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?"

Comments

Re:I'd like to interject for a moment...

[Antique Geekmeister]

While the joke may sound funny at first, it is most definitely not true. Quoting Richard Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundaton, about the licensing of Linspire:

> No other GNU/Linux distribution has backslided so far away from freedom

If Linspire's "pay for play" model included access to the relevant source code, under a "free" development license with access to source code, it could be considered compatible with most Linux software and business models. It does not: its support for prprietary projects and vendor lock-in is precisely what the GNU project and the FSF reject.

I smell a rat, or at leas a DOA idea

[wjcofkc]

So the Freespire version lists a bunch of OSS. The commercial version lists a ton more software, almost all of it OSS. They have an awful lot of detailed testimonials for something that appears to have been release 5 days ago. Testimonials from the previous incarnation do not apply - this is a new animal. "Partnerships" - Uh huh. I need more info on what they classify as a "Partnership". Half of their "customers" link to nothing but a logo. I would be curious to know what Verizon and the US Navy are buying from them. For a company admitting (in the fine print) that they are a small consulting firm their service offerings seem pretty lofty. I could go on and on, nothing about this seems quite right or a even a good idea. I can't find any reviews. FOSS Bytes has a mention but all I learned is that it is an Ubuntu derivative, and that screen shot better be from a decade ago.

https://fossbytes.com/lindows-linux-distro-back-linspire-7-0-and-freespire-3-0-released/

I will give Freespire a spin but none of their marketing gives me a reason to be exited.