Posted on 04/03/2002 4:39:15 PM PST by reformed_democrat
Remember when every house had just one television? Today, it's not uncommon for families to have multiple televisions. The personal computer is poised to experience the same phenomenon. The tipping point will be when a personal computer is cheaper than the desk it sits on. Then we'll see PCs appearing in every room of every house and employees will have more than one computer on their desk.
As prices fall, PCs are moving from one per person (or per family) big-ticket items to common appliances. They're becoming commodities that can be dedicated to a task or a location. Tomorrow's teenager will be asking for a "chat computer" to do instant messaging in their bedroom, just as the generation before them pled for a telephone. Every major electronic manufacturer sells a capable $500 computer and there's no indication that the low-end price will stop there. This downward price trend will trigger an explosion of computer ownership and ultimately close the digital divide.
Artificially high-prices for software is the one obstacle preventing this trend from truly exploding. While Microsoft contends that no consumers (or companies for that matter) have been hurt by their illegal practices over the last decade, that's simply not true. With no competitors keeping Microsoft's prices in check, they have consistently raised prices of their software and instituted onerous licensing terms. Billions of dollars are being transferred from consumer's wallets to Microsoft's coffers. More importantly, these tactics have prevented computing from reaching the digitally disadvantaged as well as slowed the growth of the multi-computer family and business.
Fortunately, LindowsOS addresses this issue by offering an affordable product, which is well-suited for a cost-conscious business environment or a 13-year-old's bedroom. We've spent a considerable amount of time with our upcoming version of LindowsOS making sure that it will handle many of the computing tasks and file types that people have grown accustomed to using. Users of our Sneak Preview 2 (SP2) will be greeted with a pleasing interface which will handle browsing and email. More impressively, it will handle common file formats - even those proprietary to Microsoft. It's now commonplace for Microsoft Word ".doc" files, Microsoft Excel ".xls" and Microsoft PowerPoint ".ppt" files to be sent as attachments or posted on public web sites. LindowsOS users can view and print these files without buying any additional software. On the web, Macromedia Flash, Adobe PDF files, graphics and audio formats, like MP3s, are now common-fare and accordingly, LindowsOS opens or plays them all with a single mouse click. You can test a list of file formats LindowsOS handles by visiting: http://www.lindows.com/filetypes .
This level of seamless compatibility with common computing formats has never been achieved before with any out-of-the box non-Microsoft installation. We think it's an essential step in the process to bring more people to the possibility of an affordable choice.
SP2 will be released next week. With a speedy five-minute installation process either alongside an existing Microsoft Windows 98, or as the only operating system on a computer, consumers can experience an affordable computing solution.
Microsoft has waged a war against all computer manufacturers who ship computers with Linux or no operating system in an attempt to keep prices high. The day has come when consumers should stand up and demand an alternative and OEMs should stop kowtowing to Microsoft pressure. Next week, Lindows.com takes a big step towards offering a viable alternative. It's not the finished product, but with the help of our Insiders (www.lindows.com/signup), we'll meet our goal of a final product later this year.
Michael Robertson
CEO of Lindows.com
michaelr@lindows.com
Bringing choice to your computer!
Lindows.com has released a Sneak Preview of LindowsOS to a select group of Insiders. The Sneak Preview is not a fully completed product but showcases many of the unique features such as a "Friendly-Install" alongside an existing Microsoft Windows operating system, a streamlined installation process which requires no computer knowledge and the ability to run popular Windows-based programs. This will be followed by Version 1.0 which will go on sale later this year. For more information see www.lindows.com/products
LindowsOS and Lindows.com are trademarks of Lindows.com, Inc. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. Microsoft Windows operating system is a registered trademark or service mark of the Microsoft Corporation.
I thought anyone with enough nerve to go up against Microsoft without DOJ financing had to have either a very good product or rocks in their head. Maybe both.
I haven't tried Lindows yet, but it will probably get the better of me by the end of the week, and I'll have to go get it and install it.
Just wanted to see what the rest of the techies here think of this.
I wish them the best of luck. This has been tried before without success.
Me too. The policies built into XP are bad enough that the employer doesn't want any such machines onsite. Whether it's Lindows or Lycoris (formerly Redmond Linux -- too bad they gave up the nice provocative name) or someone else, I'd like to see a Linux that was easy for the _average_ user to install.
Why would I want a PC in every room in my house? I don't need a TV, guitar, microwave, or sock drawer in every room.
Anyway, pretty soon we will all be wearing computer implants. I'll blink my eyes or snap my fingers in order to surf the web.
That's a bit old fashioned. You ought to just be able to think about something and have the computer respond.
I think they did pretty good with the name they chose. Most of their website details the court battle between them and Microsoft. Whoever was working in the trademark office the day they granted Microsoft a trademark on a generic, widely used term like "Windows" was taking way too many drugs ...
Currently shipping is Codeweaver's Crossover Office, another custom Wine server that currently runs MS Office ('97 & 2000, not XP) and Lotus Notes.
I've been running CXOffice with MS Office '97 for about a week, under RH Linux 7.2. It's not perfect, but it's quite functional.
What? Where?
Fortunately, X-Free86 is not a reverse-engineer of the Windows GUI. Gnome and KDE are both very nice Window Managers, and Lindows appears to be running KDE in the screenshots. An API compatability layer (WINE) is also a complete clean-room codebase, so M$ can't say anything about it.
The term "Windows" and "Windowing" date back to at least 1973, before the sainted "Altair" that so torqued Gates' imagination. Burroughs (now Unisys) introduced a smart Video terminal in a client/server setup with the then midrange B3500-B3700 computer. The terminal featured "Windows" capability...Separately addressable zones or "Windows" for Graphical interface capability. At least one notorious New York Bank used the setup in its Trust Division for securities processing.
Typical App involved typing client info and Security CUSIP Number into the top Window. The Response was a Window customized for the Security (Over 700 types, including several for Antiques, perhaps including said Bank's own boxed set of very antique dueling pistols). The bottom Window ustally told the Data Entry person status info, prompts, etc., etc., etc.
Believe me, "Windows" was in common use among cutting (and Bleeding) edge Man-Machine Interface designers for GUI based products long before Mr Gates even entered, let alone dropped out of...Harvard!
Idiot.
The X11 (can't call it by its original name "X Windows") code base predates MS Windows by a considerable margin. Sun Windows and DEC Windows both lost their names too.
Gnome and KDE are both very nice
I like KDE. The defaults are all wrong, but it is very customizable.
Heh. I never saw one of those, just a bit before my time. If I'd known its history, I would have chosen a different alias.
Believe me, "Windows" was in common use among cutting (and Bleeding) edge Man-Machine Interface designers for GUI based products
Yup. As I pointed out in another post, there were at least three "Something Windows" -- X, Sun and DEC before there was a Microsoft Windows.
In fact if I were these guys, I would ditch the play on the Windows name even though they won a court case to keep it. I'd play off AMD's position. Call the offering "Athlos" or something like that. People who buy AMD processors are already mavericks; they might be the perfect segment to target.
Back when Windows was still "mouthware," there was another piece of mouthware out there called "Visi-on" from the then-spreadsheet-leader Visicalc. At the time Visicalc might have even been the bigger company... I'm not sure. In any event, they never really made Visi-on work, so they lost.
I won't buy anything but Athlon processors (Intel can go stuff it!) and I don't consider myself a maverick.
The only catch is that I can't just disassemble your OS to do it - it has to be a "clean" black-box implementation of the API.
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