“Publishing this article has been avoided for quite some time. The emotions behind LindowsOS is simply too great for objectivity to be used for both Tux Reports reviewers and for readers. We’ve witnessed flame wars in forums, mean-spirited posts in response to positive statements regarding LindowsOS, and we’ve fallen prey to our own biases regarding this distribution. However, after using the product we now believe that we can give a brief look at some of our experiences in relation to our expectations and then help others sort out some of the underlying controversy they may have read on other sites.” Read the review at TuxReports.
LindowsOS 3.0 Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
It seems to me the basic premise they start off with, that ideally, Lindows should be able to re-partition and dual boot with Windows, is not right. I mean, it would be nice if it did, but Lindow’s whole schtick is to be the anti-Windows, to do away with Windows, to replace Windows completely.
The premise is based on the idea that Linux is not going to replace Windows immediately but rather the idea that desktop dominance requires a slow migration from M$ to GNU/Linux. If you don’t agree with that premise then it doesn’t mean it is wrong. It is simply a different point of view.
LPH, you’re right, that is the reality. But, I just meant the Lindows posture or attitude is so anti-Windows that I guess that could possibly be why they have no partitioning, etc.
Lindows is’nt meant for double booting – it is meant to *replace* your windows installation, or in fact ideally come preinstalled on your pc. Much like its (almost) namesake windows actually.
” It seems to me the basic premise they start off with, that ideally, Lindows should be able to re-partition and dual boot with Windows, is not right. I mean, it would be nice if it did, but Lindow’s whole schtick is to be the anti-Windows, to do away with Windows, to replace Windows completely. ”
By not supporting the Dual Boot capability, that will damage Lindows more than it would Windows, right now in this Market Windows is the major OS, the Linuc community has to play nice. If Lindows decides not to dual boot then Robertson is just shooting himself in the foot, Open Office is no where near perfection yet. It still has a long road to hoe, just like Star Office. For many people Open and Star Office are good enough but they arent good enough to replace MS Office. windows is supported also for interaction with other Major apps. In my opinion Xandros and SuSE are about the only two right now that has any kind of future, Red Hat will always rule te server side but Xandros and SuSE will dominate the Desktop market.
This is more like the guy rambling.
It would be nice to have a real review
more like someone biting their tongue, it is extremely terse, spartan if you will, someone holding thir actual opinion back…
I don’t have high hopes for this distro. Pretty bad when vi doesn’t work. Even worse when you have to pay to install traceroute. I am willing to bet Libranet 2.8 will bury Lindows in cost, useability, and all reviews. Plus Libranet doesn’t have a jackass CEO who is hell bent pursuing media attention.
i think the target market is pretty obvious:
cheap, limited-general purpose computers for newbies who want a system/extra-system to surf the web, check email and dink around for either themselves of their newbie kids.
any talk of dual booting in this context is horse manure.
there was a film made in the early 1900s that featured lewd depictions of women. the censors were furious and so were some newspaper writers. Rather than try to hide it, the director called all of his friends and told them to tell their mother, father, friends, minister, dog about this disgusting film. When it debuted, it became a box office hit.
Usually by now somebody would have posted a ‘Lindows Users are the scum left by the creatures that eat horse manure’ type comment.
Just an observation
I have dual booted with Red Hat and XP, Dual booted between XP and 98se, and now I decided to dual boot with XP and Lindows. I have to admit that it isn’t the greatest Linux disto, but it does dual boot with windows with no problem, and it automatically allows you to access your windows partitions. No fooling around with the fstab. It’s a quick and painless install. I think it’s on the right track for new users to linux.
I used the click and run warehouse to install vim and the vi problems (if they were problems, it might have been just vi vs vim) seemed to be resolved.
I’ve loaded up Lindows before and I can say is that although apt seems to work much better in Lindows than it does Xandros, the Xandros File Manager is sorely missed in Lindows, and every other Linux distro for that matter.
I guess you could argue (or not) the merits of existing file mangers in Linux, but XFM sure does look & feel more familiar to a Windows user
Other than that, I don’t really have much use for either of these.
Lindows is alright as Linux distro’s go. A very nice looking custom KDE 3 interface on top of debian. You can ignore Click-and-run and just edit the apt sources list and use it as debian.