Looking into Lindows
Once hyped as a Windows-compatible Linux OS, Lindows pales in the light of Mandrake
LINDOWS IS GETTING a lot of buzz recently. For those who haven’t heard, LindowsOS is a Linux-based operating system focused on the consumer desktop market. Lindows made headlines after claiming it would run Windows software, but that focus apparently disappeared when its business relationship with CodeWeavers dissolved in April.
Microsoft tried to obtain a preliminary injunction against the Lindows company from using the term Lindows, but failed.
Over the past few months, people have asked me to comment on Lindows. I haven’t until now because I couldn’t lay my hands on a copy. I could not bring myself to pay $99 to play with a beta release, which is expensive for a home edition of any Linux distribution, let alone a beta version.
But I finally got the chance to bang on one of the LindowsOS-based machines sold at Walmart.com. What I saw was interesting but not earth-shattering.
The distribution is apparently based on Debian Linux featuring a KDE (K Desktop Environment). The appearance of the system is quite good, as is true of most current KDE desktops.
Compared to most Linux distributions, LindowsOS comes with a razor-thin set of installed applications. There’s a browser, an e-mail client, a few multimedia programs, some games, and programs to view (but not to edit or create) Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files.
To obtain the rest of the software that one is likely to want (such as an office suite or financial software), the user is directed to the Click-N-Run Warehouse at Lindows.com. For a mere $99 per year, you can download programs in the warehouse to your heart’s content.
That may seem cost-effective compared to software prices that many Windows users pay, but it is a bit pricey in the Linux world.
Compare this with Mandrake’s Powerpack edition. You get five CDs of binaries, including commercial products such as StarOffice Version 6.0, for a one-time cost, which is only two-thirds the annual fee of the Lindows warehouse. There is no need to waste time or money downloading massive amounts of software. (At a beefy 59MB, OpenOffice, for example, can translate into a three-hour download on a moderately good phone line.)
And then there is the fact that LindowsOS gives the user “root” privileges. (Note to nontechnical folks: If your system administrator lets out a blood-curdling scream after reading this sentence, there is a good reason.)
In one swift move, the Lindows folks have removed an effective means of preventing viral infections. By allowing users to run code that can contaminate system files, the company has ensured that the anti-virus vendors will have plenty of work in the years to come. No other general-purpose Linux distribution makes this mistake.
LindowsOS may have a future if it can develop a more compelling case for using it. But for now, I’ll stick with Mandrake, thanks.
