Lindows 4.5 is it a good distro.. for newbies and normal end users?

[ReubenRosa]

I am seriously considering developing home systems with lindows 4.5 as the os. I did some research before hand. and I had sampled lindows about 2 years ago. Now that 4.5 has been released.. if you were a consultant and you were recommending a linux distro for an end user who is only used to all variants of Windows.. Would Lindows be the best bet? This is an area with mainly retirees. I live in florida. So what do you all think?



system specs

 

[drag]

I don't like Lindows.

Mainly because stuff like having the main user be "root". This is a big security NONO. About as big as you can get and realy opens you up to a whole host of potential problems.

I think that something like Mandrake or Suse would be a better choice. I'd do something like pre-install, and basic setup for end users. Like set it up so that they can dial up or connect to the internet on their ISP/get email and setup the main user. Write down the passwords for them etc etc.

Maybe provide some basic documentation. Mandrake (for example) have a decent online manual in pdf form, you could provide a copy on the desktop and a paper copy. Maybe a linux for dummies book or some basic linux skill book you could offer with the computer. Most people are willing to figure out things for themselves as long as they have easy access to the tools to do so.

check out the "software for individuals" for mandrake here

A few different options, with the cheapest at 39 dollars and you get stuff like nvidia drivers and flash-plugins. Stuff most newbies get kinda frustrated at setting up. Then you could also setup urpmi stuff so that people can easily update and upgrade everything themselves if they have a nice internet connection.(maybe)

 

[ReubenRosa]

Thanks for the info I will definitely consider it.

 

[civad]

Xandros standard edition is for @ $ 40 or so. Its another viable alternative
I have been using it for a while now, and have been pretty satisfied so far.
I chose it simply because my fiance was not willing to use any OS other than windows ("too hard" she said). With Xandros, I haven't heard any complaints so far...

Morevoer, it's based on debian, so I am happy using it

 

[Abzstrak]

mandrake or suse, lindows sucks...

 

[redbeard1]

We played around with it for a while at work. Me being a newbie to linux, I though it had some nice features for getting their click and run files. We have a hardcore linux command line guy, and he did not find anything he couldn't do. I think he even used apt get to update some stuff. One of the other guys has had good luck getting things to run on Mandrake.

 

[earthman]

Lindows 4.5 works great. Your users don't have to run as root, you can make an account just like any other linux or Windows. Very polished and stable, easy to set up. Nice KDE interface, all programs are automatically added to start menu, all the bells and whistles. Excellent hardware support. All the Debian commands work, like apt, etc. Be aware it is not compatible with boot managers like System Commander. Also, if you use it with Windows, install Windows first.

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: Abzstrak
mandrake or suse, lindows sucks...

My two favs..

 

[GonzoDaGr8]

Originally posted by: earthman
Lindows 4.5 works great. Your users don't have to run as root, you can make an account just like any other linux or Windows. Very polished and stable, easy to set up. Nice KDE interface, all programs are automatically added to start menu, all the bells and whistles. Excellent hardware support. All the Debian commands work, like apt, etc. Be aware it is not compatible with boot managers like System Commander. Also, if you use it with Windows, install Windows first.

What boot manager does it use? Will it seamlessly dual-boot with Windows?

 

[ReubenRosa]

Interesting info seems I will have to try out mandrake 9.2 and Lindows 4.5 and see which is better for a newbie.

Thanks for all the feedback gentleman.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: GonzoDaGr8

Originally posted by: earthman
Lindows 4.5 works great. Your users don't have to run as root, you can make an account just like any other linux or Windows. Very polished and stable, easy to set up. Nice KDE interface, all programs are automatically added to start menu, all the bells and whistles. Excellent hardware support. All the Debian commands work, like apt, etc. Be aware it is not compatible with boot managers like System Commander. Also, if you use it with Windows, install Windows first.

What boot manager does it use? Will it seamlessly dual-boot with Windows?

It probably uses the one of the two standard bootloaders used in x86 linux machines.

Grub or Lilo. Grub is much more advanced and is able to do special things like trick windows into thinking the partitions and drives are not the way they realy are on the harddrive(s) (usefull for hiding windows installs from each other). Lilo has been around for a while and is what most people end up gettting comfortable using.

Both can handle dual boots easily and were designed for that purpose. (boot other OSes, too like dos , os/2, Freebsd etc)

I don't know how smart lindow's installation programs are, but most modern Linux distros will detect and set up the dual boot automaticly at installation time, no problem. Some are better then others, and if they don't do it right, then all you have to do is just re-edit a configuration file (for grub) or re-edit a configuration file and re-run the lilo command. (grub reads the configuration file on boot up so that any changes are automatic, it also has a simple command line so that even if the config file is completely messed up you can manually feed it the commands to get the computer to boot up)

Generally you want to install the "smarter" OSes last, because more primitive ones won't handle dual boot or newer features well. Generally you go: DOS, win9x, w2k, WinXP, Linux. In that order depending on how many OSes (99% of the time you just want 2 if you dual boot ) you want. You can also use NT-based OSes to dual boot using the NTLDR bootloader that is used in w2k and winxp, but generally it's much easier to use the linux bootloaders.

 

[earthman]

It uses LILO, and it does seamlessly dual boot with windows. When it's installed, you have a menu with Windows and Lindows on it. I've never had a problem with it.