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Linspire Announces Freespire Distribution
LinuxScribe writes "Is the world ready for another community Linux distro a là Fedora and openSUSE? We're about to find out, as Linspire used the Desktop Linux Summit to announce a community-driven version of Linspire, to be called Freespire. But here's the twist, Freespire will come in two flavors: a completely open source version and a version that includes all of the fully-licensed proprietary apps, drivers, and codecs in Linspire."
You mixed that up, man. There's an accent on 'a' and not on 'la'. It's "à la". Yes, I'm a Foreign Language nazi.
Do, do not, or delegate to someone else: there is no try.
They should call them Beerspire and Speechspire.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
Linspire, in contrast, is rather staid and unadventurous. One questions whether a "bleeding edge" is even required for that distro.
So what is the purpose of "Freespire"?
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
And before anyone says anything about CNR (click and run), I will point you to klik - free open and wonderful, and not tied to any distro.
Enough said.
Let's not forget what we're dealing with here. This is a company with a known history of pulling whatever attention getting stunt it can, including starting with a name of "Lindows" that got shot down by MS. All along, their goal has been simple: try to find a buck out of distributing open source software, including making their "Click and Run" store of mostly freely available apps.
This is about as newsworthy as a paid-software vendor announcing a free trial edition that replaces all the "good stuff" with reminders to buy the full version.
Looks like Linspire is planning on giving away the razor and trying to sell the blades for $20 a year.
On the other hand, at least the "creating a user account so you don't run everyhing as root" step isn't optional in Freespire. This "new" distribution is something that might be a good first step for newbie Linux users that want certain features (DVD/MP3 playback) immediately after install.
weren't the add-ons the ones that gave Linspire the viability to ACTUALLY replace Windows? Without them, Linspire is naked, and I don't think they have the experience to handle a "plain vanilla" distro.
So if I had to choose between Freespire and say, Ubuntu Dapper, I'd choose Dapper all the way.
I think I'll be the first to say that I like this idea.
Well, I don't actually... I just thought it would be cool to be the first to say that.
-Advs89
Rirelobql xabjf gung EBG-13 vf gur yrnfg frpher rapelcgvba rire, ohg jbhyq lbh jnfgr lbhe gvzr npghnyyl qrpelcgvat vg???
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Plan 9 offers a completely usable, modern desktop. So there is no need for Linspire.
Would that give us freedows?
Why is it so hot? Where am I going? What am I doing in this handbasket?
Lindows -> Linspire -> Freespire
So, if they hadn't been forced to change, would this new distro be called Freedows? The mascot could have been the Freedow Bandido!
Ceci n'est pas un post.
Freespire will come in two flavors: a completely open source version and a version that includes all of the fully-licensed proprietary apps, drivers, and codecs in Linspire
Well, maybe, but they're hardly the first to do that: Mandriva (Mandrake) has been doing it for a long time, with the commercial version including extra drivers as well as applications. Probably others have too.
What makes a community effort stand or fall is how well the outside people are integrated, and how much voice they have.
One reason I the distribution I do is that it attracts both seasoned programmers and newcomers, and there's a good chance I can show my laptop to people and say, here, this is what it's like, you can use the same as me. It's not clear that I'll be doing that with Linspire, nor that a community-based version that's not as good will in fact help me. Who will it help?
Live barefoot!
free engravings/woodcuts
Too little too late. Linspire sees Ubuntu becoming the popular girl at school so now she'll sleep with anyone for free.
If there are 600 distros, surely you have to accept that people are finding plenty of reasons to create new ones? Surely you don't think you can just declare that they are only faking this need or that they shouldn't do it?
It's easy (if a little arrogant) to look at the total and dismiss the effort as needless, but it's much harder to go through each distro and show that it doesn't fulfill some niche or need.
I picked a load of unpopular ones at random:
An Italian FreeBSD group who wanted a personalizable FreeBSD LiveCD.
An internationalised Red-Hat derivative with better multimedia support.
An improved Knoppix LiveCD for network security testing and forensics.
A completely free Linux system, coordinated by the EC and devoted to multimedia work
A Dutch LiveCD/install cd designed to integrate easily into Windows-based offices.
Freespire: A Linux Distro For When You Couldn't Care Less About Freedom (http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060424 164142296)
---
Stefano Spinucci
For people who are used to the Windows way of doing things, the deliberately simplified Linspire way of doing things is a very good thing. It's good that they are "getting religion" about the inadvisability of running as root. And the ultimate best thing of all might be CNR technology being opened up. Imagine alternative Free CNR repositories! With CNR 100% opened up, there will be no stopping people from creating a F/OSS-only CNR repository that people who might not want to get chained to Linspire, Inc. might use instead. This was something the Lycoris community was trying to do with IRIS, Lycoris' answer to CNR.
With Lycoris by and large a dead issue, a Freespire might be just the ticket for folks who are just not ready for Ubuntu/Kubuntu yet.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
> Personally, I've wondered when I'd be able to use a both free and legal DVD player in the US.
Exactly. While all the FSF absolutists will flame away I say it is about darned time. Of course I wouldn't switch distros JUST for the DVD player or any of the other closed bits, but if I could buy em and run them on my preferred distro I'd get a P.O. to em.
You see, it is only by being willing to compromise (the minimum I can get away with) on the Free principles have I been able to deploy a linux based desktop into a public library setting. Just one example, we use Crossover Office to get IE running. IE isn't negotiable, the only question is Crossover, VMWare or which other method I was going to use to get it running. Too many sites just don't work any other way. For example, assume I'd brazened my way past all the other objections and deployed without IE. Last year wne the Katrina refugees flooded in and discovered they couldn't file an application with FEMA from our labs I'd have been tasked with getting XP installed on am post haste. Especially when Rita hit us directly, making it OUR patrons that we wouln't have been able to help get disaster assistance.
We don't have much of a need to play video DVDs thankfully, but it doesn't go down all that well when I explain that it would be illegal to do it. People just can't believe it and I really don't have the time to explain the complicated legal probems involved. At home I use libdecss and say "screw em if they don't like it." Hell, I have even mentioned it in protest letters to elected officials. But I won't deploy it at work, the legal liability is just too great. This isn't a problem Free Software can solve. We already HAVE the code but there isn't any path to lagalizing it. Same for Windows Media, Real, etc.
Democrat delenda est
I so wish this had gone to trial, especially since the appeals court ruled that the jury would get to decide if "windows" was a generic term back when Microsoft first started using it. Killing the Windows trademark would be lots of fun.
:-)
Not that I'd want to see "Macrohard Windows", "Slack Windows", "Brown Dog Windows", "iWindows", "eWindows", "Turbo Windows", "IBM Windows", "Debian GNU/Windows", "Windows for Playgroups", "WindowsBSD", "ClearWindows", "Sunny Windows"...
Aw, yes I would.
The indications are that they have thought this through quite thoroughly. The initial announcement and the web site are quite well done, I think. Considering it is still four months until the first beta, they have a good FAQ (here) which is worth a read. I intend to at least give it a try when the time comes.
French is a foreign language in Germany, too!
They're announcing a Linux distribution that won't be available for download in BETA for another 4 months?
...only the cheap ones. This was asked by a member of the audience and answered by the CEO during the presentation where the announcement was made today in San Diego. Specifically, no DVD licence.
Computer scientist, Software engineer.
Linspire the only distrobution to lock up both VMware and the host system.
I think that really says all that needs to be said.
You know what should be illegal? Making a public site for refugees that only works on one OS and Browser. That's should be criminal.
Buy Microsoft and run IE or we won't help you. Holy crap, my taxes pay for this?!
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Well if this project gets really COLD, it'll be FREEZEpire.
If it gets really HOT, it'll be FreesPYRE.
If it sucks the life from other distros, it'll be VAMpire.
If it flat-out dies off, it'll EXpire.
If it continues to live, it'll REspire.
If it has a kernel panic, it might PERspire.
If it woos it's intended audience, then may it TRANCEpire
But, hopefully, it'll be really NEAT, and good things will TRANSpire...
(C) David Syes, 2006-04-24 2025
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
I thought that his positioning of Freespire and his reasoning behind it are worth sharing with Slashdotters. Linspire is, of course, a purely commercial effort, with the goal of selling a shrink-wrapped OS that looks externally as much like Windows as possible. His target audience is not the Slashdot crowd, but rather the people who buy their computers at Wal-Mart. Really! For them, it's all about the out-of-the-box experience, starting up a computer with preinstalled OS and apps and just using it. As someone who has recently installed Mandriva, Fedora 5, and Ubuntu Breezy on various machines, I think that the experience is much better than it once was, but still falls short of the "Wal-Mart" or even the Windows experience.
To listen to Kevin Carmody, Freespire is offered in the spirit of recognizing the contributions of the open source community, and giving people the opportunity to stay "pure", i.e., without licensed and proprietary pieces, or hybrid, where the user can choose to download and perhaps pay for the licensed and proprietary pieces. He gave an analogy with food, where the choices were Junk Food (Windows and proprietary software), Healthy Food, and Vegan. Open source vegans, of course, are those who would never want music in the proprietary MP3 format or images in the proprietary JPG format.
His belief is that most consumers and business people would like Healthy Food, which is some mix of Linux and those proprietary formats, plus some drivers for graphics cards, etc.. He and his company are actually going out to Fortune 500 companies and talking to them about why they should consider a move to something like Freespire rather than suffering the pain and expense of migrating to Windows Vista (if and when it ever ships). This is a fairly brave, not to say crazy, thing to do, and I think that they deserve some credit and support for their evangelism, even from people who don't care for the whole Linspire business. Getting 3-4% penetration of Linux (any flavor) on corporate desktops would be quite an achievement, and it won't come from Linspire on its own.
Carmody also said that they are going to open source Click N Run because they think that it is the best updating program, and are offering it to others for the taking. If I were responsible for Ubuntu or other Debian-based distros, I would be very tempted to take them up on their offer. I've done enough "apt-get"s.
Even so, I'm not disagreeing with you. This is exactly the reason that Linspire is so good. By hacking up KDE to make it more Windows-like, along with all that other stuff they do, Linspire means that the rest of us have even less reason to care about pretending to be like Windows! It's already being taken care of!
I'm pretty damn glad that someone out there is scratching that itch, because otherwise I'd be concerned that the KDE in my Slackware might slowly turn into the Vista interface!
I think it will be interesting to see how they integrate the proprietary stuff, (and how it's paid for, free as in beer is a big attraction of OSS, whatever the principles at stake).