Flying high with the new Linux operating system

Vishnu K. Mahmud, Contributor, Jakarta

Three years ago, I tried to install Linux. It was a disaster. Nothing went right. Setting up the graphics driver was mind wrenching. The sound didn't work. There were no word processors, games or other utilities I was used to.

I didn't know how to access files from my other hard drives. Everything was cryptic, archaic and text-based. I had to use the command line for practically everything.

People nowadays are used to user-friendly processes. Everything is point and click. Regular users are familiar with Graphic User Interfaces (GUI) when working on their computers.

In addition, the defacto leader in productivity software for businesses is Microsoft Office with their Excel and Word programs.

Installing Linux is considered pointless since you can't share and work on files from Windows users.

But not anymore.

Out of Redmond, Washington, the same city that is the bastion of the Microsoft software empire, is a little startup called Lycoris (www.lycoris.com). Formerly known as Redmond Linux, the company has released their own Linux distribution that is meant for the masses; an operating system that is easy to install and comfortable to use for all computer users.

The usual problems with some Linux distributions are the difficulties in setting up as well as configuring the computer. In addition, the software that comes with the distro, as distributions are called in geek lingo, is sometimes useless for the average computer user.

Lycoris hopes to change that. Their installation process is so simple and smooth it's like installing an application on Microsoft Windows. You can even play solitaire while waiting for the installation to finish.

Once completed, you will find a nicely labeled log-in system that everyone will understand. The desktop is sensibly straightforward with icons that an experienced Windows user can just jump into and get to work straight away. With a beautiful backdrop of a big blue sky and rolling hills (hmmm, sounds familiar), users can access their computer drives from My Linux System, their documents from Personal Files and trash their data in the Recycled Bin.

Want to start? Go to the bottom right hand side of the screen and click on the Go button to bring up the menu bar.

Taking a page out of Microsoft's own software bundling strategy, Lycoris Linux comes with an Office Productivity suite complete with word processing, spreadsheet and others, graphics programs to view and edit pictures, and a set of multimedia tools for listening to MP3s or playing DVDs, just to name a few. They are all installed by default, which in some distros must be installed manually and can be rather messy as there are no links to the desktop, it is not included on the menu bar and so on.

I managed to install some programs by myself, such as the Open Office (www.openoffice.org), a productivity suite that can open and edit Microsoft Office files in Linux. With step-by-step instructions from the Lycoris community site (www.lycoris.org), I managed to successfully edit a Word file from my Windows partition. Granted, Open Office may have some problems with picture formatting and footnotes, but it is still a viable open source alternative to Microsoft Office at a reasonable cost. And it improves with every new build, which is very frequent.

Setting up networking and an Internet connection, another bane of Linux installations, is also very simple. SAMBA, the Linux application that lets users connect and share files and printing resources over a Windows-based network, was installed automatically and performed impeccably. No more configuration headaches! I could immediately access the office network and transfer files upon the completion of the Lycoris installation. This is a major litmus test for IT managers considering Linux for the office place.

Need help in installing a sound card? Or, how do you play Quake on your computer? Ask the experts! Lycoris has a growing community of users that would gladly share their experience with you. There are a few tutorials on where to find and how to install various software packages, and there's more on the way. In the end, you learn something new about software and Linux. It's not that difficult.

So why even consider using Linux? Restrictive costs of software licenses, mandatory, if not intrusive, software activation processes and stiff antipiracy laws are just a few reasons why many users and companies have switched to the Open Source software model.

With cost as an issue, many people, from individual users to corporate IT managers, will probably be interested in looking into Lycoris as a solution that can be quickly deployed with a little training and investment. Some Lycoris users say it's so easy that their grandmothers are using it!

Lycoris Linux is available to download from their website (www.lycoris.com). Users can download the ISO (or CD image) and burn them on to CDs. If you don't have a CD burner, a CD-R or a CD-RW drive, you can order the CDs for US$29.95 for the LX version or $39.95 for the LX Deluxe version, which include a 30- page installation manual and 60 days of e-mail support.

If you have free time, some hard disk space and want to learn something new, you may want to give Lycoris a spin. You may be surprised at how far you can fly with it.