Slashdot Mirror

Buy one see for yourself :

http://www.linspire.com/featured_partner/featured_ partner.php?sent=1&country=1

Some of the included feature :

http://www.linspire.com/laptop_features.php

I cant believe I am defending Linspire Oh well ...

Buy one see for yourself :

http://www.linspire.com/featured_partner/featured_ partner.php?sent=1&country=1

Some of the included feature :

http://www.linspire.com/laptop_features.php

I cant believe I am defending Linspire Oh well ...

Has full laptop support.

http://media.linspire.com/ltoast/

linspire.com - new Internet appliance from Micheal Robertson

The problem that I at least have is that there are too many Debian-based distros to choose from

AFAIK, Ubuntu is the only major one that contributes heavily back into Debian proper and has a community development model. The others are either largely one man shows or commercial distributions with proprietary tools that they keep to themselves.

I'd love it if just one Debian derivative would come out way ahead of the others in terms of popularity, to the level of Fedora, Suse, Mandrake, or Gentoo; then I could feel confident that it will stick around and stay up to date for the long haul.

If you look at the last month on DistroWatch, one seems to be pulling far ahead of the others, even above the distros you mentioned.

I've had the best luck so far with Fedora, but I hate the fact that a full system upgrade is due twice a year.

With Ubuntu, there are two releases a year, but all you have to do is replace the name of the release in your repositories and "apt-get dist-upgrade".

As for Debian itself, well I used to use it (on a Sparc 10), but to have an up-to-date desktop I had to run "unstable", and occasionally things (like DNS - that was fun) would break for awhile.

Ubuntu also has an unofficial sparc port.

Mandrake begging you to join their club on every page of their web site -- and during the install -- is marketing gone wrong. Linspire acting like Michael Robertson is some kind of celebrity is marketing gone wrong. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is relatively free of marketing BS.

Well, if you use a debian based linux distro, you can build linspire internet suite http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.p hp?package_name=mozilla&pg=specs/and expect that maybe it will be updated to the new gecko engine.

is the composer even being maintained any more by anybody?

In Oct 2003, Michael "short attention span" Robertson announced a that he was funding a plan to create a replacement for Microsoft's FrontPage, called NVU that was based on the original Composer code. It's been sitting in beta ever since. Rumor has it that it's being developed by one programmer who shares his time with other projects. It's supposedly at 1.0 beta (actually version 0.8) but it's been sitting there since last year. It may not be abandonware, but it's as close as it can be. Needless to say, it's got no hope of ever being a FrontPage-killer....

Lore is a cross-platform game that supports Linux, Windows, OSX and Lindows and was recently listed one of the top 10 items of the recent Linux Desktop Summit by both organizers and attendees alike .

The version that was demonstrated at the Linux Desktop Summit will be out on the 18th of March if you want to wait for a demo. But as an added bonus any current Retail user can gain access to the release simply by asking the developers!

Seriously check it out, its a good game that is turning a lot of heads and will be the dark horse of the IGF.

And is it really such a new idea to buy an ASUS barebones PC, add memory, disk and cpu, throw an almost free OS at it, and free media software on it, and call it a product? Come on....

And is it really such a new idea to buy an ASUS barebones PC, add memory, disk and cpu, throw an almost free OS at it, and free media software on it, and call it a product? Come on....

Just pay a kid 10 cents per CD to drop them in the mp3beamer for you. Like Robertson himself did.

Actually, if people would do their research before posting, you would find out that Linspire has done a lot for OSS. They have contributed to wine,kde,mozilla,kde-look.org,reiser just to name a few actually (5). As for as Lsongs and Lphoto, they are written in python so you can get it to work on any distro with python installed.

LSongs Source
LSongs Tarball
LPhoto Source
LPhoto Tarball

Actually, if people would do their research before posting, you would find out that Linspire has done a lot for OSS. They have contributed to wine,kde,mozilla,kde-look.org,reiser just to name a few actually (5). As for as Lsongs and Lphoto, they are written in python so you can get it to work on any distro with python installed.

LSongs Source
LSongs Tarball
LPhoto Source
LPhoto Tarball

Actually, if people would do their research before posting, you would find out that Linspire has done a lot for OSS. They have contributed to wine,kde,mozilla,kde-look.org,reiser just to name a few actually (5). As for as Lsongs and Lphoto, they are written in python so you can get it to work on any distro with python installed.

LSongs Source
LSongs Tarball
LPhoto Source
LPhoto Tarball

Actually, if people would do their research before posting, you would find out that Linspire has done a lot for OSS. They have contributed to wine,kde,mozilla,kde-look.org,reiser just to name a few actually (5). As for as Lsongs and Lphoto, they are written in python so you can get it to work on any distro with python installed.

LSongs Source
LSongs Tarball
LPhoto Source
LPhoto Tarball

For all you trolls complaining that you can't find the source code for Lsongs and Lphoto, you could put a little tiny bit of effort into clicking the blue question mark you'll see here and be able to download a tarball of the source.

For all you trolls complaining that you can't find the source code for Lsongs and Lphoto, you could put a little tiny bit of effort into clicking the blue question mark you'll see here and be able to download a tarball of the source.

Linspire although often put down by geeks as unsophisticated compared to its debian/geentoo/redhat/ madrake.

Note that if you poke around the homepage, no mention of if KDE/Gnome is the desktop of choice. The users he's targeting don't care, they just want a machine that works, without popups and spyware.. They "click and run" subscription seems like apt-get but for money and easier.

Linspire however represents linux's best attempt to make a Linux OS that anyone including your grandmother can use. Its not great yet, but its pretty ok. And comming pre-installed on machines from walmart\ and microcenter and it seems pretty affordable, so it seems to have some traction.

They want to be the mac os-x of linux world. Just look at their homepage . Look like this? Its not coincidence.

Heck they even have a itunes "clone" they sell. called lsongs. (l for linux/ songs = tunes, get it ).

Software is a funny business. Volume means alot.
So if linspire is making money, expect it to improve. Hopefully all improvements they make come back and make all linux's better.

Linspire although often put down by geeks as unsophisticated compared to its debian/geentoo/redhat/ madrake.

Note that if you poke around the homepage, no mention of if KDE/Gnome is the desktop of choice. The users he's targeting don't care, they just want a machine that works, without popups and spyware.. They "click and run" subscription seems like apt-get but for money and easier.

Linspire however represents linux's best attempt to make a Linux OS that anyone including your grandmother can use. Its not great yet, but its pretty ok. And comming pre-installed on machines from walmart\ and microcenter and it seems pretty affordable, so it seems to have some traction.

They want to be the mac os-x of linux world. Just look at their homepage . Look like this? Its not coincidence.

Heck they even have a itunes "clone" they sell. called lsongs. (l for linux/ songs = tunes, get it ).

Software is a funny business. Volume means alot.
So if linspire is making money, expect it to improve. Hopefully all improvements they make come back and make all linux's better.

I really hope this doesn't get modded down as "troll," but I think others will agree with me. I think this distro is kind of sad, in a way. Looking at the screenshots of this "Linux" distro is like looking at a theme on Windows XP, complete with "My Computer," and then some ripoff Mac OS X icons (iChat, anyone)! Their web site even looks like Apple's web site's crack baby. What happened to innovation demanding attention over imitation? How about IMPROVING on the Windows and, sorry to say this, Linux (Gnome/KDE) user interfaces. Users that want to feel at home can stay at home. If users want the improved security of linux, then they can have it... but why not offer something innovative in the interface/experience department, instead of putting tons and tons of effort into making things more "Windows-friendly." The CNR system is, in my opinion, a Very Good Thing for Linspire users, and is a commendable effort at truly usable package management for users.

I also like the Wolfenstein Enemy Territory CNR page, where the screenshots are of the title, the map, and the mission briefing.

Now, I'm going to put my money where my mouth is and improve on GNUSTEP's interface.

ok found a good summary here and a buttload of photos still looking for mp3s of that talks...anyone know where?

ok found a good summary here and a buttload of photos still looking for mp3s of that talks...anyone know where?

• Linux Desktop Summit
  
• Linspire
  
• Lsongs
  
• MP3beamer
  
• MP3tunes
  

• Linux Desktop Summit
  
• Linspire
  
• Lsongs
  
• MP3beamer
  
• MP3tunes
  

If it's Linare and Wal*Mart then what's this about??

I'm sorry, but a lot of that, if not rubbish, is an exaggerated account of how things used to be.

The average user will not be adding other repositories to their system. They will not have to use the command line, they wont have to worry, care or even know about dependencies.

They will have a package manager that came with their distro that takes care of everything with one repository. Any program that is not in their repository is beta software at best that the average person does not need to be messing with. More so for programs that only come in source code.

I can install a program in less than 30 seconds. I don't get asked any questions about where it should go. I never have to reboot my computer. If I want to use the internet to klik on an app to install it I can do that too.

If you had a hard time getting an easy productive desktop, you probably just had the wrong distro.

Which is the only weakness when it comes to newcomers. They have to get the right distribution in the first place. But none of those hardships you mention ever has to be suffered through in any of the distros reviewed in this article. And they didn't even cover Mepis or Ubuntu.

Interesting how Linspire Live didn't get any mention. It's a formidible force in the desktop market and certainly deserves mention even if it doesn't exactly conform to some peoples' ideas of a "true" GNU/Linux distro.

Could this be talking about lindows/linspire??

Slackware Anti-Whatever(TM): The perfect solution to all your virus, spam, spyware, and other problems since 1993!! :-)

Seriously, though, I think it's kind of stupid that Microsoft's making an anti-spyware program - after all, weren't they responsible for the problem in the first place? And of course, it doesn't detect the biggest piece of spyware integrated into every Window$ system... (whatever that unnamed program at version 6SP1 is ;-)

I'd say that if Microsoft really cared they'd make a secure system. It isn't too hard, they already have the perfect starting ground...

I'm not running any sort of heavy duty server, so fucking forget dealing with Linux.

Umm, these days Linux runs on watches, PVRs, routers, desktops, toasters, and, yes, servers too.

It's also pretty easy to use, if you use the right distro.

Linspire?

You sir, are a complete and utter idiot. Aside form your petty misspellings and spouting of FUD, you have no idea what Linspire (the distro) is actually like (if you are already using a linux distro, or even a medium to advanced user of windows you are NOT in the target demographics...) , nor do you know what Linspire (the company) has been doing, sponsoring many open source projects, see here for more info...

Appearantly you've not tried it yourself. There are no MS apps that come with it. While I understand what you are saying about some security issues relating to root access, I have installed Linspire 4.5, on multiple machines and found it to be easy to install, easy to add/remove applications to and found it to be quite serviceable. You can easily add users so as to avoid running as root.

I've really got to give Michael Roberts a lot of credit for his attempt to get the average user away from the grips of Microsoft, spam, viruses and malware. When my son's P4 HP Pavilion ground to a halt with malware, I loaned him an old PII-266 running Linspire 4.5 while I roto-rootered his Windows machine. He and his wife were able to start using it for surfing and e-mail with about 2 minutes training. It worked just fine with winmodem for dialup access, too. Now I'm having trouble getting it back from him.

I'm currently running SuSE 9.2 myself and have experience with RedHat, Fedora, Mandrake, Knoppix and Xandros as well as Linspire. No Linspire doesn't have as much geek appeal, but it's a reasonably good product IMHO. Oh, and no, I have no affiliation with Linspire in any way other than as someone who's tried it.

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

Appearantly you've not tried it yourself. There are no MS apps that come with it. While I understand what you are saying about some security issues relating to root access, I have installed Linspire 4.5, on multiple machines and found it to be easy to install, easy to add/remove applications to and found it to be quite serviceable. You can easily add users so as to avoid running as root.

I've really got to give Michael Roberts a lot of credit for his attempt to get the average user away from the grips of Microsoft, spam, viruses and malware. When my son's P4 HP Pavilion ground to a halt with malware, I loaned him an old PII-266 running Linspire 4.5 while I roto-rootered his Windows machine. He and his wife were able to start using it for surfing and e-mail with about 2 minutes training. It worked just fine with winmodem for dialup access, too. Now I'm having trouble getting it back from him.

I'm currently running SuSE 9.2 myself and have experience with RedHat, Fedora, Mandrake, Knoppix and Xandros as well as Linspire. No Linspire doesn't have as much geek appeal, but it's a reasonably good product IMHO. Oh, and no, I have no affiliation with Linspire in any way other than as someone who's tried it.

"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain

"We" aren't going to finish it. I think the way to go is have it preinstalled, like Linspire does, because most hardware has a perfectly working driver, it's just the pain of getting it all working, editing /etc/modules.conf, /etc/rc.d/rc.local et cetera. In the future, I don't expect to have time for this anymore, so I'll probably give my cash to a hardware vendor which has a deal with Linspire or similar distributions.

All websites look the same these days. http://www.apple.com/ and http://linspire.com/ for example.

It's from Lindows/Linspire - but it requires Linspire 4.5 or higher: http://www.linspire.com/lindows_products_details.p hp?id=11804

It is not clear to me that your mom's computer needs cannot be met using Linux together with Win4Lin (also here), WineX (Cedega) (also here), wine, VMWare, etc.
I suspect that not all of these would be needed by your mom and some things still might not work. However, not all (windows) applications she might want will run on Apple machines. In fact, not all windows applications will run on windows machines.

And a selling point of Linspire is the "Click 'n Run" catalog of "1,900 Programs you can use free!". See their marketing page.

I wonder how long Linspire (formerly known as Lindows) is asked by customers to include a spyware removal tool. After all, they included VirusSafe in their Linux distribution. While totally unnecessary, customers just wanted anti-virus protection.

Sure... license it.

And then watch Micro$oft take the liberty of NOT licensing the DRM-related parts of it... just as Linspire's Michael Robertson unfortunately did for the Linspire distro just last week:

http://www.linspire.com/lindows_michaelsminutes_ar chives.php?id=143

Conclusion: Forget it! We need free formats, not such utter crap! And financially supporting such crap is even worse...

Soon. It will be in Mozilla/Firefox soon. Linspire got someone to program it.

Have a look at http://info.linspire.com/lsongs/ It runs on Linspire (a version of Linux) which is aimed at Windows converts and newcomers to Linux. They made sure that it works with many file formats and loads of different players. Why get bogged down in the battle between M$ and Apple - get Linspire and give Lsongs a go!

From mandrakelinux.com:

MandrakelinuxTM is a friendly Linux Operating System which specializes in ease-of-use for both servers and the home/office. It is freely available in many languages throughout the world.

There's more info on their concept page, but they're basic pitch is Linux for Newbies and switchers from Windows/Macs. I'd say they're going after the end-user market like Linspire, but they're also going after business/government businesses that don't want to spend a lot on "retraining" their users for Linux.

Inline spellcheck was implemented for Mozilla Suite by Linspire recently. It will probably be included in future versions of Thunderbird (not necessarily in 1.0).

it was only the beta that ran as root and they quickly fixed that

Definitely not true. I wrote a review of Lindows 4.0, and it definitely installed with the user running as root. At one point it prompted you for an "optional system password"... that's the root password. That's right, it was perfectly content to default to no password on root.

It was possible to set up user accounts, but the system would be slightly broken (one example here). I wrote an article about that too.

Now that Lindows is Linspire and they have come out with a new version, did they change that? I haven't tested anything newer than 4.0, but it looks like the user still runs as root.

steveha

it was only the beta that ran as root and they quickly fixed that

Definitely not true. I wrote a review of Lindows 4.0, and it definitely installed with the user running as root. At one point it prompted you for an "optional system password"... that's the root password. That's right, it was perfectly content to default to no password on root.

It was possible to set up user accounts, but the system would be slightly broken (one example here). I wrote an article about that too.

Now that Lindows is Linspire and they have come out with a new version, did they change that? I haven't tested anything newer than 4.0, but it looks like the user still runs as root.

steveha

I am a little surprised that there have not been more Debian-based distros out there. Another one that does come to mind is Linspire. http://www.linspire.com/ I have yet to try Ubuntu, but from time to time I had trouble getting Debian packages to work with Linspire while I was still trying it out.

While I like having a choice of distributions, this very lack of cross-compatibility is part of why software vendors find porting software not to be a cost effective choice.