Review of Consumer-Friendly Linux Distro

miketronics writes "Linspire Five-O is a full-featured Linux operating system which is intended for desktop use, mainly as an alternative to Windows XP. XYZComputing has a review of the latest version. The company, which was formerly known as Lindows, has gotten a lot of press for including their OS with pre-bundled computers." From the article: "Once the installation is over with Five-O is ready to go. The first time the OS is used Linspire's tutorial program will activate. This is one of most accessible tutorials on any Linux distro and it should be a great help to new users. Though it does not go into extreme depth, it does give the user enough understanding of the OS to get started. Even if you are a Linux pro it will probably be helpful to check out the CNR section, as this system is unique to Linspire. The fact that the developers have the tutorial voice-narrated shows Linspire's commitment to user support -- this feature makes the otherwise boring tutorial watchable."

Comments

What I like about Linspire

[bogaboga]

There are many things to love about Linux based Operating Systems especially on the virus/malware/addware side, but what I have come to like about Linspire is that it just works as advertised. It just works! SuSE does not (remember multimedia)? Second, it's beautiful. I love its fonts. For other distros, I have had to tweak X11 and download this script http://vigna.dsi.unimi.it/webFonts4Linux/webFonts. sh in order to see fonts as I like them. What troubles me most is that even for Debian based ones, the invoking of this command "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" might leave you with an unusable system.

Now, if Linspire could adapt autopackage http://autopackage.org/, the better since Linspire packages would be able to install on any distro.

GCC? I think not.

[Anonymous Coward]

Linspire does not include GCC, and it is only available with a CNR subscription, unless you go back to using apt-get, which Linspire says may screw up your system. No gcc? can't install many apps..... Why should I pay for GPL'd software?

Re:GCC? I think not.

[KingSkippus]

Philosophically, I agree with you, but I can see their point, too. Using GCC to compile and install non-Linspire sanctioned applications gives non-novice but non-advanced users the ability to majorly screw up their system. These users would then proceed to unduly tax the company's tech support people and, even worse, gripe about how unstable Linspire is to all of their friends and Internet forums.

If you don't want to pay for GPL software, you don't have to. But remember the beauty of GPL software—Linspire can sell it to people who will pay for it if they want to, and the promise of stability and ease-of-use makes me lean towards thinking that it's justified.

Awful review

[Osty]

What's wrong with the review? I don't know. I couldn't bring myself to read through it. But from looking at the presentation and skimming the article, it sucks. Why?

• 7 pages? WTF? Was that really necessary? Combine several pages (especially page 1 which only has two paragraphs) or at least provide a printer-friendly version.
• Photographs for screenshots? Weak. Maybe that's fine for cases where you can't really get a screenshot (during installation, though you could've run an installation through Virtual PC or VMWare to get screenshots), but after that you can easily take normal screenshots. In fact, the images are a mishmash of screenshots and photographs. Why would you take a photo of the Linspire Control Center (for example) when you could take a screenshot?
• Horrible conclusion. If you're going to give a pro/con list, you should explain it in your conclusion. You say that Linspire is "not as performance oriented as others", or "lacks important features"? What are they? I saw nothing about either of those two problems in the conclusion, and I really don't feel like going back through six other pages looking for the one sentence where you explained what you meant by "lacks important features".
• Grammar. "These lax requirements is what allows Linspire (and other Linux distros) ..." wtf? "Requirements" is plural, so you need to match that with your verb ("are" instead of "is").
• No explanation of system requirements. What is a "Linspire-compatbile sound card" or a "Linspire-compatbile ... modem, cable modem, or DSL modem"? If Linspire has a compat list, link to it. If they don't, why not do a bit of research and provide a nice list for users?
• Still too much focus on installation, and praise for stupid crap. Linspire uses a GUI installer, making it appear more friendly? Woo! Distros have been doing this for years! Installation is pretty much a solved problem as far as I'm concerned (even Debian is supposedly getting a better installer some time). Besides that, though, the installer still doesn't appear to make partitioning any easier (whether it should or not is not the question here). The review chooses to go through the Advanced installation option, but never touches on the most difficult part. If everybody simply had their partitions magically configured like the reviewers, I'm sure nobody would ever be confused by partitioning.

Here, use this cheap Windows knockoff.

[dotdan]

If Linspire looks like Windows, why would anyone switch? I understand the philosophy behind an easy transition, but "if it ain't broke (that much) don't fix it." Linux, IMHO, needs to offer something unique, rather than trying to mimic what already exists.

Performance?

[ucahg]

From original article:

The minimum requirements for Five-O:

- 800 MHz or higher processor
[snip]
These lax requirements is what allows Linspire (and other Linux distros) to run well on both inexpensive and old computers- both of which may have trouble with Windows XP.

Lax requirements? Better than XP? Those requirements seem high to me, as someone who has Windows XP running just dandy on a Pentium II 350MHz PC. 800? Minimum? Why?

Re:Voice narration?

[i.r.id10t]

Debian is more PnP for me than Windows XP.

I just installed Debian stable (sarge) last week on my Dell GX-270 at work (adding an XP partition and getting rid of FC2). In my past experience, all the dell optiplex hardware will work, but often times the proper config needs to be made, just like you mention.

Anyway, this particular install of Debian everything Just Worked. Sound, network, USB mouse, LCD monitor, Intel video, USB ports - everything, no extra config needed.

Tux tour

[NullProg]

The first time the OS is used Linspire's tutorial program will activate. This is one of most accessible tutorials on any Linux distro and it should be a great help to new users. Though it does not go into extreme depth, it does give the user enough understanding of the OS to get started.

Does anyone remember the disk you used to get when buying an Apple? Apple made a nice tutorial for all thier computers. I'm suprised the Gnome/KDE/whatever teams don't have something like this. It could be a flash animation or an interactive web site. Show them how to cut/paste, system configuration etc. Hell, do a interactive Tux demo.

People love to be shown how to do things rather than reading TFM.

Food for thought, enjoy.

Re:Voice narration?

[sharkb8]

Generally most people won't carry a list of compatible hardware down to Fry's. They'll buy what's on sale and download the driver. No driver for Linux? That'll be the problem that keeps Linux from getting adopted as widely as Windows.

Admittedly, it's a chicken/egg problem, as vendors won't write Linux drivers themselves until more people have linux.

And then there are people like me who take an old computer, and put Linux on it to try out. You end up with too many problems, and turn the box into a Windows file server.

And when I install XP, pretty much all I have to do is put the CD in and set a few options. It took me about 3 hours to get FC3 on my old ass Optiplex.

Re:The killer: media players

[ithicine]

One of the many reasons I use Linux is because of the multimedia support. WMP doesn't seem to come equipped to play DVDs; when I insert a disc, it cries, screams, and runs home to mommy, who doesn't have any codecs to give. On the other hand, everything is always perfect with xine. It even loads faster than WMP. Come to think of it, I have yet to run into a video format that xine wouldn't play.

It doesn't even seem to (in my case) require much special setup if anything. It worked great in Gentoo, and just dandy under Ubuntu. No problems either way... though playing videos sure as hell was a problem not all that long ago. The last time I remember running into these problems was back when Mandrake 6.0 was cutting edge.

But hey, you're right that people run into problems. The fact that I haven't (in at least the last year) doesn't speak for everyone else's experience. So really, what I'd like to know is why people are having such a hard time when they don't have to.