Slashdot Mirror
Lindows Resurrected! Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0 Linux Distros Now Available (betanews.com)
BrianFagioli writes: About 16 years ago, a for-pay Linux distribution caused quite a stir all because of its name -- Lindows. Yes, someone actually thought kicking the billion dollar hornets nest that is Microsoft by playing off of the "Windows" name was a good idea. To be honest, from a marketing perspective, it was brilliant -- it got tons of free press. Microsoft eventually killed the Lindows name by use of money and the legal system, however. Ultimately, the Linux distro was renamed "Linspire." Comically, there was a Lindows Insiders program way before Windows Insiders!
After losing the Lindows name, the operating system largely fell out of the spotlight, and its 15 minutes of fame ended. After all, without the gimmicky name, it was hard to compete with free Linux distros with a paid OS. Not to mention, Richard Stallman famously denounced the OS for its non-free ways. The company eventually created a free version of its OS called Freespire, but by 2008, both projects were shut down by its then-owner, Xandros. Today, however, a new Linspire owner emerges -- PC/OpenSystems LLC. And yes, Lindows is rising from the grave -- as Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0!
"Today the development team at PC/Opensystems LLC is pleased to announce the release of Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0. While both contain common kernel and common utilities, they are targeted towards two different user bases. Freespire is a FOSS distribution geared for the general Linux community, making use of only open source components, containing no proprietary applications. This is not necessarily a limitation : through our software center and extensive repositories, Freespire users can install any application that they wish," says PC/OpenSystems LLC.
Back in 2003 the CEO of Lindows answered questions from Slashdot readers.
The first question was "Why oh why?"
After losing the Lindows name, the operating system largely fell out of the spotlight, and its 15 minutes of fame ended. After all, without the gimmicky name, it was hard to compete with free Linux distros with a paid OS. Not to mention, Richard Stallman famously denounced the OS for its non-free ways. The company eventually created a free version of its OS called Freespire, but by 2008, both projects were shut down by its then-owner, Xandros. Today, however, a new Linspire owner emerges -- PC/OpenSystems LLC. And yes, Lindows is rising from the grave -- as Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0!
"Today the development team at PC/Opensystems LLC is pleased to announce the release of Freespire 3.0 and Linspire 7.0. While both contain common kernel and common utilities, they are targeted towards two different user bases. Freespire is a FOSS distribution geared for the general Linux community, making use of only open source components, containing no proprietary applications. This is not necessarily a limitation : through our software center and extensive repositories, Freespire users can install any application that they wish," says PC/OpenSystems LLC.
Back in 2003 the CEO of Lindows answered questions from Slashdot readers.
The first question was "Why oh why?"
I tried running it once. The idea of a commercially purchased PC with a pre-installed Linux system to me was a good trend.
I got about 15 minutes of use, and then it asked me for a credit card in order to use GCC. So ... within another 10 seconds I was formatting that drive for a different distro.
As a matter of fact, the court ruled against Microsoft's trademark claim. They bought the name Lindows for $20 million after losing.
There are many cancerd-free distros. http://without-systemd.org/
Circumcision is child abuse.
"Microsoft Windows" is. We shouldn't act as though the word "Windows" is owned by MS, even in a computing context. Windowed user interfaces using "windows" were around long before MS Windows.
Exactly. I know someone who worked for Lindows^WLinspire at the time, and they told me that the reason why Microsoft settled (out of court) is because Lindows went "So Sue Us". Microsoft's Lawyers realised - and advised Microsoft accordingly - exactly as you surmise, XanC, that a "Window" is a generic term, and that their Trademark was not sustainable, and that it would be... how to put it best... "A Bad Idea" to let the courts decide (lawyer diplomatic speak for "Microsoft would lose"). Interestingly - from the same source - what actually killed Linspire was the CEO cashing out of the company at just the wrong time, when it was just becoming successful, sustainable, and in profit.