Canonical and Linspire Make a Deal

Nate writes "Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, has teamed up with Linspire to share technologies between the two distros. When Freespire 2.0 arrives in April, it will use Ubuntu as its base, moving off of the current Debian. Ubuntu users will get access to proprietary software (DVD players, media codecs) via Linspire's newly opened Click 'N Run. Check out the press release and the obligatory FAQ."

Comments

This is really big news....

[HerculesMO]

Because with the CNR technology, Linux is closing the gap between Windows and Macs in ease of use.

Give it time... it will catch on. RPMs are great but if you need XXX dependancies first to install something, people get confused (as I did). This is the best thing for Linux since sliced bread :)

Re:This is really big news....

[Anonymous Coward]

I have not used an RPM based distro for a while, but I know that they contain dependeny information. Surely a tool exists out there like Ubuntu's Gdebi, ie. you double click on the package file and the tool opens, checks if the package will work on you architecture, checks whether it already exists in the repos (the same version, older or newer) and makes sure any dependencies it needs are available in some enabled repo. If it passes those checks then you can click "Install" and gksudo gives it super user privileges, allowing it to install the package and any dependencies. A more hackish way to install a non-distro package would be to force its install (with a command like "sudo dpkg -i --force-depends filename.deb") then to run "sudo apt-get -f install" which will make apt, to the best of its ability, install any dependencies needed by the system (including te package you just installed). I know APT can be used on RPM distros so perhaps that method would also work.

My main point is that RPMs are fine, because they at least contain dependency information. I bought the game Gish a while ago and it worked fine on my Ubuntu 5.10 system, but not on 6.06 or 6.10 (the resolution changed but I got kicked back to my desktop at the wrong resolution and X had locked up), and I assumed it was an SDL version problem or something. Turns out that Gish needs the "libalut" package installed. If I got Gish as a package, either Dpkg or RPM, then at least I could find the problem, rather than spending around a year assuming that I could never find out how to make my purchase would work on my newer systems.

Thing is, Click 'N' Run offers these kinds of programs as packages (I think Gish is actually available in there too!) so dependency problems are gone. Instead the problem has shifted to one of "Will Click 'N' Run screw up my system?". Things will likely go a bit dodgy on some distros, but here Canonical is making sure that Ubuntu users will have nothing to worry about in this area. Probably when the LSB's packaging API gets implemented the issues of Click 'N' Run paranoia will be gone, allowing third parties to not only offer unified package files for download, but the ability to do it from a standard repository (no, ubuntu-commercial is not standard because it is not cross-distro), which basically means that GNU/Linux's great package methodology (trusted sources, ease of use, dependencies, updates, etc.) is finally open to non-distro packages (there is nothing to stop me from getting a Free package put into Click 'N' Run if I wanted to).

Starting to really like this guy

[adrenalinekick]

I'm starting to really like Kevin Carmony - the Linspire CEO. First the Desktop Linux Summit, then CNR for all major Linux distros, now this partnership with Ubuntu. Anyone else get the feeling that Carmony is taking all the right steps to setup linux as a viable alternative to M$?

Re:Starting to really like this guy

[xenocide2]

How, By turning into exactly the thing we despise?

Kevin Carmony has repeatedly demonstrated a preference for short term results, and reckless disregard for copyright law. That said, I find some justice the world -- he's now in charge of a company to fix the problem he helped cause with mp3.com. Perhaps we should enlist him to convince President Bush to be the US Ambassador to Iraq come 2008.

Ubuntu...the new super-distro?

[darealpat]

It seems to me that the folks at Canonical are positioning themselves to be the distro of choice for users coming from Windows that have expectation of certain types of software, and are not averse to proprietary software, that is, the non hard-core linux users. By keeping themselves in the public's eye they stand a good chance of doing so.

Re:Windows 95... almost?

[coastin]

Funny you say that, Linspire 5.0 is was out way ahead of Vista and many of the features in Vista look alot like my Linspire desktop. I think I still boot into Win XP every few months to update my AV software, then I shut it down again.

Re:This is it.

[Dr. Manhattan]

I have some qualms about the timeline in that essay. For one thing, I don't think the pressure will really be on until the "64-bit killer app" appears. (And if I knew what that app would be, I'd be writing it now and planning how to spend my millions.) It's hard to think what a typical desktop user (or even a "power user") would do that would require more than 4GB of RAM.

And the computing market has become more diffuse and less desktop-centric. Game consoles, smartphones, web-centered apps... I think that platform transitions will become more diffuse, too.

But yeah, I think he's spot on about a strong need for a simple, legal way for people to play media on Linux. This is a net, long-term good thing, even if it has some downsides in terms of open-source purity short-term.

Proprietary is NOT Required

[apharmdq]

What a lot of people seem to be forgetting is that running Ubuntu with proprietary binaries is optional. They still have their restricted/universe/multiverse repositories, and so you make the choice of whether to include proprietary/unstable/etc packages. And that's what Linux is all about, being given a choice.

If you want to support free software, just don't install proprietary packages. If you just want things to work as best they can, then having these extra options is a good thing.

And honestly, if one is such a zealot for free software, why would that person be using Ubuntu anyway? Last I checked, it included the "controversial" Firefox browser, as opposed to something truly free, like Iceweasel.

The point is that Ubuntu hasn't entirely been strictly free software for quite some time now. But their default setup is, (else why would people be using scripts like Automatix to install all the non-free stuff quickly) and they only offer the choice of using non-free packages. They don't force people to use it.

Re:Too little open source?

[drinkypoo]

They've been writing 3D drivers for almost a decade at this point. They have entire teams of guys writing the drivers. How can anyone compete with that? And why would they try?

Well, I will reserve my opinion as it comes to nVidia, but how could anyone do a worse job of writing drivers than ATI? And frankly, the nVidia drivers aren't the most stable thing ever. But the most telling fact is that the free ati driver is dramatically more stable than the commercial fglrx driver for the few cards that support both. Or so my ATI-using pals tell me, but then, they bought ATI cards, so their judgement is suspect.

Re:"Streaming Penguin"

[Oblong_Cheese]

No matter how much better Linux gets than Windows, as long as there's less support for it, there are good reasons for not using it.

The tide is slowly turning. Why don't you be part of the revolution?

What I don't understand is how Windows-knowledgable people, aka, "computer knowledgable" people are so afraid of Linux. It's an irrational fear; it doesn't make logical sense to be afraid of a computer operating system. What it does make sense to be though, is afraid of change, and afraid of sticking your foot into something you don't know or understand. The funny thing is though, all the Windows experts running around claiming Linux is harder, slower, whatever silly conjecture they care to spurt, none of them (a) regularly use Linux, or (b) knew how to use Windows in the first place.

Believe it or not, Windows users of Slashdot, you didn't actually know how to use Windows when you first started using it. Like anything else, there was a learning curve, and like anything else, you had to put in some time to get to know the system so you could use it to its full potential. It's the same for Linux and Linux distributions; you have to put time in to learn a new and different system.

This link has probably been bandied around Slashdot before, but it's relevant here: Why Windows Causes Stupidity

The title is a little inflammatory, but if you actually read the article (instead of just skimming over it, ignoring it, and returning here to flame me), you'll understand where the author is coming from.