Linspire

Linspire Logo
Linspire 5 Desktop "The World's Easiest Desktop Linux!"
Website:	[1]
Company/ developer:	Linspire, Inc.
OS family:	Linux
Latest stable release:	6.0 / October 10, 2007
Update method:	CNR
Kernel type:	Monolithic kernel
Default user interface:	KDE
License:	Both free and proprietary software
Working state:	Current

Linspire, previously known as LindowsOS (also Lin---s, pronounced Lindash), is a commercial Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux. Linspire is published by Linspire, Inc. and is focused on ease-of-use for the average person, rather than catering to niche or advanced needs. As of October 10th 2007, the most recent stable release of Linspire is version 6.0 which was released in October of 2007.^[1] Linspire is available to download and costs US$ 49.95.

History

See also:

Based in San Diego, California, Lindows, Inc. was founded in August 2001 by Michael Robertson with the goal of developing a Linux-based operating system capable of running major Microsoft Windows applications. It based its Windows compatibility on the Wine API emulation layer. The company later abandoned this approach in favor of attempting to make Linux applications easy to download, install and use. To this end a program named "Click'N'Run" (CNR) was developed: based on Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool, it provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface and a slightly modified package system for an annual fee. The first public release of Linspire was version 1.0, released in late 2001.^[2]

In 2002 Microsoft Corporation sued Lindows, Inc. claiming the name "Lindows" constituted an infringement of their "Windows" trademark. Microsoft's claims were rejected by the court, which asserted that Microsoft had used the term "windows" to describe graphical user interfaces before the Windows product was ever released, and that the windowing technique had already been implemented by Xerox and Apple Computer many years before.^[3] Microsoft sought a retrial and after this was postponed in February 2004,^[4] offered to settle the case. As part of the licensing settlement, Microsoft paid an estimated $20 million, and Lindows, Inc. transferred the Lindows trademark to Microsoft and changed its name to Linspire, Inc.^[5]

On June 15 2005, Michael Robertson stepped down as CEO of Linspire, Inc. He continues as Chairman and was replaced as CEO by Kevin Carmony.^[6]

On February 8, 2007 Linspire, Inc. and Canonical Ltd, the lead sponsor and developer of the Ubuntu operating system, announced plans for a new technology partnership, with Linspire aiming to "begin basing ... [their] desktop Linux offerings on Ubuntu."^[7]

On June 13 2007 Linspire and Microsoft announced an interoperability collaboration agreement with a focus on: document format compatibility, instant messaging, digital media, web search, and patent covenants for Linspire customers.^[8] This agreement has been criticised, most notably by the Groklaw website^[9] for being disingenuously short-lived and limited, and against the spirit of the GNU General Public License. Kevin Carmony, in one of the regular "Linspire Letters," asserted that the agreement would "bring even more choices to desktop Linux users [and] ... offer a "better" Linux experience."^[10]

Linspire bases their product code names on fish found around their headquarters: Linspire/LindowsOS 4.5 was code named Coho; Linspire Five-0 (5.0 and 5.1) and Freespire 1.0, Marlin; and Freespire 2.0 and Linspire 6.0, Skipjack.

CNR

Main article: CNR (software)

Linspire's CNR (originally "Click'N'Run") is a software distribution service based on Debian's APT. It is designed to serve as a GUI-based, user-accessible means of downloading and installing various applications, both free and proprietary. The service allows users to install available applications using a single click. CNR also includes a set of click and buy (CNB) software, which includes many commercial applications to members at a discounted rate. Currently CNR has over 2,200 different software packages, ranging from simple applications to major commercial works such as Win4Lin and StarOffice.^[11] CNR was originally subscription-based with two tiers: basic service cost $20 annually, and gold, featuring discounts on some commercial applications, $50. In 2006, Linspire announced that the basic service was to be made available for free.^[12]

Amid rumors that Linspire planned to port CNR to the Ubuntu distribution, the company announced on April 24 2006 that CNR would be released under an open source licence. The release of the free CNR client is planned to coincide with the release of Freespire 2.0 and Linspire 6.0.^[13] On January 23, 2007, Linspire announced that it intended to provide CNR for other Linux distributions, both APT- and RPM-based, including Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE and Ubuntu. This support is expected to appear in mid-2007.^[14] On February 8, 2007, Linspire, Inc. announced a partnership with Canonical Ltd., publisher of the Ubuntu Linux distribution. This deal, to take effect before the fourth quarter of 2007, would see Linspire and Freespire migrate from the unpredictable Debian release process to the biannual Ubuntu release cycle. This means that the main Ubuntu distribution will become the first recipient of the opening of the Click'N'Run service to Linux distributions besides Linspire.^[15][16]

Freespire

Main article: Freespire

In August 2005, Andrew Betts released a LiveCD based on Linspire and named Freespire.^[17] Some users mistook this for a product from Linspire, Inc. Taking advantage of the publicity, Linspire, Inc. offered users a "free Linspire" (purchase price discounted to $0) by using the coupon code "Freespire" until September 9 2005. On April 24 2006, Linspire announced its own project named "Freespire".^[18] This follows the model of community-oriented releases by Red Hat and Novell in the form of Fedora and openSUSE. Freespire is a community-driven and -supported project tied to the commercial Linspire distribution, and includes previously proprietary elements from Linspire, such as the CNR Client, while other elements, which Linspire, Inc. licenses but does not own, like the Windows Media Audio compatibility libraries, remain closed-source. Consequently there are two versions of Freespire, one with the closed source libraries, and one, called Freespire OSS Edition, that includes only open-source components. Freespire 1.0 was released on August 7, 2006, three weeks ahead of schedule.^[19]

Contributions and criticism

Linspire, Inc. sponsors open source projects including the Pidgin and Kopete instant messaging clients, the Mozilla Firefox web browser, the ReiserFS file system, the Nvu WYSIWYG website editor, and the KDE-Apps.org and KDE-Look.org websites.^[20] In the past, Linspire has hosted several Linux and open source events, such as the annual Desktop Linux Summit, DebConf and the KDE Developers Conference. In addition, Linspire maintains an online system to allow people to submit translations of Linspire and other open source software. Known as IRMA (Internationalization Resource Management Application), it currently supports over 50 languages and claims to have over 2,500 translators.^[21]

Linspire has drawn some criticism from the free software community. This has included claims that they tried to rig the Distrowatch Linux popularity rankings,^[22] and criticism for including proprietary software, with GNU founder Richard M Stallman commenting: "No other GNU/Linux distribution has backslided so far away from freedom. Switching from MS Windows to Linspire does not bring you to freedom, it just gets you a different master."^[23] In addition, following the initial Freespire announcement Pamela Jones of the Groklaw website published an article entitled "Freespire: A Linux Distro For When You Couldn't Care Less About Freedom;" this was highly critical of Linspire, Inc., and the Freespire project, for including closed-source components and advertising them as a favourable point—an action she classed as ignoring FOSS community values in a "community-driven" distribution, asserting that "Free Software isn't about proprietary drivers" and that "proprietary codecs, drivers and applications are not Open Source or open in any way."^[24] In response, Linspire, Inc. CEO Kevin Carmony pointed out via a journalist on the LXer website that "in ten years of holding out, the FOSS community has made relatively few gains," that many users are already using proprietary software and, although some would hold out, most would prefer to have something that works rather than nothing. He also asserted that the company believed in OSS, but also "in the freedom of individuals to choose whatever software they want."^[25] Others took a pragmatic view: in an article on the DesktopLinux.com site, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols pointed out that inclusion of proprietary software was nothing new, and commented that although "using proprietary software isn't good for open-source ... there are a handful of programs and drivers that will never be open-source," concluding: "I also know that new users will be a lot more inclined to use a Linux desktop if they can just sit down and use their existing WiFi cards without worrying about compatibility, or watch WMV (Windows Media Video) files without any fuss or muss."^[26]

See also

• Comparison of Linux distributions

References

External links

• Linspire official website
• Freespire official website
• Screenshots of Linspire at OSDir.com
• Linspire at DistroWatch
• Screenshots of Freespire at OSDir.com
• Freespire at DistroWatch
• Linspire Guide, a wiki about the Linspire operating system
• IRMA main page
• Freespire Blog
• LugRadio podcast featuring an interview with Kevin Carmony

•  • [ e] Ubuntu-based Linux distributions and derivatives
Partner Projects	Ubuntu Edubuntu Gobuntu Kubuntu Ubuntu Studio Xubuntu
External	Copland Elbuntu Fluxbuntu Freespire gNewSense Gnoppix Guadalinex Ichthux ImpiLinux Linux Mint LinuxTLE Molinux Mythbuntu Nexenta OS nUbuntu Symphony OS Ubuntu Christian Edition Ubuntu Lite