The beta build 45 of Lycoris was released just a few days ago, and this is a good opportunity to learn more about the product, the company and its plans. So today, we are happy to host a mini-interview with Lycoris’ CTO and founder, Joseph Cheek.1. Lycoris Desktop/LX had very good reviews lately. What kind of feedback did you receive from your growing userbase? What did they like most in Desktop/LX and what is the most wanted feature?
Joseph Cheek: In general users are impressed, and say “if only it had feature X it would be perfect.” The most requested features are better configuration utilities, an easy to use software installer, and more pre-made software available for installation [openoffice is at the top of the list]. Between our new control center, the software installer, our IRIS [Internet Rapid Installer for Software], and our Productivity Pak, all of these are being addressed.
2. “Desktop” Linux distributions are in blossom lately: Lycoris, Lindows, Xandros, ELX. What do you think about the competition? How far or close are these offerings to Lycoris and in the “desktop experience” in general?
Joseph Cheek: I wish our competitors good luck, and hope that they are able to listen to the user’s needs. that’s crucial for any desktop offering to succeed.
3. What are the obstacles of using KDE 3.x on Lycoris by default? Is such an addition planned, and if yes, for which version of Desktop/LX?
Joseph Cheek: KDE 3 will be included in the next major release, called Beryl.
4. Please explain to us the versioning scheme of Lycoris. I see betas, builds, Updates… Also, when is the final, non-beta, version of Lycoris expected?
Joseph Cheek: Final version? Hopefully 20 or 30 years from now… At least i’d like to think we’ll keep releasing new versions over time.
Each major desktop/lx version is named after a rock. Version 1 is Amethyst, version 2 will be Beryl, version 3 will be Citrine, version 4 will be Diamond, and so on.
Minor desktop/lx versions are called “updates”… update 1, update 2, update 3, and so on. We are working on amethyst update 2 at the moment, expected to be released mid-july.
Builds are internal designations.
5. Do you plan to modify KDE itself, for example changing its desktop context menu, or the context menu and properties of a shortcut/icon on the desktop, in order to make it more user friendly or less cluttered than currently might be? If yes, what kind of further changes are to be made to the usability and user interface of Desktop/LX?
Joseph Cheek: Oh yes, we will continue to refine KDE. There will be few changes to our existing KDE 2.2.2 desktop, as new development will commence on our KDE 3 offering [“Beryl”] soon.
6. Lindows introduced Click-n-Run recently. Will Lycoris users have the opportunity of using a GUI tool to easily install or manipulate packages in such a way that satisfies dependancies automatically?
Joseph Cheek: Between IRIS and our software installer, we expect to have this working well. It’s one of the last things to finish for update 2 next month.
7. Where do you see Lycoris in one year from now? What are the plans for the company itself?
Joseph Cheek: We’ll be bigger, stronger, and come with extra whitening power. Seriously, we just plan to grow and grow.
8. What are your first priorities for the next version of Desktop/LX? What new features you would like to add or change to the system?
Joseph Cheek: The biggest changes for update 2 will be the new control center and the software installer. But we’ve also done things like add a video recovery mode – if a user messes up the video settings s/he can automatically reset them to a sane default. A user can boot into video recovery mode by holding down the CTRL key when booting, or boot into console or single-user modes by holding down the SHIFT or ALT keys when
booting, respectively. This is *so* much easier for a new user than telling them how to get into runlevel 3 by editing the grub boot line, for example.
9. What do you think about the people who do not like the fact that Desktop/LX is looking a bit like WindowsXP? Do you think the icon similarities helped the overall cause in familiriazing the users with the system?
Joseph Cheek: I’ll answer the second question first: yes.
To answer the first question, there are many die-hard linux users that are more comfortable with their existing distros than with desktop/lx. I don’t see any reason why these users should change their feelings about what they like in a distro. certainly not for us at least.
10. Do you have plans to collaborate with companies like Codeweavers, Gobe or Hancom Linux or even Sun to further enrich the Desktop/LX commercial application base? Does Lycoris have plans to work with PC OEMs like Wal-Mart?
Joseph Cheek: We think there are many cooperation opportunities that would benefit Lycoris, linux users, and computer users in general. The task will be deciding which ones to pursue out of all the good possibilities.
We just announced a retail agreement with Fry’s Electronics and expect to have more in the future.
Funny, it has the annoyingly verbose location descriptions on the desktop like Windows with the annoyingly cryptic and randomly placed dirs of Linux behind the scenes. Damn I miss AmigaOS.
Cryptic perhaps, but hardly “randomly placed”.
“Each major desktop/lx version is named after a rock. Version 1 is Amethyst, version 2 will be Beryl, version 3 will be Citrine, version 4 will be Diamond, and so on.”
hehe, i think this guy is on to something. I’m going to name my software after trees
When is the crack release coming out?
I wish this wasn’t a big deal, but wouldn’t this place be more usable if the Comments link also showed the “read more” text? I can understand that comments don’t have to be the focus of the site, but it would certainly be more usable and less time-wasting.
When is the crack release coming out?
For an OS that can be Cracked, see WindowsXP.
If you want an OS that was obviously designed by someone smoking crack, check out Windows ME.
If you want an OS that will make you feel like you’ve been smoking crack (ie, feeling good), check out BeOS.
If you want an OS that will make you want to smoke crack, check out Slackware.
Slackware is the most relaxing Linux distro there is! Things are where they should be, it’s easy to configure and re-configure. I didn’t feel that comfort with RedHat 7.2.
You aren’t making friends, here, y’know?
Well chosen theme name, indicative of the distro.
IT ROCKS/
Thanks Joe.
I tried lycoris 1.0 and it was great. I missed 2 things:
1- update the system – never worked for me…. the server timed out
2- install new software – the same trouble like any other linux, RPM sux a lot, tar.gz even more. I dont care about anything , I want one file and click on it and install. Compile? great, but I want this to be made automatic. No user intervention
3- Network neibor – this was bad, fells like anything is opening new window, I want KDE default
(Tongue_in_cheek)
Mario:
You aren’t making friends, here, y’know?
Total Sense Of Humour Failure Alert!
Settle down, Mario. From the complete lack of solid content in my entire post, along with the obligatory smiley, anyone with some portion of a clue would see that it was written with tongue firmly-implanted-in-cheek.
Anybody who knows me, knows that I use Slackware and/or Debian on my servers (depending on which CD’s I haven’t lost in the meantime. My pile of CD’s isn’t exactly organised… Unless you subscribe to Chaos Theories.)
You can “beg my pardon,” all that you want. In fact, if you get off of your high-horse and take it all in jest as a throw-away comment, as it was intended, then I’ll even give it to you!
Now settle down. Getting so worked up over a joke is not good for your heart.
Besides, we all know that (IBM’s) MS-Dos 4.1 is the only real OS out there anyway!
(/tongue_in_cheek)
Mario:
Things are where they should be, it’s easy to configure and re-configure. I didn’t feel that comfort with RedHat 7.2
As with anything, RedHat has its place. It is important to recognise that the whole reason for having independent distributions in favour of the (more organised) FreeBSD group, is to allow choice and individuality.
Some people like RedHat. Sure, I jokingly rubbish them, but that is their choice, and ultimately it must be respected as such.
RedHat doesn’t have any space in my CD pile any more than that pile of AOL CD’s that seems to come around every now and then. That is not to say that it doesn’t have its place for others.
In fact, when I first went from FreeBSD to Linux 4 or 5 years ago, it was RedHat that I turned to. Not only that, but it was a Boxed set and all! I thought that by buying the boxed set for the “included manual” that it would save me some time in getting used to the changes.
Imagine my present bursts of laughter in evaluating the above statement. I still have that manual, though it was nought but a guide to installing RedHat. And if you couldn’t do that with the dead-simple text-based install programme, then you really shouldn’t be messing around with it!
So, it has its place. From RedHat I did the course, steering away from the Debians and Slackwares as everyone said “they are too hard,” “don’t work,” and so forth.
The day I had to work on a Debian system that someone else set up, was almost like an epiphany. It was clean, it was sleek, and it was organised! Knowing that Slackware was “just as bad,” I promptly downloaded ISO’s for that too.
Sure, the installation for Debian and Slackware doesn’t hold you hand as much as the graphical installations, but I don’t really want it to! The people I put on to Debian (because I incorrectly thought that it had gone stagnant; until the recent story on OSAlert), all complain about how hard it is to set up XFree86. For those people, the desktop distros, such as Lycoris, Elx and even Lindows, are more important.
Yes, Lindows even has its place for some people.
To re-iterate, I don’t have much time for RedHat personally, but I love that it is a choice for some people.
What would you prefer? An OS with choice (eg, the plethora of Linux Distributions or BSD projects), or someone dictating, via an unofficial mandate, what your desktop will look like and how it will behave?
“You aren’t making friends, here, y’know? ”
actually, i liked the windows ME bit.
amen to Debian being an epiphany, well said. I have to try slackware though, gonna have to do that one of these days.
Yeah I had similar problems when testing it. The biggest is the dependency problems with the RPM’s. I wanted to play some extra games but couldn’t install them. Dependency on this dependency on that.
They need to add versioning to their software so you can tell which packages work with which version of lycoris. If you go to the website and download some you cannot tell which version it is for. You download and install and dependency aargh.
Oh and they should be more careful with the XP like icons. I don’t believe they will get far by using illegal copies.
Oh and they should be more careful with the XP like icons. I don’t believe they will get far by using illegal copies
What if they had one team of icon/graphic designers working to reverse-engineer the XP icon, byte by byte, and relay the “gist” of these bytes to someone in another building that has never physically seen the original icons in question?
I tried Lycoris, it wasn’t what I was looking for, since the packaging system was not up to snuff. RPM dependency hell sucks. What Lycoris needs is a program like apt or emerge, and those are the programs that instantly converted me to Linux. They are powerful. If Lycoris made a similar repository like the Debian packages or Gentoo ebuilds, it would absolutely speed ahead of the pack, and many people would convert from OTHER Linux distros since Lycoris would then be dead on.
I have to say, I love RedHat. I have tried Mandrake, OpenLinux 3.0 and some other Linux distros. Believe it or not but I couldn’t even start the installation of OpenLinix. As soon as the install program started, it told me to select what I want to install from the list box but there were no entries to select in the list box. I was presented with an empty list box so I didn’t know what to do and I gave up. What else can you do? I am not a hacker. I also tried Suse Linux, I think it was 7.1 but it failed to launch the XServer. Well, it did launch the 640×480 one (I think) but then I had to select something else because it wouldn’t let me continue with the default one, and as soon as I selected the new one, the XServer failed. All I got is a blank screen and that’s all. I couldn’t find a text install option so I gave up on that one too. I have tried Mandrake a few times and I didn’t like it at all. It seems like none of their superior configuration tools are working. I was presented with fake successful config messages.
RedHat was the one that worked for me and I love it so I am sticking with RedHat. Nice install, nice config tools, may be not as polished as some other distros but at least when you do something, it really works!
The only thing that will make me try any other distro again will be if it comes on a CD magazine cover disk, otherwise I am not gonna bother downloading or purchasing any other distro except RedHat. I intend to give Lycoris and Elx a try but they come with KDE2 as far as I know so that’s stopping me from trying them out. I also want to try Lindows but I don’t want to become an insider. If there was a simpler option of getting it, “may be” I would have got it.
I was going to write an essay on how Lycoris sucks, but then I done it a lot of times. Just copy and paste from previous threads about Lycoris here :-). Besides, look how the topic drifted….
One person asked when is the next crack release, the other said Slackware users need crack, another said Slackware is more relaxing than Red Hat, and the last one said Red Hat is the best. Oh, and there was a few around here posting replies I can’t comprehend, and also some saying it is personal choice. Personally, I found the Windows Me being made by someone on crack quite real….
Anonymous said:
What Lycoris needs is a program like apt or emerge
From the interview:
6. Lindows introduced Click-n-Run recently. Will Lycoris users have the opportunity of using a GUI tool to easily install or manipulate packages in such a way that satisfies dependancies automatically?
Joseph Cheek: Between IRIS and our software installer, we expect to have this working well. It’s one of the last things to finish for update 2 next month.
(IRIS stands for the Internet Rapid Installer for Software.)
LOL Rajan, you are right
The topic did drift hehe 
but where’s the market ? Who are Lycoris client’s ? What do they sell ? Do they sell something btw ?
Why dont they derive their distro from Gentoo’s one, adding a layer of “user friendliness” on top ? They could then use emerge and other things, nope ?
Really, I dont understand where these “linux on the desktop” company are heading. What are their plans (from the interview: “we just plan to grow and grow.”), their visions, and will they be there in another couple of years or not ? Are they cash burning pre-crash companies or really built on something ?
Linux world seems to me like fireworks: it’s “oh” and “ah” when you see it raising in the skies and “boom” and more “oh” and “ah” and after a few more it’s over, you go back /home (or should i say “My Computer” ?).
Course what i’m saying there is only valid for the desktop. I understand the benefits of Linux in the workplace, networking issues, web stuff…
Some people like to install off a CD and get running straight away. They don’t want to download everything off the net and wait for it to compile.
What if they have no net connection? Or a really bad one?
i wasnt advocating that lycoris should use all of the gentoo way of doing things. Just the emerge part, or better: precompiled binaries for gentoo to download from lycoris. This is actually just the same as downloading rpms or tar.gz regarding to time and connection use.
btw you can also download precompiled linux kernel if i read gentoo’s site carefully enough….
I’ve had a mandrake install, never used it. The only linux i have at home is on a 486, the distro can be found at http://bbiagent.net
I’ll switch on my desktop when msft will piss me too much with licensing schemes and copy protection activation DRM blah. Right now win2k fits exactly my needs.
I mean, who gives a squashed salad leaf about Lycoris? No, I mean, really, who cares? I reckon it has as much clout as SkyOS or ReactOS.
The only reason I put my big chunky nose into the forum was to see what on earth can someone say about Lycoris, and I saw, well, not that much. And then I saw “Slackware” and I thought “okay, I’m game!”.
And then I’m told to get off of my horse? Ah, the impertinence….
The only real option is to invoke Godwin’s Law and say:
“Hitler uses Linux.”
All debates about which flavour of Linux are now dead and moot. QED.
The comments seen are interesting, I installed Desktop/LX a while back and must admit to deciding to not use it, so I can only comment that it worked properly on the test machine. I presently run Redhat 7.2 with mail/ftp/telnet/samba domain control and a IRC server, 7.3 RH seems to have a lock up issue on my second test PC which is still running Corel 2nd, and this PC at the moment is MS 98SE. My ultimate comment is this: Having dabbled with many distros thru knoppix, demolinux, slackware, etc, I must say this, Thank You Linus and GNU, and I hope all whom develope products make a decent living, even myself I am working on a CD Boot distro. Again Thanks Linus and GNU.
I have a quick question and please forgive the round about way I go asking it. Now, I realize there are server distros that aren’t even remotely concerned about turning a profit. No one questions why they do it. A stable server platform is a reward unto itself I suppose. After reading the interview, the impression I was left with is that this is more a project about doing something he likes and if he makes a profit, it’s gravy. I can understand ripping Lindows a new one because they grabbed headlines with false promises and have backed off as they approach a release. That’s pretty shitty. Lycoris seems more about creating a desktop distro in the same spirit Debian and Slack create server distos. Maybe it’s just me, but when I read an interview with a CEO and he doesn’t once mention “leveraging partnerships” or any other marketing crap, I’m impressed. So it’s no world beater yet. Hats off for trying (no pun intended). I think Joseph Cheeks and Lycoris deserve a little credit. At the very least, I don’t think it deserves being delegated to the *indows of the world.
And now the question…Why is a desktop distro a bad thing?
It’s understood it’ll never be profittable yet people still create them. Corporations aren’t the only ones trying to escape upgrade cycle hell…
Mario said:
The only reason I put my big chunky nose into the forum was to see what on earth can someone say about Lycoris, and I saw, well, not that much. And then I saw “Slackware” and I thought “okay, I’m game!”.
And if you read my response fully, you would see that I actually *like* Slackware, but was scratching for another OS to put for the last entry.
No matter what I wrote, it was gonna annoy someone… That’s how FRZ’s operate, after all. And let’s face it, the majority of Linux users are just that – Fanatical Religious Zealots, when it comes to their distros.
Of course, I’m now kicking myself for missing the obvious choice for the last one: Lindows, instead of Slack.
Doh!
Really, I dont understand where these “linux on the desktop” company are heading. What are their plans (from the interview: “we just plan to grow and grow.”), their visions, and will they be there in another couple of years or not ? Are they cash burning pre-crash companies or really built on something ?
Have you seen any company give out his company’s business plan in an interview? Just imagine the competitors, they would have an edge of them…
Besides, I pretty much know where Lycoris is heading – a total XP clone. Maybe the next on their list is Kicker, or KMenu, or Konqueror, I don’t know :p. One day, only the logo would tell the systems aparts.. Hehe.
What if they have no net connection? Or a really bad one?
There is an option of an non-FTP install. Read the documentation, you owuld see there is an option to download the ebuilds you like and place it on a CD.
“Hitler uses Linux.”
Of course, Hitler died before RMS started his socialist movement and Linus decided to clone Minix… But yes, he used UNIX on IBM mainframes to hunt down Jews and kill them.
Now, I realize there are server distros that aren’t even remotely concerned about turning a profit.
Red Hat & decided to go for the server world because of promises of profit. In fact, the only server-targeted distros I know that aren’t made by companies endlessly trying to find a profit are actually made by communities, not companies.
Oh, and Red Hat is profitable making Linux for the server..
Lycoris seems more about creating a desktop distro in the same spirit Debian and Slack create server distos.
Wait wait wait wait, both Debian and Slackware are written for workstations. They sometimes happen to be used in servers, but most of the developers behind it are workstation ones.
It’s understood it’ll never be profittable yet people still create them. Corporations aren’t the only ones trying to escape upgrade cycle hell…
It would be profitable when someone with money finally realizes than adding a user friendly later on an average geek distro, or making Linux look and feel like Windows isn’t the way to sell Linux. Let’s see what Linux lacks..
1) A proper IDE. In fact, you notice most .NET-pro developers actually like VS.NET not .NET itself. It would increase the amount of applications – you know, those cute little shareware…. and possibly some big ones
2) A migration API. WINE should just throw away their dream of running Windows apps, and focus on making it easier porting Win32 apps from Windows to Linux. Like Carbon on Mac OS X. Why? Even if they could make a proper implementation, there is the patents issue. And also corps and most home users wouldn’t use Linux because they wouldn’t have support.
3) A standard. Linus should enforce LSB with his ownership of the Linux trademark. This would make life so much easier for third party ISVs. With more support for LSB, LSB could make their own package manager, GUI toolkit (and get KDE and GNOME to port their stuff there) and so on. This would attract more ISVs and IHVs which are afraid of supporting Linux because of this.
4) Finally, ease of use. Pick either GNOME and KDE. Gooood. Now remove as much clutter as possible, translate the entire desktop from jargon to English (and possible some other languages too), add your stuff in the desktop’s control panel. Also, you could make your own theme/style and icon theme and window deco that would give OS X and WinXP a run for their money, but it is optional and wouldn’t guarantee your success.
But heck, i don’t see ONE distros that are actually following the list above… maybe some are following no. 4; but number 1,2 and 3 are very very important. ISVs and IHVs are the one that makes an OS successful or unsuccessful.
And let’s face it, the majority of Linux users are just that – Fanatical Religious Zealots, when it comes to their distros.
Well… I hate my current distro…. (Mandrake..) Moving to Gentoo once I get my ADSL installed….
When is the crack release coming out?
For an OS that can be Cracked, see WindowsXP.
If you want an OS that was obviously designed by someone smoking crack, check out Windows ME.
If you want an OS that will make you feel like you’ve been smoking crack (ie, feeling good), check out BeOS.
If you want an OS that will make you want to smoke crack, check out LindowsOS.
Is this better now?
RajanR said:
Have you seen any company give out his company’s business plan in an interview? Just imagine the competitors, they would have an edge of them…
Where are the competitors ? Mandrake ? SuSE ? Lindows ?
Lindows already told us what they intend to do: to allow use of win32 exe under a Linux environnement. That’s how they want to help people switch from ms to linux. Great idea, the problem is implementation however: just to announce it doesnt make it easy to reproduce for competitors (heck, it’s not even feasible by lindows…).
If Lycoris told: “we will clone XP so 90% of people can switch overnight without even noticing it, and we will make money by providing training services, help to transfer data (mails, xl sheets, calendars…) from one system to Lycoris” that would be clearer. That would not give competitors a edge on Lycoris. It is difficult to manage to clone XP!
My point about a gentoo-lycoris distro was the following: if lycoris wants to focus on UI, ease of use, then they should give up with RPMs and adopt emerge. Focus is the key word here.
Last thing: why would OEMs or companies willing to switch would contract with Lycoris, if they are not confident in Lycoris’s future ? Would you buy a car when you’re not sure you can have replacement pieces when you need them ? Hard to tell. It’s a big risk. Kind of risk many companies dont want to deal with. So they use MS. Noone was ever fired for chosing microsoft, right ?
Besides, I pretty much know where Lycoris is heading – a total XP clone. Maybe the next on their list is Kicker, or KMenu, or Konqueror, I don’t know :p. One day, only the logo would tell the systems aparts.. Hehe.
Good, now read again the comments i posted.
Why don’t we just all bow out and you can have an all-Rajan comment page? Why not just have OSAlert have a link at the bottom of every story to your F***in BLOG page?
Turn off the monitor and fall insensate to the floor, you need sleep.
I think you missed most of the point of my post. Yes, I know Redhat is profitable. Yes I know most desktop distros are lacking in some very fundamental areas. Yes I know Debian and Slack are used in workstations are well as servers. All I was saying was I think it’s a good thing there are people out there addressing the desktops shortcomings for reasons other than profit or converting the “ignorant masses”. And I think it’s a good thing to strive for a desktop for the casual user and not just for developer/power user/sysadmin/etc. Keep up the good work lycoris…
I have been using computers and tinkering with hardware since CP/M was a big deal and the thing I have noticed most is the constant lowering of users ability to actually do things with their OS. The ‘Windows dummying’ process has made many many users demand that things work exactly like Windows. Most of the Linux users I know eagerly explore the enormous flexibility of our OS and are happy to have control back, but let’s face it, most people don’t want to play with their OS, they simply want it to work (how many AOL users are there?). Lycoris is targeting the non-tinkering users and is doing a good job of listening to the needs of their user base. I think they are on the right track and I hope they will be a big force in ‘normalizing’ Linux use, which is what really needs to happen to get Linux into the homes of most users.
Try to set aside the ‘my distro is better than yours’ attitude and think about what Linux distro is better for one use or another. What would you suggest for someone who wants to break their XP addiction and try Linux? Maybe a distro that looks and feels familiar on the surface? Lycoris seems headed in the right direction to me.
I personally like the direction that Lycoris is taking too. Being a Linux newbie, I’d like is a kind of kiddie distro to play with and learn how Linux works. I started in Win98 than graduated to NT. I’d like a lack of options to begin with, since I wouldn’t know where to start to begin with. Than once I’ve become comfortable with the options I do have, I can branch out to explore other areas, and I’ll have a fall back when I do screw up the system. Just my thoughts.
Please, did she even use Gnome 1.4 as she claims? This has been so forever. Or maybe she f****d up her gnome 1.4 install as much as she did this one and had both nautilus and gmc running, so that after killing nautilus she got the see the gmc icons on the desktop.
Business plans is a lot different than a generalize company’s goals. Future product specifications also shouldn’t be given to competitors before they themselves had almost completely finish implementing it. (However, I do doubt Lycoris has a solid business plan).
My point about a gentoo-lycoris distro was the following: if lycoris wants to focus on UI, ease of use, then they should give up with RPMs and adopt emerge. Focus is the key word here.
Portage is really not made for end users. Sure, Lycoris can slap an easy to use wizard on it, but it doesn’t change the facts that Portage isn’t made for end users. End users do not want to wait 6-12 hours for a program to install, 10 minutes is the maximum. So you would say, us Portage with pre-compiled packages? In that case, why would Portage beat apt-get or URPMI or apt-rpm? So, I think Lycoris should stick with what they have, RPM and IRIS.
Turn off the monitor and fall insensate to the floor, you need sleep.
Actually, I sleep more than I come here. But that’s the nice thing of being a student in high school
I think you missed most of the point of my post. Yes, I know Redhat is profitable. Yes I know most desktop distros are lacking in some very fundamental areas. Yes I know Debian and Slack are used in workstations are well as servers. All I was saying was I think it’s a good thing there are people out there addressing the desktops shortcomings for reasons other than profit or converting the “ignorant masses”. And I think it’s a good thing to strive for a desktop for the casual user and not just for developer/power user/sysadmin/etc. Keep up the good work lycoris…
Everything tells me that Lycoris is there to get profit, not for social reasons.
Lycoris is targeting the non-tinkering users and is doing a good job of listening to the needs of their user base. I think they are on the right track and I hope they will be a big force in ‘normalizing’ Linux use, which is what really needs to happen to get Linux into the homes of most users.
But you failed to see that a lot of Windows users don’t know how to do things with Windows and end up being frustrated with Windows and computers in general. David Coursey is one big prove that cloning Windows isn’t a way to make an easy to use OS. He used Mac OS X for 3 months, and always says it is the easiest OS out there. And OS X isn’t close UI-wise with Windows XP, the OS he is used to.
Try to set aside the ‘my distro is better than yours’ attitude and think about what Linux distro is better for one use or another. What would you suggest for someone who wants to break their XP addiction and try Linux? Maybe a distro that looks and feels familiar on the surface? Lycoris seems headed in the right direction to me.
Firstly, I’m frustrated with my distro, I’m moving distro.
Secondly, as previously mentioned, Windows XP isn’t the best UI-wise. Users who can’t use Windows possibly can’t use Lycoris instead. But then in the end, just say one of the releases of Lycoris, it is a exact replica of Windows XP… why would users move from Windows XP to Lycoris? It is as confusing as Windows XP, plus it doesn’t have all of Windows XP’s apps and also the fact that Windows XP is bundled with their computers, not Lycoris. So in other words, the only users that would move from Windows to Lycoris is users that have been reading the anti-MS press from quite awhile, yet want something they are familiar with.
Incoherent ramblings are often indicative of behavior or socialization problems. I am almost certain that rajan r has something to say to someone about something, but perhaps he or she should seek out a forum for those who are challenged in their ability to construct meaningful sentences in English, or for those who are very young and less well educated than most adults who read and post here? May I suggest posting to the boards at: http://www.kaleidoscapes.com/ ?
Hey there…
I’m a total Linux newbie and I don’t know much about computers. I decided to switch from windows about a month or two ago and tried red hat, mandrake, and lycoris. Out of those 3, Lycoris was the only one that totally configured all my hardware correctly. I liked red hat, and also liked mandrake a lot, but neither of those did everything for me like lycoris did. So, I’m going to stick with lycoris.
So I guess my question to all you gurus is: what’s the big deal? For you, Slackware or Debian or Gentoo may be the best because you know what you’re doing. I don’t and I need some hand-holding. Lycoris does that. Isn’t it better for me to use any Linux — like Lycoris — than none at all? I mean, at least I found a distribution that works for me and allows me to delete my Windows partition once and for all. Isn’t that what it’s all about, anyway? Why all the fighting over which distribution is best? Isn’t the goal to offer choice to users with varying levels of experience so the end result — a loosening of the Windows stranglehold — is achieved?
Why, after all this time, is Jack posting some comment about using Lycoris?
Doesn’t he know this is a forum about smoking a few Debians and keeping your “Slacks-” from “-ware”-ing up your crack? All while you’re on a high horse?
And who ever any said thing about rambles incoherently? What croad of lap that is?
Can’t we all just behave ourselves like gentoomen?