MP3.com founder launches Lindows --------------------

Microsoft sues for infringement

By Matthew Fordahl
Associated Press

February 4, 2002

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Michael Robertson's last start-up, MP3.com, helped
ignite the digital music revolution, attracting a big buzz and lawsuits
from major record labels.

Robertson's latest gig is no less ambitious: an operating system called
Lindows that aims to run programs designed for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows.

The gist: No Microsoft purchase necessary. Lindows is being built to run
on the Linux operating system.

Lindows.com Inc. is attracting considerable attention--and
skepticism--just months after it was announced. It is also fighting its
first lawsuit, from Microsoft, for alleged trademark infringement.

"Anytime you're trying to change the world, you're going to encounter
challenges," said Robertson, who sold MP3.com last year to Vivendi
Universal SA but still serves as an adviser.

If delivered as promised, Lindows could do nothing less than crack
Microsoft's monopoly on business and home operating systems--in effect
succeed where antitrust regulators have so far failed.

If Lindows works, it would provide an alternative that's easy to use and
runs efficiently but costs about half the full retail price of the home
edition of Windows XP and plays well with real Windows-based systems.

And if it wins customers, it could open up a vast library of Linux
software and opportunities for programmers in the open-source community.

But those are big "ifs."

Lindows has offered few details about its product. On Jan. 24, it offered
a $99 download of a "Sneak Preview" on condition the information not be
made public.

Public releases are expected later this year.

Limited popular appeal

Even if Lindows works, analysts question whether it will find traction
among consumers who have largely rejected attempts to make Linux
palatable for the masses.

Linux, after all, has not made headway into desktop PCs despite low
costs, user-friendly desktop environments and programs that claim to be
compatible with Windows, including Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Star Office.

It may simply be too difficult.

"Look at Star Office. Here's something that's already interoperable with
the world-accepted standard of Microsoft products," said Matthew Berk of
Jupiter Media Metrix. "Why hasn't it found wider adoption?"

Sun tried in the mid-1990s to create software that could run Windows
programs in its Unix-based Solaris operating system. The so-called Wabi
project was shut down in 1997.

"They didn't put enough money behind it," said Rob Enderle, an analyst at
Giga Information Group. "It was a special project and for the most part
it was never funded to a level that would have allowed it to succeed."

Since 1993, a loose community of Linux and other Unix programmers in the
so-called Wine project have been working on free software that allows
Windows-based programs to run in Linux.

Despite that effort, Wine remains difficult to use and is far from 100
percent compatible.

Lindows will use components of Wine but also is improving them, Robertson
said.

The new operating system promises much greater simplicity than any other
Linux distribution and file navigation that is familiar to Windows users.

Lindows also will have a more liberal licensing policy.

With one license, users can legally copy Lindows to a home PC, laptop and
work computer. Microsoft would charge for each.

Lindows isn't promising the world. At first, its focus will be on office
productivity applications such as Microsoft's Office Suite and Lotus
Notes.

Rather than reverse engineering software, Lindows programmers look for
how the program interacts with the operating system and then replicates
it in the Linux environment.

"It's much like French and English. We say cheese. They say fromage,"
Robertson said.

Lindows is attempting to accomplish its goals without any help from
Microsoft. Analysts wonder whether that may be too big a task for its two
dozen employees and limited funding.

"It's not just a matter of watching how it works," Berk said. "I think
you need to have a relationship there."

Microsoft, for instance, could make changes to its operating system or
its programs that render Lindows obsolete.

But Robertson might have an ally in the suggested remedies proposed by
state attorneys general who are not adhering to the proposed antitrust
settlement between Microsoft and the federal government.

Forced program sharing

The dissenting states want Microsoft to be forced to share more of the
inner workings of Windows and other programs.

So far, Microsoft isn't saying much about Lindows beyond its trademark
infringement lawsuit, filed in December.

"If Lindows were to cease using the name Lindows, then we would have no
problem at all with the product itself," said Microsoft spokesman Jon
Murchinson.

The Microsoft suit intends to try to slow down Lindows development and
scare away investors, said Robertson.

He said Lindows.com is not on a crusade against Microsoft. "We're on a
mission to bring choice," he said.


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