Only after you paid for it. I received a copy of Lindows that wasn't fully functional unless I paid for software to get it working. That's the point. I understand your analogy and I do choose to not use Lindows. Instead, I'm offering copies of it for free so that others can test it for themselves.

I do believe you're missing how the CNR warehouse is laid out.
If you want to use software applications in the CNR warehouse, that requires a subscription ($50/year, or $100 for life if there are any of those left at choicePC). 99% of the applications in the CNR warehouse are offered free of charge to members. There is not an a-la-carte price for every package in the warehouse. If it was that way, I wouldn't subscribe either. I'm not sure where your cost model is coming about, here's mine:
$99 - Initial purchase of insidership in Sept '02, included 2 years CNR membership.
$29.95 - StarOffice 7
$4.95 - DVD Player (Regardless of the true legality, nobody's suing over this one as they are with dvdcss and it's kin)
$69.99 - Win4Lin
$100 - Lifetime Membership to CNR (Never have to pay for the non-charging software, or upgrades to new versions again).
$303.89 - Total
And if I decide to not buy anymore software through the CNR warehouse, then that is the final price I will have paid for my system. I just looked up Windows XP Professional full install online, $299.99, and the next version of Windows that comes out would have to be upgraded, at approximately $99. When Lindows releases an upgrade, my cost stays the same.

I consider myself a power-user of linux, and I'm beginning to push toward the expert side of things (especially since my job is moving into Linux systems), but I love Lindows for what it is, an extremely easy to use, well put together system. My mom uses it, and some of my friends use it. Even my wife can use it (when I'm booted to it), and she is a major *nix phobic. This, again, is the target market. When you install something from the CNR warehouse, you don't have to worry about dependencies. If it's in the warehouse, it's going to work. Yes, it's free with other systems, but I've been stuck in RPM hell, and, as others have posted, my time is worth more than the $150/year I've spent on Lindows so far.

None of us here are against you voicing your opinion about Lindows and it's distribution model, but you do need to do a little more fact checking (especially about CNR) before stating that every package has a cost attached to it. I hope the information I posted above helps people who were avoiding LindowsOS because they thought the cost was prohibitive.

Please read my original submission. You just restated the very same charges I had described earlier. I also made very little comparison to Windows with the exception that I can get XP Pro from Costco and many other retailers for $99 and everything, including my DVD-ROM, will work.

Most of the comparisons were between Lindows and other Linux distributions. Your prices confirm my earlier posting and I did show that there was a difference in prices for members vs. non-members.

I'm glad you like Lindows. I don't, which was never the point of starting this topic. I started it to let would-be Lindows users receive a copy for free since they would eventually be charged for software to get their OS working. I described quite thoroughly the numerous icons on the desktop and links to commerical software which I found disappointing. I also pointed out that there was going to be a charge of $4.95 in order to play DVDs. Nothing I said went beyond being disappointed with the prices and commericalism of Lindows.

If you email me, the same page I keep the ISO files for Lindows also has the ISOs for Xandros. It might be worth giving a try before selling yourself to Lindows.

You can play DVD's with free CNR programs thank you. Just because you CAN buy a commercial DVD player doesn't mean you have to, or that it's the only one.
BTW, when you talk about Windows - for those $99 you just get a very basic OS.
For the same amount you can get ALL LindowsOS'es released as long as you live and CNR for the rest of your life as well, through ChoicePC.com. Quite a good deal in comparison IMO.

Following the install, I wasn't able to play any DVDs. Maybe you're playing homemade DVDs or something. Again, I have the ISOs available for anyone wanting to try it out. Maybe others will have a better experience.

As for your $99 Lindows for life statement, I find it highly unlikely. Even with a membership to CNS you still have to pay for certain software. In this sense, Lindows is the same as Windows. You can run OpenOffice as well as many free media players (Windows Media and RealOne both play DVD) without any cost in Windows.

In all these posts, not a single person has made any statement to discredit the fact that Lindows is overpriced. Instead, there have been a lot of posts about how they don't hide their business model and how many Lindows users don't care about the price because it works and you don't have to configure anything. I really don't make an issue of anything except the price and the marketing (icons all over the desktop and shortcuts to buy more products) that Lindows uses.

Again, anyone wanting to try Lindows can contact me to download the ISO files. No sense paying $49 when you'll end up having to spend more should you decide to keep it. Xandros is available too if some of you Lindows users want to test it. I believe you'll end up liking it so much you'll never go back to Lindows, unless that investment holds you to it.

Although I sure this will make no difference, I did a very quick check online, I found a decent price for Susse Personal at Fry's $39.99, and Mandrake can be hand reasonably at the MandrakeStore for $59.99. Lindows at $49.99 is comparatively priced. But I'm sure you'll come up with something because after all you couldn't be wrong -- Lindows "price and marketing stink."

I'm quite often wrong. Yes you can purchase Lindows for $39, $49 (and other variations of numbers ending in 9) but your purchases won't end there. Upon installing your $39 copy you'll need to register with CNS for a price. If you want certain software, like the decoder for playing css encrypted DVDs, you'll need to pay $4.95. Of course you can purchase these without signing up for CNS but the cost is much higher.

As stated in the very same post you replied to, you can download Lindows for free from me. So the price you quoted really wasn't necessary. It's free from me but Lindows will charge you.

I paid a very reasonable $89 for Xandros. I have no problem paying for something. I just expect it to work without paying more. Would you buy a brand new car with a CD player in it only to later find out you need to pay for something in order for your CD player to work? Many Lindows users seem to have rationalized this as good business practice.

Are you suggesting that Lindows is not able to install "certain software" (if its available from other sources)?

I'm not suggesting anything except that you can download Lindows for free from me! I'm sure Lindows can do anything and everything that any other distro can do.

I had a friend who was pretty impressed by LindowsOS. "It detected my modem immideitly! No problems at all!". He used it for a week.. then he got tired of it because he couldn't compile applications :P

I think SuSE can be easy enough even for people like my gramma.

But Lindows... It's nothing better than windows. Which is - bad by itself.

you can get it from suprnova.org for free too.

I've figured it out, Lindows users don't mind the prices because they have a skewed sense of free.

Supernova hase a basic membership of $19.95, unlimited membership for $34.95 and fees of $9.95 for game console backups. In what sense is this free?

For those who are still puzzlled -you can't get Lindows for free without doing illegal actions (unless you get it from a magazine etc.)

You can get Lindows for free from me. I'm not selling it, just letting people download the ISO files so they can install it. Once it's installed though it will need to be registered (for a cost) and you will probably need to pay for a CNS subscription of some sort to install software.

Under the Gnu license, any version of Linux can be redistributed for cost or for free. Any commercial software will need to be licensed.

I can't post the link to my Apache server because I don't want to make it public and have thousands of people downloading from me. It's running on a very old PC with Comcast as my ISP so it wouldn't be fast enough to handle more than a few downloads at a time. Just email me for the link.

GreenerLinux-
You keep talking about he total cot of owner ship of Lindows well how about my Dad. He paid nothing. Got LOS 4.5 Star Office all for nothing. So far his total cost of ownership has been nothing. He doesn't subscribe to CNR. He uses apt-get and does just fine. So all in all he is doing better than you are, your out $90. Oh by the way he got all of his legally, through ChoicePC.com