50,000 Linux desktops deployed in Brazil [LWN.net]

50,000 Linux desktops deployed in Brazil

Posted Feb 13, 2007 20:39 UTC (Tue) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

And the "latest and greatest" version was published more then year ago ((December 19, 2005) (plus some updates after that but AFAIK not even all securoty updates are included let alone enhancements). It's used as throw-away distribution by Russian computer makers: it looks and work enough like XP to not spook buyers and when it'll not run "latest and greatest" games or MS Office their neighbor guru will wipe everything and install Window XP corporate edition (typical price in Russia is $3 today; pirated, of course).

They wanted to created "Linux like Windows XP" and they did it 100%: it's certainly buggy enough, has enough security holes and unusable enough to play in the same league.

Who the hell decided to install that in Brazil should be shot.

A note on language

Posted Feb 14, 2007 0:59 UTC (Wed) by pjm (subscriber, #2080) [Link]

I suggest rewording from "should be shot" to "is incompetent". Not everyone will find it obvious what you meant.

A note on language

Posted Feb 14, 2007 1:42 UTC (Wed) by k8to (subscriber, #15413) [Link]

With a lot of potato guns.

heh

Posted Feb 14, 2007 11:30 UTC (Wed) by gvy (guest, #11981) [Link]

Oh, if Brazilian legalese provides that bribe acceptors should be shot then the language is perfectly correct; OTOH having read recent Linux.com article from Brazil developers on actually not-so-shiny affairs with free software in the country, I doubt it's really so.

Generally, if Mr. Khimenko meant "should have their legs shot off", I would rather concur :-]

PS: I don't know _facts_ on this one but have rather strong suspicion based on the way decision-making is largely performed in Russia (I live in Ukraine -- here too) and being never confident in "accidents".

50,000 Linux desktops deployed in Brazil

Posted Feb 14, 2007 1:48 UTC (Wed) by Ed_L. (guest, #24287) [Link]

Hard to believe this decision to deploy "Linux-XP" was not informed, i.e. that whoever made it did so with full knowlege that Microsoft would end up being ripped off. The questions are who did it, and what is their agenda? Doesn't look like its to benefit Open Source.

50,000 Linux desktops deployed in Brazil

Posted Feb 14, 2007 7:01 UTC (Wed) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

As pjm already said it is possible that it's just incompetence.

You know it's dangerous to log in as root with wine installed and tuned to autorun .exe files by double-click, I know this, but if some "decision maker" hears the benefits (you can run "control panel" and install programs like in Windows - by double click; and no - you don't need to bother with passwords!) he (or she) can just believe that such a modus of operandi is the best thing since sliced bread.

The same - with rare updates. You know it's sheer lunacy to keep your system unpatched for many weeks, I know this - but when some "decision maker" hears the benefits (you can save bandwidth and hassle of too-frequent-updates)... The flip side (your system is not only ready to accept windows viruses, windows spyware but also almost always has a lot o unpatched holes) is forgotten.

Oh, and "obvious benefits" are still there, right: "it's not vulnerable to viruses, spyware and many other common threats" (number 1 praise from web-site)? Of course it's not, Linux is immune, right? Not if you log in to system as root and have wine ready to start any .exe file by double-click. Number 3 praise "you can use Windows applications and data" means just that - and it's default modus of operandi. How else can you say: Need Internet Explorer or other Windows applications? Just install and run them under Linux XP Desktop!

In short: LINUX-ONLINE certainly knows how to sell Linux XP to "unwashed masses" (from their web site: beginner is not the one who has some troubles editing sendmail config-file; if you do know what's sendmail but can not understood who's newbie - than it means you can not understand who's the target group for this product). Too bad they are doing this by creating distribution which nicely conbines the worst traits of Windows XP and Linux...

Most Linux illiterates liked Linux XP when they saw it, all Linux expert's I've seen who tried to work with it hated it and wanted to throw it away on sight, but when you only prominently show the first fact - you can just land the deal. What happens after that ? You guess is as good as mine...