Lindows sucks!!!

[Pantso]

Here's the story:

I have afriend who's a so called Lindows insider and who recently downloaded the ISO for the Lindows SPX version. Anyway, I was really curious so I talked him into lending me the CD. He told me that I had two options when installing from the CD. The first one is to do a friendly install alongside Windoze and the second one is to do a clean one on your hard drive.

So, curious enough as I am, I decided to install Lindows on an older machine of mine that runs WinME. I fired my computer up, booted from the CD-ROM and I was greeted by a friendly enough image of Lindows OS which on the bottom right corner wrote "Powered by Xandros". To my greater surprise I didn't see during the installation any kernel messages. They were all covered up by the Lindows installation screen.

Following those preliminary messages like "loading the kernel" or "detecting hardware" and so forth, the installation screen faded in and I was again welcomed by another screen and a similar to Windoze license agreement (so much for the "no patents" philosophy). Not much to do there either but to insert a password (must have been the root password) with an option not to    :eek:   as this would supposedly compromise my system's security     :eek:      :eek:   !

To cut it short, I finally installed Lindows to find out that I couldn't run most of the M$'s apps they claim that you can run. For example, I couldn't run M$ Office 2000, Nero CD Burning software etc (the list is endless). I was also really surprised that their default desktop is KDE, a crippled version of KDE to be exact with no Control Center (!!!). So much for the tweaking and configuring part!

To sum it up, Lindows is an OS less configurable than Windows (really!) although based on Linux, extremely stupid and not user-friendly. In two words: Lindows sucks!

[ June 24, 2002: Message edited by: Pantso ]

[sporkme]

its an alpha, so they will improve...  but in which direction i wonder

but i think its pretty sad that they want to copy what we are trying to escape

i'll stick with my mandrake and slackware

[badkarma]

and this actually surprised you?

[choasforages]

when i said idiot proof linux i meant a distro that made everything simple, like an autobuilding software. it reads the autoconf optioons , and makes a menu based install and configure of the package. out of a source package

[voidmain]

We've been over this Lindows thing in several threads.  At best we are all skeptical, at worst, it's M$ all over but suckier.  I'll stick with RedHat/Debian/FreeBSD.

[Master of Reality]

I'll stick with Redhat, FreeBSD, Slackware.... even though i cant get to FreeBSD or Slackware due to being too lazy to update my GRUB.conf

[jtpenrod]

quote:We've been over this Lindows thing in several threads. At best we are all skeptical, at worst, it's M$ all over but suckier. I'll stick with RedHat/Debian/FreeBSD.

You forgot to mention that Lindows costs $99 (USA). Damn near as much as a copy of Windoze  :eek:  . Also, there's that Software Warehouse thingy that keeps you resubscribing annually if you want access to apps.     Now who does that remind me of...     Instead of calling it "Lindows", perhaps they should've called it M$ Linux    
______________________________________

Live Free or Die: Linux

If software can be free, why can't dolphins?

[choasforages]

yer probably right. owell, it can't be as bad as the hypothetical MS/UX. now that one should scare ya shitless

[Calum]

the main problem with lindows is as follows:

if i had a buck for each time i've seen some moron saying "i don't know anything except windows but i want to use linux, i think i'll just go and buy lindows! (duh)"....

This lindows thing will have its knock on effect, it will spawn a generation of morons all parroting "yeah, i tried linux, it sucks" just like all the xbox generation will be little M$ converts because they signed up for their lobotomies before they even got their first pube.

Lindows sure is the next M$, maybe they get a cut?

[dishawjp]

Hi All!

I was kind of sorry to see all the negative posts about Lindows.  I am plannng on setting up a Lindows box in the next few weeks.

I do have Unix and Linux experience, but need to run a lot of Windows apps, especially MSOffice.  Not by choice, but for my job.  

Has anybody had a good experience with it or will I just be wasting time and money on this project.  I want an OS that gives me a *nix command line option that is stable.  I'm not all that worried about paying for it, and would give their $99/year software download a shot for at least the first year.

I did see that this has been discussed before, but am fairly new to these forums and never read any of those threads.  Sorry if I'm asking for a rehashing of a previously discussed thread, but am really interested in your feedback.

[mulac]

well it sure sounds like they have managed to get the worst of both worlds, doesn't it?

if you don't mind paying, pay, but i find that if i pay for something, and then don't like it, well i paid! it's very annoying. If something was free and doesn't work, well at least you got it for free!

i think their demo version should be free, even if they're going to charge for the final thing.

[voidmain]

DOSman, forget Lindows!  If you don't mind paying money and you have a higher powered workstation (or laptop) with a lot of RAM then I would go with RedHat Linux and run VMware on it with a real copy of Windows and Office in a VMware session. Lindows can't run any more than any other Linux Distro running "wine" except the "Linux" portion of it *sucks*.  I can't imagine doing anything production under "wine" but I've been using VMware production for a couple of years now to run all my Windows apps (it actually runs a native copy of Windows).

[dishawjp]

VoidMain!

Thanks for the tip.  I have a P4 1.8 Ghz w/256 MB Ram and twin 30GB hard drives I was going to put it on.  Where can I get some info on VMware.  I have heard of Wine, but most of what I heard wasn't very good.  I am a bit worried about dual OS installs, but since being here it seems to be pretty common.  

Thanks

[voidmain]

You can get info on VMware at http://www.vmware.com and you can even download it (with a 30 day trial license). If you like it and want to purchase it, just stick in your credit card number and they will email you a non-expiring license file.

I run VMware on my desktop (Athalon 1600 w/512MB) and I run it on my Laptop (Intel 800 w/512MB) and it runs great (a little better on the desktop with the Geforce II video card).  I usually run Linux as the HOST (base) OS and then have a copy of Win2000 Advanced Server running in a VMware session, and a copy of Win98, and sometimes one or two more OSes (BSD, Solaris x86, another Linux distro, etc).  It works perfectly for me.  256MB should be enough for you to run Linux and one other OS comfortably but 512MB would be better.  Let me know if you need any help.

Oh, and since you are a DOSman, you can install a copy of DOS 6.22 (or the like) in another VMware session.  I have a copy that I run that I use to make custom DOS based TCP/IP network boot disks for bootstrapping network Windows installs and PC diagnostics disks that allow the person to run Partition Magic, Drive Image, and access an entire DOS install, etc,  from a single floppy.

[ June 25, 2002: Message edited by: VoidMain ]

[Master of Reality]

is there any other program that is 'like' VMware, but free???