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A cyber union
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A new operating system, Lindows coming in early 2002, may help PC users enjoy both Linux and Windows.
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It's the old `gharwali-baharwali' situation. Many Personal Computer (PC) users seem to be saying, ``I Love Linux — but will stick to Windows!" They prefer a truly `open' computing environment. And Linux , the `alternate' operating system, created exactly 10 years ago by Finnish student, Linus Torvalds, sounds like a great idea.
But, changing your desktop to Linux is not all that simple. A PC these days means a machine with `Intel Inside' — and some version of Microsoft Windows. The tools and applications that most of the world uses — like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Winamp — are all ``made for Windows". So, you have to think before you go in for Linux. For the rest of us, computing is still a Windows eXPerience. But may be not for long.
Today being Christmas Eve, this column brings you tidings of great joy: Come 2002, you can have your cake and eat it too. In other words, you may be able to give Linux a shot on your desktop, without ejecting Windows.
The new software from a San Diego-based company is called (what else!)``Lindows"— an operating system where Windows and Linux applications work equally well. One advantage claimed by the company at its website (www.lindows.com) is that you can run programmes written for Windows without having to pay for Microsoft's version. That sounds like a cool idea — considering every upgrade of Windows including the latest — XP — sets us back by at least Rs. 3000. But one doesn't know right now what Microsoft's reaction will be.
And according to the authors of Lindows, you can also run all current programmes written for Linux.
Lindows is actually based on an open source software called `Wine', which allows Linux users to run Windows commands.
You can download a free version from www.winehq.org. Lindows.
But, unlike Linux, which is available almost free, Lindows comes with a price, not yet determined, but likely to be around $100.
However, the computer industry`wallahs' feel that, once the concept catches on, PC makers will pre-install Lindows and leave it to the customer to use it either as a Windows or a Linux machine or both.
Will it click? Nobody knows yet. But for those of us who have been hard put to decide between Windows and Linux, Lindows allows us to put both on the same desktop.
A. VISHNU
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