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Linspire CEO dispels Linspire Linux Myths
An anonymous reader writes "Chances are that you think Linspire lets you run Windows applications, that you have to run it as root, and that it's really not quite a proper Linux. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. At LinuxWorld in Boston this week, CEO Kevin Carmony explained what Linspire Linux is, and isn't all about. Carmony said that people are still getting these things wrong. Yes, in the beginning, Linspire had the goal of letting Linux users run Windows applications with WINE, but it dropped that theme years ago. As for requiring you to run as root, that was, Carmony said, only the case with an early alpha release that was never put in the public's hands. As for not being a real Linux, that's nonsense, too."
...By default. When you install Linspire, it sets you up as root by default. I know this because I supported it from Lindows 4 to Linspire Five-Oh. You have to go and manually add a user account, should you want one. That said, it is actually a lot more secure than people make out. There _is_ a lot of FUD about Linspire. For grannies and people who can't be bothered with technical things (including me, sometimes - I just want things that work) it's great.
The reason BeOS failed (so they calim) was that microsoft strongarmed vendors to not sell machines with BeOS preinstalled (MS: If you sell machines with BeOS, you can't sell Windows machines anymore). Retail sales of an operating system of todays magnitude doesn't pay the bills. Not even close.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Already exists :D
Check www.gobolinux.org
didn't like lindows at all... they reviewed the Walmart Lindows pcs. If you have a CR subscription (or know someone who does) it's a good article to read from the standpoint of understanding what still stands in the way of mainstream acceptance of these distros.
"(MS: If you sell machines with BeOS, you can't sell Windows machines anymore)"
... so anyone trying to move away from selling all their machines with windows (either selling blank machines, or selling machines with another OS installed) was instantly less competative on their windows machines, locking them in :-/
Well I think it was more like "If you only sell machines with Windows preinstalled, we'll give you a discount on the purchase price"
So yes in a way I guess it was like saying "you can't sell windows machines anymore", but more "we're gonna make it difficult to".
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Incorporated
"Ultimately the assets of the corporation were bought by Palm, Inc. for US$11 million in 2001, at which point the company entered dissolution. The company then initiated litigation against Microsoft for anti-competitive business practices, specifically the prohibition of OEM's to allow dual-boot systems containing both Microsoft and non-Microsoft operating systems. The suit was settled in September 2003 with a US$23.25 million payout to Be, Inc."
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Check out MacOS X sometime. If you use the Finder (the GUI), you see your drives (technically, a partition on a drive, but they are displayed with a drive icon). Clicking on the main one shows you four directories: Applications, Library, System, and Users. However, if you bring up the terminal and cd to the root directory, you see all the other Unixy directories, along with the four named above.
Thus, newbies who don't bring up the terminal never see the Unix directories, people who want to can still do it, and software don't have to be patched.
Technically it was a settlement, but it's rare that the plaintiff pays off the defendant in order to get out of a case.
In reality, no OS has achieved the status of so simple yet so useful that grandma/sister/computer-novice can use without assistance.
... sort of like dealing with Windows sometimes.
I have some experience being the family IT support guy and got so sick of cleaning our viruses, spyware and other junk from my sister's computer that I bough her a computer with Linspire 4 on it thinking that it was the easiest Linux for her to adapt to. In the end, I can't say that it was any better or worse than any other distro. The Click-N-Run concept is a good one but it is was very poorly executed. It certainly *did* encourage users to run as root and was a PITA to set up as a multi-user system.
However, when things went wrong (as they do with any OS/Distro/computerized thing), I found that Linspire did things differently enough that it was very difficult to troubleshoot the problem, find help online and you ended up fighting with a system that tried to second guess you with automated scripts
In the end I switched her to another distro (Ubuntu) and now have just as many problems but I don't have to pay a subscription fee and, if I don't know the answer myself, I can find answers online extremely quickly since it doesn't deviate too far from upstream.
So all the power to Linspire in achieving that "easy enough for a novice to use" status but since we're not there yet, I would stick with a more maintainable distro like Ubuntu or Fedora Core.
It was only a short time ago that Michael Robertson, CEO of Linspire said "I defy anybody to tell me why is it more secure to not run as root. Nobody really has a good answer. They say 'oh, yeah, it is!', but it really isn't."
They got preliminary injunctions in some countries (in some case without Lindows even being notified in advance of the hearing), but did not prevail in any actual trial in any country. It is quite likely they would have won the cases in at least some of them, but they would have been hollow victories if they lost in the US and other English-speaking countries. It was clearly worth $20 million to them to not find out.
It's brain-dead morons like this guy spreading bald-faced lies that makes it hard for any commercial linux distribution to succeed...
The part where it REALLY is easy is software installation. They have a system called CNR (Click and Run) which costs $20/year, but it is well worth it. You get a icon on your desktop that you can click, then browse software categories. When you find something you like, just click the install button and voila, CNR downloads it, puts an entry in the Start menus and puts an icon on the desktop. No other distro that I know of does this with such ease.
Meh.
I have dealt with both Michael Robertson and Kevin Carmony personally. I find them both likeable, pleasant, intelligent, honest and articulate. I personally don't understand much of the disdain for Linspire or Robertson or Carmony. Of course, no one is really a saint, and no one can be liked by everyone. But my personal experience with these guys is that they are decent, and most important to me personally, they do care about freedom in cyberspace.
LOL! Ah, a blast from my programming past (a very short-lived past!). But...let's put this in perspective though...that code was written almost 25 years ago!!! There weren't even hard drives when I hacked that code. It was put together on the very original IBM PC with 64K of memory and floppy drives. So, yes, duh, of course it was written in Basic, about the only thing you could hack with on those original PC's. My degree is in Business, and the only formal training I ever had was DP 101 in college. I've never professed to be a coder. But, that code that I hacked was used by 25% of all video rental stores to check customers in and out in its day. I turned it into a very substantial business, which I later sold for a great deal, and that business is still around today, 20 plus years later! How many of you can say that? =) Kevin Carmony
First off, that Linspire computer you bring home has a fully functioning version of Linux on it. Uncomment the sources file, and you can use apt-get.
If you like Linspire and want to use Click-N-Run (and if you don't want to use it, you're probably better off with another distro), you have two options, one for $20 annually (unlimited use of C-N-R), and $50 (includes all OS updates and discounts on commercial linux software). They're not charging for free software; they're charging for the time involved in compiling and including the appropriate packages, so installing a program doesn't pooch your system. I consider that a fair deal.
What is your problem with them offering AV software? You don't have to buy it and with one click of the mouse, you'll never see the system tray icon again. As explained by Kevin Carmony, they offer it because several important commercial clients requested it. And, thanks to the recent creation of a virus (concept only at this stage) that can attack both Windows and linux, maybe an AV program isn't so silly after all.
I guess the biggest lie that got my back up was you calling their practices a scam and 'bait and switch'. That is simply unfair due to what I've explained above. You want 'bait and switch'? Buy a Compaq or Dell; you'll find out the AV software is only good for 90 days; to continue usually costs $30-$40 bucks.
Okay, Linspire isn't for you; I can accept that. It wasn't designed for you. But, if you have any intelligence at all, you'd know not to go around spreading FUD. Linspire isn't your enemy; it's a commercial distribution that gives back to the OSS community. Deal with it.