In that case, Lindows might have a better chance in larger markets like France or Britain. Or better yet, go to the EU Supreme Court.

Here's an article on how the EU is trying to push for open-source software development and gov't use:

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5047543.html

highlights: "The European Commission is placing open standards and open-source software at the centre of its efforts to promote interoperable e-government services with a new working paper introduced.... "

"Open source software is increasingly seen by European governments as a way of encouraging local software industries, because it is not owned by any one entity, and thus theoretically places small, local developers on a level playing field with large foreign companies."

Hopefully Lindows might have a better chance in winning a case in the Supreme Court of the EU, than in smaller jurisdictions. MS better not claim that the "Lindows" name is misleading or "confusing" to consumers. Sure, it may SOUND similar, but people know that MS only makes Windows, and anything odd sounding like Lindows is not going to be bought accidently. And besides, it's not like you can't remove the OS and install MS Windows.

And I'm only hoping the Lindows' people still have enough doe to pay for that appeal to the Supreme Court. :rolleyes: .

Lindows will probably have to change their name to Winux. or maybe Lose-ux.

Microsoft probably intimidated those courts like they did to other courts before. Lindows was probably too similar of a name to Microsoft's product. although Lindows was not that great of a product (just like Microsoft).

Lindows leeching of the Windows name? Excuse me, but not even a novice would fall for that one...

Especially since most newbies think they've got Windows MS or something like that...
(Got a couple of calls when I was doing tech support and when asked what version of windows they had they answered: "MS windows.. What else is there?")

Anyways, Lindows didn't have a lawyer present at those courts when MS asked for a decree that Lindows should not be allowed to market their name...

And another point on the windows name, isn't windows a common word? Isn't it used in many other meanings than just MS' product? Doesn't most home contain quite a few of them even if the homes doesn't have a computer? Aren't there other programs out there which uses a gui with windows? And didn't someone else come up with a windows gui before MS? (Hint: MS stole it from apple, who originally stole it from Xerox)

I seriously doubt that the verdict will hold when it goes to court with both sides present...

As far as the legal system in the EU goes, isn't it quite like the one they've got in the US? You've got district courts, state courts and supreme court... Not very unlike how it is in the EU, except that you add one more Supreme Court...

And for the death sentence, it's been a while since we last had a death sentence in Europe.... AFAIK we got rid of it except when there's a state of war, and even then you'd have to be a traitor to be able to be sentenced to death...

Over to Veh's posts...
At least you added the to that comment...............

Anyways, the point you're trying to make about MS not trying to buy up/strong arm any Unix distro's isn't quite true... They do try to get into that market, but have yet to create an OS which has a good chance...
Windows just isn't flexible and secure enough yet... (And I doubt it'll ever be as long as it's a consumer OS too)
That, and because it's a quite small market with enough competitors..

But I think you meant the different Linux distro's...
And the case is even more obvious there... How do you buy something that is everyones property? GPL doesn't allow you to buy or sell IPO in the regular way... It (more or less) requires you to give what is covered by it away for free... Thus buying up lots of linux IPO wouldn't help you... Also, most of the tech being used isn't owned by a single individual, but rather by a group or an entire society which has helped create it... Which makes buying it even harder...

And the point about Logitech, well, MS' hardware business isn't in a strong enough position for them to do that.... And if they suddenly created a patch which would only allow MS' peripherials, they'd be sued way into the next century, even with your free-capitalism laws...

Just look at what happened when they were sued by Netscape... Then multiply that by a factor of 10 and you should be somewhere in the vincinity of what would happen if they tried anything like that...


IMO Lindows is one of the first very userfriendly linux distros which would be useable by the not-so-computer-literate, as it is built to resemble Windows as closely as possible while not breaking the law... Thus it is in MS' interest that it doesn't gain enough foothold in the market, as that might lead not to just one competitor, but rather a lot of them... Imagine RedHat, Mandrake and other distros going the same, mimicking Windows, and it being available on pre-built machines...
That is what MS is afraid of imo, and is why they're trying to hamper Lindows in any way possible.
Of which, trademark infringement is the easiest.

.02$

Just a legal point - you can't register alphanumerics as a trade name, only trade NAMES. I'm not sure how far you can push it with letters, as by that definition "Expee" would be registerable, but XP not. I know with numbers it's just not considered a part of the name - So Windows is copyrighted, but 95, 98 etc are not.

I hate with a passion the politics of Microsoft. I wouldn't mind them taking over the world as long as they had a decent product with a positive attitude to customer support, instead of their belief that it's just something else they can charge the poor sucker consumer more cash for. However, in this case, I do sympathise. We are talking about companies competing in the same market. If Lindows was a game, or a piece of hardware, then I am sure Microsoft wouldn't have bothered. But it's a bit like a Japanese motor manufacturer bringing out a car called "Phord". The problem lies with whichever plonker chose to use the "Lindows" name in the first place. The intention is obvious, particularly since "Lindows" is not a real word - the image is "Like Windows, only for Linux", and that is obviously trading on Microsofts image as market leader.

Me, I'd have called it "Doors". Doors are an entry, and are of robust construction. Windows break all the time.

What a crock...

LINDOWS thoughts

I think to understand the name Lindows you have to look at its founder.(marketing genius--ie mp3.com) While I agree that its easy to confuse a novice non computer literate user with windows and lindows, it is not easy to fool professionals like most of us logged into this forum. Lindows is about the best of both worlds, linux and windows without the legality proprietary pricing schemes. Microsoft should protect its patents. However, the real issue here is not the name but the fact that Bill Gates has a threat from a new Linux distro that is easy to use, safer than windows, and less costly out of the box. Infringement of trademark is Gates only avenue to discredit the Linux movement.I make my living as a windows systems admin. Today I want windows in a business enterprise setting(subject to change). But in the home its Lindows all the way. Windows is a word like cola. A cola is a coke and a pepsi is also. Windows is wintel, Lindows is Linux. Microsoft would be better off to spend its legal money on research and development for its service packs, patches and code problems. Linux is here to stay. Watch Novell, watch Lindows, watch RedHat.

Re: LINDOWS thoughts

Microsoft scared of Lindows? Yeah right. Lindows will never take off as an OS, one reason of many being that it's not even marketed at all. I have never seen a Lindows ad, much less one that would make a customer conciously pick Lindows over Windows. People never hear about it. Then once they may hear some little snippet of it, they might ask someone who's learned in computers about it, and 9/10 would say don't bother, probably. Lindows needs to earn a name for itself and get itself a bigger user base. Before they do that, Microsoft or no Microsoft, they don't have a chance in the OS market.
I wonder how Linux & Lindows are faring in starting to support 64bit?

Linux has always supported 64 bit processors.

If you mean x86-64, then Linux was the first and is the only OS that properly supports it.

Re: Re: LINDOWS thoughts

Well, why do you think MS suddenly took Lindows to court in Finland, Sweden and the netherlands?

Because they were about to launch ad campaigns...
Go read the swedish court brief I linked to at the register to see what I mean...

And they've allready got pre-built computers with Lindows on it as an alternative to Windows...
Granted, they don't yet have the sales of Windows, but at least they've started...