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Linspire Releases Controversial Version 6.0
christian.einfeldt writes "Today, Linspire releases version 6.0, its first new GNU/Linux distro in more than two years. With version 6.0, Linspire is betting that its business model of including licenses for proprietary software and formats such as Quicktime, Windows Media Player, Flash, Real, and Microsoft OOXML will win enough market share among mainstream Apple and Microsoft users to offset the backlash from opponents of proprietary software and formats. Version 6.0 also includes the highly controversial Microsoft patent coverage that has incited wide-reaching negative press coverage in the Free Open Source Software press, forums and blogosphere. But from Linspire's perspective, it's all about those new GNU/Linux users. '"Today we continue the Linspire tradition by offering the choice of a better overall experience for users new to desktop Linux,'" said Larry Kettler, President and CEO of Linspire, Inc. "Linspire 6.0 further bridges the gap between open source and commercial software, combining the best from each into a single easy-to-use, familiar and productive operating system."'"
Didn't Mandriva just do the same - by default the download includes Nvidia drivers and PDF etc?
http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/09/1757214
liqbase
I've never used Linspire, but in terms of licensing file formats such as Quicktime and Windows Media, I think they're on the right track. People want an OS that works out of the box, and that includes media tasks. If it doesn't the average user has very little patience to make it work right.
They use to be Lindows. Until Microsoft sued them for their name.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Why no ment6ion of freespire? http://www.freespire.org/
I was going to say about the same thing. But check out this FUD http://www.linspire.com/products_linspire_whatis.php. I don't know all the details but I run Ubuntu and allot of the stuff in there they say Ubuntu does not have I do have. CNR? I have apt-get. Is that all that diffrent? KDE? You can get it from apt-get or better yet use Kubuntu. I am all for paying for something worth paying for but it seems like they are grasping at straws here.
Except Lindows DID beat them, in the sense that Microsoft would've ended up losing 'Windows' if it went to trial. The rename was part of a deal they hashed out. I forget the rest of the details.
It's probably on the Wiki page if you care enough. I don't.
But Microsoft is willing to work with friendly Linux Distribution Makers too. Linux is a strong competitive threat to Microsoft. Microsoft came to power by making an OS that can work on a wide verity of hardware and at a price that undercutted most of the competition (Sounds like Linux Now) So Microsoft has be going crazy trying adapt their buisness and their marketing towards competing in areas which they were once the market leader in. During competition things get dirty even in sports competition an extra shove there bad mouth here. Apple tends to avoid this type of competition because they can raise we are a hardware company flag when competing with software to get out of the cross fires, or likly they can rais we are a software company when debating hardware.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Linux is about Freedom (as in speech).
I though Linus just didn't want to bother marketing it, running a buisness, and having to pay royalitees to all the people involved and GPL was a good license for a comunity development. He just wanted to make an OS For himself and other poeple liked it too and expanded on it. The GPL is about Freedom (as in speech...Kinda sorta...Just as long as you don't talk about DRM...Working with Non GPL...etc...). Don't confuse the product and the movement. Linux made the GPL sucessful and showed the model can work for complex applications, but Linus goal wasn't to change the world just to make a free OS that is better then DOS that could run on his 386.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
And they're going to sue Linux users because of patent infringements. Could just as well have been trying to keep up appearances after paying off some startup Linux company.
The rest of the deal was Microsoft paying $20 mil to Linspire and Linspire giving MS the Lindows trademark. I did end up getting curious.
Msft strives to be antagonistic to everybody, especially msft customers. Maybe you're not away of msft's long criminal history?
Msft claims that linux violates msft patents. Why doesn't msft put up or shut up? Msft has been making these specious claims for years. Logically, if msft had evidence, then msft would present it. Unless it's just another msft fud campaign. Right?
Msft has been caught red-handed in *numerous* outright lies and scams: how about bald face lying to the US-DoJ?
How about outright stealling stacker technoloy? How about the letters from dead people campaigns? How about fronting with fake think-tanks? How about astro-turfing with a letters-from-dead-people campaign? How about the obvious corruption in the OOXML scam? How about paying another company many millions to have that company file a totally bogus lawsuit against IBM, just to FUD Linux. How about bogus benchmarks, and bogus TCO studies. Please, name another major software company that does all that.
He changed the license from the original. He specifically chose the GPL. It was a conscious decision on his part.
Though not necessarily for the reasons you assume.
Did I say that his goal was "to change the world"? No? I didn't think I did.
Sounds like that was an allusion to 'Linux is about Freedom', which seems an attempt to refute the notion that including closed-source packages with a Linux distro is OK. This was the original point of the thread, correct? There are two problems with this: 1) it puts words in Linus' mouth which his previous statements tends to refute, and 2) it blurs the line between the kernel and the distribution.
From what I can tell, Linus doesn't like including closed-source *drivers* in the kernel because it makes maintenance a nightmare. But that has nothing to do with closed-source *applications*, which I've never heard Linus have a real problem with.
Linus is frequently on record as saying he puts the goal of making top-quality software higher than any political agenda. See any of his many comments against the GPLv3.
Actually, the first one, no!...
She wanted me to reinstall Windows and I said "sure..." as I slipped Fedora in the drive... So long as she could open Firefox and Thunderbird she was fine, as she was already brainwashed into using them in Windows. Open Office was what led me to reveal to her that this was _not_ the newest latest greatest version of Windows. She really, really wanted MS Office. Still does, from what I've been told.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
I was following with great anticipation the release of the next freespire version back in June. Then just before the beta they announced the patent deal. After that I followed the discussions on the freespire boards. A lot of a good people left to http://www.klikit.org/. I stopped following after a while. It was about a 50/50 split between those who were upset and those who were not. Most (and I have seen a lot of this in the comments here) that were not upset seemed to have confused the licensing agreements Linspire had done in the past for codes and such with the current deal that also included patents. Which in the minds of most people crossed a line they hadnt before. This had nothing to do with the user experience or usability.
I liked the idea of legally watching a DVD or listening to an MP3 on Linux a more stable less vulnerable OS. I also liked the idea of having a distro I could recommend that was legal in this regard. You would be surprised how many people get scared when they see a window tell them that by continuing they might by breaking the law.
B5 71 ED FB 55 D6 4E 68 07 25 E2 FA CA 93 F0 2F, is mine! All mine!