PC Magazine: The Lindows Conundrum

“Look at the recent release of Mac OS X 10.1, at this
week’s Windows XP extravaganza, at the recent upgrade for the
Pocket PC OS, and at the out-of-the-blue announcement of the
vaporware called Lindows, and you’d begin to think things are
getting pretty exciting in the computing business. At least that’s
what you’d think if you were an anthropologist from Mars. Things
are heating up more out of desperation than anything else. But
there is hope for at least some excitement, thanks to Lindows.

Lindows, (www.lindows.com ) has a name that in itself is genius.
It’s software that combines Linux and Windows without violating any
trademark or copyright–although I bet Microsoft will sue at some
point. The concept is to make a cheap OS that runs both Linux and
Windows code, but that looks and runs like Windows. The Lindows
concept was dreamed up by MP3.com entrepreneur Michael Robertson,
and is encountering skepticism. Nobody is taking it too seriously
except me. I think Lindows might fly if it can conquer one simple
roadblock, and that’s running Microsoft Office 97, 2000, and XP. If
Lindows can run these versions of Office, then look out below.
Bombs away.

One reason I have high hopes for the Lindows OS is that there is
a 20-person team working on it, not a 20,000-person team. Starting
with the base Linux OS gave the Lindows team a nice head start,
after which all the team had to do was translate Windows app-to-OS
hooks. The open-source WINE project helped out there. But the
Lindows team still must make its OS run the key versions of
Microsoft Office. Once the Lindows team starts talking about
running StarOffice applications, then you’ll know the developers
have failed.”

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