Stop Microsoft
Operating Systems => Linux and UNIX => Topic started by: 1mck on 30 December 2003, 17:42
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I want to address some issues with Lindows, and I feel that an earlier post of mine in response to a question about Lindows may have been sort of buried there. X-11 stated that I brought up some very interesting points, so if any of you have any comments, then please do:)
Lindows is a great distro for most people who do not know very much about computers
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I can agree with what your saying, keep in mind geeks will be geeks.
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Comment that Lindows violates the GPL by not allowing access to the source code is retracted. It does, so it's fine by me (http://smile.gif)
[ December 30, 2003: Message edited by: Panos ]
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IMO: SuSE 9 (or 8.2) is much better for beginners (and not only for beginners).
Most people want to start with a dual boot.
Don't ever try that with Lindows! It woudn't work.
Lindows has the worst installation program ever.
PS: Not all the software is free, you have to pay for extra (free) software.
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quote:
Originally posted by Panos:
Lindows violates the General Public License.
No it doesn't. What makes you say it does? The fact that they don't make the system available free of charge? The GPL doesn't demand that. All of the proprietary code in Lindows is their own.
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flap, I retract my comment.I was refering to the source code, but now I see that it is available, after checking with the Lindows.com FAQ.
My mistake, and I humbly apologize to Lindows users for it. I may not agree with its marketing policy, but if the source is available, then it's fine by me. (http://smile.gif)
[ December 30, 2003: Message edited by: Panos ]
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They know to well that if they break the GPL then there marketing wont work because geeks wont throw in the good word.
Companys like Red-Hat dont have to advertise because they know that there are a lot of geeks that have no problem making them slaves to there marketing system and hence, helping the company get rich.
[ December 30, 2003: Message edited by: X11: Troll Erudition ]
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quote:
Originally posted by Panos:
flap, I retract my comment.I was refering to the source code, but now I see that it is available, after checking with the Lindows.com FAQ.
My mistake, and I humbly apologize to Lindows users for it. I may not agree with its marketing policy, but if the source is available, then it's fine by me. (http://smile.gif)
[ December 30, 2003: Message edited by: Panos ]
Well although they don't violate the GPL, the system as a whole is still proprietary as their own software falls under a non-free licence, so I agree with you that Lindows is not a good thing.
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Yes. We definitely agree on that! BTW flap, I suppose that you are using a GNU/Linux distribution. Can you tell me which, because I have a very strong feeling that you are running Debian. How close was I? :D
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Sorry no, Red Hat. Though I've decided to ditch that and move to Slackware. I would like to use Debian but they're too far behind in terms of including up to date packages.
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Damn! I thought I was 'right on target'. (http://smile.gif) Are you still using RH or have you 'moved' to Fedora? In any case, I believe that Slackware is a better choice ;)
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No, I haven't used Fedora, but it was Red Hat's discontinuation of their home distribution that inspired me to want to switch. I could use Fedora I suppose, but Slackware is attractive for a few reasons (simplicity, less hand holding, BSD style init etc.)
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quote:
PS: Not all the software is free, you have to pay for extra (free) software.
True. This is the only things that keeps me from recommending Lindows. Other than that, it would be great.
But I don't understand one thing. Lindows is Debian-based. Can't you just edit your sources list and apt-get any software you want?
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for total newbies i have to say i think mandrake is up there with the best of them no matter what you say about lindows, plus it is fairly similar to red hat, the nearest thing we have to a standard, and i think that's a good thing because fragmenting newbies with a lot of nonstandard stuff will only weaken the hold of linux amongst the userbase.
and if lycoris desktop would sort itself out it would qualify as a good one for a newbie too i think.
i have not tried suse or lindows sadly, so can't comment, but from what i have heard about lindows, it sounds like lycoris. newbie aimed, but with a lot of rough corners. plus lycoris is free and lindows isn't, so who you gonna call? i still say mandrake though, although i frown on their dumbass installer which hides all the options you will want to change once you've installed the system.
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Lycoris, right, I forgot about them. Good distro for newbies. But I think Mandrake Move (now offically out), another live cd, would be the absolute best place for a Windows user to start. Then a little research, then try an install.
My prime advice would be "take it slow". It took me, I guess 3 months, to finally settle on SuSe.
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this is more or less how my flatmate is going to do it.
he has got mandrake and is going to test it on a few gigs at the end of his drive, taking his time about it. he has used linux years ago in university but wasn't really interested at the time. his girlfriend will be a tougher nut to crack. she's done Computing atuniversity too, but is very stuck in her ways. she was moaning about some rubbish in IE, popups or some security issue or something the other day, no i remember it was something about the firewall wouldn't let IE see any websites, so she had to disable the firewall (!!!!!) and i said "why don't you use a decent browser and you wouldn't have that problem, and then your security wouldn't be compromised?" and she said (after a perfect 1.5 second blank stare) "oh well, it could be the firewall that's at fault, and we'll be upgrading it on the weekend".
what can you do? i only suggested a decent browser! if people will use windows and IE, i think they deserve what they get.
this is the same person who said 2 days later "well i thought about computer security but then i thought well what have i got to hide?", to which i answered "well, it's not so much that as having your machine compromised and used in a distributed denial of service attack implicating you as an accessory to the crime". Another blank stare, not so long this time and then "oh well, there is that i suppose..."
again, what can you do?
even mandrake's too good for them in a way...
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For what it's worth, in my not so humble opinion, any distro that gets people away from Microsoft is a good distro. I don't use Lindows myself, but then I don't use Xandros or Lycoris or any other distro designed for Windows switchers. But I do see value in all these distributions for people who are not computer geeks and who just want to try alternatives to buggy, spyware-laden, virus-ridden Microsoft products.
I've used Lindows to introduce Windows users to Linux and then, later, converted them to Red Hat or Fedora. They might not have been able to make the transition directly from Windows to Linux as easily otherwise. And for those who decided to stay (for the time being) with Lindows... at least their computers aren't being used to launch DOS attacks against my Linux server.
I know that this isn't a popular stance here, but if Robertson is getting people to try alternatives to MSWindows with his OS, then more power to him. And if his customers later decide to move up to Linux-without-training-wheels, then more power to them. And if we really care about the future of personal computing, then we should support them.
Just my $.02
Jim Dishaw