Linspire CEO Considers CNR for Ubuntu

bored2k writes "Kevin Carmony, President and CEO of Linspire, Inc., is using the Ubuntu Forums to ask for input and explain why he thinks a popular and heavily focused on usability distribution like Ubuntu needs Linspire's $20 per-year CNR service. From what he says, both him and Mark Shuttleworth (Canonical/Ubuntu's founder) like the idea. Would CNR honestly help Ubuntu grow, or is it just a scheme to cash in on it's success?"

Comments

"nice" "summary"

[Onan]

And would it have killed you to throw in some mention of what the hell a "CNR" is?

Re:"nice" "summary"

[caffeination]

I've been reading Mr.Linspire's post about it. It's Click N Run software installation. It's like a frontend to apt/emerge/pacman, but more polished at both ends. Because it already has the billing system, and because Linspire isn't tied to purely free software, it can do things like proprietary game installations too.

It has an extensive software repository too: it would provide *all* an average user would need, which is in fact more than any other package system can say (because of the non-free part).

Unfortunately, its advantages are *all* in its non-free nature (though I'd install it in a flash if it became fast as well as fluffy).

New to Ubuntu

[jgoemat]

I wouldn't mind something like CNR (click-n-run) being available. I'd probably shell out the $20 a year also. I like Ubuntu a lot, but it took me about 2 hours the first night to be able to play and rip MP3 files. I don't want to install the newest JDK from SUN either because I don't really know how or if it would interfere with Ubuntu. I tried installing the new Firefox 1.5.0.1 over 5.10's default 1.0.7 and hosed it pretty good, I couldn't install or remove firefox then. I was finally able to get it working by doing an uninstall and then manually removing the /usr/lib/mozilla-firefox directory, then doing an install again. Now I just run 1.5 from a separate directory. It would be worth $20 just to save me an hour of messing around and it would already have saved 4-5...

What I want to know is why Sun doesn't get together with the Ubuntu team to create a package for the new JDK 1.5. They have a binary installer for Linux, why not have a '.deb' file for Ubuntu? It's free, you just have to click-through Sun's license to get it...

Re:New to Ubuntu

[chicagotypewriter]

I used Ubuntu for a few weeks and installed JDK right off of the java.sun.com site. The directions are plain as day on there, and are pretty easy to follow: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/install-linux.html. It did not mess anything up either, worked just fine from the command line and from within Eclipse.

Re:New to Ubuntu

[jbrader]

For things like the newest firefox and JDK. As well as some handy non-free stuff you need Automatix. It's easy to install and will let you choose several non-.deb apps from a simple list. Just search the Ubuntu forums for mor info.

Not bad at all.

[miffo.swe]

There are som things open source just cant supply legally. MP3, WMA, and some other media formats are amongst those. To be able to get those from CNR would be wonderful. CNR can license those things in another way than an open source dist can. It would be a nice complement and make it easier for the users.

why can't it be both?

[Xtifr]

> "Would CNR honestly help Ubuntu grow, or is it just a scheme to cash in on it's success?"

Why can't it be both? Sheesh, you guys are so narrow minded! :)

I have zero personal interest in this, even though I like Ubuntu, but I can imagine many people who might find it useful.

One thing that I would be interested to see is if they can make CNR work (for its target audience) without Linspire's terrible always-run-as-root misfeature.

*all* an average user would need

[dpilot]

I have mixed feelings about something like CNR, and perhaps it's because I don't fully understand it.

My impression is that it's like one-click shopping for sofware. Find software on a web browser, push a button, it gets installed, and you get billed. I guess that's ok, for someone who feels a little scared to type "emerge doom3". But that's not what I'd really like to get out of something like CNR.

First off, I like the idea of a subscription service. In these days of security issues, it's downright stupid to adopt a sales-without-service model for computers. Any computer which will be connected to a network needs some form of regular service plan. My mom's system runs "emerge sync" weekly, "glsa-check" nightly, and emails the results to me. Even if glsa-check is only tied into the portage database, and thus only does something new weekly, at least the nightly emails will nag me into taking care of it. When there's a security issue, I ssh in and fix it. When I visit, I bring her system fully up to date. That's a "policy."

I'd like to see some sort of update/security policy out of a service like CNR. In particular, something like emerge is very good about upgrading packages and identifying config files that may require updating. But it doesn't update them, it just tells you that it needs to be done. IMHO, THIS is where the real effort needs to be in a subscription service, in tweaking configuration files after update, yet not breaking the system.

$20 per year per what?

[advocate_one]

Computer, User or household...

I have six Ubuntu boxes at home, would I be expected to pay $120 per year or would I be able to get away with just the one CNR subscription for the household?

Re:$20 per year per what?

[Bruha]

No that one 20 dollar cost would cover every computer you use.

Hrmmmm

[brunes69]

CNR for $20 / year for outdated software.

Or I can use Klik for free, which does the same thing, is constantly up to date, and is guarenteed to never interfere with my system since all the packages are installed in theor own chroot directories.

Why doesn't Ubunto adopt Klik? Is it just not as well known?