Hi Shaun, Yes, I can well remember Lindows. It was a good concept in that the developers used Linux for the base OS, and developed a commercial Windows emulator for it to run most commercial Windows applications on it. Even though it was a good idea in concept there were a number of problems with it.
First, they chose to use the name Lindows, which was too close to Windows, and Microsoft sued over copyright infringement. In the end they had to drop the name and call it Linspire. The Windows emulation also was found to be a copyright violation of some kind thus although Linspire is still around the lawsuit basically stripped the OS of whatever it had going for it as an alternative to Windows. Another key factor that lead to its downfall is the fact the company tried to essentially create a commercial version of Linux. For that reason they failed to grab a significant portion of the Linux market who by and large were already running free distributions. It is hard to convince people who are running free and open source software that they should buy it because it happens to have a better Windows emulator in it. Most Linux users didn't have or use Windows software so the built-in emulator was just an unnecessary added expense that they didn't need. Alot of Windows users didn't buy it, because Windows comes prepackaged with their computer. Thus Lindows would have been an additional expense for little benefit. In short, a good idea, but one that really didn't appeal to either the Linux or Windows markets. Being sued by Microsoft only insured an early demise for the product, and relegated it to oddball status. Accessibility issues aside Lindspire, as it is known now, has a very small market share with the mainstream computer user base. As far as your points about Linux. Its true that its biggest support came out of servers and mainframes, but it has slowly but surely been creeping into the mainstream PC user base. Certain distributions like Ubuntu were designed primarily for home users, average PC users, and try to compete equally with Windows on a equal footing. While they lag behind both Windows and Mac OS in market shares Ubuntu has been gaining ground slowly, and has gotten support from companies like Del who offer it on their laptops and desktop units for home or business machines. I might point out that it isn't just the "poor and helpless" as you call them who use Linux, but a fair cross section of the computer base. I suppose the main group of Linux users has been and seems to be techies. People like myself who do a lot of software design, who likes modifying software, and enjoys the freedom to play with the software some while also using it on a day today basis as a solid and reliable operating system. However, while being a large group of users they are by no means the only group that matters. Another group, one suited to this discussion, is gamers. Linux actually has a number of gamers who use the OS for gaming. While the majority of those games aren't accessible for the blind and low vision gamers they are satisfactory for mainstream PC gamers who use Linux. There are a number of emulators available for Linux such as SNES9x for playing Super NES games, Stella for playing Atari 2600 games, Dosemu for playing Dos games, etc which all serve to turn Linux into a virtual console for a variety of platforms. As a result Linux is often chosen as a gaming platform because of the number of free emulators available as well as free and open source games like Flight Gear, Frets on Fire, Lin City, Freeciv, and a number of other free games which are popular with some mainstream Linux gamers. Finally, there is the home and office sort of people who want a home office type setup, but don't want to put out a lot of money to do that. As a home office solution Linux excels at that task because it is designed for any sort of business weather it is small or large. If someone doesn't want to fork over $500 or more for Microsoft Office Professional Linux offers a choice between Libre Office and Open Office which are both free. Instead of paying for Microsoft Outlook which comes with MS Office Pro or which can be purchased as a stand alone Linux comes with Evolution which is a similar product for a fraction of the cost. I could probably point out other cost savings, but the fact is if someone is equipping a home or office for business software they can and do save money by using a Linux based solution. Its not just the "poor and helpless" but people with legitimate business needs who use it as well. Same could be said for students. It costs a lot of money to go to college, especially if someone is paying their own way, and purchasing a lot of Windows software isn't a real option for them. I have helped college students get alternatives to Windows products without them paying a dime for the software. Things like Open Office are a god send to people who can't afford Microsoft's office suite. Just assuming Linux users are poor or helpless really minimizes and stigmatizes people who choose a less expensive alternative for perfectly good reasons. Now, what you choose to use and why is your business. It isn't my position to tell you differently. However, let us dispense with the stereotyping and attitudes that Linux users are all poor or geek's. Most aren't and have perfectly good reasons for walking away from the Windows base. Cheers! On 10/26/14, shaun everiss <sm.ever...@gmail.com> wrote: > Not only that tom, I remember someone trrying to marry windows > emulation with a linux distro calling it lindows. > Ms felt threatened by using something almost the same as windows and > so did what ms likes to do when its threatened. > the result was the name was changed but aparently the os then took a > downward trend and within a few months went off the radar entirely. > Linux well unix has been a server and dev os its never been meant for > a home user mainstream os at least not if you have big comercial > stuff which is not opensource. > Now if we were all poor and helpless like india then its not so bad > but we never started with linux, and the comercial companies and in > fact market have grown round a windows based environment. > Its why I havn't gone full bore with linux, while I will eventually > possibly have a device dedicated to doing so, with the nature of my > work I physically can not go linux and ditch all my windows stuff. > I brought for the windows market back when I was yunger. > If I wasjust starting out, it would be the mac and linux market and > not the windows one, but most of my stuff in fact just about > everything I own requires that windows and only windows is used. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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