LindowsOS: A little bit Linux, a little bit Windows

A new company founded by MP3.com founder and former CEO Michael Robertson is looking to bridge the gap between applications available for Linux and Windows - a gap many open source software advocates blame for slow uptake of Linux on desktop computers.

The company, called Lindows.com, plans to release by year-end a preview release of a Linux-based operating system, dubbed LindowsOS, that can run both Linux and Windows applications.

Linux users have had to rely on WINE, a program that lets Windows applications run, although not efficiently, on Linux systems.

Skeptical feedback on Lindows.com's announcement came from Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at market research firm IDC. "I believe that technically it can be made to work. I also believe that it will be difficult to convince people [to use it]," he says.

There are several companies - such as Citrix Systems - that offer Linux users the ability to employ Windows applications, but such vendors let customers run those programs on Windows computers and provide a way for Linux users to open them in a separate space on the desktop, simplifying the whole process, Kusnetzky says.

Lindows.com will also have to figure out a way to document all the Windows interfaces, information that Microsoft has not completely released. Without these interfaces, software cannot be guaranteed to function properly, Kusnetzky says. Though work in this area is being done with WINE, it is far from complete, he adds.

The final version of the LindowsOS will cost about $100 and, as with all Linux operating systems, a single copy can be installed legally on multiple computers.

Costello is a correspondent with the IDG News Services' Boston bureau.

Lindows.com