X
Home & Office

CeBIT 2000: "Consumer" Linux from Finland

"Best Linux", with its simpler OS structure, is aimed at home users
Written by Will Knight, Contributor

On Thursday, a new Linux distribution "from the homeland of Linux" joined the already crowded variety of distributors jostling for the attention of computer users at the CeBIT show in Hannover.

Santeri Kannisto, managing director of SOT Finnish Engineering, which introduced its "Best Linux" distribution at the show, promised that the package is not simply cashing in on the fact that it comes from the same country as Linux creator Linus Torvalds.

"(SOT) does not say one distribution is better than another," said Kannisto. "It is simply Linux from the origins of Linux -- nothing more."

Kannesto doesn't believe that the Linux distributing market is already too crowded, and adds that Best Linux is trying to open up a new user base -- ordinary consumers.

"We are targeting home users, and that is something that has been missing from the market. I think that all the Linux distributors work together to fight Microsoft anyway," he said.

Best Linux will succeed in the consumer area -- which has already been staked out by Corel -- through focusing on simplicity from the ground up, Kannesto says. Best Linux offers an out-of-the-box basic operating system with many of the more complicated applications disabled. The system comes with a CD packed with 145 games, including some commercial demos and even a few emulated Commodore 64 games for retro fans.

SOT is currently looking for resellers, says Kannesto, and the company hopes to have the boxed version of the operating system on the shelves of European shops within a few weeks. Best Linux can already be downloaded from www.sot.com.

What do you think? Tell the Mailroom. And read what others have said.

For full coverage see ZDNet UK's CeBIT 2000 special.

Take me to the Linux Lounge.

Editorial standards