[wplug] Lindows

[James B. Diskin]

       BY DAN GILLMOR
       Mercury News

       Michael Robertson started his IBM notebook computer. He launched a
Microsoft PowerPoint slide presentation about a
       product he hopes to be selling soon.

       The product was the operating system he was running. Hint: It wasn't
Microsoft Windows.

       Robertson was using Lindows (www.lindows.com), a version of the
GNU/Linux operating system designed to run major
       Windows programs as well as software written for Linux itself. If he
and his team pull this off, they could give life to Linux on
       desktop computers -- a genre that has been slow, at best, to emerge as
a challenger to the Microsoft monopoly.

       The Linux community is skeptical about Lindows. Some extremely smart
programmers -- such as the ones working on an
       open-source Windows compatibility project called Wine
(http://www.winehq.com) -- are making slow, if steady, progress.
       Making this idea work in the real world is, as technologists like to
say, a non-trivial task.

       Robertson says his team's focus and passion -- plus his ability to put
real money behind the notion -- will prove the skeptics
       wrong and bring Linux to a more mainstream audience soon.

       He has money, no question. Robertson started and ran MP3.com, a company
that did much to popularize the music file
       format but which drew the fanatical ire of the music industry. The
record companies sued and won a copyright-violation
       settlement, and last year MP3.com was sold to entertainment giant
Vivendi Universal.

       Now Robertson is back with Lindows.com, a San Diego-based company into
which he's invested $5 million so far and hopes
       to raise considerably more. He wants to persuade corporations to
upgrade older PCs with low-cost Lindows, not expensive
       new versions of Windows, and to get the software on some new computers
as well.

       Robertson is also back in court. This time Microsoft has launched the
lawyers, claiming that the name ``Lindows'' might be
       confused with Windows and thereby violate Microsoft's trademark.

       Robertson has one word for the claim: ``absurd.''

       There are thousands of computer-related products with ``Windows'' in
their names, he says. Yet Microsoft has left those
       products unmolested.

       What does that suggest? ``This is about Microsoft's continued
pattern,'' he says, ``to do everything they can do to smash
       perceived competition.''

       It's easy to see why Lindows, at least in theory, might worry
Microsoft. If companies can keep running their Windows
       applications and get off the Microsoft upgrade treadmill, some will
surely consider it.

       Microsoft's dominance of the applications-software business actually
works to Lindows' favor, Robertson says. That's
       because Lindows is focusing on just a few applications.

       ``You can make a case that only 10 programs really matter to a majority
of people today,'' he says. Those include Microsoft
       Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other programs in the Office suite;
Quicken, America Online and just a few others. If Lindows
       runs those well, it can capture some users.

       The way Lindows runs those Windows programs, he says, is through a
layer of software in between Linux and the
       applications, which normally run directly on Windows. The layer
translates certain instructions -- the so-called
       ``Applications Programming Interfaces'' (APIs) -- used in Windows
software into instructions that Linux will understand.

       This is a difficult task. There are thousands upon thousands of APIs,
and Microsoft doesn't fully disclose what it's doing
       under the covers. But Robertson says Lindows is getting close with the
major software.

       He ran several Microsoft Office applications on his IBM ThinkPad,
though some functions of those programs still aren't
       working properly under Lindows. They'll come in time, he says.

       Running Windows programs is only part of the task, Robertson says. So
is preserving the user's preferences, data and
       operating system look and feel. Lindows, on installation, will give
users several choices. One will put Lindows alongside
       Windows. The other will delete Windows. Both will save the user's
configuration to make the transition as comfortable as
       possible.

       Adding and upgrading Linux applications will take place using an online
system designed to make installation simple and
       painless, according to Robertson. Maybe users will start off only
running their major Windows applications, but then they'll
       discover some of the excellent Linux software, too -- and Linux
developers will be encouraged to come up with more
       consumer-oriented products.

       Sometime in the next few weeks, Robertson says, Lindows will release a
``Sneak Preview'' version of the operating system.
       Upon release of version 1.0, it will cost about $100 for a single user,
with discounts for people or companies buying in bulk.

       Robertson says the stars are lining up for a product like this. Linux
has come a long way in its quality and, with new user
       interfaces, ease of use. Fast Internet connections are becoming more
widespread. Microsoft is widely mistrusted, and keeps
       raising software prices and treating customers like serfs despite the
plummeting price of hardware and tough economic times.

       While Lindows will be constructed on top of open-source software, some
of its key elements will be proprietary -- a strategy
       that will not make some open-source advocates happy but which Robertson
says is essential to making the business work.
       Lindows won't be the first to meld proprietary and open code, but the
potentially high visibility of the project will spark a
       strong, continuing debate.

       If Lindows works as promised, it'll add diversity to a
near-monoculture. More choice is always better than less.