the article or the software that was reviewed.

I think you missed his point, so stop laughing. While he commented on the looks as well, he was mainly talking about how XP is a W2K with polish, only. And I am thinking the same: XP *is* a W2K, only not that mature. W2K is pretty solid now whilst we are at SP4 -- on the other hand, XP is a mess, look how they are postponing SP2, etc...

So yes, a person who knows what XP really is does not neccessarily opt for it but may choose W2K instead... at least that is what he wanted to say between the lines, if I am not totally mistaken.

Linux wasn't easier to maintain at first, but it is now, at least for all of the things I want to do. I had to re-learn all my Windows skills for Linux, and now that I know how to configure X, install packages, getting around various problems with the packages, I find my Linux system to be much more predictable than Windows. I am more confident in my computer being able to do a certain thing (i. e. print without crashing, play music without skipping) than I have ever been. It helps that I have a super-fast system (2.4 GHz P4 w/ HT, 1 GB DDR) and a fantastic distro (Gentoo!).

Anyways, I think you should give GeekOS (which happens to be the name of another operating system not based on Linux) another try. You'll find that you have a better system in the end.

You must have a pretty shitty set up if you use windows can't print with out crashing or play music with out skipping.

There was a time when RED HAT neck and Neck with Mandrake. Now RedHat has stabbed us all in the Neck. No longer will they be focusing on the DESKTOP. Mandrake is simply deteriorating instead of getting Better. Its in a kind of Color Kontest. Lets see if we can make it B-E-T-T-E-R, Rather than Just more ColorfuLL :-(.

Lycoris is the BEST for any NewBie. All - I repeat ALL of the downloadable programs downloaded via the Lycoris homepage work FLAWLESSLY. Thats more than you can say for any of the other distributions. Way to GO Lycoris

I would love to see somecomparision between Mandrake 9.2 with Lycoris and Suse.

I have been on Slackware 9.1 and RedHat 9.0 but I think I like Mandrake the best.

The Best about Mandrake 9.2 is that it just runs out of the ISO downloaded image with out any hassele.

FYI, KDE 3.x is actually a good deal faster than KDE 2.x. KDE 2.x was a rewrite of KDE, and in 3.x a huge amount of effort has gone into making things faster. 3.2 is probably the fastest KDE since the 1.x days, and that was a different KDE entirely.

Look, I'm not knocking off points because of "outdated" crap, I'm knocking off points because of lack of something that you can usually expect in most Linux distros. This being a home distro, I just don't understand why Gaim wasn't included.

Also, as I said in an earlier post, you guys have no reason to compare this to Windows or RedHat or anything because I reviewed it as it's own system. Plain and simple. I did mention Lindows of course, but that was all part of a decisive thing I went through. Also, those reasons why I didn't chose Lindows were (as I learned thanks to these comments) false.

I think it may be time for you guys who think my review is crappy to give Lycoris a spin, and give a non-biast review for yourself. Speaking of biast, here is how I compare systems:

"Compared to mandrake and redhat, lycoris has NOTHING so far as applications, and it's way too outdated, OMG, I need all my devel libs to compile this beta software that i'll use once and never again use after that. i want KDE 3, and lycoris doesn't have it. i want gaim and lycoris doesn't have it, i want GTK 2.4 and lycoris doesn't have it."

Ok, aside from that, mom and dad dont care about the latest. I have a job now and I just want to use a system, not play with a system. I dont care about devel packages, but it would be nice to compile if I had to. you guys who are always using these major geeky operating systems should understand that some people dont wanna mess with it.

It's a very sad world where people talk about "linux on the desktop" but when someone takes a stab in the right direction, the geeks start taking a stab at them. Get over it for crying out loud. As I said before, mom and dad done care at ALL about latest and greatest, they just want a usable system. Lycoris offers that out of the box.

i dont think i could of sad it any better then that

i see it all the time ppl just want somthing that works they dont want to open console trace down whats wrong when somthing doesnt compile let alone spend all that time just to get somthing to work they just want to sit down point click and it work for them wich lycoris does very well at

And point, click, and the GAIM included with Lycoris currently does NOT work with either Yahoo or MSN due to the recent changes in security protocols. The needed version of GAIM is NOT available from IRIS. Kopete, which DOES work with the Yahoo and MSN servers, is a KDE3 app. A very nice burner app, which works with cds AND dvds in its current version, is K3B, which is ALSO a KDE3 app. So, outdated IS a valid criticism. Ease and point and click working are both available in Kopete and K3B, believe me.

so what one app brings easy of use to the whole desktop?

No, but the situation was mentioned of "joe user", and "joe user" wonders why he can't talk to all his buddies on MSN or Yahoo ("They told me this GAIM thing would let me do it, but I can't get it to let me log in.") K3B's interface is a true drag and drop burning, which appeals to the "point and click joe user".

ok i see your point on gaim but that doesnt effect every user


and ontop of that i have gaim cover 0.70 ya trying to fix my box so i can update it to .74

Yeah, K3B works with this system, if you want a screenie I can upload it somewhere. I have it running fine on my system as is.

Not to shabby.

I love Suse(>RH), and this is just "pretty".

rh/Fadora = geah.

GG~
http://www.ramsinks.com/linux.aspx

Cool news!

I am a joe user who has no Linux/Unix knowledge but I have over the past 5 years DL and tried several different linux distros to see how a joe user would react. I have used RH, Suse, Mandrake, Lycoris, Lindows, Mepis, Knoppix, Xandros....and so forth

For the most part, I have been able to get the distros to work within my home M$ network...even figured out SAMBA. By and large the easiest distro I have found is Xandros and I recently upgraded it Xandros 2.0 Deluxe and have it running on all 4 of my home computers (I do have some dual booting with M$).

Lycoris wasn't a bad experience, I only found it to be less polish and functional than Xandros 1.0.

Joe User

From the article: "...Lindows always logging you in as root..." Stop the myth already that LindowsOS always runs as the root user. You only run as the root user during the installation and initial configuration, including creating a normal user account. Then unless you explicitly login or su as the root user you run as a normal user under the normal user account.