[ale] Lindows vs the semi-annual Windows suck-a-thon

[Dow Hurst]

You can install SuSE 8.1 and Codeweavers to get MSoffice available.  The 
MSoffice under Codeweaver's cxoffice is absolutely perfect to use.  The 
only problems I've had with cxoffice are unsupported apps I've tried to 
load like Chem4D-Draw or EndNote (Reference manager).  That stuff 
pretended to load but wasn't completely functional in one way or 
another.  The Chem4D ran fine but wouldn't copy nicely to the clipboard 
for pasting into MSWord or MSPowerpoint.  Endnote was way less 
functional, crashing upon most operations.  MSoffice itself runs 
beautifully.

Linux Format has a review of either Xandros or Lindows in this month's 
magazine.  From what I remember, it was nice but required additional 
downloads to become as functional as an average user would like.  
Apt-get is hidden under the hood so ease of getting stuff is builtin.  
I'd recommend going to Barnes and Noble and looking at the review since 
there were a couple of gotcha's.  I seem to remember that if your 
network card doesn't work your hosed on the install near the beginning 
of it.  I don't think there was a workaround either.  It has been over a 
week since I looked at the article.
Dow


Joe wrote:

>Hi folks,
>
>I'm sitting here trying to get Win98 working on my wife's machine
>*again*. As usual, the box, which boots and runs beautifully under
>Linux, absolutely refuses to function properly under Win98
>(specifically, it refuses to install any driver for a PCI
>network card of any description - well, Netgear FA311s and
>DLink D530s, anyway). There's little bits of computer guts
>scattered all over the living room as I try different combinations
>of junk-bin hardware, trying to create a system that Winblows
>will deign to boot properly on. Not exactly a recipe for marital
>bliss. I'd love to just install some variety of Linux on the
>thing and be done with it, but my last attempt to convert
>my wife ended with a fizzle.
>
>So into my inbox drops a CNN article about the new Lindows.com $799,
>1Ghz, 256MB, 20GB laptop. It looks pretty sweet, and the desktop looks
>familiar enough (read "Windows-esque") to prevent my lovely and
>talented but technophobic spouse from having a stroke. I wonder, can I
>download this OS? Surely I can, it says right on their web site it's
>based on Linux, so certainly it ought to be available under the GPL,
>no?
>
>But no, it's a proprietary EULA, with a specific exception
>for any open-source licensed software included in the
>distro. What's up with that?
>
>The Lindows OS is $129, and apparently I can get a complete
>system with Lindows pre-installed at Mall-Wart for $199.
>Hmm.
>
>So, anybody using Lindows? What do you think? If it sucks,
>what then would be a good distro to use for someone who doesn't
>necessarily like Windows, but is used to it and doesn't
>want to have to learn something else? (Hear those "distro
>flamewar" sirens wailing in the distance?)
>
>Thanks,
>
>-- Joe Knapka
>_______________________________________________
>Ale mailing list
>Ale at ale.org
>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
>  
>

-- 
__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744
1000 Chastain Rd., Bldg. 12
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144
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*Computational Chemistry is fun!*
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