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A Review of LindowsOS 4.0

Introduction

Lindows.com was established in October 2001 in San Diego, California, USA by Michael Robertson, the founder and former CEO of mp3.com. It was a stormy start. The company had initially succeeded in attracting media attention on two fronts - by ambitious claims about the future ability of LindowsOS to run many popular Windows applications, and by engaging in a legal battle with Microsoft over alleged trademark infringement. While in the following months Lindows.com quietly shelved their original plans, they were successful in defending the right to use the word "Lindows" both in their company name (Lindows.com) and their product name (LindowsOS).

After many months of development, Lindows.com finally announced the first general release of LindowsOS, version 3.0, in November 2002. Unfortunately, many reviewers found the comparatively expensive product buggy and still a lot harder to use than the operating system it was meant to replace. Yet, it wasn't all bad news. The company's developers had clearly done some much needed usability studies to bring Linux closer to general population and developed an excellent software installation utility called Click-N-Run. Lindows.com also sponsors several open source projects, including Mozilla, GAIM and KDE-look.org.

LindowsOS 4.0 was released in June 2003 and the first reviews gave an indication of a vastly improved product. For this brief overview, LindowsOS 4.0 was installed on a fairly standard system with Intel Pentium 4 1.4 GHz processor, ASUS P4T motherboard, 384 MB RDRAM, nVidia GeForce4 Ti4200, onboard Realtek 8139too network card and Lemel 17" TFT monitor.

Installation

The installation of LindowsOS 4.0 was uneventful. As expected, the user is not required to make many decisions, with the only exception being the screen prompt to select between the "take over an entire hard disk" option and the "advanced install" option. The term "advanced install" is grossly misleading as the sole available "advanced" choice is the selection of a pre-existing partition on which to install the operating system. There are no options to create/resize partitions or select more than one partition for installation, and neither there are options for specifying the file system or boot sector. LindowsOS automatically formats the hard disk or the selected partition with ReiserFS, while lilo simply overwrites the master boot record, no questions asked. There is no package selection screen either, but users are prompted to enter an optional root password if they so desire.

The entire installation took no more than a few minutes. In fact, in took less time than the subsequent first boot - presumably due to all the behind-the-scenes hardware autodetection and configuration, and also because the OS laboriously mounted all 22 partitions on my two hard disks. Some, but not all of the Linux distributions on these partitions and their correct names were present on the LindowsOS boot menu. Once the long boot completed, I found myself inside the KDE desktop environment and the first window calling for attention was a message asking me to accept the LindowsOS license agreement together with a chance to adjust a few simple configuration options. The hardware detection was flawless.

I was logged in as root with no password requested. Although LindowsOS does provide a place to add individual users to the system from within the initial configuration screen, it makes no effort to encourage the user to do so. Neither is user addition mentioned in the accompanying "Getting Started" guide. As such, it is probably fair to assume that the majority of LindowsOS users do run their operating system as superusers with no passwords set.

Applications and System Configuration

The first impression was extremely favorable. It was immediately obvious that a lot of thought had been put into making the desktop as pleasant as possible and LindowsOS has certainly succeeded in creating an intuitive and highly likable working environment. From the desktop, panel and system tray icons to careful menu design, one could immediately see that this is not just a standard default desktop as designed by KDE developers, but a highly polished and well organized setup by professional usability experts. Unlike Lycoris Desktop/LX, LindowsOS does not go out of its way to create a Windows XP lookalike, choosing instead to retain a distinct LindowsOS look and style.

The basic edition of LindowsOS does not come with many applications. Mozilla serves as a default program for web browsing and email, while GAIM is the preferred instant messenger. It is interesting to note that LindowsOS keeps GAIM up-to-date, despite never-ending changes in authentication schemes of Yahoo! Messenger and other popular instant messengers. Among the multimedia tools, only basic CD and MP3 players are supplied, while the system lacks a video player. Office applications are also missing. A simplified KDE Control Center, called LindowsOS Control Panel, is used for system configuration tasks.

Click-N-Run

The Click-N-Run warehouse is the major selling point behind the distribution. While it is essentially just a giant repository of Debian packages, its design, execution, features and general user-friendliness make this service unique among Linux distributions. At $50 per year, it is a bargain. Click-N-Run not only provides for a single-click installation, it also serves as an all-purpose tool for system and security updates (inclusive of automatic download and installation of critical updates), with useful information about the hundreds of available packages. These can be grouped into custom categories, or "aisles" in LindowsOS terms, based on user preferences. Many aisles containing task-specific package groups are already pre-configured for a single-click installation, and although they often include proprietary software requiring extra payment, they are generally useful for installing a whole group of packages without going through a tedious search process. Installed packages immediately appear on the system menu, as well as on the desktop as icons.

For those who are unable or unwilling to part with the necessary cash to join Click-N-Run, LindowsOS comes pre-configured with apt-get, with its sources pointing to Debian's testing branch.

Pros and Cons

The overall experience using LindowsOS was surprisingly positive. Besides the excellent Click-N-Run warehouse, there are many small touches where the product's attention to detail is immediately visible, such as CD automount or automatic MIME type configuration after installing new applications. Inserting a CD into the CD tray magically starts the relevant application or the file manager, just like in Windows. The Audio Assist Tutorial set provides a convenient introduction to the system, while the brief, but well-designed "Getting Started" guide is all that a new user needs to get up to speed with the new software. Hardware autodetection and configuration was amazing and even the K3B CD-burning application was all set up and ready requiring no further configuration. Lindows.com also provides active user forums with Lindows.com staff (including Michael Robertson) actively participating in the discussions.

On the negative side, the system defaults to running as a "passwordless root" and LindowsOS makes no effort to encourage proper user setup. Excessive commercialization has to be noted as another shortcoming - even inserting an unencrypted DVD promptly directs the user toward purchasing a Lindows DVD player - a commercial edition of xine with a license for DVD decoding, although even a plain xine would play the DVD just fine. The default system tray includes icons for commercial Lindows.com products, such as Virus Safe and Surf Safe, some of which are of questionable value.

Conclusion

Lindows.com has done an excellent job with LindowsOS 4.0. While some of the earlier editions came under heavy criticism by reviewers, it is clear that the developers had read those reviews and made the necessary improvements. LindowsOS 4.0 is an aesthetically pleasing, highly usable operating system with superior hardware autodetection and excellent Click-N-Run software warehouse. However, the system's default of running as a passwordless superuser is a sore point, which from a point of view of any veteran UNIX user, makes it hard to express wholehearted recommendation for the product - it would be unfair on the users and their data. There has to be a better solution to the convenience versus security compromise than the present default, or at the very least, Lindows.com should make more effort to educate and encourage users to set up proper user accounts.

Comments (10 posted)

Distribution News

Mandrake Linux

Mandrake Linux 9.2 has been released, with many new features. It can be downloaded in advance by MandrakeClub.com Members and by all 9.2 contributors, with the help of the BitTorrent technology. Mandrake 9.2 packs are available for pre-ordering at MandrakeStore.com. The 9.2 raw tree (binary packages + contribs + sources) are also available publicly through MandrakeSoft.com and on regular mirrors.

Those Mandrake 9.1 & 9.2 users who the stock ticker applet on Yahoo might want to grab the new gnome-applets package.

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Debian GNU/Linux

The Debian Weekly News for October 14, 2003 contains news about Russian Debian, a Libranet review, the SPI/Debian Trademark Committee, Debian GNU/Linux wins Linux Journal award, and much more.

Debian has been named "Favorite Distribution" in the Linux Journal Ninth Annual Readers' Choice Awards. Congratulations!

Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI), owner of the "Debian" trademark, and the Debian Project have formed a committee to better define Debian trademark policy.

Voting on a General Resolution to amend the Debian Constitution has been delayed due to changes in the proposals.

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Updated Fedora Core test release: Severn

Another test release of Severn, code name for the current incarnation of the Fedora core, is now available. The announcement (click below) contains a list of mirror sites where Severn is available for download.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 41

The Gentoo Weekly Newsletter for the week of October 13, 2003 is out. The top news this week - GNOME 2.4 has now been marked stable on x86.

Full Story (comments: none)

MontaVista Launches Carrier Grade Linux Upgrade

MontaVista Software Inc. has announced MontaVista Linux Carrier Grade Edition 3.1 (CGE). This version adds support for the IBM PowerPC architecture.

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SOT issues call for developers

GNU/Linux software house SOT Finnish Software Engineering Ltd. is inviting Open Source developers to its online community, and is making 500 SOT Linux and SOT Office CDs available free of charge to interested volunteers.

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New Distributions

Ankur Bangla Live

Footnotes reports on the release of the second beta for Ankur Bangla Live. This is a Morphix-based Live CD with GNOME 2.4, localized into Bangla (Bengali).

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Office optimized Linux (OoL)

Office optimized Linux (OoL) is a distribution that has been customized and optimized for office use. It features the KDE desktop with lots of programs for managing documents, appointments, email, and media. The current version includes Open Office 1.1.0, which offers the ability to directly export files into PDF and Flash. OoL is is brought to you by the folks at SoL (Server Optimized Linux). OoL joins the list at version 17.00o, released October 13, 2003.

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Minor distribution updates

Adamantix

Adamantix has released v1.0.2. "Changes: Many new packages, security fixes (OpenSSL, OpenSSH, etc.), new kernel 2.4.21 packages (with newer versions of PaX, RSBAC v1.2.2, transparent proxy patch, etc.), MD5 checksums added to packages that lacked this so far, and fixes for compilation/linking problems."

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CDLinux

CDLinux has released v0.4.6 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: This version fixes a path error in rc.sysinit, and now pcmciacs can now be started automatically again. rc.extra was fixed to be more careful about null strings."

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Devil-Linux

Devil-Linux has released 1.0-RC2. The announcement (click below) contains a list of things that have changed since the first release candidate.

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GNOPPIX

Footnotes reports on the release of GNOPPIX 0.6.0 beta 1. "This new version comes with Gnome 2.4 woody backports, updates and alot of improvements."

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MoviX

MoviX has released v0.8.1pre2 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: Many new MPlayer features have been imported from GeexBox (including subtitle and audio channel on-the-fly switching and the ability to use the MPlayer menu during audio-only playback). Support has been added for slideshows, and many improvements have been made to the MoviX menu."

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Snootix

Snootix has released v0.3 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: This version now installs a full LFS-4.1 system."

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VectorLinux

VectorLinux has released v4.0 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: This version is based on Slackware 9.0 and the 2.4.22 kernel. Automatic hardware configuration was implemented and XFree 4.3.0 was included. XFree 3.3.6 is no longer supported. The minimum system supported is now a Pentium 100 with 32MB of RAM and 650MB of hard drive space for the full GUI install. All of the system software was updated and a choice between IceWM, XFCE, and Fluxbox is now available. Much work was made on the ease of configuration and use."

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Distribution reviews

Babe in the Woods: A Linux User Migrates to FreeBSD (OfB.biz)

In this Open for Business article a Linux user a takes a look at FreeBSD. "I had no intention of running a thorough test of everything, just the things I needed to use. What really keeps me working with all this is not some hard-headed persistence, but that I found in FreeBSD at least two things that I came looking for: a speedy system on my aging hardware, and a chance to get off the upgrade merry-go-round."

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FIRST LOOK: Mandrake Linux 9.2 Discovery Edition (OfB.biz)

Open for Business reviews Mandrake Linux 9.2. "For the purposes of this brief preview of Mandrake Linux 9.2, we tested a copy of the new "Discovery Edition" provided to us by MandrakeSoft. The Discovery Edition replaced the "Standard Edition" offered in previous releases, but it isn't just a fancy new name - it's a desktop focused distribution intended especially for novices (although, we feel more advanced users may be pleased with the simplicity of the Discovery Edition as well)."

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Debian on Steroids II.1: When a Dot Means a Lot (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal reviews Libranet 2.8.1. "While Libranet 2.8.1 may be only a dot release, it is a compelling offering for desktop users looking for an easy to install and maintain Linux distribution. Anyone looking for a distribution that arrives ready and able to do some serious work should give this Debian distribution a try."

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Swiss Firm Intros Linux Suite (unstrung)

unstrung takes a look at Lightning-Linux 3.6, 'the "Telecom networks Linux" distribution'. "The Swiss specialist in applying full Linux systems to embedded networking, security, telecoms, industrial systems and even aerospace projects, Apliware, is announcing its newest software release 3.6 of its Lightning-Linux distribution. This new release now integrates carrier-class features for Linux, such as scalable High-Availability clustering, IP-networking protocols, and telecom-protocols." We were unable to find a place from which to download Lightning-Linux 3.6, however this page lists "Linux patches for embedded firmware 3.5".

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Page editor: Rebecca Sobol
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