DesktopOS.com interviews Kevin Carmony, President, Lindows.com, Inc.

DesktopOS.com ^ | Jan 22 2004 | Tim Mullins

[AuthenticLiberal]

The problem with Lindows and Linux is, if you happen to go out and buy a new device, say a video card, you couldn't get it to run on Linux because there are no drivers.

Anyone who buys cheap $hit hardware shouldn't expect good support on any platform. If a company is selling a brand new video card or something that important for very little, chances are they're more concerned with undercutting the competition than quality. Every Radeon, Rage128, GeForce and TNT card I've seen get thrown at Linux is supported. All major (and by that I mean Creative Labs since they own the market) sound cards are the same.

[MississippiMan]

If you're happy with what you have, if it works for you, then don't worry about Linux. Windows is an operating system, in that it creates an environment in which your computer can operate and in which you can interact with it. Linux does the same thing, but it's not as mainstream as Windows.

You wouldn't be able, for example, to go to Wal-Mart and pick any piece of software from the shelf as you can now, since the huge majority of commercial software is designed to run on Windows. You'd have to look for software designed to run on Linux. There's plenty such software out there on the Internet, but it's not nearly as standardized and often far more difficult to install. In short, it's an entirely different world. If your current way meets your needs, don't fix what ain't broke.

MM

[mattdono]

Catching up on my FREEPIN'...I missed this thread back in January...

I have been contemplating several new purchases for the house. My son is getting that age and is really starting to get into computers. I found a Lindows system that comes as an all-in-one set up, with the tower, keyboard, mouse, and a 14" flat panel LCD for $460.00. It is called Koobox and I am really thinking about getting it. I know the 14" flat panel isn't very big, but you know all of those kids games run at 800x600 anyway...

As far as Linux desktop OSs, I think that Lycoris' Desktop LX is one of the best Linux destop environments I have seen.

Their GUI would be very familiar to a Windows user, it has a fairly easy control panel/center, and seems to have a decent software installer. I read that Lycoris also has excellent hardware support with most everything except for Microsoft-made stuff. I put some screenshots of the desktop below.

Here is a shot of their desktop:

Here is the file manager:

Here is the launch menu.

Here is the Control Center (similar to Control Panel).

Lastly, the Desktop Installer.

I think I might set up a box, install Lycoris and tinker.

I have 2 XP Pro machines that have been pretty reliable. Only a few squirrely things have happened, but most of that started happening when I upgraded to winmedia player 9. Everytime I have something playing, my resources are pegged, 98-100%. I stop the music and it drops to 15%. It is weird. It is the same with the last version of WinAmp. There was so much crap added onto it that it became a burden to use.

Anyway, I thought that I would throw some thoughts out there on some Linux desktops.

And, my parting comment...learn both Microsoft and Linux, you only make yourself more valuable. 8^)

[FastCoyote]

"I'm pretty geeky myself, but I've heard Linux has a pretty steep learning curve. This I think, keeps people from bailing on Microsoft. Microsoft literally has the market on the "ease of use", as opposed to Linux where you have to do the work of configuring everything from the ground up."

I do IT and I have personally made the switch on my own projects (to FreeBSD, pretty much the same as Linux). Yup, the learning curve was steep, but the rewards in terms of price, stability, security and the ability to fix a broken system are worth the effort for me.

For the average Joe, it might not be time to jump yet, but the cost, licensing and planned obsolesence path of Windows make it a long term problem. Linux will catch up on the ease of use front. The changes due for the Longhorn upgrade of Windows due in '06 are interesting, but aren't going to make a hell of a lot of difference to someone doing a small business or surfing the web. So, there is probably some Linux in your future, especially on the server side.

[FastCoyote]

"Three letters D R M"

Yup, DRM tied to subscription licensing enforced by automated update which will progressively obsolete your computer the day you open the box. That means long term Microsoft will be in cahoots with the virus writers because they guarantee a continuing need for new versions.

I am getting off that treadmill now. It will save me tens of thousands of dollars over the next decade. I'm doing B2B websites and Java business applications using Mysql as the database engine. Apache for IIS, PhP for asp, sendmail for Exchange, Open ffice for Word and Excell, Freebsd instead of server 2003, NetBeans instead of Visual Studio, Gimp for photoshop.

Perfect systems? No, but add up the upfront cost. Then add in the upgrades needed for planned obsolescense over the coming years. Then multiply times (5) current computers and the (10) I will go to for the grid computing I will do for my business. All of a sudden, it makes sense to get over the learning curve.

[Jim Cane]

I'm pretty geeky myself, but I've heard Linux has a pretty steep learning curve.

It's no more difficult to operate than DOS (whose filesystem Linux supports)

[N3WBI3]

You should give it another shot, fedora does an automatic install with no need to recompile a kernel. I run several servers and have never had to recompile a kernel..

[N3WBI3]

Actually those are the ones with the most to gaim from switching, a default redhat/fedora distro will do all of those things easily out of the box.

The gamers, and windows application users (project/visio/...) are the ones who should stick with windows..

[N3WBI3]

Mysql is nice but it might be worth it to buy an oracle license for the stored procs. You can get by without them but it makes the application lifecycle a very difficult one..

Everything else looks like the way I might go, but if you have any schedule issues with going from ASP to PHP look into chilisoft it will let apache serve ASP pages..

Also as a suggestion, if you want to lessen the learning curve for the system administrators look into webmin which is a great web front end for unix boxes it makes sendmail administration easy enough for even an MCSE (just kidding MCSE's).

[N3WBI3]

Nevermind #47, already talked with you about this...

[pctech]

Thing for me about Linux is the confusion about drives and installing programs. I like to see "Floppy A" or "Drive C." I don't like how Linux designates these drives. Also, I like doubled clicking on an EXE file and installing a program. If Lindows or Linux has the stability of Linux and looks of Windows, I'd use it.

[FastCoyote]

Hey thanks, I'll look into webmin especially. As for stored procedures, they are being implemented now in Mysql - it is coming on like gangbusters as far as feature development. Mysql is not perfect and is sometimes a little clumsy, but it is as stable as a rock in operation and great for small to medium enterprise work. I'd sure like Oracle, but my piggy bank is very bare at the moment.

[N3WBI3]

Wow, last I had read they were not going to impliment stored procs, but its great to hear that they are now going to do it

[FastCoyote]

Mysql Stored Procedures are in the current developer release -->
Stored procedures and functions are a new feature in MySQL version 5.0. A stored procedure is a set of SQL commands that can be stored in the server. Once this has been done, clients don't need to keep re-issuing the individual commands but can refer to the stored procedure instead.