Larry Kettler, the new director of Builder sales at Lindows, says the response to last month’s announcement of the Builder Program “has been overwhelming.” In an email letter, he says that many OEMs are preparing to launch LindowOS on “a number of computer system SKUs.” Read the rest of the report at NewsForge.
Lindows Says OEMs are Responding to “Builder Program”
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’m curious about who these OEMs are that are responding so heartily, and whether they know that Lindows will not in actuality run Windows applications. You’d think it would be a pretty straight forward question to ask, but you never know with these marketing types.
Does anyone know what the sales figures look like from WallMart’s Lindows based Microtel offering? Are these things selling? If so, is it just geeks that are buying them, or can mom and pop really be satisfied by this type of product?
The seeming contradictory parts of this agreement turn my mind to mush.
I bought a Lindows Microtel box from Walmart. I’ve posted more extensively about it here in other discussions but, so far, if Mom and Pop are just interested in email, web surfing and word processing and maybe listening to CD’s, there is nothing that would prevent them from that. Lindows comes with zero documentation, which baffles me. If they want Mom and Pop to buy at Walmart, they should at least have a little manual that goes over the basics.
Well, if they absolutely feel like they must ship an alternative to Windows, as sad as it may seem, this is about the only choice they have.
Of course, they could ship a full blown Linux distro out to the masses, but I think the OEMs have a little more common sense than to do something like that
Well, if they absolutely feel like they must ship an alternative to Windows, as sad as it may seem, this is about the only choice they have.
I don’t think so. I have given away a couple of Debian machines away to members of my family. I have them set up to boot to WDM and to use WindowMaker as the window manager.
I have also installed wmCalClock and wmWeather and placed them under the clip (configured, of course, for the correct locations).
Application wise, I have installed Evolution, Mozilla, Sylpheed, Grip, XCDRoast, and either StarOffice, Hancom Office or OpenOffice depending on which one the receiver wanted (and paid for in some cases). I made a dock icon for each of these applications.
I also downloaded a whole bunch of themes from themes.freshmeat.net and placed them in the correct directories.
Yes, I did all the configuration (just as an OEM would do), but what I ended up with was a very easy to use and intuitive system that my grandparents, parents and several other people can use; and are happy with.
The only things I have had support questions on so far is XCDRoast and Grip settings. Once I taught them to leave the Grip config tab alone and taught them how to use XCDRoast, everything has been great.
The one weakness I see in Linux systems as desktops is in the printer area. In Debian, it is very easy for a new user to use Synaptic and download new programs (which Debian then automagically adds to the menu system), however, installing a printer under Debian is more than the casual user can do. Other distros (like Caldera) make printing easy, but downloading and installing new software hard. Mandrake is easy, but the system isn’t very stable in my opinion. I am hoping that Xandros delivers an up-to-date Linux that is as easy for casual users to install, configure and use and CorelOS was a few years ago, without making all the mistakes Lindows has. I think everyone deserves the ability to run a superior OS.
“Yes, I did all the configuration (just as an OEM would do), but what I ended up with was a very easy to use and intuitive system that my grandparents, parents and several other people can use; and are happy with.”
Well, that’s great .. but what happens when they go to CompUSA and look for .. uhh … say a Family Tree program for their new Linux box? Are they instinctively going to know to look on freshmeat or wherever you find a program like this for Linux?
Or what about when they buy that scanner and notice that the included CD-ROM doesn’t have Linux drivers on it? Of course, in your case, they have you to go over and put it on for them. But what about Grandpa Joe who lives down the street, and doesn’t know any Linux gurus o help him out ?
i bashed and critized Lindoze enough, now it is time to just sit back a while and see whats happens…
I installed a dual-boot for my Father in-law when I built a computer for him. Windows98 / BeOS 5.03pe. No customization or special software installed except Corel WP and Gobe Productive. with the BeOS bootman boot manager set to boot into Windows if there is no user intervention on boot-up. After showing him how to boot into each OS, go on-line and get his email and launch each word processo I left him to his own devices.
Three weeks later I had to set the bootman to launch BeOS by default as he was tired of missing the chance to chose it. Two weeks later he had installed Opera for BeOS and registered it ( with no help. ) He had also messed up Windows to the point that I had to FDISK FIORMAT and re-install the OS.
I think that when OpenBeos gets to the point that there is a real distro, this will be a perfact OS for the beginner.
This is why OEMs need an alternative to Windows. If it is done right, there should be less cost in support — even if they specify a short list of peripherals that the user can install.
If Lindows can come close to this on pre-installed systems than this is a real plus for joe user.
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But the only thing I really hate about it is that there is only one user. (single user, not multiuser). Heck, I have parents, 4 brothers… that is pretty important if you ask me. OBOS R2 would have mutli-users, thankfully.
Besides, Windows would be just fine if you had Windows NT (the latest, XP) and make sure he doesn’t use administator. :-))
I went off these “bloated” type of distro’s a couple of years ago after a really bad experience with Mandrake installing untold junk everywhere and went over to debian. Minimalistic but nice.
But a few days I tried out the SuSE 8.0 Download edition, which I would guess is very similar to Lindows/Lycoris and its ilk in that it detects hardware/easy installation etc
I was impressed, very impressed. Things have come on a long way, auto-detection of my GeForce(accelerated) and all peripherals. Nice desktop, good software (a doddle to install) and I have started to believe again that the possibility of a good solid distribution for Home users really isnt that far off now, maybe we are even there now.
I am definately going to give Lindows I try, but can’t really justify paying for it.
So for those who doubt (as I did) I think we are closer than a lot of us believe to a home distribution.
I think that if OS is bloated too much to switch logged users quite quickly (win2k did this with about 30 sec), then it’s no sense to use it. For example, me and my wife frequently check for new e-mails (check, not read – this is why we need it to be really quick) one after another, and it would be damn too long to wait the re-login function completion each time we want to check out both mailboxes. You know what? Outlook Express supports multiple identities, Netscape since 4th version also has profiles to choose from. Why should I have to use multiuser OS, if there’s enough nice multi-user programs? To change the background theme? Ufff, who cares about this that much?
How soon is that? I’ve been waiting since last year.
[QUOTE} But the only thing I really hate about it is that there is only one user. (single user, not multiuser). Heck, I have parents, 4 brothers… that is pretty important if you ask me. OBOS R2 would have mutli-users, thankfully. [/QUOTE]
I have to agree with you there Rajan, I use Linux with different desktop enviroments depending on the user, for myself I use blackbox, and for each family member they each have their own logon so they can customize their desktop to their own personal taste without making changes to the other family member’s desktop, I have my bookmarks the way I like em, and others have their bookmarks, Icons and menus desktop wallpapers customized to their personal taste, and single user logon sucks not to mention single user with root access 100% of the time is something I serously do not reccomend, it is this adminstrators privlege being accessing 100% of the time that makes Windoze OS so damn vulnerable. I was at a trucking company’s office and I had the oppurtunity to sit at the secretary’s desktop, she had root access and anything could go wrong, she could get a nasty worm, trojan or virus via email (Outlook) or while surfing the big WWW with M$FT’s IE browser…
But a few days I tried out the SuSE 8.0 Download edition, which I would guess is very similar to Lindows/Lycoris and its ilk in that it detects hardware/easy installation etc
And unlike Lindows and Lycoris, it doesn’t even bother to imitate the look of Windows.
I think that if OS is bloated too much to switch logged users quite quickly (win2k did this with about 30 sec), then it’s no sense to use it. For example, me and my wife frequently check for new e-mails (check, not read – this is why we need it to be really quick) one after another, and it would be damn too long to wait the re-login function completion each time we want to check out both mailboxes. You know what? Outlook Express supports multiple identities, Netscape since 4th version also has profiles to choose from. Why should I have to use multiuser OS, if there’s enough nice multi-user programs? To change the background theme? Ufff, who cares about this that much?
Firstly, on XP, you could just switch user and let your wife check your mail, and then switch back to your account. The only slow part of it is the UI.
Also, there is much more than desktop configuration than changing the background file. (I’m speaking this in terms of a BeOS user). For example, the stuff of the on my Tracker would have my application, while on my mother’s one would have hers. Then things like bookmarks, desktop shortcuts, themes, privacy and so on aren’t available via your method.
single user with root access 100% of the time is something I serously do not reccomend, it is this adminstrators privlege being accessing 100% of the time that makes Windoze OS so damn vulnerable. I was at a trucking company’s office and I had the oppurtunity to sit at the secretary’s desktop, she had root access and anything could go wrong, she could get a nasty worm, trojan or virus via email (Outlook) or while surfing the big WWW with M$FT’s IE browser…
Well, ever since Windows XP, Windows doesn’t automatically put you as Administrator, but rather as Limited. But if you change to Administrator, it is like Limited with a few extra freedoms, but it is more like Power User in Windows 2000 and plain vanilla Administrator as in root.
And also, I recommend getting an antivirus program.
You are right rajan r, SuSE does not try to copy the windows way of doing things, but does as good a job but in a different way.
I don’t know about others on here, but Linux is getting to the stage where it is useful to do REAL work. Its only happened in the last 6 months or so but the difference is amazing.
I can actually log in to Linux now and pretty much do everything I need.
As soon as the KDE team take on Eugenia’s suggestions the better!
PS. Has anybody noticed in Konquerer when submitting posts, the first time the submit comment button is clicked, it says “Duplicate Post” although if I click back and submit again, it works. Strange!