Am 14. Sep, 2003 schw=E4tzte Rob Wultsch so:

I don't mind a company standing behind a distribution and making money on
it. Heck, I'm trying to get something like that here in the Valley :).

We know about Lindows due to the name and probably some business connection=
s
that could get them publicity. I'm sure lots of companies are like that.

A friend ordered a wal-mart Lindows PC on my recommendation. It looked
slick. It defaulted to logging in as root, as you note in #3 below. I
replaced Lindows with debian.

> I have been reading about lindows some and it seems to me that some of
> the hostility directed towards it might be iladvised.
>
> 1. First it is debian underneath that many of use know and love.
> 2. Every review claims that it is easly to install.

Irrelevant if it's coming pre-installed :). That they're getting companies
to pre-install it is great.

> 3. Why running as root always might not be the smatest idea, it will
> make it much easier for a windows newbie to start to undestand the
> fundamentals.

No. There needs to be a clear line between root and non-root users. That's
like saying every passenger in the car should have access to the steering
wheel. Heck, they should be encouraging multiple user accounts rather than
one-size fits all.

It is simple enough to have a GUI tool that invokes things via sudo. It
would be easy enough to have menu stuff automagically use that tool. Via
sudo they could still have passwordless entry to root ( I think that's stil=
l
foolish, but not near as bad ).

This would also make it possible to keep the kids from easily getting root.

Do we really want to make it easy to move /bin to something else?

> 4. It is a suscription based service as much as it is an OS. So most of
> the programs are availible for free (as in both), but does that mean
> that they will apt-get nicely? If Lindows can keep installation easy and
> bug free then is that not worth paying for?

As long as they make security updates no-cost and easily installable I'm
fine with them charging for upgrade of non-security updates. Same thing goe=
s
for Red Hat, Mandrake, et al.

> In case you were wondering I saw these recently and they sparked my
> interest:
> http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpN=
o=3D608176
> (a diskless workstation for $169 which appears to have a kde desktop)

POP on a diskless workstation appears to be rather foolish :).

ciao,

der.hans
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