Is this the future of Linux?
I’ve been planning on writing a post about iMagicOS ever since version 2009 came out. I was surprised to see that someone could launch such a poor product and ask money for it. However, I was determined to just let it go, thinking that the developers were probably young, unexperienced and maybe too enthusiastic and they’d eventually either abandon the project or substantially improve it over the time.
Well… I was wrong!
In the meantime they released another version of their OS, 2009.3. Based on Hardy Heron, this new version has some important new features:
- refreshing desktop – the desktop is now a lot cleaner and easy to use (they must have removed ~/Desktop/*)
- less bloat – you will notice that iMagic OS 2009.3 is a much slimmer and better structured system (?)
- file manager – Konqueror now combines a sleek blue and silver side bar, with useful features and places that will be familiar to all Windows users (they changed the sidebar color, what can I say, that’s a real improvement)
- etc.
Not convinced to buy it yet?
Maybe this will make you decide:
- it’s Microsoft compatible (you can install any application from this list and it will probably work…or not, thanks to CrossOver Linux which is included in this OS)
- it comes in three different versions with six different prices (isn’t that cute?)
So once you accept the license and swear you won’t install it on more than three computers, it gets more expensive!
Other things to consider
- comes with three of the strongest firewalls available
- phpBB forum board support (~ 20 threads so far)
- you only pay 5$ if you want to upgrade from 2009
- you get access to their private_packages section where you can get debs for hard to find binaries like Amarok, Kaffeine and Apache
Conclusions
iMagic OS is no more than another Lindows clone (it even uses CNR and a CNR clone called magicOnline) which obviously won’t attract Linux users (who have better options like Ubuntu/Fedora/OpenSuSE) but might sound interesting to a couple of Microsoft Windows users.
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Is this iMagicOS crap some kind of sick joke???
“magicOffice is installed directly to your computer, so that you can even use it offline.”
What an innovation!
CrossOver itself is expensive…..I pretty sure its just crossover and the disk mastering…
Now now, there are clearly original features – the “Why” page promises “Abiword wireless capabilities”. I sure don’t get that with Gentoo!
The developers should target the netbook market if they want to commercialize this OS. I don’t have a problem with a version of Linux taking this route. After all, there should be a version of Linux out there for everyone – that’s the freedom of Linux.
rofl: http://imagicos.net/private_packages/depend.html
OMG, apparently Amarok and Kaffeine are hard to find…
Holy crap, there’s too many morons out there. I hope nobody falls for this BS …
Well, according to Distrowatch ‘Page Hit Rank’ statistics for the last 6 months, iMagic OS is more popular than expected, placed right above Solaris. Check it out: http://distrowatch.com/stats.php?section=popularity
To be fair, I think this whole thing is put together by teenagers (I’m not kidding).
are you freakin kidding me? This is a lawsuit waiting to happen! Look at the Icons…they are using Microsoft AND Apple Icons. Apple and Microsoft are very particular about their IP rights.
“You will never get a virus on iMagic OS. There may be one or two that have been written for Linux, but iMagic OS comes with three of the strongest firewalls available, protecting you from any possible threat.”
I’m convinced these people are doing this as self-amusement and really just want to make money off of being funny.
Okay, seriously, someone is going to get sued. To start, the way they’re distributing others’ open source/free software is totaly illegal.
It is technically legal to charge for GNU software but I do not believe that they can legally limit the amount of computers the software is installed on or how it is redistributed.