Two Lackluster Reviews For LindowsOS on Wal-Mart PCs 382
Eugenia writes: "Two individual reviews of LindowsOS running on the MicroTel/Wal-Mart hardware were published today. The first can be found over at NewsForge and the other one at BayArea.com. Both reviews are not positive for the Lindows solution and they are not excited about the idea of Click-n-Run."
Re:Obscure Unix commands...!? (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Aside from the usual M$-related monopoly arguments, there does seem to be a real hope to replace Win* on the desktop - whether it is a valid attempt or not is another matter though...
About two years ago I installed Mandrake 7.0 on my then-new machine, with Win98 on a separate partition. After over a week of trying to make the two co-exist (well, Win98 didn't want to let Mandrake live), I succeeded. Linux was to be the main OS, and for a while, it was. I used StarOffice, Netscape 4.7*, and so on. Then something broke. Netscape started to fail, as did my email client. I suddenly found myself in the purgatory of root access without the faintest idea how to fix it. Given everything else that happened at the time in my life, I was forced to give up on Linux for Win98, which I knew how to fix.
Since then, Linux has not been on my machine, but there is not a single day that goes by that I don't long for its return (and for the return of the Amiga ahead of Linux, but that's another story...), and to be able to dump Win* for good. So what, I lose a few games, but I cannot remember the last time I loaded one anyway. I see that Mandrake 8.2 is much improved, Open Office works great on Win98 and Opera is now on Linux to boot (you don't think I use IE, do you?)
Despite all this, I don't dare risk Linux at the moment, given that I cannot afford the downtime on my machine. Lindows looks promising, and the idea of buying a machine with a pre-installed version of Linux that has at least *some* Win* compatibility is a start.
Cut Lindows some slack. Sure, maybe there are a few GPL issues that need examining, and maybe it does not work perfectly yet. And the $99 download fee does not appeal either. Whether it is Lindows, Red Hat or Mandrake, surely the important issue is replacing Win* on pre-built systems, rather than the (whilst nice, ultimately technical) minor points of those outlined at the start of this paragraph?
Re:how can they be? (Score:2, Informative)
Read your GPL. You can charge money for GPL-licensed software if you so desire. Otherwise, every distribution on the planet, save the "true" Debian, would be in violation. "Free," in this sense, does not necessarily mean "no cost to the user."
Now, if Click-n-Run both charged money for its service *and* provided no way for the user to acquire the source code for GPL-licensed software... now in *that* case, they would be violating the GPL.
Besides which, the implication from the articles I've read is that LindowsOS, being somewhat built on Debian technology, still incorporates the apt-get system. An experienced user can still apt-get
Re:Jumping frogs (Score:5, Informative)
They already are using "free" Debian mirrors. According to a Lindows user posting on alt.os.linux
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian woody main contrib non-free deb ftp://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US woody/non-US main contrib non-free
deb ftp://agent:foulfowl@ftp.lindows.com/agent-pool .
Lindows is charging for access to the Debian archive and they aren't even running their own mirror.
Re:non multisync monitor? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:non multisync monitor? (Score:3, Informative)
Caught up? Not in my eXPerience (Score:2, Informative)
W2K
-Every single one of the W2K boxes have had to been rebuilt at least once in the last 2 years
-Three of the boxes have had been rebuilt 3 or more times in this same time period
-The record uptime for our W2K servers is 3 months
-Four of the servers have outright locked up and stopped responding even to ping packets
Reasons for rebuilds: Nimda, Driver corruptions, DLL corruptions, Unexplained software instability
En Garde Linux
-The only time these servers have EVER gone down was once because lightning melted down a power substation that feeds our building and our battery backups didn't last long enough. Now that we have a diesel generator that can power us for days, we don't anticipate these servers to ever go down again
Currently our Fileserver is W2K but we are seriously considering moving it to Linux because we can't afford any downtime on that.
Re:Hate to say it but here it goes. (Score:3, Informative)
It exists, it's called Webmin and if it had cooler graphics and icons it would be the Best. Configuration. Program. Ever. As it is, it's kind of ugly and too advanced for newbies, but it seriously rocks. (And since it's a web interface, it also lets you administer things remotely.)
Re:Of course it's not positive (Score:1, Informative)
There is no such word as "virii". Period.
Re:Of course it's not positive (Score:1, Informative)
There is no such word as "virii". Period.