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Linspire Five-0 First Look
Eugenia writes "OSNews posted an exclusive first look for the upcoming Linspire 5.0: 'Linspire Five-0 is definitely a good base from which to build. The lack of well rounded applications when compared to other OSes in its class leave me wanting more, however, a slick look, some powerful Linspire specific apps, and a non-crippled undercarriage remain appealing' says the author." The bigger question will be how it stacks up against other commericial offerings in the long run. (ITMJ is also owned by OSTG).
I don't really see why distributions should mimic windows. Those who bother to install any os install like windows or some linuxes can probably adept to gnome or kde easily. And the windows interface definately aint the best around. The real problem is microsoft's hold of the big OEMs. To me that's the clearest abuse of their monopoly, yet they aren't really attacked for it...
Nothing.
Unless, of course, you are in that 90% of the population that would rather gouge their eyes out with spoons than use the command line :)
Don't forget the target audience for CNR is probably not the sort of people who hang around here or OSNews. For that, it does what it does pretty well.
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from the article:
"Dropshadowing in Linux is still pretty rare, and is not always very effective."
pretty rare?
I thought that anybody who used KDE,
and had a fast computer, would have those turned on by default, (that kde wizard that makes thing look shinnnyyy...)
or through the control panel.
drop shadowing (IMHO) has been around since 3.1
I wonder with Linspire the same thing I wonder about Paint Shop Pro. If they actually increased the price of Linspire to something only just lower (about five dollars) than Windows XP Home Ed., bundling the extras in, putting it in a pretty box in as many stores as they can (department stores, gaming stores, supermarkets even if they can), and releasing a discounted OEM version, then it might be even more successful. Right now it looks like a cheap Windows knockoff (cause basically that's what it is). If they started to project the same or similar image as Windows, projecting an image of superiority at a better price then people may consider it side by side with Windows very seriously indeed.
People automatically assume you get what you pay for, even when a lot of the time that's completely false. An OS is a big important tool, and people are probably going to be careful. If they raise the price, I think people would take it more seriously, Linspire will make huge amounts of money and hopefully give back to linux, and linux would gain popularity as a result.
Just me wondering...
Like in Linspire 4.0, you have to prep a partition ahead of time or take over the entire disk at install
Is it only me or this should not happen in a new distro installer?
More so considering it is oriented to windows users.
Creds go to TapeCutter. Soon you shall actually find out who or what VMS is...
Surely if you were proud you wouldn't post anonymously...
Hmm, my previous post appears to have attracted one of the harmful mod-points you so gallantly were trying to lead away from the serious posts.
I had no idea my innocent observations had trolling-qualities hiding in them.
I must be underestimating the power of my words.
Every so often i read about the root/non-root user issue.
Granted when having root access the entire OS can be FUBARed. But files which are important for me and probably many other users are those which are in my home folder and those aren't really protected and could be probably be deleted by any process without requiring root user access.
I don't really see why distributions should mimic windows. Those who bother to install any os install like windows or some linuxes can probably adept to gnome or kde easily.
/.ers. Unfortunately, Joe Users(TM) are still the great majority among computer users.
Emphasis on "those who bother". Linspire are aiming for Joe User. THE Joe User(TM), not even Joe Advanced User who might be able to do a format c: on his Windows PC every now and then or have the skills and curiosity to try out other apps than those which come with their OS.
Joe User(TM) can't do this. He's the kind of guy who can only write email by clicking 'reply' in Outlook Express and who gets lost immediately if the IE logo on his Windows desktop is replaced by, say, Firefox. Joe Users are extremely conservative when it comes to computers, apps and their GUIs. If anything is changed, they panic and think they have to start all over with learning even that little stuff they've managed to learn with their computerphobia.
This is the crowd Linspire are aiming for, and that's why they are making their Linux distro as redmondised as possible. They don't care about Joe Advanced Users or
In my opinion, Linspire are right in doing so. Many other Linux distros overwhelm the n00bie with their abudance of software. Only advanced users long for a wealth of apps to begin with.
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.
A DVD decoder in Windows isn't a stand-alone application, but an addition to the DirectShow architecture, which still is the most powerful and easy to use multimedia rendering solution available on the desktop.
Not that I would wish more lawsuits on the world, but this strikes me as exactly the sort of thing that trademark law was designed to protect against. LPhoto seems as close to iPhoto as say...Lindows seems to Windows.
Perhaps if apple wished to be protected by trademark law they should come up with a name that's a little more unique. Trademarks are intended to differentiate your business from other businesses, not to allow you to buy common words that describe your product so competitors can't use them.
Shameless Plug: I have a new product on the market. It's called aProgram. I'm the only supplier, so if you see anyone else out there describing their products as aProgram, do let me know so I can sue them.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
See for yourself...
Maybe it's just me, but I didn't think it was possible to run MMC applications under Linux... and the fact that the WINDOWS LOGO is in the Start button kinda gives me the feeling that this is Windows. The Linspire folks wouldn't dare use that logo in an official release...
Also, notice:
Why would you put a Windows screenshot in a story about Linspire 5-0's first look? That's pretty deceptive.
I am scientifically inaccurate.