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UK PC manufacturer Evesham said on Monday it will begin selling PCs with a pre-installed version of the Lindows operating system in its 16 UK stores and from its Web site, Evesham.com, where Irish users could buy the new computers.
The Evesham E-Scape sells for STG250 and includes the VIA C3 and the VIA Apollo PLE133 integrated chipset, a 40Gb Hard disk, 256MB DRAM, a well as a CD-ROM, modem and a mouse. A monitor, speakers and other peripherals must be purchased separately. In terms of basic software, Lindow OS system runs Sun's StarOffice, which Sun Microsystems markets as an alternative to Microsoft Office.
Lindows.com, the maker of Lindows OS, is marketing its USD200 PCs as "AOL PC's" in the US, on the basis that the machines come with Netscape 7.0 pre-installed as its default browser.
AOL says that Lindows.com is just one of 70,000 firms that had simply filled out a one-page form on Netscape.com to obtain a licence to distribute the Netscape browser software. The company denied that there was any relationship between the companies and that it was surprised by Lindows.com's "misleading" announcement.
Lindows is based on Linux, an open-source variation of the Unix operating system. Although Linux's impact is apparent in the server market, it is considered far too complex for consumer desktop PCs. Lindows is hoping to change that perception. Lindows was originally billed as a non-Microsoft operating system that would run many popular Windows applications, but the company later backed away from that claim.
Also this week, Lindows announced that it has filed a motion for summary judgement in its legal dispute with Microsoft, claiming that its use of the name Lindows is not an infringement on Microsoft Windows trademark. The motion contains detailed information on the history of the term "windows" when referring to graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in PC technology. The motion traces the history of GUIs from the early 1970s and their use at Xerox and Apple computers, prior to the commercial release of Microsoft Windows in the early 1990s.
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