“I’ve heard a lot of negatives about LindowsOS since its debut. I’ve heard the installation procedure encourages users to run as root, and worse, to do so without a password. I’ve heard the company doesn’t adhere to the GPL by providing access to the source code for LindowsOS. I’ve also heard the company didn’t play nice with others at a desktop Linux trade show last year. From personal experience I know company reps are a lot more eager to talk to the Windows trade press than to the Linux press.” Read the review at NewsForge by Joe Barr.
Spawn of Debian faceoff: LindowsOS 4.5
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I acquired Lindows Laptop Edition a couple of weeks ago. The installer run smoothly, and I got a system working in less than half an hour. It works for me, the only thing missing is Open Office 1.1, which I am not quite sure how to install, as it is not available in CNR.
As for the GPL, as an user, I don´t really care that much.
And for the running as root issue, I don´t think it is such a big deal. I also own XP, 2000 and Windows Server 2003, and I run them as administrator. It is my computer, I want to be able to control everything!
things like running root without password are matter of choice — stupid thing to do but its not other people bussiness.
But violating GPL undermines community work and should be condemned. If company uses others people work they should accept the license!
I may be biting a troll, but who does Lindows violate the GPL? Or are you just mad because you, not a customer of Lindows, can’t find the source? It can’t be all “gimme, gimme, gimme” in the open source world, there has to be some giving as well.
Need to mod the install script. Hardrive is divided equally in half. Swap 1 gig and root 1 gig. This is lame i would need a 256M swap and the rest / . Where in the iso is the script. What does aquired mean. ?
I don´t know much about the GPL. In fact, I don´t know whether Lindows is violating the GPL. All I am saying is, I don´t care as a user. If Lindows was violating agreements with other companies (for example, say, Real Networks), should I care?. I don´t think so. I paid my money, 100 bucks, I got a lifetime membership, and I don´t know what Lindows will do with my money and, again, I don´t care either.
>>It can’t be all “gimme, gimme, gimme” in the open source >>world, there has to be some giving as well
Why not
?
Anyway I just wanted to make it clear that ANY company that uses GPLed soft should play by the rules. And I am not mad at Lindows. If their product is good I will consider buying it.
U can find it in CNR. I know it’s there, I downloaded it few weeks ago. Maybe u didn’t search right.
:::PROUD TO LIVE IN THE BIRTHLAND OF LINUX:::
I found it, but currently only version 1.0 is available. Or at least, I couldn´t find it. Anyone else has installed OO 1.1 through CNR?
>>should I care?. I don´t think so. I paid my money,
>>100 bucks, I got a lifetime membership, and I don´t
>>know what Lindows will do with my money and, again,
>>I don´t care either.
I think it is a pity that you care so little.
Some day you may wake up in situation that someone violated agreements with you. And other people will just say THEY DO NOT care
kc, I think that we both agree that we have better things to worry about. This is legal stuff, leave it for lawyers.
We should be talking about Lindows, which is great. What Lindows makes with the source code is up to them.
If CNR doesn’t have OO.o 1.1, you can go to openoffice.org (the website) and download it. They have a very nice installer, and it’s a pretty painless process (though probably not as easy as CNR!). Also, the only reason anyone should care about running as root and not having an administrator password is security. Really, if someone got your IP address, they could probably just SSH in to your machine, run a single command, and *poof*, your computer’s dead!
Debian! As Lindows is debian based you can get a lot of stuff via apt-get, then apt-install, its very easy to use so if you don’t like the company lindows way of doing things use debian instead.
As for lindows, it installs very easy as the original poster said, as for cnr warehouse you don’t really need it, go to openlindows.com for stuff to download for your lindows box, or just use debian.
i think that lindows does a good job in making linux userfriendly, and they have a very good marketing spreading the word (although they’re not exactly pronouncing that lindows is based on linux).
however, i won’t recommend lindows to anyone as long as the pricing/feature-structure of lindows/their website remains (imo intentionally) as confusing and misleading as it is – this “faking the customer”-behaviour has a real bad taste!
also, they should work on their relationship with the community – lindows business rests for a good part on its shoulders…
I’m still not sure, They don’t have to release the source for thier proprietary apps like CNR and the KDE sources they use are available for download.
Like sammy I am a lifetime member and I enjoy Lindows from time to time, I happen to be a Xandros guy myself but I gave my cash up to lindows as well.
Here ya go:
ftp://130.94.123.237/
Modified, but there apparently.
The price structure is pretty easy to understand.
The OS: $49.99 for download, $59.99 for Boxed
That includes 2 releases so if you get 4 you will get 5 too. (You would have to pay S&H for the second boxed version)
That also includes 1 year JR membership to the C&R and 1 year e-mail support. (JR Membership has most of the popular free apps (But not all)
$4.99 a month for full C&R which gets you Priority e-mail support and access to all C&R software and half price on paid software like Star Office.
As far as getting software you can use Apt-Get to install software (Which I do all the time) Also there are several sites including http://www.openlindows.com and http://www.loscompanion.com that have plenty of software for Lindows that will install in the same menu formats etc that Lindows use.
Then they have different mixes. Like you can get the OS and full C&R (Which is also called Lindows Plus) at a discount or Lindows and Star Office at a bundled price.
Also people say that Lindows does not say it’s linux yet right on the left of the first page on the website there is a link that says “What is Linux” if you click that it takes you to a site called http://tryoutlinux.com/ now this site I must admist is a way for Lindows to promote themselves but they do have links and info on most of the major Linux versions.
On the note of Source code, Lindows gives away all source code to people have access to the full OS. I don’t know if that violates GPL. I mean does anyone who at home changes the source to say Red Hat at home to fit your needs yet doesn’t even think about giving those changes away or back, violate the GPL? Maybe, Maybe not. I guess to figure that out, people who write GPL software need to enforce the GPL more and make people give up the source or pay the cost.
“I’m still not sure, They don’t have to release the source for thier proprietary apps like CNR”
Xandros does not give the source out for XFM and the biggest one is that Apple does not give the source out for Aqua. You don’t have to give out the source to proprietary apps AS LONG AS those apps have no GPL code in them. There is nothing that I have read that says proprietary apps and code can not run on GPL apps or you have to give out the source to the proprietary app also.
Oh one other cool thing, if you know how to package applications using the .deb format and can install it and test it on a Lindows box you can submit it to be put on the Click and Run service.
So if you want Open Office 1.1 there all you have to do (If you know how) is to package it up and send it to Lindows. Lindows will do the rest. (As far as giving it to beta testers, changing anything to fit the Lindows menu system etc.)
If you browse the CnR pages (which everyone can do – not just CnR users), on any application page in the ‘Specifications’ section, there is a link for downloading the diff to any source modifications made.
From what looks like a very negative tagline, I’m glad to see a positive outcome to the review – although I’ve moved towards more technical distributions, Lindows gave me a quick and easy start to the wonderful world of Linux.
“The OS: $49.99 for download, $59.99 for Boxed
That includes 2 releases so if you get 4 you will get 5 too. (You would have to pay S&H for the second boxed version)
That also includes 1 year JR membership to the C&R and 1 year e-mail support. (JR Membership has most of the popular free apps (But not all)
$4.99 a month for full C&R which gets you Priority e-mail support and access to all C&R software and half price on paid software like Star Office.”
ok, so if you just buy lindowsos, you also have access to c&r, means you can download (ac. to their website just) ooo 1.0 for free and buy stuff…?
because as i understood it from their site by carefull reading, lindows plus is required to gain access to c&r (and therefore ooo1.0 which is giving the impression of already being included in lindowsos, but when clicking on the link it says “c&r – membership is required to get it”).
if like you say, it gets clleared up, but imo this is really badly presented at their site (… that already lindowsos has acess to c&r).
but if none else has problems with it, it might also just be me…
with “just ooo 1.0” i mean “just ooo1.0 instead of ooo1.1” – in this thread it was mentioned that also ooo1.1 would be avaible (again, without lindows plus?)
Though it’s the prettiest desktop I’ve seen and used. It gave me quite a few headaches… I don’t consider my self a novice, but I am not an advanced user either. I’ve been using Linux for my desktop since RH 7.x (wait a sec, I do remember using Corel Linux)and have installed quite a few distros on my box.
Here are some of difficulties I encountered:
The advanced installation method won’t offer you a method to partition your drive the way you prefer, the boot manager installs to your mbr, you’re basically forced to a Lindows/Windows dual boot and if you have other Linux installations it’s going to be quite a headache.
YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO RUN AS ROOT — In the advanced installation method you are NOT prompted to make a regular user. Furthermore, there are a lot of annoyances when running as a non-root user (like phantom CNR installs, and permission problems with FAT32 mounts). Basically, it’s more difficult being a non-root user in Lindows than all of the other distros I have used.
When I went to the forums I was surprised (I think ‘shocked’ would be more appropriate) to find that a lot of the posters were actually saying something like “hey, I’m running as root… don’t see any problems with that, haven’t had any problems so far”. There are even posts saying something like “well, I’m running virus safe… I think that’s sufficient.”
It was really weird… like the miseducation of a linux user or something like that — this is what it felt to me.
Another thing I’ve been searching for is the documentation — where the heck is it? Perhaps I’ve been used to using Red Hat and Debian (based) distros so I’m just used to the documentation available (I also have a Mandrake docs)… but I’d really like for them to have documentation.
Yes Lindows is Debian based but you are advised that you should use apt-get WITH CARE as there is a good possibility that you’ll break something. Scared me enough not to use apt-get… luckily CNR is quite sufficient. Oh, I do have to say this… I just love CNR!
Absolutely the longest start up I have ever experienced
Wow.. running Server 2003 just for the fun of it… OK. 🙂 But here is a hint of which I think my people still don’t know about: Try holding Shift + right-click on an exe — you will be able to execute as Admin and need not run as Admin all the time.
Some one said that they could not find the Lindows docs. The user manual is in the OS. (The Life Jacket) (Also you can go to http://info.lindows.com/quickstart30/) (If you want development docs etc you can go to the Lindows dev site http://info.lindows.com/publish/)
As far as what you get when you buy the OS. Lindows has 2 downloadable ISO’s when you buy. They have a full install and an OEM. The OEM is just the OS and the full includes Open Office 1, Mplayer, Real Player and a few other apps that are not in the OEM. The OEM is like Windows and just has a notepad, calc etc.
This is what it says on the Lindows site (Even though I own Lindows already and have used it since version 3)
http://www.lindows.com/lindows_storefront.php?own=no
Get LindowsOS 4.5 and unlock a whole new world of affordable software.
Includes:
– Immediate access to download LindowsOS & LindowsCD
– Trial Membership to the Click-N-Run Warehouse
– World-class eSupport
With the Trial Membership (Which used to be called a JR membership) You get access to Open Office 1 and other popular software like MPlayer (Or like I said you can just get the full install ISO)
Lindows is so far the easiest distribution I have used, CNR is great, installation is easy and it is the only Linux distribution so far that has given 3D acceleration without any fuzz. Even my kids love it, they download games from CNR and are happy with flash and Java. Great stuff- go on Michael 😉