Today we host a long and interesting interview with President & COO of Lindows.com, Kevin Carmony. We discuss about the desktop, the OSS community, Microsoft, LindowsOS 5 and much more. More over, just for the next couple of days, Lindows.com offers the LindowsOS Developer Edition 4.5 for free to the OSNews readers! Read more for details on how to use the OSNews text coupon and download this digital version of LindowsOS free of charge.
1. Some people believe that Lindows.com promised Microsoft Windows application compatibility two years ago and that later you opted-out from this promise. What is the whole story and truth about this?
Kevin Carmony: When we started Lindows.com, we thought it might help people who were migrating to desktop Linux if they could still run their legacy Microsoft Windows software. So, we invested over a half million dollars into WINE, a technology used to run Microsoft Windows software under Linux. Most of that investment went to to pay Codeweavers to get Microsoft Office 2000 to run under Linux. After a few months of working on this project, Codeweavers did get Microsoft Office to run, but two other interesting things happened simultaneously as well. The first was that we decided it made more sense to put development into helping create better native Linux applications, and second, Codeweavers became re-energized and excited about WINE. Because all of our WINE code was open sourced, we wished Jeremy and company good luck, walked away from our investment, and discontinued any further work with WINE. Codeweavers then continued on with this code as the starting place for what later became Crossover Office.
The bottom line, is we simply decided that it made more sense for us to invest in encouraging software development for Linux applications. We realized that it didn’t make much sense that someone would choose Linux for its openness and affordability, only to then run proprietary and expensive MS Windows software, such as Microsoft’s $500 office suite. We realized that Microsoft Windows compatibility was facilitating movement in a direction contrary to the real strengths of Linux…open, affordable, secure, and stable, so we moved 100% of our energy into helping bring more and better Linux applications to the market. (I talk about this more in your later questions.)
Interestingly, however, was that because we attracted a fair amount of attention in those early days with WINE, it got companies like Codeweavers, SuSE and Xandros excited about Microsoft Windows compatibility. The irony is that while these companies were getting excited and jumping into this, we were changing our direction and moving completely away from Microsoft Windows compatibility. We’ve never regretted our decision to use and support native Linux software. We would rather help support the development of good substitutes for Microsoft Windows software. For example, we think Mozilla is a much superior product to IE. We’d rather invest in making Mozilla better than getting IE to run on Linux. We wish those who continue on with WINE the best of luck, it really is an amazing project, but it’s just not the direction that fits our vision of Linux’s future.
So, yes, we did change our direction, but that’s what good companies do. It’s rare that a company doesn’t need to adjust to things as they move down the road with their business plan. When we made this change, we came out to our users candidly about our decision, and extended the time frame of our normal money-back guarantee to anyone who didn’t want to continue on with LindowsOS, regardless of how long ago they had purchased LindowsOS. Fortunately, very few took us up on that offer, but rather joined us in our effort to support native Linux software.
We made this shift almost two years ago, but it’s funny how long it takes to get past the first thing someone hears about you. I guess it’s true what they say about first impressions, they’re very hard to shake.
2. What are the contributions to open source Lindows.com has done so far? Is it mostly code, money or other types of support you offer, and how?
Kevin Carmony: We do all of those. For example, we contribute back all of our code for any open source projects we work on or pay to have worked on. Our code doesn’t always get used, but we always submit it back. For instance, we worked with the GAIM developers as we made several changes to their Instant Messenger. We paid them to make some changes and our engineers made others. As we always do, we offered all of this work back to GAIM. So far they have only used about half of the changes, and we’re fine with that, that’s their decision. We submit everything back and let the maintainers decide what gets used or not.
We have also spent a lot of direct cash on open source projects as well. I already mentioned the nearly $500,000 we paid to improve WINE. We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on other projects as well. For example, we have an on-going relationship with MozDev.org where we pay them to make dozens of changes that we think make Mozilla more powerful and easier to use, and all those changes are given back and many appear in the main tree for Mozilla. We’re paying for the work on many exciting new features for Mozilla that everyone will ultimately enjoy, not just LindowsOS users.
We sponsor several Linux and open source web sites. For example, KDE-look.org had to shut down until we stepped up to sponsor them. We now also sponsor their sister site, KDE-apps.org. We also just arranged to bring apps.kde.com back to life, which was forced to shut down for lack of funding. We’re always on the look out for sites to sponsor. If a site promotes Linux in a meaningful way, and can have a real impact on things, we’re interested.
We have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to Reiser4, the amazing, “unbreakable” new version of the open source ReiserFS file system which will be included in our next release of LindowsOS. Our CEO, Michael Robertson, was also a big financial supporter of ReiserFS when he was CEO of MP3.com. We have also spent tens of thousands of dollars as the sole sponsor and financier for Nvu, an ftp-integrated, ultra easy-to-use web authoring system, ala Dreamweaver and Frontpage. I’ve been running an alpha copy of Nvu on my computer and and it’s an awesome program! Nvu will be offering downloads of the first beta release within the next few weeks. We’re very proud and excited to see this project coming to life.
We support open source in many ways that go unnoticed, simply because we don’t broadcast everything we help with. We want to help to see these projects succeed, not to give ourselves a pat on the back. We finally did, however, put up a web page that lists our contributions, because some people were assuming we didn’t do much in this area. You can find that page at http://lindows.com/opensource. Considering we’re not profitable and lose money each month, I’m very happy with the amount of support we give to open source projects.
Finally, but perhaps most important, I’ll add that Linux needs more than just more lines of code. The more people who start using Linux, the more developers it will attract to it. (Ask any Palm OS developer about this dynamic.) So, Linux also needs marketing, distribution, education, leadership, vision, and so on. I’d like to think Lindows.com is doing a great deal in this area. Every day hundreds of new people are seeing Linux pop up on their new computer. We think that’s a very good thing for Linux.
3. Some people have said that Lindows.com tries to take the credit for open source projects by changing the names of some programs in your OS and the CNR Warehouse. How do you respond to that?
Kevin Carmony: Because we’re trying to get the average computer user to try Linux, we think it’s best to not scare them with a flood of new words. Picture dropping someone who speaks English into a foreign land where they only speak a different language. How comfortable do you think she’d feel? How long do you think she’d want to stick around if they never spoke her language and she couldn’t understand anything? That’s how most computer users would feel when they see Linux for the first time. They get bombarded with so many new terms, like Kernel, Root, Mozilla, Kate, KDE, X, GNOME, GAIM, GIMP, Debian, MPlayer, XMMS, K-this, G-that, and on and on. 95% of the world doesn’t understand these terms, and when they see them they just get confused and run back to their comfort zone of Microsoft Windows. People shouldn’t have to learn a new language to use Linux.
So, yes, we rename things like GAIM to “Instant Messenger,” Kate to “Text Editor,” and XMMS to “MP3 Player.” We don’t do this to take credit, but to make it easy on the user. For example, when you start the “Instant Messenger” in LindowsOS, it says “Instant Messenger” but very clearly, right underneath it also says, “Powered by GAIM.” When you choose “MP3 Player” from the Launch Menu, it brings up a program called “MP3 Player,” but if you go to the menus or the about box, it says “About XMMS.”
We give credit where credit is due, and users can easily see the name of the underlying technology. We just put a friendlier name in the menus and title bar to make things easier to use for those new to Linux. I’ve noticed many of the other distributions have followed our lead on this.
4. A lot of Linux users think that Lindows.com doesn’t do enough to push its users to create user accounts and hence most LindowsOS users run as root. What is your opinion on the issue?
Kevin Carmony: Let me just say that LindowsOS is extremely secure, in some ways, more than most Linux distributions, and certainly more than MS Windows.
I think this stems mostly from the very first “Sneak Preview” of LindowsOS that came out two years ago. In that version, we didn’t yet have the system in place to set up users, even though it was always planned. As we have seen with the whole issue of people thinking we run MS Windows software, it’s hard to shake a first impression. If the way we do it today would have been what was in our very first Sneak Preview release, this would have never been an issue.
It’s true we don’t force users to run as user, but we certainly do everything short of that. We have the user set up an Admin password during install, and then present them with an easy-to-use screen to set up Users. We even have a page, right during install, that discusses security with the user, and explains how to use passwords, set up users, understand the LindowsOS firewall, etc. to increase the security of their computer.
By default, LindowsOS ships with a very strict firewall in place and no open network services. For this reason, remote hacks to the average user are extremely unlikely. The average user will not open ports to their computer and therefore the default settings of LindowsOS are very secure for these users. Fortunately, most advanced users who are knowledgeable enough to open a port, are also knowledgeable enough to use the firewall properly to avoid introducing any security vulnerabilities as well as know enough to click the “Add User” button.
As a Linux user, I think Linux should try to become as secure as possible while keeping the number of hoops the user must jump through to a minimum. I’d like to see Linux get smarter, not require training the user. The maintainers of the Kernel are working on making Linux just as secure when running as root as when running as a user. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! Smarter technology so users can USE their computer, not be used by it.
Someone once told me that Lindows.com should in fact force users to run as user, and not even allow them to run as root. He used the example of how we have laws that force users to stop at red lights. I’d suggest the best thing to do is to build an overpass so that no one has to stop at red lights AND are even safer than using traffic lights at intersections. Smarter technology, not more training for users.
One great example of “smarter technology” is capabilities-based security, which provides a finer granularity of security. The best current practical implementation of this is “security enhanced” or SE Linux. Capabilities-based security shifts focus from what users can do to what each OS component can do. In the world of computing, we think it makes more sense to track computational objects, not humans. This is another open source technology we are proud to be supporting.
BUT…until Linux is smarter, we do all we can to educate users about using User accounts and make it very easy for them to do just that.
Finally, I’d offer there is actually one way in which LindowsOS is more secure than most other desktop Linux products, and that’s with the deployment of security patches. Because of our built-in CNR Technology which allows users to easily install any security patches as soon as they become available. We provide this in a way that even the most novice Linux user will get these patches, and they do not need to be a member of CNR to get these.
5. Because of your focus on ease-of-use, would you consider LindowsOS too simplified for more technical Linux users?
Kevin Carmony: Not at all. I think everyone appreciates a bit of polish and attention to details. LindowsOS might be pretty on the outside, but under the hood it’s pure, hard-core Debian Linux. For example, if someone is more technical and wants to forgo using CNR, they can still simply go to the command line and use apt. (There’s another one of those new terms 😉 Also, developers can use the LindowsOS Developer’s Edition if they want all the more technical goodies pre-installed. We don’t take any of the power away from Linux, we just put an easy-to-use coat of paint on top of it. Everyone at Lindows.com runs LindowsOS full time, both here at our offices as well as in their homes, so it needs to work for everyone, from the non-technical bookkeeper to our super-geek engineers. I’m glad we have a reputation for being easy to use, but I think even the die-hard Linux “geek” might be surprised at just how much power is under the hood of LindowsOS. (See question #6 if you’d like to see for yourself for free.)
6. What are the main differences of your product when compared to the ones of your two main competitors, Lycoris and Xandros?
Kevin Carmony: We only have one competitor that we care about, and that’s Microsoft. No one else has enough market share to bother with. You could take all the Linux desktop users from Red Hat, SuSE, Xandros, Lycoris, Mandrake, etc., and it wouldn’t be enough to keep any of us in business for long. The only thing I’d say about LindowsOS, as it compares to other Linux distributions, is that we focus exclusively on the desktop/laptop and go the extra mile to make Linux ultra easy to use. Some Linux users scoff when they see things in LindowsOS like our Audio Tutorials which tell a user how to Launch a program, but 95% of the world needs that sort of ease of use. We have 65 full-time employees (the vast majority of those being engineers) who do nothing but eat, sleep, and drink desktop/laptop Linux. I hope it shows. I’m confident it does.
I’d suggest the best way to know how we are different is to give LindowsOS a try, and since OSNews was kind enough to ask me these questions and post my answers, we’d like to give everyone reading this a free digital copy of LindowsOS. Simply go to http://lindows.com/buyit and select the digital copy of the LindowsOS Developer’s Edition. When you check out, use the coupon code “IReadOSNews” and you’ll get this $59.95 program for free. The coupon code will only be good for a day or two, so that we don’t go completely broke as this coupon code gets passed around. I apologize in advance if by the time you read this, you missed out on this offer. =) (You’re also welcome to choose the packaged version, but you’ll have to pay the extra $10 for the packaging as well as shipping and handling. Just use the same coupon code and it will deducted $59.95 from the $69.95 cost. If you get the free digital version, you download an .iso and burn your own CD.)
7. Lindows.com already includes its OS on many OEM PCs and laptops today. How easy (or difficult) was it to make such deals with retailers in this Microsoft world we live in?
Kevin Carmony: It’s extremely difficult, but we are fortunate to have not only a great engineering team, but also a wonderful sales force that has done an excellent job of cracking this open. Just this week we’re announcing the addition of Lee Little to our sales team. Lee is well known and respected in the OEM channel and was the previous Director of Sales from AMD who was instrumental in helping AMD compete so effectively against Intel. It takes a lot of resources, such as a big QA lab to certify all this hardware. We’ve had dozens of people working on this for two years, so no, it’s not easy. However, this is one of those areas where we’d like to think we’re helping to bring hundreds of new people to Linux every day. You have to remember that 95% of computer users have never installed an OS in their life. Most users just use the OS that comes pre-installed on their computer when they buy it, usually MS Windows. So, unless you can get Linux pre-installed on computers, you’ll never get to the masses. I’m sure this is a key reason that Microsoft dislikes us a great deal. We’ve cost them tens of millions of dollars in computers that have been shipped without MS Windows. We’re very proud of that accomplishment. =)
I’ve often said that the way Linux succeeds on the desktop is not by Lindows.com beating Microsoft, but by smaller hardware companies beating Dell, by leveraging the huge cost advantages of Linux. As long as Dell only offers MS Windows on their desktop computers, even the smallest system builder can now beat Dell pricing, simply by getting rid of the expensive “Microsoft Tax.” There are lots of companies now doing this. The KooBox is a good example of this. This is full computer with a flat-pannel LCD monitor for only $449. Dell can’t get to those prices, because they have to pay Microsoft and The KooBox doesn’t.
8. What happened with your plans for a TabletPC? Last year we heard about the DocuNote and Lindows, but later DocuNote shipped with Windows.
Kevin Carmony: We are still working on this. The Linux drivers for using a stylus on these devices was all but non existent, so it has taken a long time to make progress here. We decided that until our tablet support could do everything MS Windows offered, we didn’t want to release LindowsOS for these devices yet. Running LindowsOS on these machines isn’t hard, but having it take advantage of all the pen features is a very big challenge. Our CTO uses a pen computer running LindowsOS, so I know we’re getting close.
9. Lindows.com takes a more active participation to the KDE project lately. In what way would you like to get involved with the project?
Kevin Carmony: We have always used and supported KDE. We were one of the first sponsors of KDE League, at the highest level offered, back when it was formed. Some open source projects are easy to support financially, others are more difficult. KDE is a good example of one that because it’s so dispersed, it’s not like you can just write a check, sit back, and wait for it to get better. So yes, we’ve gotten a lot more involved in other ways lately. We think the biggest thing KDE needs is not necessarily in relationship to the desktop features, but more about KDE applications. This is why we wanted to sponsor KDE-apps.org and apps.kde.com. Look for a brand new KDE.com site to launch soon which we are backing, all with the hope of attracting more support to KDE application development. We are also working on a sizable bounty program to pay developers who work on certain KDE applications.
We are also working on some great KDE applications in house, which are open sourced and that we’ll be sharing with the world when LindowsOS 5.0 comes out. Linux needs more and better applications to succeed. That is the area we are spending most of our time, energy and dollars right now.
10. What is your opinion on Gnome, the main adversary of KDE? Which were the reasons that Lindows.com chose KDE over Gnome?
Kevin Carmony: Given our target market, the average computer user, we knew it wouldn’t be wise to present them with several choices for a desktop environment. We wanted to offer one desktop environment. We think there are a lot of great things about both KDE and GNOME. KDE was a little more comfortable in how it operated for our target audience, so we made that our default desktop. However, LindowsOS supports non-KDE apps in our OS, such as OpenOffice, Mozilla, GAIM, etc. This is another area we’re trying to spend some time and energy, with the integration between all these different type of environments. Our target market will be confused by different print dialog boxes, for example. We’re working to bring all these together, regardless if it’s KDE, GNOME or anything else, but yes, our main thrust is with KDE.
11. What are your engineers working on for LindowsOS 5.0? What new features are to be expected on 5.0?
Kevin Carmony: LindowsOS 5.0 will be our most ambitious release to date. It will have KDE 3.2, the 2.6 Kernel, and the new Reiser4 “unbreakable” file system. It also has a new look, that Everaldo and Ingo are working on. It also has a new CNR client (click-n-run) which has been re-written from the ground up, giving us the infrastructure for many of the new products and services that we’ll be introducing this year, such as LindowsOS Professional. We will also be introducing some NEW KDE applications, never before seen. Not to worry if you don’t use LindowsOS, as these new KDE applications will be open source.
Normally we don’t like talking about stuff before it comes out. Oops. 😉
12. You recently announced that Lindows.com now goes after the business desktop too. Will that be a different distro version than your home version? Can your 40-50-employee company offer professional support to the demanding business market?
Kevin Carmony: LindowsOS Professional will be out later this year. It is a slightly different OS, but 90% of the changes are server side. One of the things you’ll be able to do with LindowsOS Professional is deploy applications to desktops within an organization via any web browser, using our CNR technology. There will also be server-side features, such as data storage, syncing, groupware, etc. A company will also be able to co-mingle their own software library with our CNR Warehouse.
We have 65 employees and are growing. Yes, we’re confident that we can offer a solid product for businesses. If you look at most new, disruptive technology, it’s the small, new companies that innovates, not the “big boys.” Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Google, eBay, Red Hat, and even Apple, AOL, Dell and Microsoft in their day, were all small, yet they each forged new industries. Big companies rarely innovate. When a company is already on top, they see no need to fix or change anything. So yes, the big boys will have their hands full with Lindows.com.
13. Anything else you’d like to add?
Kevin Carmony: Just a ‘thank you’ for letting me answer your questions. We have always had a super vibrant community among LindowsOS users, but we were so busy the last two years just building our product, we didn’t do a very good job of communicating with the outside world. I think our lack of communication outside of our own community led to some misunderstandings about us. I have personally been trying to make myself more available to correct that. In the absence of hearing from Lindows.com directly, it’s easy for misunderstandings to arise. So, thank you for helping us educate your readers with what we’re trying to accomplish here at Lindows.com.
Related reading: DesktopOS.com’s interview with Kevin Carmony.
GRRRR!
I managed to navigate all the way through the various confusing click-n-options, then the “Download Wait Queue” window pops up…
…I start at 128th in line…
…it gets all the way to number FOUR in line…
…AND THEN DIES!
I have to start the process all over again… and I’m back to 120th in line again!
OK excuse my ignorance, but is it really that hard to port a openGL game to linux? I understand the problem /w Directx and that it can only be used on a windows platform, but whats stopping opengl games from running in linux/mac?
BTW Anyone else eagerly anticipating Doom3? Im planning on dropping in a Radeon 9600 NP in my system. A sorely needed replacment for my crappy Radeon 7500
it’s the one that worked, after waiting in line.
What’s going on with the download queue? I started at 237, it bounced up and down and at one point I was at 97. Then it went up to around 240, and now I’m at 163.
Do I need to download this today or tommarrow, or is just checking it out in these few days enough?
> Linux doesn’t need to get *all* Windows games ported, it would be enough porting a few of the most popular.
So Linux will then have a few popular games and Windows will have all games, popular and not so popular. I don’t see how this will help. This will help a few, but to be profitable, a company would need much more.
Just not enough game players see Linux as a possibility, especially when Windows already has all the need. In general, the advantages of Linux does not help average game players.
> MacOSX hasn’t got many more titles than Linux today but it still satisfies their users. Dispise the lack of mac games apple has been able to attract alot of windows users to it’s platform in recent years, due to things like a better operating system and better hardware.
True, but apple is a different story, they are far ahead of Linux when it comes to the user experience.
> We already have the hardware.
Do you? Since we are talking about gaming and home desktop PC’s, the only hardware we are talking about is x86. Windows destroys Linux when it comes to commercially available x86 hardware since the drivers come with the hardware. Same cannot be said about Linux.
> While the OS (Linux) is good enough technically, the end-user experience isn’t quite there yet.
Lindows.com are working on it.
And I wish them all the best, but there are not there yet and have some major hurdles to overcome. Most of them have little to due with the OS itself.
IMHO using WINE(X) is not a good idea, as it means being dependent of Windows thus being dependent of Microsoft. Native ports require more work and/or money, but they put Linux into a much better position. If you haven’t done so already, you might want to check out the following site for more information on why not to use WINEX: http://timedoctor.org/boycott_winex.php
A lot of the reasons given there go for the traditional WINE (without “X”) as well.
Sometimes Dell seems to have some motherboard problems.
http://www.mentallyincontinent.com/modules.php?name=News&file=artic…
Of course the family desktop pc, a dell, seems to work fine for me.
The software you have installed isn’t disabled, only the ability to install NEW apps with Cnr.
Note that even though your CnR membership is out, you can still get the apps available to you when you had CnR license.
That is really reasonable imo.
If I wanted to play games I’d buy a game cube, and be done with it. Trust me there is alot less l337 speaking kidz and lamers on my couch, than there are online.
Gaming and books is one thing I could never stomach on a computer, trust me either one can be alot more enjoyable on any other place than a computer.
I’m glad for the free download. Thanks you Lindows.
I was using lycoris free download for a while until I broke my ati capture card somehow, although I just used it to watch tv in linux.
I can’t wait to try it. I’m hoping it be something like BeOS
or OS X. Of course I fear it will be “just another linux distro”
I really want to switch.
oops, hit enter too soon last time
“From the website
“All of the software that you download is yours to enjoy for 15 days, after which it will be disabled on your computer if you cancel your membership”
So you sign up for Click and Run and download some Free software like OpenOffice. If you don’t keep paying a monthly fee it DISABLES the Free software??!! What of scam is this? Does the same apply to software you paid for with click and run?”
i had the same thoughts, and i also find lindows website reg. what’s included (for free) in lindows and what’s not highly (and imo intentionally) confusing and misleading (is openoffice included for unlimited use in lindowsos without c&r – membership or not?). same goes for the download-process where you’re supposed register with c&r in giving your billing information while you in fact can download it without registering with c&r.
i’ve read in an answer form the coo here that the $15 per month is some sort of deluxe-membership, and $5 would be the normal price, but i just wonder which amount lindows would charge me if i would forget to cancel membership before trial runs out per month by default – $15 or $5…?!
obviously, lindows does everything to drag users in c&r which is their true cashcow.
will try it anyways – i’m curious which hurdles are awaiting me that i need to overcome to _not_ become a (paying) member to c&r while using it! won’t keep it for long anyways, i’m a happy fedora – user.
until lindows treats its customers this way, i’m certainly _not_ recommend it to friends…
It’s not charging you for he free software, you can still use apt and manual ‘make install’ to install the software, what the CnR service is is another way of packaging the free software for an easy installation, that’s what you would be paying for. I personally will be using APT for the installation on the computer this OS is going on, mainly because I don’t have a credit card, but I don’t see how you think it’s a scam or extortion when you’re just paying for ease-of-installation….
“go for”=”apply to”
My English grammar sucks at times…
Relating the Lindows offer, I think this was a good idea because people interested in the OS finally have the opportunity to try it for free.
I hope they are supporting open source for a long time to come.
“All of the software that you download is yours to enjoy for 15 days, after which it will be disabled on your computer if you cancel your membership”
I think “it” means that the click and run will be disabled.
Bad grammar !
btw, in that respect, lindows seems to follow their enemy microsoft very closely in intransparency and “shoving things down the throats of the customers”-tactics…
So Linux will then have a few popular games and Windows will have all games, popular and not so popular. I don’t see how this will help. This will help a few, but to be profitable, a company would need much more.
Just not enough game players see Linux as a possibility, especially when Windows already has all the need. In general, the advantages of Linux does not help average game players.
This is not about being *the* gaming platform. That just wouldn’t be realistic in the short run.
It is merely about providing quality games for those Linux users who want it. If people buy Linux games more will emerge and get ported… more game houses will release linux versions etc. DOS didn’t substitute commodore and amiga as the gaming platform in one move either. And neither did Windows to DOS.
True, but apple is a different story, they are far ahead of Linux when it comes to the user experience.
Exactly! And that’s why a company like Lindows.com is needed.
> We already have the hardware.
Do you? Since we are talking about gaming and home desktop PC’s, the only hardware we are talking about is x86. Windows destroys Linux when it comes to commercially available x86 hardware since the drivers come with the hardware. Same cannot be said about Linux.
Almost any common x86 hardware works in Linux. With a dist like Lindows even right out of the box.Same cannot be said about Windows.
> While the OS (Linux) is good enough technically, the end-user experience isn’t quite there yet.
Lindows.com are working on it.
And I wish them all the best, but there are not there yet and have some major hurdles to overcome. Most of them have little to due with the OS itself.
Agreed. Let us hope 5.0 will kick but for a starter. I have high expectations already. By the time Longhorn is out LindowsOS could be on par usability-wise.
Installing the system is easier, and using it at least not harder, than Windows XP today. With a more polish interface and better applications this can be a hit. 5.0 seems to be able to deliver much in that sence.
O.k…so I registered on the site, and use the coupon for the free download. I go to the Download CD part of My.Lindows and click to download the 4.5 Developer edition. I am presented with a screen that tells me I am # 129 in line. So I wait a while, and take another look at the page later only to find that my account is inactive. Does this mean that my Lindows account times out after x amount of inactivity? How am I supposed to wait in line and then be kicked out? I am now on my fourth attempt to download the software. If anyone knows what I am doing wrong or has any suggestion it woul be helpful. Thanks…
>If you haven’t done so already, you might want to check out the following site for more information on why not to use WINEX: http://timedoctor.org/boycott_winex.php
A lot of the reasons given there go for the traditional WINE (without “X”) as well.
Which is a list that’s 90% disinformation, misinformation, distortions, or just plain stupid.
It’s a very nace action and I like to download it!
Thanks lindows.com and Kevin Carmony!!
But what can I do if I do not have Credit Card!!??
I am just a student. How can i download it from server?
I can not choose another method(
What can I do???
Thanks,
Smok.
Don’t forget Lindows.com is a commercial, not an OSS.
Of course they will do whatever they can (almost) to attract customers. That’s what business is about.
Subject says it all.
Which is a list that’s 90% disinformation, misinformation, distortions, or just plain stupid.
Don’t think so, but even if only 10% were true, it’d be still enough to not support WINEX.
First of all – in what sence does using any flavour of wine make you dependent on Microsoft?
its finally downloading. ~106.1 KB/s
Is anyone else having troubles downloading the iso? When my dowload should start I get an error message or it tells me my account is inactive. I have created 3 accounts and the same thing happens
Yea that happened to me too. I just kept retrying(a good 8-9 times) and then it started to d/l.
> This is not about being *the* gaming platform. That just wouldn’t be realistic in the short run.
It is merely about providing quality games for those Linux users who want it.
Back to my original point. There are not enough people who want it to make it worth while. If there was, Loki would still exist.
> If people buy Linux games more will emerge and get ported… more game houses will release linux versions etc. DOS didn’t substitute commodore and amiga as the gaming platform in one move either. And neither did Windows to DOS.
No, DOS didnt. But when everybody was getting DOS as there home OS of choice, games had to be made for DOS. Now, Windows has most home users and already has the gaming market.
> Exactly! And that’s why a company like Lindows.com is needed.
A company like Lindows needs to exist for Linux to have a chance. All I am saying is that in my opinion, there is not much of a chance, at least as the currect market exists.
> Almost any common x86 hardware works in Linux.
All common x86 hardware works with Windows since they come with Windows drivers.
> With a dist like Lindows even right out of the box.Same cannot be said about Windows.
Not out of the box, but at least you have everything you need when you buy the hardware. What happens when you have hardware that is too new for Linows, like 802.11G wireless cards.
> Agreed. Let us hope 5.0 will kick but for a starter. I have high expectations already. By the time Longhorn is out LindowsOS could be on par usability-wise.
Possibly. I am not going to hold my breath though.
> Installing the system is easier, and using it at least not harder, than Windows XP today. With a more polish interface and better applications this can be a hit. 5.0 seems to be able to deliver much in that sence.
You miss the parts that don’t have to do with the OS itself. Marketing is a huge point. Everbody knows the name Windows. Few know the name Lindows or Linux.
Is anyone else having troubles downloading the iso? When my dowload should start I get an error message or it tells me my account is inactive. I have created 3 accounts and the same thing happens
I think the problem is that your account-login times out before you get the chance to start the download. The same happens to me all the time (tried about six times now, but I stopped counting already).
First of all – in what sence does using any flavour of wine make you dependent on Microsoft?
Read and you shall be enlightened 😉 Seriously, what I wrote is just the way I feel about this. It’s neither my intention to spread FUD nor to rant or flame. Simply spend a little time to get some information about WINEX and you’ll know what I mean. But of course it’s ok if you disagree with my oppinions. (I’m writing all this because some discussions change into flamewars quite easily)
Like so many of the old linux hand, I felt very hostile at the launch of Lindows. (The nerve! shackling our beloved OS!) However, the last several months, they have started to redeem themselves a lot in my eyes. They started to become more visually involved in the movement (KDE support, Nvu, …) and delivered a more and more polished product. I am a satisfied Mandrake user (5 powerpacks starting with 6.0, Club from day one…), but I’m sure to try this nice gift on one of my partitions (once the hammering quitens down that is)! If I like it, I’ll probably go for the packaged product if only to show support. Thanks again to Kevin and OSNews.
While Loki wasn’t making money hand over fist. The _could_ have survived but oki failed due to mismanagement in the last 12 to 18 months of existance. At the time that Loki was dying (the last few months) there were LOTS of information about this on the web.
I started it at #195, and went to take a shower. When I came back, it was ready. I clicked on the first link, and it said security error.
. This time I started even higher, hope it works.
I also got the download error. I’ll try again later. I’m really looking forward to trying this out sometime.
I really like the fact that Kevin agrred to do this interview and gives us a free download. I must say that this will probably have a huge positive ripple in the OSS community for Lindows.
maybe the coupon thing is over already :o/
I think we killed it… 8^/
Install was fast and very easy but IT DOES MAKE YOU ROOT BY DEFAULT!
CNR is very polished, and has alot of great software. I love the fact that after CNR installs a prog, it automatically makes an icon on the desktop(like windows).
H/W detection was decent but it never installed my Epson CX3200 MFP and im getting worst than avg perforamce out of my radeon 7500(i get about 1300 in slackware, 1500 in suse, and 1100 in lindows)
Stability/Perforamce is pretty good. Slow boot but system is still very responsive. Mozilla crashed when I went to http://www.google.com(not sure why)
Mulimedia is kinda hazy.Its better than fedora(lindows has good audio support) but theres no video player installed by default and when I try to use CNR, it tells me I need a subscription.
Overall its a nice OS but im sticking /w slackware for the time being.
I took up the offer, ordered the shrink-wrapped software package. If it installs well on my old laptop and gives me no problems with WiFi then I will most likely get a membership for 1 year for click and run.
I believe that Linux users should support their distributions anyway they can, if it is not by donating code or packages then money is appropriate.
I have purchased and used many linux distributions
RedHat
Vecter
Peanut
Mandrake
Lindows (today)
Most of the time I actually install them first and then purchase the next version as soon as it comes out. These guys have to make money somehow.
Our home computer is a Mac running OS-X, The laptop will now be configured with Lindows. My children will grow up on Unix/Linux or whatever the current open operating system is at the time, because I want them to understand how the operating systems work.
Windows hides users from the inner workings of the OS, applications, the TCP/IP stack,etc…, and so did Mac prior to OS X. Lindows is a good idea, and it will make my family more comfortable with Linux (Weening them off of the Microsoft t!t).
I wish all the Linux distro’s luck, but we all should realize the Linux community is ripe for consolidation. Sun, IBM, and other companies may be already making plans to buy their favorite flavors of Linux. Once this happens the little guys will definitely get squeezed out if they don’t receive any Monitary support from their users.
First, a thanks to Eugenia for this great site, and to the folks at Lindows for the coupon. I ordered the CD, and will be trying it out as soon as it arrives. I have only heard good things, so I’m looking forward to it.
Second, regarding Transgaming and WineX. Using and supporting WineX does not make you reliant on Windows. Obviously, it decreases your reliance. I consider myself a fairly hardcore PC gamer, 3 to 5 hours a day when I don’t have work and class getting in the way, and often lost sleep even if I do.
There is no chance of doing that on Linux without WineX. Meaning, for gaming, I am nearly 100% reliant on Windows, unless I use WineX. Not only does it allow gaming on Linux, it shows game publishers that there is a market available in Linux gaming. The deal Transgaming made with EA for the Sims shows this. And that’s just the start.
Apple gaming works largely the same way, Aspyr ports and emulates many of the most popular PC games for Macs. If you ever want major titles to be published natively on Linux you are going to support companies doing this, like id, S2Games, etc, and support companies facilitating this, like Transgaming.
Sure, it would be nice if publishers just started porting games to Linux for the heck of it, but that isn’t going to happen. Show them their is a market, publishers like money, and they will come. By increasing Transgamer subscribers you are saying to publishers like EA and Vivendi, “Hey, over here! We have money and want to play games on Linux!”
-yutt
Resident Gamer & WineX Evangelist
…I could download it, but it keeps saying:
” We’re sorry, but an error has occurred while processing your download. Please try your download again. If you continue to receive this message, please contact our support team. ”
I wanted to download&install to test it and review it…
Its a shame Lindows international shipping is so damn expensive.
Shipping to the UK is quoted from $47.76 to $164.09.
Try getting a European distribution centre with sensible shipping costs and you might generate more interest over the pond.
I’d love to try the distro for $10, but once it gets to nearly $60 including p&p, it’s not such a great offer for those of us with crappy 56k connections.
Sigh….
my short lived experience..
Overall seemed very good, like the installer quick and fast did the job well. minimal questions installed in about 10 minutes not bad..
one problem is that you cant partition your drive so i ended up having to give it the whole 160 gig of the 2nd drive ( it was a new blank drive it didnt matter too much) but having the option of partitioning would have been nice.
i have an nforce2 board with an nvidia fx5700 ultra surprisingly it picked up the inbuilt network card straight off which was awesome the configuration seemed straight forward (considering the inbuilt card requires the nforce drivers, was very surprised to see it picked up)
compiling both the nforce2 audio module and the nvidia graphics driver went without a hitch perfect compilation actually very surprising..
overall it was nice..
went into console and hey even has dselect cant be all bad
the problems.. after install it wouldnt boot i had to run the diagnostic option to find out e2fsck couldnt correct probs with my /dev/hda which is ext3 and runs debian unstable.
with diagnostic option i could see everything exactly like with the debian bootup so i managed to sort it.
but because the begining boot screen covers up everything it was hard to know what was going on.. but still i guess an average user aint gonna be in same setup as me.
it was awesome to find that it had autodetected my network card by default the sound server defaults to alsa and unfortunately the flash intro was the worst sounding thing i have ever heard it just kept skipping and the person speaking sounded like a chipmunk. i installed the nvaudio module (it has a very nice option in control center to get arts to use auto / alsa / oss / no sound. changed it to oss and tried again and still same prob surprisingly mp3s played and sounded perfectly fine in both alsa and oss.. so i couldnt work out why that prob existed with the flash demo.
onto next thing.
it would be really cool, if it could detect the nvidia graphics card and install the nvidia drivers i have heard other distros now do this, sadly lindows didnt, but it compiled perfectly fine a couple of tweaks to xf86config-4 and the nvidia graphics drivers were working. thats the problem though i know what im doing a complete beginner wouldnt. although by default it starts x using the vesa driver so your always in a gui environment.
another problem was as a normal user the network neighbourhood thing kept on crashing.. i didnt get it to work just saw it constantly crash.
the final and most major gripe i had was it over wrote my masterboot record on /dev/hda with i think lilo, unfortunately this completely ballsed the debian bootup, and debian wouldnt boot, to fix it i had to stick in the debian installer cd and run rescbf24 root=/dev/hda2. then rerun lilo in debian which overwrites the lindows installer..
dont get me wrong, none of these problems did i see as a major problem. just pointing out so that maybe if the thread is still being read by kevin or any other lindows personell they can look into it.
maybe a few years ago this might have been headaches for me, but considering ive ballsed lilo up at least 10 times in the past 3 or 4 years ( kernel test compilation installations gone horibbly wrong) its no problem, and i see it as slight teething problems.
to be honest overall it was very impressive i only used it for what must have been half an hour but i was left thinking, well they have a good chance the installation is pretty much foolproof. i doubt any new linux user will already have a version of linux installed on another drive.. i was thoroughly impressed with its autodetection, it picked up everything. the display first time i saw it looked impressive and now everaldo is working for you im sure it will look amazing in the 5 release. The menu system was smart and to the point, the control center was nice, nice fix up of kcontrol. You can see how much time they have spent making it foolproof. but still being able to access the old debian methods was awesome. It definately has a lot of potential, for the complete new user to linux and to computers in general.
Also to note it auto mounts your existing drives/partitions.
would i run it quite possibly, i dont see any reason not to.. i would however wait for the 5 release.. id like to get my hands on it and thrash it see how well it can handle different situations.
i would say for any person that loves straight out gui configs no real pissing about then this is a great os, and i t could be a major competitor for windows no doubt.
Bunch of B.S.,
They have distanced themselves from me. Free means it costs you nothing!
Robinson thinks I’m stupid. I know the definition of free.
Well…
For those of you on 56k, if you cant download, well there is a shipping option. BUT if that is expensive, get the digital dowload anyway and find a place to download latter!!! Some friend or plase where yuo can make the download.
ALSO REMEMBER you can download it latter… and you will be ENTITLE to the new releses… LindowsOS 5 (developer, oem, live…) anyone? WOW… SO get your free copy today (just redem the key and get your LindowsAccount and download it latter, and this is not a trial version BUT a FULL version, so it is yours just dont lose your account codes.)
SO… what do you think…
By the way… am a LindowsJunior Member… I got my PC with LOS preinstall with no CDs so I had to download the CD (which was the oem one) after a long time since I had no CD burner and no dsl… So I only had the oem version, but now thanks to this Great offer I can get them all (well most) and I can download it thanks to a friend (actually I work at the place now) so am happy. THANK you KEVIN!!!
Well hope that helps some of you…
I don’t think there are any promises to give out LindowsOS 5.0 for free, if that’s what you’re trying to say.
Tom: No, you don’t have to give out your card no. You just missed something and since it’s been explained at least 3 times in this thread I’m not going to say how to do again.
Anon: I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually do get 5.0 for free due to being entitled to this give out. Lindows done it before… still you’ll need to pay $50/yr in order to get CnR. Or else you can still go with the ChoicePC lifetime deal that gives you lifetime access to CnR and all LindowsOS ver for $100! It’s not many of those deals left now… http://choicepc.com
Kevin,
I really appreciatte the free download, but in some ways it makes me mad.
The reason up until this point that I haven’t purchased LindowsOS is because I am (actually was) a student and couldn’t afford it. I was still eager to try it out though and was willing to make the purchase so long as there was some student discount (showing at least an effort on Lindows part to help us). I come to find out there was none. Going to school full-time makes working almost impossible. I had to live off student loans and live hand to mouth as I bettered myself, and yet Lindows wasn’t there to help me, when almost all other software companies are (most computer software and hardware companies offer student discounts).
What really annoyed me about that though was that I constantly would receive Michael’s Minutes newsletters talking about they were giving away this OS to these people, or if you were a reseller could pay $100 and give it to as many people as you know for free, or giving a discount there…. Yet students were being ignored.
It’s also a mistake on Lindows part, because I’m the best customer you could have. I was going for Master’s Degree in Computer Science, and guess who every one in the family, and all my friends go to when they have computer trouble, or want an upgrade??? Me.
I just graduated, so this is no longer an issue for me (at least not till I get a job), but I still think your company should rethink it’s student discount policies. If you can give everyone that reads this article a free copy of LindowsOS, then surely you could give a discount to students.
Well, this is pretty worthless. Their site is riddled with errors, and it refuses to allow you to checkout….
Maybe they should fix their site to actually allow people to use their shopping cart, before trying to offer a product.
“All of the software that you download is yours to enjoy for 15 days, after which it will be disabled on your computer if you cancel your membership.”
This only applies to COMMERCIAL software you install during this time (StarOffice, VirusSafe, SurfSafe, Commercial Games, etc.) We don’t remove any of the open source products. I’ll talk to our people to make this language more clear, it is a bit confusing.
———————————–
“But what can I do if I do not have Credit Card!!??”
I’ll repeat it yet again, you do NOT need a credit card to use the coupon code to get the free copy of LindowsOS.
———————————–
“Is anyone else having troubles downloading the iso?”
As I posted earlier, our data center has been maxed all day long with people taking a look at LindowsOS via the Coupon. As long as you redeem your coupon now, you can try downloading later, once things settle down.
Thanks for your patience.
———————————–
“Like so many of the old linux hand, I felt very hostile at the launch of Lindows. (The nerve! shackling our beloved OS!) However, the last several months, they have started to redeem themselves a lot in my eyes. They started to become more visually involved in the movement (KDE support, Nvu, …) and delivered a more and more polished product. I am a satisfied Mandrake user (5 powerpacks starting with 6.0, Club from day one…), but I’m sure to try this nice gift on one of my partitions (once the hammering quitens down that is)! If I like it, I’ll probably go for the packaged product if only to show support. Thanks again to Kevin and OSNews.”
Thank you. That would be appreciated.
———————————–
“maybe the coupon thing is over already”
No, it’s still good…for now. My guess is we’ll terminate it sometime tomorrow (Friday).
———————————–
“Install was fast and very easy but IT DOES MAKE YOU ROOT BY DEFAULT!”
Only if you don’t click the button to add users during the Install. (Or you can do it anytime from the Launch menu.)
———————————–
“Its a shame Lindows international shipping is so damn expensive. Try getting a European distribution centre with sensible shipping costs and you might generate more interest over the pond.”
We do have lots of world wide resellers and partners, but they’re not giving it away of course. =)
http://www.lindows.com/lindows_feature_reseller.php
———————————–
“one problem is that you cant partition your drive so i ended up having to give it the whole 160 gig of the 2nd drive ( it was a new blank drive it didnt matter too much) but having the option of partitioning would have been nice.”
Using the advance install allows you to install to any partition you wish, but yes, you need to create the partition first, using Partition Magic, etc. Keep in mind our market is not people downloading .iso’s, burning a CD, and installing their own OS. For everyone who tries LindowsOS that way, there are 100 who get it pre-installed on a computer, so they don’t need lots of fancy install options. Our OEM’s want it FAST and EASY!
———————————–
“B.S. Not free, wants personal info and credit card #”
Aw, what the heck, let’s make it the sixth time: You do NOT need a credit card to use the Coupon to get the free copy of LindowsOS.
———————————–
“I still think your company should rethink it’s student discount policies.”
I hope you’ll give us some credit, considering we already have the most aggressive educational licensing of any software company I know. $500 for UNLIMITED USE on EVERY computer in a school or university. http://lindows.com/education
However, we’ll talk about specific discounts for individual students.
———————————–
Thanks everyone for being patient with our servers as they work their little hearts out.
Kevin Carmony
President, Lindows.com, Inc.
The site works perfectly for me, and I’m currently downloading. The process of getting to the free download is somewhat difficult, but there are several posts in this thread explaining how to do it. You shouldn’t call them idiots just because you weren’t able to figure it out immediately.
When you get to that page, just look at the left part of the screen, in the side bar, there is link called MY Products, click on that link and you will be taken to the cd download page.
>>> “I still think your company should rethink it’s student discount policies.”
>>”I hope you’ll give us some credit, considering we already have the most aggressive educational licensing of any software company I know. $500 for UNLIMITED USE on EVERY computer in a school or university. http://lindows.com/education
However, we’ll talk about specific discounts for individual students. ”
I do give you credit. I’ve seen your company’s generosity in many areas. I’m not a Lindows Hater. I want your company to succeed. I honestly do.
But having seen your company be so generous in a wide array of areas, and being in the situation that I was in (and even wanting to help Lindows succeed), it was something I wanted to bring up to you.
I’m sorry if it offended you. No offense intended.
Thanks to Lindows for the freebie and OSNews for doing this for their readers. I have wanted to try Lindows for long time, but don’t like to “Buy before you Try”. I have paid for versions of RedHat and Mandrake in the past after I had downloaded them and tried them. I dont mind paying for what I get, just like to try it first. I personally think this will do lot to help get the “good” word out about Lindows. We are all not SuperGeeks. I think this is the easiest distro I have ever installed. Thanks again Kevin.
Now this is the stuff I like to see!. I went ahead and ordered the retail box. $16.50 for a new commercial OS is like christmas all over. I cant wait to try it out. I really like the Click & Run Warehouse. I’ll pay $5 to save my self from install/dependency hell/hunt down something etc……
until linux gets a STANDARD installer, this is the next best thing for now.
All of these people that can’t even figure out how to download the iso are planning on intalling it?!?
Look out!!!
Oh, and thank you very much for the free download, I am now off to subscribe to CnR.
Finally got the download to start on the fourth attempt (after the note went out to support, but before I got the reply). Looking forward to giving it a spin.
I just signed up for lifetime membership to Lindows, CNR etc…
If you are interested it is available here:
http://choicepc.com/choicepc-france.php
It is a little strange but you are actually sponsoring a country invovled in the “law suit”.
I do not work for Lindows, but I commend them on their efforts.
IMO Lindows.com simplified things a little BUT that is the way to go. Normal people don’t want to look at words like kernel, distribution.
Lindows is also a huge supporter in open source, plus they really make good offers, at least compared to Windows.
Lindows ain’t that bad after all
Though i don’t have the intention to run LindowsOS on my own computers for i’ve already chosen for others and have my reasons, it is interesting to get a legal, free (beer) download of a user-friendly GNU/Linux OS. Perhaps, together with this interview, it can convince me LindowsOS is one of the user-friendly desktop OSes i can recommend to “Linux newcomers with not much interest for computers”. I understand the need for a different approach for some computer users however i dislike an approach where users are clumsy paying customers who pay for the “we know what’s good for you”. Therefore, the question is not “if”, the question is “which”. Don’t forget — RedHat, SuSE, Mandrake have all been under fire. That’s what you get when you’re in this (or “a”?) market.
@ Kevin, and others: There are other ways to highlight a word instead of CAPS. For example _this_ is one, /this/ is another, *this* be another. It reads and looks much more gentile whereas multiple capitals where normally not appropriate is regarded as YELLING.
Free as in freedom, not gratis.
Or Free as in speech, not beer. Your pick.
If you want a good distro that’s free both ways, you can use Mandrake, or Debian, etc. But even then, you should make a contribution (skill, money, whatever) if you use it and like it.
…the servers are taking quite a pounding. I’ve got my coupon but I can’t get a download. I’ll try again tonight or tomorrow morning. I’m planning on buying a new computer and I’m ready to give it a shot.
There are other ways to highlight a word instead of CAPS. For example _this_ is one, /this/ is another, *this* be another.
I like italics tags myself – and it is the correct way to put emphasis (without YELLING, which is against netiquette). However, italics are also often used for replies, which can be confusing.
This is quite OT, so I’ll just say that I’m number 3 in line for the download. Knock wood.
actually, it looks like they fixed the problem on their site. Waiting inline of 193… erk! One thing I didnt know is that you cannot run both Lindows and Windows on the same harddisk/partition, as according to the lindows website… oh well.
Of course I spoke too soon, since my last post, I got bumped from 192 to 219, wth? Is the site working or not?
I really applaud ‘Lindows’, but I have been dumped from the download cue 6 times over the last 4 hours. I’ll stick with Slack for my PC’s for now.
I’ve downloaded the developer CD and I couldn’t find a system I wished to install it on.
For those who’ve downloaded the developer cd and want to use it as a live cd, select diagnostics at the first menu and type “echo startkde > /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc” followed by “startx” at the command prompt. Now you’ll have the whole desktop (without altering your partitioning).
For me though, OpenBSD is staying RIGHT where it is on my desktop!
Crap, I accidentally paid full price. Time to call up Michael…
If you accidentally paid full price don’t worry they will credit your account back.
I have tried and purchased Lindows 3.0 & 4.0 and used them for a couple of days only to decide that it was not what I was looking for. On both occassions I requested the refund they offer and have been very impressed with their promptness. I have recevied an email within hours of the request telling me my account would be credited and it always go through within a couple of days. To me it is a relief to do business with a company that you feel you can trust, and gives you no hassle with a refund.(Read over their refund policy before purchasing seperate items though,there are some limitations)
Seeing the free download I once again installed Lindows and am impressed with 4.5, it is just what I was looking for on a laptop. This time I will keep running Lindows and am now looking forward to being a member. I am on my way to signing up to CNR. I am through reading every single distro review and wondering if that is the one for me, then downloading it, installing it, and then spending hours or days only to get aggravated with and go back to searching for another.Until another comes along with simplicity like Lindows I’m staying here, even if I do hate the name.
I went to the download page yesterday and created an account because I thought you had to in order to receive the download. That’s where I had to give them my cc info. Later I realized, by reading other posts, that this wasn’t necessary. Anyway, I was looking at my online banking this morning and noticed that Lindows.com had charged $1.00 to my credit card. What gives with that? I never gave anyone permission to charge my cc. I even cancelled out of the original puchase to make certain nothing was charged to my account. Then I went back in and used my IReadOSNews coupon to download the software. This is a bunch of crap. It’s not the dollar…it’s the principle. I wonder how money this will make them if they scam a dollar from everyone who creates an account. I will be emailing them today for a credit to my account!!!
You did not need to put your Credit Card details in the first place!
But this part appears to mislead most punters!
Lindows mistake or ploy, who knows?
Still, it doesn’t shine well either way.
At least the OS is out on the world now, nice way to do it.
anyone had any sucess getting the sarge gnome 2.4 up and running yet? (gonna attempt tonight)
Nice little deal…I probably wouldn’t have read the article were it not for seeing the “get Lindows free” part, to be honest. But I’m glad I did…I don’t dislike Lindows (the company) like I did before (based on other people’s misinformation).
Downloaded and checked out the OS, but it didn’t last long due to not being able to get online. I’m 80% sure it’s a general Linux problem with my modem and not a LindowsOS problem. But from what I’ve seen so far, I’m considering writing a review, and putting in some constructive criticism on some improvements. I’ve noticed a few things from my brief 10 minutes that might be nice to work on.
I probably won’t end up using LindowsOS in the long run, but your free offer here at least got me to look at LindowsOS, if only briefly. MAYBE if 5.0 is signifigantly better than 4.5, I’ll look again too. But first things first…I need to see if I have the parts to throw together a review machine with a different modem.
I suppose you have a “winmodem”?
http://linmodems.org/
I am, for what it is. I think that this is not only a good OS for people switching off Windoze, but I would actually recommend this over M$ operating systems for most non-tech people. Why?
It installed quickly and everything worked, including 3D acceleration for my Nvidia card. That’s already far ahead of Windows, isn’t it? I did a CNR for Quake II and it worked straight away (although the download was quite slow). With Lindows, many of my friends would quit calling me for free tech support because their M$ machine puked. Oh, wait a minute! I usually get free dinners when I make house calls for my friend’s PCs. This Lindows could be very bad for me…
Thanks for the great response to this interview. I have read each and every comment, and we’ve already made some changes based on your good suggestions.
Thanks also for your patience with any download problems you may have encountered. Our data center has been pegged non-stop since this story broke, even through the night hours, and it remains maxed out (and we have a robust data center with a good amount of capacity). So, we thank all of you who have taken us up on our offer to take a look at LindowsOS.
I hope this Interview and looking at the software helps you all know a bit more about us.
The coupon will expire today, Friday, January 23rd, at 2:00 PM Pacific Time, so you still have a few more hours to get this free copy.
Thanks all,
Kevin Carmony
President, Lindows.com, Inc.
Initially, I was pleased with the offer. However for the last ~24 hours I have been blown out of the download process without an opportunity to actually perform a download (about 20+ times). Only once did I get offered FTP or HTTP. I selected FTP & received notice that your servers had reached max connections.
A friend whom I informed of the offer had it bomb at ~95% of download in the wee hours of the morning.
Now you post that it will be withdrawn at 2:00 Pacific time!?!? If indeed this occurs, I look forward to your efforts to damage control this.
Are you going to allow those who registered within the timeframe of the offer to continue download attempts until successful? If your OS is worthy of the attention, I hope so. Otherwise, a “so sorry” type of response will negate any positive traction you got.
as said meny times already in this thread – once you’re registred you can download this software any time you want – as many times you want.
Thank god, I’ve been trying to download it forever without any luck yet but I have had an account since yesterday. I really want to try Lindows out, and if I like it I’ll pay for it.
After emailing them this morning and requesting a refund this was there reply:
“Gary,
The $1 is an authorization check, and is not an actual charge. It will dissapear in a few days.
Thank you.”
Great service with fast response and now we know why the dollar was there. So the free product is really free. My apologies for ever doubting otherwise.
It’s nice to hear that I can keep whacking at it until I finally complete a download.
And… I appreciate that Lindows.com got “slash-dot’ed”.
But, as my post alluded to – the FTP foulup…the 200+ position in the download queue only to have the queue bomb & you have to start over. Repeatedly.
I am happy for the opportunity for the product, but I would submit to Kevin that their servers aren’t quite as robust as he believes.
Currently I am 33 in line, and that is after over 2 1/2 hours & starting at somewhere around 275. We will see which comes first: My ISO or My disgust.
But, as my post alluded to – the FTP foulup…the 200+ position in the download queue only to have the queue bomb & you have to start over.
Well.. when I got the message about the FTP being full, I just clicked on that link saying “click here if your download doesn’t start automatically”.
Sorry you seem to be having such a hard time getting it downloaded. Maybe just wait for a few days so you don’t develop an ulcer?
As promised, the coupon code has now expired. Those of you who used the coupon code to get a free copy can download it anytime, now that it’s in your My.Lindows.com account. Our servers are still running at full guns.
Thanks all,
Kevin Carmony
President, Lindows.com, Inc.
Missed getting the free copy by just a couple of hours. That sucks. I’ve always wanted to check out lindows but not bad enough to buy it.
Oh well I’ll just keep pushing SuSE to my customers.
Robert
Robert, you can still get a great deal on Lindows here: http://choicepc.com
I kind of thought of Lindows as a bit of a joke in the linux world for a while. For example, I could probably have taken a measly $2,000 consulting fee, and told them flat out that it was a better idea to pour their remaining $498,000 into developing native Linux solutions. I wondered if they realized the technical complexities of emulating Windows were only part of the problem, and that running a Windows app on top of Linux, which CrossOverOffice (the result of their investment) does VERY WELL I might add, is still not all that we would have hoped for. What we need is for OpenOffice to be more compatible with Word than the various MS Word versions are with each other. This is a modest goal, since Word 97, 2000 and XP have all had backwards compatibility problems.
But, Lindows OS has evolved, and their management seems very clued in. If you’re going to buy a Linux distribution from someone that doesn’t (normally) offer their OS for free download, you want a slick out of box experience. For doing as well as they have in that space, they deserve kudos. As do the fine folks at Xandros and RedHat, who have also done well in this department. (I haven’t tried Lycoris, so I don’t know what to say about them.)
Anyways, as a hard-core Debian junky, I am only sad that I missed out by 9 hours the opportunity to download their ISO image for free. Oh well. Better luck to me next time!
Warren Postma
Toronto
Ok, not quite but the usability of the LindowsOS website is very poor indeed.
When I signed up, the place to enter a coupon code wasn’t at all obvious (and when I did find it, it’s not immediately obvious how it works).
Meanwhile, I’m being led into creating an account, entering all my personal details (before learning if the discount applies).
But the real sin is the credit card details page. The title of this page is ‘Add new payment method’. THIS IS MISLEADING. The page does more than that: when you click ‘Add new payment method’, it doesn’t just save your details (presumably not to be used if you don’t have a coupon), IT TRIES TO CHARGE YOUR CARD!
How do I know this? Well, I didn’t want to put my card details in, but it immediately told me to go away with 1234123412341234 as the card number. So I did the natural developer thing to do, and used a dummy credit card number that gets through basic validation.
Guess what? Lindows accepted the dummy number and presented it to Visa who, of course, declined it. That just makes me so glad I didn’t use my own card!
Lindows: Sort it out! Do NOT mess with people’s credit cards without making it damn clear what you’re doing.
Oh, and improve the usability of your website before crowing about the usability of LindowsOS.
Hold on. Because you can’t figure out how to use a website you have to bleat about it being a scam? Grow up please.
I don’t understand ppl sometimes. . . .*sigh*
I have been looking at Linux for a few years now, and tried many of the major and minor distros. I’ve never tried to push any distro to my friends or colleagues because they all had too many rough edges – although my boss did know of my interest and started to research Linux for himself, with the idea of introducing it into the company.
I had heard other Linux users deriding Lindows, and I didn’t take much interest in it myself (having decided that vanilla Debian was fine for my needs). But I did recommend Lindows to a programmer who was hitherto totally committed to Windows but who wanted to get some acquaintance with Linux; she tried it, liked it, and even signed up as a distributor.
As she was so enthusiastic and I had a copy of the LiveCD, I booted up my laptop with it, and thought it was pretty impressive also. Everything just worked. I would not recommend any other version of Linux to someone who was not technical. I went over to their forums and dug around – some mighty helpful and polite people.
Even though I don’t have a need to use Lindows myself right now, I decided I was going to subscribe to the choicepc site just a few days before the interview here with Kevin appeared.
He has done a great job of representing what Lindows is trying to achieve. Seeing him offer this free download to us all, I finally went over and subscribed to http://www.choicepc.com because I want to give them my support. (For what it’s worth, the French choicepc subscription is nearing capacity, so get on over and get one while you can. Support wider distribution of Linux, and get LindowsOS downloads + CNR for free, for life… )
Sorry to anyone who put their credit card details into the site thinking it was required to make use of the OSNews coupon. I thought that too at first, but after a few seconds of thinking ‘there must be some mistake’ I just tried clicking on ‘my products’.
That aside, I think Lindows have done a great PR job in this appearance at OSNews.com (as evidenced in so many of the responses), and I am sure there will be quite a few new evangalists coming from this forum.
First off, thanks to Kevin and Michael for the chance to preview LindowsOS. I’ve always wanted to give it a spin around the block and kick the tires, but never seemed to get around past the “buy to try” deal. I always went for the *try before you buy* options.
Well, I got the coupon and installed in on a second partition on my Dell 2300 with XP. It does what they say. It installed in 10-15 min (I was making coffee while it installed so it may have been 10 min!) and booted up with the option of selecting LindowsOS or XP – choosing LindowsOS, it worked flawlessly!
It found my network and configured for it, it config’d my sound card, my flat panel screen – just about everything!!!
In a half hour (after getting my coffee and bagel!) I was surfing, checking email, listening to internet radio and IM’ing my Dad in Florida!!
I’m sold – The product is great and I’m moving to LindowsOS and the CnR ….. you guys keep up the good work!!
Our home will never be the same now – Out goes MS – in comes LindowsOS for our family!!!
First off a couple of things. Performing a $1 charge and then crediting it back is quite common to verify that the account is valid.
You found this out by entering an *invalid* card number. Don’t tell me that companies should make sure that users (a) don’t make a typing error, or (b) try to SCAM them by putting in fake numbers?
The system did what it was supposed to do: filter out bogus accounts.
If you read the article or the other posts, you will see that it was written a minumum of SIX TIMES that you do *not* have to enter a card number, and a step-by-step procedure for doing it without the card number.
1. Only using the coupon code to create your free account is what has expired. If you used the coupon code before it expired, then you have unlimited access to download the .iso files ANYTIME.
2. Again, we apologize for any problems with downloading. Our servers have been running full steam since we announced the coupon. We have a lot of capacity, but we had thousands of people take advantage of this offer.
3. This will not give you access to 5.0 later this year. Only CNR Members get free updates to subsequent versions. However, ALL users get any security updates.
Thanks everyone! I appreciated all your feedback.
Kevin Carmony
President, Lindows.com, Inc.
Being “quite common” excuses nothing, and anyhow I’ve dealt with loads of e-commerce sites – usually in the USA – and none have ever done anything to my card without my say-so. Paypal are a good example.
As for using a dummy card number, I make no apologies. I wanted a risk-free way to get through a website that I felt was confusing. If it said it was going to try and charge the card, I would still not give it my real card number, and nor would I bother with a dummy card number. If I had no dummy number, I would not try at all.
And if you think it necessary to read approximately 180 comments before hitting the site, that kind of validates my usability concerns. 🙂
(Note about usability: nobody – not even Very Clever People – reads absolutely everything on screen – that’s why there are whole sites devoted to the subject, and why there’s about a 99% chance you’re reading this with a GUI browser).