Linspire 5.0 Free For Limited Time

drunkennewfiemidget writes "The people at Linspire are giving Linspire 5.0 away for free (digital download only) until September 6th. Simply go to purchase the $49.95 digital edition, and then enter coupon code 'freespire' to receive a $49.95 discount." From the site: "'Freespire' was the term Andrew Betts gave to a private project he had been working on. The project comprised various open source components, taken from the freely available source repository for the Linspire operating system...Linspire has no problem with anyone using the open source code from our operating system - in fact we applaud such projects. The name Freespire, however, did create some confusion in the short time it was used...We thought it would be fun, for all of those who were looking at this project to experience a true 'Freespire', to give away a free digital copy of Linspire for a few days!"

Comments

eh?

[Deitheres]

Now, I'll admit I've never checked out Linspire before (I always used Debian, RedHat, or Ubuntu), but doesn't the GPL require that you give away Linux? I mean, I know you can still charge for it, but you have to provide the source code free of charge (AFAIK)

Can someone clarify this for me?

It's rather quite impressive.

[CyricZ]

Linspire is actually quite impressive. It is a step in the right direction for desktop Linux. While not as easy to use as Mac OS X, for instance, it is still an ideal system to set up for office use, and is quite friendly to the new Linux user.

It provides an excellent stepping stone towards SuSE or Debian. A new user gets the basics down pat easily and quickly, and soon he or she is ready to use a more traditional Linux distro.

Silly question

[zakezuke]

I've only seen Linspire once on a Fry el cheepo machine. When trying to add on a wireless adapter I navigated to their software page and while what I needed was offered on their software update, access required a subscription.

Does this coupon only apply to the software?

First, next

[Nom du Keyboard]

First Opera.

Now Linspire.

Can Microsoft be far behind?

After all, nothing kills piracy like free software.

Outstanding

[Mad Ogre]

I am a Linspire PC builder... and I love this OS. As far as Linux distros go, it might not be the "best" out there, but for Windows Refugees just turning to Linux - its perfect.

Seems suspicious

[Linegod]

Maybe its just me, but does anyone see this more in the light of 'In order to create confusion between Freespire and Linspire, we are releasing our own Freespire on the Linspire site, so the sheeple will believe we created it, and won't find out we suck'?

Re:n/t

[OrangeSpyderMan]

I would hardly call BeOS "dead".

Yes, my Commodre64 still works. Doesn't stop it being dead ;-)

Re:It depends what sort of a user you are.

[CyricZ]

Indeed, the installation program is a real gem. I was hoping that PC-BSD would be as easy to install. Unfortunately, the installer crashed.

Re:There are easier ways to do this

[TheSpoom]

The Opera giveaway converted me. As much as I dislike the zealots who basically are walking ads for Opera and think they can do no wrong, it does seem to be much faster on this computer, the download manager is much better, and there are several features built into the tab system that aren't readily available in Firefox. I think I'll be silently using this for a while.

Re:n/t

[JPriest]

Someone else start giving away a distro based on Linspire and named it Freespire. They ended up having Freespire renamed to "squiggle" to eliminate product confusion! That reminds me of another story I know :)