Link to previous megathread:

Microsoft Corp. v. Lindows [dot] com, Inc

TL;DR

A Linux distribution based in San Diego, California by the name of Lindows (2001) was sued by Micro$oft for infringing on their trademark name. Lindows was a distribution of GNU/Linux designed to run programs meant for Windows as well as programs compiled for Linux. Fun fact, it was founded by the guy who used to run mp3 dot com (Michael Robertson ).

One of the innovations that Lindows made was being sold with computers (you could find these for just under $200 in Walmart), it also boasted the CNR (Click N’ Run) application which allowed users to install programs just with a single click.

Of course, since Lindows was threatening the bruised egos of Microsoft, they were sued for trademark infringement. However, in a rare turn of events, a judge ruled that the term “Windows” was used to describe graphical interfaces before the Windows product existed. Windows, now realizing they could be in deep shit if “Windows” itself was determined to be a generic term and not a trademark, quickly backed away from bullying the small company and settled in 2004 for nearly 20 million dollars (now around 33 million today).

Lindows later rebranded as linspire but quickly faded into the background as Microsoft and Apple quickly dominated the market and enveloped it into their sphere of influence. Lindows’ mission of running Windows software and catering to these users was later taken up by Valve Inc. who funded the development of Vulkan and DXVK et. al to create Proton, which now boasts to run over 10,000 games made specifically for Windows and powers the Steam Deck, a commercially available Linux device nearly made up of entirely libre software (minus steam).

Megathread

Post nerd in the chat. catgirl-salute

  • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    7·
    5 days ago

    I’m in the process of configuring a new laptop for myself at work which sadly needs to run win11. Windows 11 has a native sudo command now it turns out. Now I had been running gsudo on my old laptop for a few years, found out they got in a little drama with Microsoft over this sudo stuff.

    https://gerardog.github.io/gsudo/docs/gsudo-vs-sudo

    Microsoft initially declined to create a similar tool, citing security concerns. However gsudo’s documentation challenged this view arguing that absolute security is unattainable without altering Windows itself, and that the default same-desktop UAC is not completely secure either.

    In February 2024, Microsoft reversed its stance and released Sudo for Windows.

    Surprisingly, Microsoft’s sudo does not leverage new OS features to enhance security. Its mechanisms are akin to gsudo, making their security models comparable. The question of which one is more secure depends on which version of each are you comparing, and how many open bugs it has. The initial release of Microsoft’s sudo presented some critical issues that they will hopefully address very soon. gsudo has fixed similar issues in the past and may in the future.

    I stuck with gsudo.

    • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      3·
      4 days ago

      Watching windows develop has been astounding over the past decade.

      There were already good tools built in but so much of the refactoring and adoption of practices and tools from other environments makes me want to use it.

      It’s like a car with everything I want except it has a cvt.

      • RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        That’s funny because all I want to do is get off windows. In terms of software deployment and management alone, the Linux environment just feels more efficient. I know that you can get into alternative package management hell with things like Snap that people seem to debate about endlessly. Or that different distros will at times use different package managers, be it yum or pacman or apt. On Windows though, there is a whole graveyard of package managers sitting under Winget, and others still being utilized like Chocolatey.

        At least Winget is authoritative at this point because it’s operated by Microsoft and comes preinstalled on Win10. For the first time in my life, I was able to install about 30 different peaces of software on my new Win laptop with a single one-line command. Fired it off, it all installed with zero human interaction. Never had to visit a website or download a file. All of them can be updated via a single command.

        There is a whole world of business software out there that tries to fill the gap for software management on Windows. Things like PDQ Inventory \ Deploy, LanSweeper, Ninite, etc. Their only goal, to provide an “easier” means of simply distributing software to your fleet of computers without intervention and provide regular updates to that software.

        That’s just software management. That doesn’t even get on the topic of configuration management. Creating a service on Linux is simply a matter of knowing the correct place to put a text file, and the syntax required. Making a configuration change is a matter of, again, editing more text files. Windows has the registry which is cryptic and strange, services are not easily created, scheduled tasks are incredibly tedious to configure. Sure, everything has a nice GUI, but it’s definitely at the cost of efficient configuration. If you need to get into more complex configuration management across a fleet of computers, you need a windows’ domain server, enterprise licensing, and you then have to learn Group Policy and all its idiosyncrasies.

        I often wonder what it would be like to manage a fleet of Linux based desktop PCs that’d be used by end users. I imagine comes with its own nightmares, many of which stem from the fact that everyone is so used to Windows.

        • stupid_asshole69 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
          2·
          4 days ago

          It’s funny, the thing that makes windows “easy” to use for big shops is the domain server and group policy. You start from the top and push everything down to client devices.

          Managing a Linux shop without the redhat tools is absolute hell. A decade and a half ago the usual response to a Linux user was “you’re on your own and it’s your responsibility if a software problem impacts your productivity”.

          Of course when I wax rhapsodic about how nice windows has become over the past years it’s because the ideas and capabilities of those tools for managing hundreds of users have trickled down to the individual user.

          What sucks is that the user experience of windows has shifted towards that of tablets. So you get a powerful enterprise backend with key features removed and the interface of a cell phone.

          Getting old ftw.