LindowsOS 4.0 reviewed

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Company: Lindows.com Inc.
Price: $49.95 USD for the base O/S. (as tested) Antivirus: $39.95 (not tested), Lindows Office (OEM StarOffice 6.0): $49.95 "Click and Run" software subscription: starts at $14.95/month. (trial available)
Minimum Requirements: 800 MHz x86-compatible PC, 128MB memory, CD-ROM, 800x600 video card/monitor, around 1GB minimum hard drive space
Web Site: WWW.LINDOWS.COM
Test System: Compaq Armada E500 notebook (800MHz Pentium III, 128MB memory)

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"You want to live like common people you want to see whatever common people see" - Pulp, "Common People"

I READ PLENTY about Lindows... the articles, the hype, the Microsoft trademark lawsuit , the "lindows bashing" some of it by some debian/mandrake/insert-another-linux-distro-here crowd of fanatics. But I never tested the product. So here is my attempt to discover if Lindows fulfils its promise of "Linux made easy". Having used SCO's Linux in the past, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend SuSE 8.2 to the "power users" out there [Since I used SCO I recommend SuSE, get it? :)], but would you recommend Linux to your computer-illiterate aunt, father, mother, secretary, or lover, the kind of people who stare blank at the question: "what operating system are you running?" ??

When the LindowsOS package arrived, in a nice box that almost mimics the Sun StarOffice 6.0 package, I decided to eat a "dumb pill", assume nothing, forget everything I learned, and attempt a LindowsOS 4.0 installation in "end user" mode. Here's an appetizer of my conclusion: I was amazed.

A Compaq E500 portable was used for testing, since it just scraps the "minimum requirements" in terms of CPU and memory, and also is a fine testbed for "hardware compatibility", since I had a few headaches getting everything "recognized" and working with OS/2 and other linux distros in the past.

Installation
The system, normally runs Windows 2000, and had a 2GB spare "empty partition" (unformatted), which I use for testing new operating systems. So I took the Lindows 4.0 CD out, put it into the CD-ROM, crossed my fingers, and turned on the system.

The system booted the install CD showing the Lindows logo, and in a few seconds switched into full graphical mode, at 1024x768 and apparently high-colour mode, with the installer presenting two simple options: "Take over hard disk (you will lose your existing operating system)" and "Advanced" which lets you select a partition to install it. I selected "Advanced" because I couldn't afford to lose the Win2k partition, and a screen asked me to "highlight a partition" to use for installation. There was only one problem: only the NTFS win2k partition was shown. Apparently, "empty space" is not recognized and there is no option to create a new partition from that screen. Developers: take note. I know not many end-users have unformatted empty space in their hard disk arrangement, but still, there should be an option there to create a new partition.

No problem, I aborted the install, formatted the secondary partition as FAT, and rebooted from the install CD. This time, "Advanced" install showed the two available partitions, I selected the second one, and it accepted it, starting the installation. There was no question other Linux distros ask you, like "do you want Lilo or Grub", or "select a file system type". No need for that really, does your aunt need to know what is a file system and the 4-letter abbreviations for each type? I would later find out that in fact the default (and only) file system used is not the old "ext2" as I had assumed, but actually the REISERFS journaling file system!. Nice-touch!

At that point you are prompted for two things: a "COMPUTER NAME", and a "SECURITY PASSWORD", which is explained as the password used to login to your computer. Notice the careful wording. Obviously you are setting the ROOT password, but my aunt wouldn't know any "roots" not related to plants or trees. Double Nice Touch!

It started furiously copying files from the CD to the hard disk, while advertising screens hinted about how easy, powerful, and compatible Lindows is. I also remember a few references to "Click and Run". Since I didn't know what it was (but I would soon find out for sure ;), I relaxed, turned on the radio for some music, and looked at the timer on my watch.

Around eight minutes after the copying process started, there was suddenly no sound from the CD. A prompt asked for a reboot. I did so. A screen told me "Installation complete, remove CD". Stupid me, I forgot it would boot from the install cd! But waitaminute. Installation complete?. In just 8 minutes? Surely there was some error.

Guess not, I rebooted and a screen showed the Lindows logo, and asked if I wanted to boot "Windows 2000" or "lindows OS 4.0", with the second being the default option. I realized LindowsOS installed its own MBR-based boot manager. Third nice touch!. (I previously had my own, favourite, MBR boot manager in place, Docsboot, which LindowsOS overwrote without asking, but let's not forget the LindowsOS target audience is highly unlikely to have ANY boot manager in place).

The devil in me, asking for trouble, decided to stick a "generic" USB 2.0 Cardbus controller card into the PCMCIA slot, and plug an external USB 2.0 hard disk, made out of a generic IDE<->USB2 chinese plastic enclosure and a Samsung SV1204H 120gb 5400rpm hard disk. Why? I guess I was just asking for trouble and expecting it would crash and burn.

I plugged the RJ45 cable from my hub into the notebook's built-in Ethernet port, and selected "LindowsOS" from the Lindows boot-manager screen. In about a minute, the system showed me a login screen, with "Administrator" as the default account, and already at full resolution (1024x768 hi-colour). After I logged in with my "security password", I was shocked to hear the desktop-loading sound from what I realized was KDE (but is never identified as such, remember, my aunt wouldn't know what "kde" is!)

It turns out LindowsOS had not only correctly identified the video chipset and set the maximum resolution and supported by my notebook's LCD, but also automatically identified the sound chipset! Not even an "XF86config" screen or other nasty parameters to fill during the install process. I wasn't still recovered from the shock when the neatly organized default desktop appeared, also showing the "License agreement" that you must agree to - and reminding you that Lindows is not related to Microsoft or Windows in any way. Just in case you thought Microsoft had finally made a killer-OS-. :). The first impression, I mean the default desktop looked a bit like this .

An icon on the desk showed me my removable USB 2.0 drive. No drivers to install, no questions, it was just recognized and worked. An indicator on the kde panel showed that the system's APM support was recognized, as it showed my system was running with AC power, and that the battery level was at 100%. At that point I wondered if I was dreaming. I double-clicked on the "web browser" icon and the Lindows.com default page loaded. It means the OS recognized the internal ethernet port. Not only that, it also automatically picked an IP address using DHCP from my router, and I was surfing the Interweb from the very first minute, zero pain.

When I double-clicked on printers I saw a HP1100. I was certain I was on drugs at that point. It couldn't possibly have discovered my network printer, or would it?. It turns out it was my SHARED PRINTER (with Samba), configured on another (desktop) Linux system on my home LAN.

I give LindowsOS 4.0... 10/10 points in hardware compatibility and ease of install. Every Linux should be as easy to setup. The installer auto-detects everything as far as possible, and keeps the questions to the user to a minimum: I had to answer 3 things during the whole process: install type, computer name, and password!.

My kudos to the lindowsOS installer-development team, they have a winner!

Under the hood, and over the desk
I won't bother you with the dirty details about the software on the default install, I will just describe what is included in a few words.

The browser included is called "Lindows Internet Suite" but is actually Mozilla. What level? Sadly pre-1.4, very likely a Mozilla 1.4 "release-candidate" (the about screen doesn't show much info, as you can see here, but a quick visit to the http://privacy.net browser-sniffing page showed it identified itself as based on the Netscape/Mozilla "Gecko" engine, with a date of "20030620" -that is a pre-1.4 release).

I hope at some point the different Linux distro makers realize the sillyness of releasing a new build just weeks or days before the Sun guys release a new major java update, or the browser makers release a major browser update. It happened to SuSE several times, and I'm sure to other distros as well, and it happened to the Lindows guys here. It should be trivial to have some communication with the Browser guys and the Java guys (and why not the OpenOffice/StarOffice guys as well) and schedule OS releases as much as possible to follow the major browser/java revisions. This time, around June 26, Sun released Java 1.4.2, which fixed several thousand bugs, Netscape released the 7.1 browser, and Mozilla turned version 1.4. Had they waited a few more weeks, they could have bundled all these with the base OS. -But that is only the opinion of a lousy writer-. ;). "WTF do I know". :D

Despite not being the "latest greatest" Mozilla, it does the job very well. The fonts looked smooth smooth. A quick look at the "About plug-ins" screen showed that FLASH 6 and Sun's Java2 version 1.4.1_02 was installed. Cool! So you have web browsing and a great email client with pop3/imap4 support avaiable just a click away.

PDF files are associated by default to "KGhostview", which is very fast and loaded a test pdf file in just 2 seconds measuring from double-clicking on the file. Going back to the internet topic, "AIM" instant messaging is included with the easily reacheable AIM icon which loads the "GAIM" client, which surprisingly looks better than AOL's official AIM for Linux.

The command-line is conveniently hidden under Utilities->Konsole. Also, NO C/C++ compiler is included. This is good, I guess, from a security point of view, as there is no chance someone can remotely break in and compile a "root kit". Which brings me to the main criticism I often hear from people who despise Lindows: "It runs by default as root! it's a security nightmare!". Yet I was able to click on the highly reacheable "USER MANAGER" icon and setup two separate test accounts, with no problem. If you login as a non-root (excuse me, "administrator" in Lindows-speak) user and want to install new software using Click-and-Run, the system will prompt you for the administrator password, letting the Click-n-Run installer do its chores as root. So, it's a non-issue, as far as I'm concerned.

After filling out the "workgroup" information for my home network, I was able to see the rest of my systems when double-clicking on the Network Browser icon, including my Intel NAS storage appliance, and access shared folders. Hassle-free.

Setting up my network printer (an HP Laserjet 1100 connected to an Axis print server on the LAN), was as easy as following the prompts, unlike my previous experience with Caldera Openlinux which flat refused to work correctly using the print server's "Raw tcp/ip printing" mode that does not use LPR/LPD. A wizard even scanned my local subnet and detected the network printer, let me setup the port# (9920) and printed a CUPS test page. It did in minutes what took me a week of hair-pulling on Caldera Openlinux.

Then, I used the Lindows browser to download and manually install the Netscape 7.1 browser, since I missed the aim/icq sidebar client and the ability to check my @netscape.net webmail accounts from the Netscape Mail client. It worked flawlessly as you can see here and here .

It would have been nice if the LindowsOS guys had sent the INQUIRER free copies of the "Lindows Office" CD containing their OEM version of the Sun StarOffice 6.0 suite (hint, hint :). Instead, I had to grab my own box of Sun StarOffice 6.0 and install the application by clicking on the Setup file on the Linux folder of the Sun CD. It installed and ran fine as you can see here .

So, basically what you get with the base LindowsOS 4.0 *IS* an end-user Linux installation, capable of running any Linux software downloaded from the web or purchased on cd, that provides its own installer and doesn't rely on the availability of a compiler and doing the "./configure" "make" and "make install" dance.

The Click and Run ^R^R^R^R^R INSTALL OS
So far I've covered only the base LindowsOS. The one you get on a CD for $49.95. But Lindows.com certainly encourages you at every possible opportunity to sign up for the "Click and Run Warehouse", a service with a monthly fee of $14.95 that allows you to "Click-and-Install" any of thousands of pre-packaged applications (It should really be renamed "Click-and-Install" rather than "Click and Run" :), as it is what it really does.

There are three, yes three "Click and Run" buttons (from here on, referred as "CnR"), one next to the big "L" (KDE equivalent for the "Start" menu), another on the desktop in the column of default icons, and finally other in the KDE equivalent of the "systray". The later shows the running "Click and Run" process, which automatically checks the LindowsOS.com site for operating system fixes and updates and automatically installs them. Nice touch!

I ended up deleting one of the "green icon with the running man" CnR icons, because of the redundancy. I also enrolled in the free 14-day trial for the CnR service, to see what all the hype was about.

It turns out it was no hype! In fact, this became evident when, after opening the CnR program, which looks like this, I decided to "Click and Run" I mean, Click-and-Install (I told you guys it should be renamed!!) RealPlayer for Linux. After the progress bar was completed a "RealPlayer" icon popped up on the desktop!. No dropping to shell, no "chmod +x" (giving the installer file "executable" permissions), and no "./setup" typing!. And then no need to create a "program link" on the desktop and hunting the icon file.

This is the killer feature of LindowsOS4.0, and I think it would be better if they renamed it as "broadband OS" or "Click and Install" OS, as it certainly is one end-user product which excells at both.

Of course, all this comes at a price... you have to pay your monthly fee to "stay in the loop". But the good news is that even if you cancel your CnR membership, what you have downloaded and installed is "yours to keep". So for a single $14.95 payment you can have your relative click-and-install a good selection of open source or free software (OpenOffice is, for example, available in the Click-and-Run wharehouse).

If you think $14.95 a month is too high a price, think how much is worth for you losing time and hearing your relative over the phone every weekend asking "how-to-install-this-or-that"? or trying to guide him/her to "chmod" and "make install" (or rpm) something on some-other-linux distro?.

Some items on the "Click-and-Run" wharehouse are freeware, or open source. So why pay for them? Well, you are not paying for the software, you are paying for the ease of installation, in other words, the bandwidth and space used to host the "click-and-run" packaged software on the Lindows.com server, and the privilege of having it auto-installed in your desktop without ever seeing a command line interface. Other items on the CnR selection are commercial, and hence carry an additional charge. For instance, OpenOffice is free for CnR members (as Acrobat Reader and thousands of other items) but Sun StarOffice 6 for linux is $29.95, not bad, indeed. You might be asking "what is the difference then between installing StarOffice 6 from the CnR online system and purchasing the "Lindows Office" for $49. The answer is twofold: with Lindows Office you get a CD delivered to you with the program, and it apparently adds a package of 50 commercial Bitstream fonts.

To test how good were the system's multimedia features, I installed "MPlayer" from Click-and-Run. It installed and worked fine, and played two video files fine, AT ONCE, and with sound on both files mixing simultaneously (two instances of mplayer). Try that with Windows Media Player! Screenshot here.

Limited Win32 compatibility is provided via Wine, which as you know is a windows API compatibility layer and emulator, and which can be installed from Click-and-Run. Installation didn't create an icon on the desktop for this one, since there is nothing Wine can do without a win32 application. The Microsoft Word Viewer, available from Microsoft's site, was incredibly installed as if it were running on Windows, after I clicked on the ".exe" installer file just grabbed from the Microsoft site. A "word viewer" icon was even created on the desktop. I opened the Microsoft Windows Word-Viewer and was able to read a .doc file using it. Didn't even have to see the command line interface or configure anything. Amazing. Screenshot is here.

As a final test of the "Click and Run" system I decided to hot-plug my Umax 1220-S scsi scanner with an adaptec 1460 controller. The system beeped, the card was apparently recognized. I went to click-and-run and selected "XSane" a graphical scanner application that uses the SANE "backend". Apparently, the "CnR" packaged XSane included the "back end" as well (which on other distros you also might need to install and config separatelly). The application installed, I selected "auto-detect scanner", it was correctly identified as a UMAX 1220S. I inserted a random magazine into the flatbed scanner, pressed "preview" and watched with my jaw dropped as the scanned image appeared on the screen. (I still remember the hassle of manually editing SANE ascii configuration files on my previous adventure with scanning under linux!!). You can see the scanning test here.

Imagine my aunt using click-and-run to automatically install SANE, and then plugging a scanner and have it working, all without bothering me over the phone. I'm delighted.

The Good
Top-notch installation process. Easiest linux I've seen. Auto-detects everything, as far as possible.

Great price. $49.95 for the base O/S, plus $49.95 for an OEM version of Sun StarOffice 6.0 with commercial quality spellchecker, thesaurus, etc, and with the addition of 50 high-quality Bitstream fonts, is a killer combo, imho

Click-n-Run gives you the peace of mind of recommending Linux to newcomers or computer-illiterate people. When they bug you over the phone you only need to say "Click on the green icon showing a running man" and let him/her figure out his way from there to install new software.

Lindows.com runs very well done discussion groups, where users can ask for questions and get answers from peers. You can see what they look like here

PPoE support is included for ADSL/Cable users, and the whole process of installing software new applications from "Click and Run" would please my computer-illiterate aunt very much. Plus, I would get no calls from her bothering me. :)

For those that do not want to get into the "Click and Run" membership system. There are third party sites that offer ready-to-install packages for LindowsOS users, some of such sites are listed at the end of this article.

The Bad
It's hard to find something bad to say about such a polished product. The email client on the Mozilla-based "Lindows Internet Suite" browser is configured by default to "check spelling before sending", which is great for my aunt, but I found highly annoying. It can be turned off, hopefully.

The notebook's internal Lucent LT-WinModem wasn't recognized. But then that piece of crap is not recognized by any other non-Windows operating system, not even by those that have a winmodem driver. Creating and establishing a dial-up connection worked well when using a PCMCIA modem.

I looked around for Ksnapshot but there was no screen-capture application that I could find (I'm sure some reviewers will be mad ;). I had to download "Captura", a freeware application from the TUCOWS' Linux section.

It would be very nice if Real Player was installed by default, instead of being a "Click-n-Run" item. A folder with links to "internet radios" streaming URLs that automatically load Real Player with the desired station would also be a killer. This is not included I'm afraid.

I managed to crash LindowsOS twice by "hot-removing" the PCMCIA modem and later the Adaptec PCMCIA SCSI adapter. There should be a "pcmcia" icon in the "systray" (sorry I'm using windows terms here) as there is no obvious way to "power off" or disconnect PCMCIA cards after they're plugged from the KDE interface. As this was my first Linux installation on a portable, I'm sure I'll be flooded in hate-mail, sorry guys, all my Linux boxes are desktops.

Click-and-Run is bandwidth-intensive. Don't even think about it if you got a dial-up connection. It certainly benefits from a 256kbps or higher ADSL or cable modem connection.

wget should be included, even if only for the small minority who knows what wget is. (note for Windows readers: a command-line, gnu file retrieval tool with resume, among other things :).

If you want a choice of KDE or Gnome, pre-installed compilers and other development tools, and so on, you're better off with another, more geek-oriented Linux distro (my favorite is SuSE). Do not hate-mail me, and keep in mind the target market that Lindows is aiming at.

The Ugly*
At points the "subscribe to Click-n-Run" speech can get annoying. For instance if you click on an .avi file, the default file-extension association calls up the browser, which loads a Lindows.com page telling you that "you can view AVI and other multimedia files with MPLAYER, part of the 'Click-and-Run' software selection. Something like this .

I would prefer to pay a bit more for the base software instead of $49, but have a 6-months introductory "click-and-run" membership, with the installed programs to be kept on my system if I decide not to enrol after that introductory period.

Finally
Lindows has a killer Linux distro. I can finally recommend a Linux distro for "common people", without fear of being bugged repeatedly over the phone with questions, or awaken in the middle of the night asking why some application doesn't install.

But "it's not really Linux, how come a Linux doesn't include the GCC compiler?? why no gnome?" -I hear you all debian, mandrake, SuSE, RedHat fans saying. OK, if you want to say so, then it's not linux, but for me, it's "a better Lindows than Linux". One you can install into your mother's PC without headaches.

Scott McNeally, if you want to have the ultimate weapon against Microsoft, and have a foot into the elusive consumer market, do you have any cash at hand, and are you reading? µ

* FERNANDO TELLS me that the click'n'run sub service is $4.95 a month, or $49.50 a year. Ed. Apologies.

L'INQS
Lindows site
Netscape 7.1 for Linux
LindowsDownload.com (third party downloads site)
LindowsGuide.com (third party Lindows news site)