Lindows has extended the membership of all Insiders to a two year period starting at the general release. The price still remains at $99 dollars but now it is extended for two years. After the general release the price for the distribution and the subscription will be $129 dollars. The insider program will go up to $299 for a year. New ISO Build Updated to Xfree86 4.2 and added nVIDIA Detonator Driver 1.0-2960. Read the rest at PCLinuxOnline.
Lindows Extends Membership to Two Years; New ISO for the Insiders
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I’d be really surprised if Lindows survived for two more years…they’re VC should be long gone by then.
http://www.lindows.com/lindows_michaelsminutes.php
I read the letter and it only says the membership is extended for a year ($198 value) but does not give any more information on the pricing structure or the $299 insider fee. I even went part way through the signup page and can only sign up for the $99 subscription package.
Hmm, the info on the article comes directly from PCLinuxOnline…
Does anyone else NOT see this working?
I don’t see anyone paying $130 for what is basically xandros, at that price point not only is it an inferior product, but it’s also not much less expensive than windows. The rant on the BSA was just a useless letter that was apparently spammed to Michael and many others and was only referenced as some sort of FUD scare tactic.
I don’t know where the price hike was pulled form but I would guess that it’s a last minute ploy to get subscribers before the official release of Xandros. “Buy now, get it for 2 years, and pay only $99 rather than $130” sort of thing. I would say with the few facts that I have that Xandros has the greater potential to be a desktop operating system and it’s possible that Lindows is essentially only exploiting a short term niche before it’s release. Perhaps this agreement with Xandros and Lindows is also part of the reason that there are no screen shots posted on the Xandros web site? Perhaps Lindows brings nothing new to the table aside form being earlier to release? Non saying that’s the case, but thought I’d throw that out there.
I always said that as soon as companies started moving Linux into the commercial marketspace, you could kiss your free Linux goodbye.
Spyware is next on board.
I can’t see the USP (unique selling proposition) in this pricing model.
WindowsXP is a decent reasonably user-friendly OS, so Lindows isn’t going to have any advantage here. The pricing structure of Lindows removes any incentive to use it instead of Windows.
I really would like to see Lindows succeed, especially since they socked it to the MS legal predators over the “Windows” trade name.
It almost looks like this whole Lindows thing a carefully constructed MS double-blind to make it look like there is competition!
Can someone please tell me, why would anyone spend 100 bucks on this junk?
“The insider program will go up to $299”
Hmmm, these guys are starting to jump too high even if it’s a longer term subscription for $299. Are they gonna be the next Microsoft in terms of pricing?
I always said that as soon as companies started moving Linux into the commercial marketspace, you could kiss your free Linux goodbye.
There are still free (and better) Linux distros, such as Debian, Vector, Slackware, etc. There really isn’t anything new here in regards to Lindows. RedHat has been charging a huge fee for their boxed product for, well, forever. Yes, you can get the non-supported ISO download, or buy from cheapbytes, but you don’t get the docs and support.
I don’t really see a difference here between what Lindows and Xandros are proposing and what RedHat and SuSE are already doing. These new companies are adding a percieved value to their product. If you don’t value that added nugget of funware, then you are more than free to use a different product; for free.
The time may come when many companies offer commercial software for Linux at a price, but as long as the Open Source ideals still exists, then Linux itself will be free.
If they go up to $299, forget it! <g>
Insiders == Beta tester
You can get early information and access to beta builds of Lindows for the steep $299. It’s really not an end-user package but an option for those that want to support the distro. I guess this could sort of be compared to MSDN subscribers getting access to beta builds of windows.
I always said that as soon as companies started moving Linux into the commercial marketspace, you could kiss your free Linux goodbye.
Spyware is next on board.
Like you said, I doubt Linux would fix much of Windows problems. But for current Linux users – at least most of us, could still use a spyware-free OS. 😛 But then again, i could have a spyware-free OS with Windows, with some hacks here and there…
RedHat has been charging a huge fee for their boxed product for, well, forever.
I wouldn’t consider it expensive. Sure, it isn’t $0, but..
but you don’t get the docs and support.
I find community support much better, but then again, some users would prefer it from a company. As for the docs, Red Hat has it online.
I don’t really see a difference here between what Lindows and Xandros are proposing and what RedHat and SuSE are already doing.
I don’t know about Xandros, but Lindows is suppose to be easier because it doesn’t overwhelmes the users with everything but the kitchen sink. :-P. But I would say, Xandros nor Lindows offer anything more than Lycoris, or god forbit, ELX. There is even a company called BearOps…
I guess this could sort of be compared to MSDN subscribers getting access to beta builds of windows.
Except MSDN is much cheaper. Insiders is different than MSDN though, because every Insider is considered to be an “employee” to Lindows, and therefore they don’t have to distribute the source code for now.
These guys are becoming the “Microsoft” of the linux world! Booooo.
i thought linux is meant to be open source and made available free so how can the charge to get info and be able to download it.
if you want to try it get it off kazza i did and its total rubbish, if you want linux buy a linux distribution i bought suse and it is the best ive tried
Make your own fricken linux system, use Gentoo.