To Answer Your Questions
About Lindows
Derek has asked some pointed questions about the Lindows Linux operating system. One question was what advantages it offers over BSD or other distributions of Linux.
Basically, all Linux distributions are pretty much the same in most respects. They use the same kernel and most of the same free software packages are supplied. The differences are minor and have mostly to do with goals, maturity and economic stability of the company backing the package. Red Hat Linux is perhaps the most mature of the distributions and the most economically successful of the companies.
Their goal, however, is to provide value to business, much as IBM does.
BSD has a history of providing stable and conservative distributions of Unix systems. Their systems were at one time considered the most secure available, which may no longer be true to the same extent as previously. That is, they have not become less secure but new ways to harden any Linux system have become available. Finally, BSD has changed ownership several times in the last few years and their present direction of development is unknown / undetermined. If Linux hadn't been invented, BSD would have been the answer ... but history is passing it by.
Many of the leading distributions of just a few years ago are gone. Mandrake is in deep trouble from having overcommitted themselves in a market they, and almost everybody else, understood poorly.
Lindows is an immature distribution. It already has a pretty interface and some useful tools, particularly office suites and other programs that operate as replacements for Microsoft software. It may even be possible to install and run programs designed to run under Windows systems, but little has been mentioned of this capability and I've made no attempt to test it so far. If the capability exists, it does so because of a system called Wine that has been under development for many years but that is still considered to be of alpha quality despite the considerable effort that has been invested in it. Wine is not listed in the Lindows warehouse.
What Lindows has going for it, despite its immaturity, is its founder's proven ability to make money and his desire to confront Microsoft head on for a share of the market place. Microsoft has a gigantic market place and they are milking it for about an 85% margin, which amounts to highway robbery. Even a moderate fraction of that market at a fraction of the margin could help the Lindows company succeed. Think of that as the point of the wedge for all of the other companies out there that have had their efforts stifled by Microsoft.
Break the giant and the little guys can share the market.
But for Lindows to mature as a product, first the company has to survive. The two go together. If they survive, there will be enough others copying their ideas that they won't be able to rest on their laurels -- they will have to continue to improve their product or fall to a new company, created in their image.
Derek's other big question is why I'm using dial-up when I supposedly have a high-speed connection. That's a little harder to answer and it gets more into industry NDAs (Non Disclosure Agreements) and Microsoft monopoly.
I have three systems currently running on my machine: Windows 98SE, Mandrake 9.0 Linux and Lindows 3.0 Linux, each with its own hard drive. The machine has a Netgear wireless USB adapter connected and only the Windows system recognizes it ... partly because drivers were provided for only the Windows system.
Look at it this way: Netgear can sign a NDA with Bill Gates for Windows, but with whom do they sign one for Open Source software? So the necessary drivers have to be reverse engineered, a time consuming process.
A few companies are beginning to cooperate with Linux, seeing an economic force beginning to build. Drivers are becoming available for some systems. Some boxes for hardware say the contents are Linux compatible. The Netgear hub just wasn't one of them.
The drivers that were available the last time I checked were at the alpha level, which I try to avoid. I even try to avoid beta software, having had some bad experiences there. As far as that goes, I've had bad experiences with what was supposed to be production software.
Debian is not known for being on the leading edge of software testing. Quite the contrary. The drivers for my Netgear will be well out of beta and quite stable before they become available through Debian. I'm sure I'll be using them on my Mandrake system long before then.
But I will eventually have a high speed connection to even my Lindows system.
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Comments (2)
So, is Lindows built on the Linux kernel? If so, why doesn't Lindows run faster? And if so, why not, besides anti-MS competitiveness, simply use a Windows emulator like WINE?
Do you read these things at all, Derek? Lindows is a release of Debian Linux with some enhancements. The Debian parts run as fast as any other Linux; only the enhancements are slow. As mentioned above, I have made no tests for Windows capability which, if it exists will do so most likely because of Wine which, in turn, is not mentioned in the Lindows warehouse.
As I commented, Wine is still alpha quality. It has yet to provide any serious threat to Microsoft. Lindows is taking a different approach to breaking into what could be a profitable marketplace than just installing and running Windows programs under Linux, whether with Wine or some other engine. They are trying to make something just as simple, just as pretty and just as useful as Windows, at least on the surface.
Don't think of it as anti-Microsoft. Think of it as taking advantage of a situation that Microsoft has created. Microsoft's operating system, Windows, in its various configurations, is pretty much anchored to the hardware based on the Intel x86 line of processors. When something better than x86 comes along, Windows could well be left in the dust ... while Linux already serves multiple platforms and can easily adapt to others. Microsoft may vanish on their own. Meanwhile, Lindows is getting their foot in the door to take advantage of the power vacuum soon to exist. If Lindows happens to be part of the sharp point of the wedge to crack the power structure, contributing to Microsoft's demise, it will just be an early shove in the right direction.
The Windows way is probably not the best way to do things in all cases. In many cases, it is the way chosen to eliminate competitors, not the way to get the best results. No single way is always the best way. It is better to have competition. It contributes to progress, rather than retarding it.