Lycoris: A Linux OS Good for Grandma
by Howard Wen07/18/2002
Would you give your grandmother a PC with Linux as its main OS? The developers of a Linux startup, Lycoris, have been trying to make the answer a more likely "yes" with their Linux package. A year ago, Joseph Cheek, the CTO and founder of Lycoris, began the work of putting together an integrated Linux desktop OS that would be easy to use for almost anyone, including his own grandmother. The result, Desktop/LX, allows users to easily check email, browse the Web, perform basic office-application tasks, and burn CDs, all under a GUI interface that functions similarly to Windows. (Incidentally, Lycoris' office is located in Redmond, Washington, home of Microsoft's headquarters. Before it was called Lycoris, the company went by the name "Redmond Linux.")
Desktop/LX isn't the only user-friendly Linux installation available, but Jason Spisak, Lycoris' marketing director, lists what his company believes many of them are lacking: "Presentation. Simplicity. Unification. An example is the choice of desktops in most distributions. What average user has a need for two entirely different desktops? It gets in the way of productivity and usability."
Many have questioned whether average PC users will ever regularly use a Linux-based OS en masse, but most of Lycoris' business plan for Desktop/LX is focused on going after the very market that Microsoft dominates. The company also hopes its take on Linux will appeal to schools and businesses that are hit with hefty licensing fees for their PCs that run Windows.
Enhancing KDE for the job
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Lycoris sells Desktop/LX, not as a Linux "distribution," per se, but as a full-fledged desktop OS. That's an important distinction for the company's marketing plan. According to Spisak, a distribution is "a loose collection of programs, many that often perform the same function." On the other hand, Desktop/LX is a complete OS with a single, unified desktop and specific applications (like KOffice and Mozilla) carefully selected and evaluated by Lycoris developers to perform specific tasks and function well. For example, instead of five text editors to choose from, there is just one.
"That's because our market, the desktop operating system market, is [accustomed] to a unified OS," explains Spisak. "In short, our market is desktop PC end users, whether they're in a corporate, educational, or home environment. Those customers need a simple, usable, and affordable operating system and supporting software."
Lycoris used KDE as the GUI interface around which to design Desktop/LX. KDE was chosen over GNOME because KDE's interface works more like Windows'. And its underlying code uses C++, which many Windows programmers use to write applications. Another argument for going with KDE is that the cross-platform nature of QT allows software developers to build applications that can be recompiled to run on Desktop/LX, Mac OS X, and Windows. For programmers who don't want to abandon the Windows platform, Lycoris felt this would make the job of developing additional applications for Desktop/LX more attractive.
Technically, there's more to Desktop/LX than just pretty icons (which have an obvious Windows XP style to them) added to the KDE interface. Lycoris created over 1,000 code patches for KDE in order to tightly integrate the GUI with the underlying Linux kernel and other operating system functions. For one, it revamped the KDE Control Center--the Desktop/LX configuration menu where software and hardware is added and removed from the system. The interface is now more visually appealing and easy to use, a clear imitation of Windows' Control Panel. Lycoris plans to further facilitate the installation of software onto Desktop/LX by adding what the company calls its "IRIS" (Internet Rapid Installer for Software) technology to future releases of the OS. IRIS will enable the user to easily install Linux software, like the open source, multi-track music-editing application "Brahms," with just a few mouse clicks.
Other touch-ups developed by Lycoris include:
The Network Browser, an enhanced version of Konqueror that allows Desktop/LX to seamlessly integrate into the file sharing on Windows networks.
"My Linux System" on the Desktop/LX desktop functions like the "My Computer" icon in Windows. A PC's storage devices (hard drives, CD-ROMs, etc.) and peripherals are automatically detected here and added to the Desktop/LX environment without the user, in most cases, needing to configure these devices to appear. Desktop/LX already has automatic recognition of various peripherals, including printers, TV tuner cards, and some digital cameras and Webcams.
Building acceptance of Linux through hardware compatibility?
While Desktop/LX's plug-and-play works well in its current incarnation, it does encounter trouble configuring and recognizing some hardware, especially legacy devices. It's probably unfair to expect Desktop/LX, or any Linux installation package (whether it is a "distribution" or a complete desktop OS), to recognize them, but it does raise the question of exactly how friendly a regular Windows PC user might perceive Desktop/LX, and Linux in general. Spisak reassures us that his company has been working to improve Desktop/LX's capabilities in this regard, and he points out, "Actually, we already have compatibility close to what [Windows] NT had for its arrival."
To expand the compatibility of Desktop/LX with peripherals and add-on cards, Lycoris' business plan also calls for selling hardware vendors on the idea of making sure their new products work under Lycoris. The company even envisions "Desktop/LX Certified" stickers on the packaging of such hardware.
Of course, the realization of this scenario depends on Desktop/LX being the Linux installation that finally grabs the attention of the average PC user. So another part of Lycoris' strategy is to have computers sold both in retail and online, pre-installed with Desktop/LX. The company has been developing partnerships with OEMs to make this a reality in the marketplace.
Says Spisak, quite confidently: "Desktop/LX will break the OEM barrier for Linux systems because it was built for end users from the start." End users like anybody's grandmother.
Howard Wen is a freelance writer who has contributed frequently to O'Reilly Network and written for Salon.com, Playboy.com, and Wired, among others.
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Showing messages 1 through 6 of 6.
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Hey, poo on you and your medieval attitudes! My grandma was SMART!
2002-07-23 11:22:23 ellyn_bradshaw [Reply | View]
How about using 'newbie' or 'inexperienced user', instead of slandering grandma? My grandma built her pc from scratch, and built a website in php/mySQL. My grandma, if she were alive, would slap you silly for using such a lame, inaccurate cliche.
It's really not necessary to slam grandma to make your point.
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Run windows RUN !!!
2002-09-16 20:04:43 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
Lycoris is the one that will give microsoft a run for its money. If the big bad wolf Gates is really a smart man he will take notice to this one.
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Lycoris or Linux
2002-09-23 12:59:59 anonymous2 [Reply | View]
I tried this desktop after using Mandrake 8.2 and
found it to be very nice to install and simple to setup but like most things from redmond it came as a hurried platform not quite fully functional and compared to mandrake completely inadequate . Personally it was a joy to play with but I'll be switching back to Mandrake to do some real work. -
Lycoris or Linux
2003-04-19 18:01:33 masinick [Reply | View]
I'm a bit biased in my response; I have been volunteering for Lycoris since March 2002, and a part time employee since July 2002. But I became a volunteer, then an employee, because I really believed in what Lycoris is doing.
If you try to compare Lycoris straight up with other Linux distros, it never wins that battle, but that's not at all what it's about. Lycoris is all about bringing a simple, straightforward desktop system to the typical consumer. Linux heavies will probably be disappointed, unless they're looking for a nice design, as I was, rather than tons of applications.
When I want lots of applications, I use Libranet, a complete Debian GNU/Linux system, and when I just want a simple, reliable, asthetically pleasing desktop system, I use Lycoris Desktop/LX.
I first became sold on Desktop/LX in February 2002, when my laptop computer, which had been dual booting Windows 98 and Red Hat Linux lost its hard drive to age and a head crash. I was already using quite a few Linux distros every day, and probably spending well over 50% of my total time on those systems, but I was using Windows 98 Second Edition with Outlook Express and Internet Explorer as my daily communication tools and Microsoft Word to manage my resume.
When the disk failed, I took my Dell Dimension 4100 desktop system, which had been running mainly Linux distros (as many as eight of them) as my test system, and made it into both a test system and a daily desktop system. I decided to run an experiment and use Linux exclusively as my desktop system for three months, and use Windows only to help someone else or compare features, never to operate my daily tasks.
I chose Lycoris Desktop/LX as my test OS on which to create my home desktop environment. Not only was I satisfied with it, I found it completely satisfactory. I did, however, occasionally find minor problems with it and contacted the company. It was through those contacts that I was given the opportunities, first to volunteer, then to work for the company on a part time basis. I was sold on the concept first, and I still am. I'd like to see somebody put a serious investment into our work so that we can accelerate what we're doing, but I'm glad that we don't greatly outspend and overextend ourselves. We're small, we do a good job, and we're most interested in getting it right. That's why I became, first a customer, then a believer, then a volunteer, then an employee.
Karsten J. Hilton