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...