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Lindows Changes Name to 'Linspire'

Posted by timothy on from the bully-meets-showoff dept.

Robert Nicholson writes "As previously covered, Lindows has decided to change its name thanks to Microsoft legal threats. Well it has just announced the new name - Linspire - clever, huh? There's a site at Linspire.com. The full story and the history behind it all are covered on Techworld."

14 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. Little guys can't fight a giant... by mindless4210 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That left the way open for Microsoft to chase the company all over the world's courts and effectively knock it out of business with huge legal costs.

    This sheds some light on the real reason that they changed their name. I doubt there's a single company that could handle being dragged through the world's courts by Microsoft, let alone a small one like them.

    This led to the daft situation where Lindows renamed itself Lin---s, complete with new website. Microsoft, unbowed, then incredibly claimed that Lin---s was its trademark as well.

    This one just makes me say wow... Microsoft actually thingks they can claim the rights to "Lin---s"? Talk about power hungry.

    Also, if they have changed their name and everything, then why does www.linspire.com have "LindowsOS" plastered all over the place? I guess it will take them a while to implement the actual name change.

    --
    Wireless News www.DailyWireless
    1. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by gid13 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Microsoft actually thingks they can claim the rights to "Lin---s"? Talk about power hungry."

      Well, they probably don't think they can claim the rights to it so much as they think their lawyers can beat up Lindows' lawyers. And Lindows seems to agree. Yay capitalism, where even the law is privatized.

    2. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by Liselle · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, the name "Lin---s" was kind of obviously flipping off Microsoft, especially since they had a poorly-drawn hangman on the website for it with every letter crossed out except "D", "O" and "W". I mean, come on. Michael Robertson is good at criticizing Microsoft and pissing in their Cheerios, but he's not good at coming up with with clever names, I guess (I'm not going to go for the obvious parallel). I think he just should have taken absurdity to its ultimate edge and called the damn thing Linfox.

      I was one of the people who said that you couldn't possibly come up with a more asinine name than "Lindows". Here we all are, eating our words. ;)

      --
      Auto-reply to ACs: "Truly, you have a dizzying intellect."
    3. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > I doubt there's a single company that could handle being dragged through the world's courts by Microsoft,

      It was a PR Stunt from the very beginning. If they were really scared of MS' Legal Dept, they would have never picked "Lindows" in the beginning.

      And since they made the slashdot frontpage again, their plan is working great.

    4. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by stubear · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You're forgetting that on the world stage Lindows was infringing upon the Widos trademark. In the initial suits filed, none of the countries had the word "Windows" in their language so it was a competely unique trademark. This was really brilliant lawering really because even though Lindows had a chance to keep using the name here, they would fracture the brand and Michael Robertson is in this to form a company around Linux right? I'm guessing Robertson had a little help from his board figuring this one out because I think he still wants to fight this fight that he knows he's eventually going to lose.

    5. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by TheAwfulTruth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So who wants "clever" names for products? The plethora of "clever" naming in the computer world is nothing but a source of confusion for the actual users. Give users names like "Adobe photoshop" and they'll be much happier than "Adobe super-fire bird".

      This lesson needs to be taken to heart, keep the clever code names internal, use sensible naming for actual products.

      --
      Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
    6. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "I think Microsoft's reasoning was "---" stood for "dow", which was still, somehow, theirs... I guess in that case, bleeping out cusswords or saying f--k is the same as just saying / writing them. "

      You hit the nail on the head, except it works against the point you were aiming for. Seeing as how Lindows was already established as "Lindows" and the damage was already done (in the legal sense), then --- change really isn't doing anything to alleviate the problem, now is it?

      To put it in simpler terms: They probably could have gotten away with Lin---s if they hadn't already gotten into a legal battle over the name "Lindows".

      It's fun to bash Microsoft over this matter, afterall it is the 'cool' thing to do here at Slashdot, but the reality is that the CEO of Lindows has intentionally and maliciously made trouble for Microsoft. If the companies' roles in this matter were reversed, the general judgement about who's really guilty wouldn't suddenly change. Microsoft would still be the bad guy.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    7. Re:Little guys can't fight a giant... by ratamacue · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Government defines the rules. The rules are unjust and hence exploitable. Government has laid the framework which allows big corporations to crush the little guy.

      "Unchecked capitalism" (I think you mean unfair business practices?) is an unwanted side effect, not the cause of the problem. The root of the problem is government.

  2. I Never Thought I'd Say This, by dupper · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But Lindash was better. I think we need a Slashdot poll.

  3. No. Lindows was a STUPID name. by sulli · · Score: 4, Insightful
    And it is blindingly obvious that it was chosen to draw fire from Microsoft. Maybe not to the hard-core unix geeks still wishing people think of X Window System when they hear "windows," but to anyone else.

    So, as expected, Microsoft played its part in this little Kabuki drama, and Lindows aka Linspire got its free publicity. And bully for them, I guess. But to suggest that they picked the name for any other reason is sheer folly.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
    1. Re:No. Lindows was a STUPID name. by killjoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Who gave rights to the word "windows" to MS in the first place. It's a generic word, MS has no rights to it. If the lindows lawsuit actually gets decided I bet the judge will throw out the trademark altogether.

      It was wrong for MS to claim trademark on a common word.

      --
      evil is as evil does
  4. How MS was able to trademark it by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Windows" is not a common noun in countries that do not have English as an official language. Among European countries, only the UK and Ireland seem to speak English in the trademark office.

  5. Re:Discussion summary by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...the term "windows" WAS in fact used throughout the computing industry to refer to graphical interfaces...

    Maybe the term "window" for a specific part of a graphical interface was in use, but I am unaware of anyone using the word "Windows" to refer generically to an operating system. That particular argument seems to be sketchy at best.

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
  6. Little guys CAN and DO fight giants by mec · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I doubt there's a single company that could handle being dragged through the world's courts by Microsoft, let alone a small one like them.

    Caldera International purchased the rights to DR-DOS, then sued Microsoft for the damage that Microsoft had done to DR-DOS.

    Caldera settled for an estimated $150 million from Microsoft.

    Microsoft settles Caldera Antitrust Case

    To be sure, Caldera later turned to the dark side in a big way. They are now suing another software giant.