Any good company reassesses their progress and strategy periodically. That's exactly what we've done at Lindows.com, and I wanted to share with you a couple of changes we're making.

The first change concerns the Internet Suite (Web, Mail & IM) in LindowsOS - The upcoming version 4.0 of LindowsOS will debut a new browser, email and instant messenger, each with several new features our users have requested. Until now we've shipped with the Netscape suite. Unfortunately, Netscape's development has slowed and necessitated a change.

Also, it's been tough for us to convince AOL to fully embrace desktop Linux. Our expectation was they would enjoy the opportunity to move out from under Microsoft's OS which clearly is partial to their own service MSN. Unfortunately, that's not been the way it has played out, so sadly we'll be losing the ability to check AOL email from within our new mail client. But, on the positive side, we'll be bundling a net suite that offers industry-leading features which will give LindowsOS users the best experience bar none! More on this next week when we talk about upcoming version 4.0.

The second change is our Name - No, we're not changing the company name. That trial happens in December. Our attorney is working hard and we've uncovered some hidden evidence which we look forward to bringing to light. I can't predict we'll win, but I can say we'll put on a very intriguing case against the richest company in the world. The name we are changing is our "slogo," the tag-line under our logo. When we first launched Lindows.com we wanted to emphasize "choice" and our phrase was "Bringing Choice To The Desktop Computer". Anytime there's only one choice, consumers are going to be treated poorly (high cost, low levels of support). Competition is what keeps our free market balanced. Well, I think we've largely accomplished our goal of bringing choice to the desktop. Today consumers do have a choice and can buy computers with LindowsOS preinstalled from popular online retailers as well as mail order catalogs.

Now that we've helped crack open Microsoft's monopoly and consumers finally have a "choice," we now feel the need to emphasize our most important advantage over Microsoft...affordability. While Microsoft claims their prices are affordable, they are pocketing nearly a billion dollars of profit EVERY month. This means consumers, schools and businesses are paying huge prices for software. Paying over $400 per computer for an office suite is not affordable. The advantage we have, because we are Linux based, is we can put out a great product with just 50 people vs. Microsoft's 50,000. Consequently, we can charge a small fraction of the price they charge for software and still have a solid business. Therefore, we have changed Lindows.com's tagline to "The World's Most Affordable Software!" Of course, the world's most affordable software will be powering the world's most affordable computers.

This is our commitment to consumers, to work diligently to always provide the most affordable software available. Almost every product category has an affordable line for value-conscious consumers....airlines have Southwest and Jet Blue, department stores have Wal-Mart, and so on. For almost any category you can think of, there is a company dedicated to providing low-cost, high-value products and services: cars, travel, groceries, toothpaste, restaurants, you name it. Now that we've been successful in helping form cracks in Microsoft's monopoly, there can now arise a value-based, affordable line of software. That's what Lindows.com's mission is, bringing you this new line of affordable software.

To give you an idea of just how affordable we're making software, take a look at a handful of the exciting, low-cost, high-quality software products we've added to our Click-N-Run Warehouse in the last few weeks. These products would cost hundreds of dollars from Microsoft - Makers of the World's Most Expensive Software!

Look for our new slogo, "The World's Most Affordable Software!" to start replacing our old one on our web site in the coming days. -- Michael Moneydance - Great new personal finance manager, similar to Intuit's Quicken. Retail Price: $29.95, only $19.95 to Click-N-Run Members. Gambas - A graphical development environment, similar to Visual Basic, for Linux and LindowsOS. FREE to Click-N-Run Members. Realrekord - A RealPlayer Recorder with built-in radio station database of hundreds of Internet stations. FREE to Click-N-Run Members. Orbz - An addictive, action arcade game for the whole family set in a colorful 3D environment. Retail Price: $19.95, only $14.95 to Click-N-Run Members. Elements Wallpaper - Collection of 30 breathtaking, high-resolution wallpapers. FREE to Click-N-Run Members. The Michael's Minute Meter  63%  18%  18%  AGREE  DISAGREE  MIXED    Do YOU generally agree or disagree with Michael in this week's Minute shown above?   I generally AGREE with Michael this week I generally DISAGREE with Michael this week I am MIXED or don't have an opinion either way   View the Michael's Minute Meter Report