Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Michael Robertson Sued Over Missing Linspire Cash

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the transparency-whether-you-like-it-or-not dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Blogger and ex-Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony reports that Michael Robertson has been sued by a Linspire shareholder to get to the bottom of what happened to Linspire's assets. One hundred shareholders have been left uninformed as to what happened to the company and its assets after Linspire was sold to Xandros a few months back."

8 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. I thought there wasn't much more to say... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...other than the caption in the article, "Michael Robertson - Greedy, crook or just incompetent?"

    Then I found this earlier entry: http://kevincarmony.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-07-12T08:40:00-07:00&max-results=7

    It gives details on the company's structure and what Roberts was doing to steal money from the company. Interesting stuff.

    --
    Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    1. Re:I thought there wasn't much more to say... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Whoops! That link will take you to a page full of entries. Here is the direct link to the specific entry:

      http://kevincarmony.blogspot.com/2008/07/michael-robertson-speaks-intentions.html

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  2. Ummm... by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I fail to see how Linspire was ever profitable. It didn't offer anything revolutionary and was basically Debian/Ubuntu with a few extra features that no one cared about. Can someone please enlighten me on how Linspire was ever a force in the market?

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    1. Re:Ummm... by whoever57 · · Score: 2, Informative

      I fail to see how Linspire was ever profitable.

      Didn't Linspire get $20M from Microsoft for changing its name from Lindows?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    2. Re:Ummm... by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Informative

      As I recall, Walmart shipped Linspire as the OEM OS for a while. Deals like that tend to infuse quite a bit of cash into a small company like Linspire. Michael Roberts might have you believe that they had hundreds of engineers pouring their souls into improving Windows compatibility, but that's most likely Roberts being Roberts. (Which is to say an extreme exaggerator at best, an outright liar at worst.) Their actual burn rate doesn't sound like it was all that high based on the descriptions of the company.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
  3. Re:LNL by Gavagai80 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Uh, Linspire was as much linux as any other distro. It was KDE with all the usual programs, though most of them renamed. It included proprietary codecs and a commercial dvd player, but was 99% open source and had a 100% open source derivative freespire.

    --
    This space intentionally left blank
  4. bwahaha by clusterlizard · · Score: 2, Informative

    Like a good trainwreck, I can't stop watching

    --
    i took a bitchslapping for natalie portman
  5. Re:What assets? by wastedlife · · Score: 4, Informative

    OEMs. A lot of the cheap-ass linux desktops at Fry's and Walmart used to be sold running Lindows/Linspire (I think gOS and Xandros have stolen that market). Also, I believe they were looking to sell their "Click N Run" package manager for use in Ubuntu and possibly other distros.

    --
    Said, "It's just like dice but it's got more sides And it tells me who lives and who dies"