lindows 4.5

[Kenazo]

Has anyone used it? How does licencing work for it? Does every installed instance of it need to be licenced, ala windows, or can you buy it once and legally install it on 50 different computers?

 

[Alex]

read this thread. theres information for a free time limited download/license of lindows 4.5

 

[Kenazo]

FRICK! it says the code expired today, but it must have expired like an hour ago or something. Oh well.

 

[hkctr]

You didn't miss anything. The download and installation was a total waste of time for me. I was curious about what the Lindows fuss was all about so I wanted to see for myself. Never got the chance. It is the only linux distro I have ever installed (over 20 and counting) that failed to boot after installing. It writes over your mbr without giving you a chance to opt out and left my PC unbootable. Fortunately, I have a Fedora rescue disk to bail me out and enabled me to reinstall grub.

The PC just freezes when the scroll bar gets about 2/3 of the way finished. No idea what it is doing because you do not get the option to see the os load during boot. I rebooted into another distro and checked the logs to see where it failed and guess what? There are none! No boot logs in linux? What is Lindows trying to do?

My setup is as vanilla and linux friendly as you can get:
i845 m/b w/P4
768bm ram
SBLive! Value
3com 3c59x nic
GeForce2 Ti

What a joke.

 

[SKORPI0]

Works great for me. No mention of a expiration date during installation, just a license aggreement. Took about 35 minutes to install on a spare HDD. As a precaution I removed power to the other HDD. System booted without any problems, just entered my password to Login.

Looks a lot like Suse Linux 9.0. Now all I need are the correct drivers for the GF4 Ti4200 and Canon i560 printer. Getting only up to 1024X768 24-bit (60Hz) on my 21" Dell 1626HT CRT.

Posting with the Konqueror 3.01 browser right now.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Gigabyte GA-7VRXP rev1.1
Seagate 4.3 HDD 5400 rpm Ultra ATA-3
Athlon 1800+
512mB PC2100 (Crucial - registered ECC)
PNY GF4 T14200
LiteOn LDW-851S

 

[drag]

heh.

Did you know that Lindows is realy a modified version of Debian Woody?

Just check it out. You should even have "apt-get" installed and can sync up with current debian stable if you want. (after a small amount of work, of course)


The main reason I don't like Lindows is that they do stuff like have your default user be "root" and that's just plain dangerous.

Being multi-user to the core with distinct and fundamental divisions between users and root is one of those things that keeps away viruses and protects you from hackers.

Plus a program malfunction or a mis-typed command can destroy your OS if your root.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I just finished the 4.5 developer's edition install. And, yes, it looks WAY TOO MUCH like SuSE. But it was a perfect install. But compared to other linux distros that I've played with, this one isn't any more decent than any others. The whole click-to-install thing is a good idea (firebird anyone?) but making people pay for a membership to the site that gives you software choices SUCKS BALLS. I would rather that entire feature not to exist than have it exist and have me be required to pay extra each month for access. It's the MS of Linux. With that in mind, I really hope this thing doesn't turn anymore into a POS. Oh well. We'll see.

 

[Alex]

i was about to download it when i was like what am i doing why the hell do i need this. ppl are saying it sucks and i like mandrake because i dont have to reformat my HD. so screw this crap!

 

[Idoxash]

Yah dude it sucks they do some things that totaly not kewl but then again what you must realize and you probly herd this 100s of times is that Lindows is focuse at Windows users not LINUX/UNIX users. I've not use Lindows but it looks ok for what it does. What I have issues with is how they took mozilla, gaim, few other programes and change their names. That's totaly freaked up ya know. I hear Lindows gives a lot back "money, code, hire other linux dev ppl, ect ..." but chaning names of programes is kinda freaked still. Maybe I'm missing something.

--Idoxash

 

[shimsham]

does it have shockwave? flash im sure but shockwave.

 

[drag]

Remember Lindows IS linux.

It's just packaged differently. All the applications are rebadged versions of common linux programs you get from any other distribution. For instance "Lindows Browser" would be either Mozilla or konquerer.

So for example if you can't get shockwave in mandrake you can't get shockwave in Lindows. Shockwave is a product of macromedia, and they simply do not have a linux client for that sort of thing. Flash they do, but not shockwave.

 

[earthman]

Lindows gives full credit to the original program in the "about" sections. Since its open source, they can call the components whatever they want. They're not trying to fool anybody. As far as stuff like Mozilla, they have contributed over half a million dollars to that project, how much have you contributed to it? They have probably invested more money in open source software than anyone, and should be respected for it. Their software works as well as any other "distro", if not better. They do not force you to run as "root", you can set up users just like any other Linux. If it looks like SuSE, it's because they both use KDE3 with similar themes. As for the cost, I hardly think its excessive. It's not freeware. It costs about the same as any other boxed 'nix distro. And most of all, they are the only company with the balls to take Microsoft on in court, and should be respected for that, too.

 

[yugpatel]

I d/l 4.5 and installed it without any problem on my Toshiba laptop and works flawlessly. Infact I liked it over RedHat distro due to Click_N_Install feature. The only drawback to Lindows is their Warehouse charge of $50 per year to down load various softwares, but INMHO, it is worth compared to MicroSuck's pricy tools and upgrades for average user. If you are seasosned Linux user, you can get GNU packages and install it yourself. Another thing I did not like about installation is it does not let you select default O/S and such things. In short, I liked it and going to stick with it. I definately will give it two thumbs up from ease of use point of view.

 

[Jeff7181]

I'm in line to download it in case I feel like trying it... but I have a few questions about it...

What advantage does it REALLY have over Windows? (beisdes the usual "Linux is more secure, MS is teh suck, etc.")

Can it read NTFS partitions?

If I have Lindows installed on a computer, can I share a drive over my network and have Windows PC's be able to access the shared drive?

Is it's Remote Desktop application compatible with MS's Remote Desktop? (probaby not, but I figured I'd ask anyway)

I've heard/read before that WINE is built into Lindows. Is that true? Or does it just get installed with it? Does it work worth a crap?

I can't find any minimum requirements for the laptop version... can someone point me to some?

 

[drag]

Lindows sucks. It's made by the same guy that created MP3.com and is a shameless self-promoter.

If you want to try out linux use Mandrake or Fedora. You can download ISO's free from the internet and with mandrake or redhat you can buy it for very reasonable prices and get extra support for installation and windows compatability software that is unavaible thru normal versions.

Minimal requirements for most everything is the same as windows. For a full fledged desktop your going to need a 1ghz and 256 megs of ram. For a simple file server 64megs of ram and a 200-300 mhz proccessor is great.

You can run it on anything from a 486 to a IBM mainframe, but 486 is going to be SLOW. For a positive experiance 800mhz and 256megs is ideal. More memory is better then more CPU if you have make a choice on a budget. Bare minimum for a "usable" desktop enviroment is going to be around a 400mhz era computer, you can cut away a lot to make it run fine on a much slower computer, but it's not something most people can deal with right away.

Most distros can read NTFS just fine, however making/moving/copying files isn't well supported and is turned off by default.

All the drivers you usually need are included with the default installs. Older hardware is better because it would have a longer time to get supported. Troublespots are with nforce boards (drivers from nvidia.com
nforce = nforce 1 and 2), ATI video cards(3-d acceleration only), wifi stuff, and laptops in general.

Hardware is hard for linux sometimes because most manufacturers don't care how well their stuff works as long as it works with windows. The open source nature means that the amount of public discloser isn't something manufacturers like a whole lot.

Some laptops are much better supported then others. IBM laptops are generally ok, most laptops will have 90% work right off of the bat, but may have annoying issues with the networking or X won't work correctly.

Check out http://www.linux-laptop.net/ for details on specific models.

I like linux because it's secure, free, Free(different ways), and generally interesting to use. Windows is boring and their isn't realy a whole lot you can do with it. With linux the sky is the limit and their are no built in limitations like maximum amount of connections or cut down server versions.

Something at least worth checking out.

 

[Jeff7181]

I asked about NTFS mainly because I have a 160 GB hard drive that's about 80% full in the computer I want to try Lindows on. I use that computer kinda like a file server right now, but it's also used as a backup computer for other family members to use when someone else is using the main computer. Basically all that gets done on it is word processing, web browsing, (AOL cause of one family member, but that's not necessary), it's file serving role, and I run SETI@Home on it 24/7.