“Lindows, a version of the open-source Linux operating system
aimed at consumers put off by the cost of Windows, has been on the
market for only a year or so, but it’s already made some impressive
gains: It comes pre-installed on desktop computers from more than a
dozen off-brand manufacturers, and its San Diego-based developers
just released their fourth major update.“The new LindowsOS 4.0, sold as a $50, 454-megabyte download
(www.lindows.com) or a $60, two-CD boxed version, is more polished
than previous versions and now shows promise as a viable
alternative to Windows. But there is still plenty of room for
improvement.“For starters, it took two tries to get Lindows 4.0 on my PC
after the first attempt mysteriously failed. The second took about
10 minutes, after which a helpful multimedia tutorial introduced
the basics of Lindows’s interface…”
[Editor’s Note: The Washington Post now asks for
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registration is free and demographic only, but consider yourself
warned. -BKP]