WalMart / Lindows Evaluation

[Ed Skinner]

WalMart / Lindows Evaluation
Ordered from walmart.com 10/02/02
Shipment Received 10/18/02
Evaluation Written 10/21/02

Intended Use
     This will be my spouse's system: think jazz singer, previously 
challenged by Windows98 and successfully surfing the Internet but never 
really got the hang of Email, and single- versus double-clicking was often a 
source of confusion especially when some web site was slow to come up.

About the System

Pluses
     Cheap, $216.14 delivered ($199.86 plus $16.28 shipping).
     Plugged directly into my home LAN, configured itself and allowed surfing 
of the Internet (via my permanent network connection) within 60 seconds of 
the first bootup.
     CUPS is pre-installed (as, it appears, are several other [popular?] 
print subsystems). I added a (networked) printer [via the printer maintenance 
facility in Lindows, not via CUPS http://localhost:631/ which wanted an 
unknown user-name and password]) and was printing, in the second 60 seconds 
after first bootup.
     Amplified speakers usable (i.e., not too awful) and the sound card 
works. I was playing MP3s via XMMS within the first hour of dabbling about.

Minuses
     "mount -t nfs xxx:/opt/music /music" took several minutes to complete. 
Not sure why but, once it finished, accesses to /music appeared to go 
normally with no untoward delays. (System xxx runs RedHat 7.1 with a 2.4.9-34 
RedHat built kernel.)
     Netscape 7.0 and Konqueror x.x appear to hang in similar manners. 
Because of the commonality, I suspect the problem is not in either tool but 
in some other "common" point. Copying 8+ Gigabytes via ftp over the network 
went smoothly, however, so the basic network seems to be Okay.
     Automatically logs the user in as "root" upon powerup. (Mega-dangerous 
for newbies!) No apparent mechanism to change this. Considering my spouse's 
naivete (sp?), I'm pretty much guaranteed a slow accumulation of problems 
that will one day necessitate a "format and rebuild" solution.
     Zero printed documentation on Lindows. A "First Time User" guide would 
have seemed like an obvious requirement for the market they are after. (If 
left uncorrected, I'd say this omission will be Lindows' downfall.)
     Although I rarely use floppies anymore, and therefore I didn't think I 
would care that there isn't one, there *is* a /mnt/floppy mount point and, 
when browsing through /mnt on my way to an NFS mount (/mnt/music) I had 
added, XMMS's file open window got "stuck" presumably trying to scan the 
non-existent hardware device. (I have *not* verified if adding a floppy drive 
will solve this annoyance -- the WalMart shipment includes the necessary 
signal cable and I'll be adding a floppy drive shortly just to avoid this 
nuisance.)

Other Comments
     No monitor (nor did I want one as I already had a spare available).
     No fan. Closed boxes without fans make me nervous. I'll add one for my 
own peace of mind.
     Printed documentation consisted of a "Microtel Computer System" 
installation ("plug the keyboard here") guide [a 12 page booklet containing 2 
pages of "meat"], a WalMart.com "Return Label" (for return shipment if 
needed), and a User's Manual for the motherboard (GA-6VEM series, GBT 
Technology, Hamberg Germany).
     There was no additional documentation recorded on the "Recovery Disk" -- 
the Installation Notes file was not much more than an http: link to 
lindows.com.
     Comes with two (2) CDROMs: Lindows OS Certified Recovery Disk, and a 
utilities (all Windows) disk [various drivers, BIOS flash utility and a demo 
of somthing -- none of which I examined].
     The 10 Gbyte disk has less than 1 Gbyte installed upon delivery. Lots of 
room is available but, on the other hand, lots of things (I'm accustomed to) 
are presumably missing.
     Lindows is a Debian derivitive. I'm more familiar with RedHat and, from 
time to time, the differences force me to go off and learn how to do 
something in Debian. It's six of one versus half a dozen of the other, but 
because of the path I've been on for the past two years, Debian is a "speed 
bump" to my getting things done. In the long run, knowing alternative ways of 
doing things *may* be beneficial but only time will tell.

Immediate Plans
     Add a floppy drive (out of habit and to avoid the /mnt browsing delay 
[see above]).
     Add a fan (to silence my un-ease).
     Install RedHat 8.0 (downloaded last weekend).
     Set the box up for an easy login and two desktop icons for my spouse: 
Mozilla and PowerOff.

-- 
Ed Skinner, ed@flat5.net, http://www.flat5.net/