January 9, 2004

• Why?

  I shouldn't be awake at this hour of the morning. There is absolutely no excuse for it.

  A few weeks ago I downloaded the Lindows 4.5 ISO file and installed it over my previous Lindows 3.0 installation. This, of course, destroys everything on the system ... but I didn't have anything there that I wanted to save. That was by design. But I discovered that the central Lindows system remembered all of the programs I had downloaded to my system and I could download everything again with just a couple of clicks.

  I didn't want everything, of course. I went through the list and selected just those programs I wanted and "restored" them to my new system. It was just a matter of going through the list, placing a check mark in front of the programs I wanted to have available to me, then telling the system to download them. It didn't take very long.

  Then I ignored Lindows for a few weeks. I didn't do anything again until shortly after midnight this -- what? -- morning.

  They got a few more things right this time. The system doesn't force you to run as root, for one thing. I defined a user and I'm running as that user with no problem. That's almost the way I would run with a real Linux system. The 3.0 version had Netscape as the default browser (a somewhat modified version, but still Netscape) while the default browser on the 4.5 version is Mozilla, a great improvement (in my not-so-humble opinion). And their Click-N-Run system basically works now, where previously it flopped more often than it flew ... plus there is a lot more software available in their "warehouse" than there was before.

  The Warehouse thing is a bit strange. When you buy your copy of Lindows, you can also buy a subscription to the warehouse for a year ... but if you don't subscribe, they give you a subscription for a month or two anyway. During the term of your subscription you can download any free software you want from the warehouse or purchase the non-free software at member prices, usually substantially lower. That software is then yours and you can download it or its upgrades free even after your membership expires. You can also upgrade your operating system free while a member, as I did in going to version 4.5.

  Now here's the part Windows users have trouble with: you aren't restricted to a single machine. You are allowed to load the operating system and your selected programs onto all of the computers in your "household". You are expected not to abuse the definition of household in doing so. Yeah, I know that Windows people have been ripping off Microsoft for extra copies of software ever since day one. But Microsoft doesn't like it when you do that. They keep trying to come up with new ways to make it difficult for you to use a program on more than one computer. They work so hard at it that much of their software doesn't work well on any machine.

  I got an email message recently announcing that Lindows is going to be selling 300,000 laptop computers pre-loaded with their operating system this year. The specifications on the machines looked pretty good, with reasonable upgrade options available. The base price for the low end model was under $700, and the machine was not stripped-down by any means. It has a good display, a decent processor capable of good speeds, plenty of memory and lots of other goodies.

  Meanwhile, in Europe, Microsoft is trying to prevent sales of Lindows products by having their armies of lawyers initiate suits in multiple countries claiming that the name "Lindows" is too similar to "Windows" and is infringing on the purity of their product. They have gotten injunctions in a few countries where the courts are particularly technologically backwards and they have many European Lindows dealers scared. They tried the same trick here but their cases got thrown out of court on the basis that "Windows" is a generic term anyway, one that Microsoft has no particular right to. Hopefully that same conclusion will prevail throughout most of Europe.

  But that isn't what is keeping me awake.

  Why am I still awake?

  I'm having fun.

  • 05:29
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