Re: Opinions on Lindows Mobile PC
On Tue, 27 May 2003 02:54, Roberto Sanchez wrote:
> The point of this whole diatribe is that I have decided that I will
> probably get the Lindows (yuck!) Mobile PC (available from idot.com). If I
> purchase it I will erase Lindows and install Debian Sid on it. I am asking
> here
Lindows does have some tempting offers. You can be fairly sure that the
hardware works under Linux.
However there are some things to be concerned about. Firstly Lindows don't
seem overly concerned about the philosophy of freedom etc, they just want to
ship a product. This means that for them a binary-only driver is not a
serious problem.
Also I doubt that they have any good system for managing kernel patches, they
may have a 100,000 line patch (*) against the standard Linus tree with no
explaination as to where it came from.
Naturally you can install Debian and use the Lindows kernel, but sooner or
later you will want to upgrade your kernel and may have problems.
However if you buy a laptop with Windows pre-loaded you'll probably have the
same level of hardware compatability but without having any clue as to where
to start in finding support. Starting with a fully functional Lindows system
will make things a lot easier for you.
(*) I had this problem with Cobalt hardware. With a week of coding I solved
the problem.
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