What are the sound configuration tools for Linspire 4? Is the one in Kontrol Center the only one? I'm trying to find the configuration tools for, say, ALSA, so as I can get the sound working on my laptop, and since it doesn't have TLDP (The Linux Documentation Project), that makes it much harder on me to find what I need. All I must do is tell ALSA what my sound card is so as to allow aRTs to use it.

Not a lot I am afraid! I would tell you to CNR some stuff but since they no longer support 4.0 you cant! I would tell you to use the other cds that came with it to install extra software but there again linspire doesnt put extra packages to install on CD! Kind of makes you feel like you either pay for the newest version or you have nothing doesnt it? Best bet is to uncomment the sources.list file and edit it to point toward woody and go that route.... good luck!

I guess a better question would be the how do I configure ALSA via the old-fashioned way, as I typically go around CnR as it appears to be a violation of the GPL and makes no economic sense as I can hit FreshMeat and often download the same freakin' thing free-beer-free, often in .debs for easy installation, and tarbals for everything else, also not too hard to install. Linspire doesn't have source code available either, do they?

Anyway, I know I need to edit some files ALSA uses, and I need to know what they are and what to do with them. Maybe after I do that, I can get the sound on my laptop working.

Every time I have trouble with sound in lin-pire I can rarely resolve it short of just ripping out their alsa and with a old sound card just using oss. But maybe you could use apt to install debians alsa stuff. I would suggest asking on the lin-pire forums first...

Yes they do (it's required by the GPL).
You can download the entire Linspire Sourcecode (without the proprietary stuff like CNR, some commercial fonts, ...).
Also when you search the CNR warehouse you can download a source tarball of every product they have (again without the commercial software offcourse). that source tarball is the same modified version as the one you can get from the CNR Warehouse.

I agree that for many people it sounds weird to "pay" for free (as beer) software (especially since you can get it elsewhere for gratis). but with CNR they don't charge for the software but for the service (again yes, I know stuff like sourceforge also offer this for gratis).
Linspire engineers spend time to :
- make sure it works on Linspire (I guess that's not so hard but I'm no software engineer).
- customize the software (like the default directory for saving documents).
- repackage it to work with CNR
- ... maybe something I forgot.
All of that costs them money becaus they need to pay people to do that.

Also I agree that installing a DEB package and a source tarball is almost as easy as CNR (I install most of my software from a source tarball) but for sources you need to go into the console (someting many people comming from the XP generation don't want to do anymore) and for DEBS I tend to use DPKG (also a commandline tool) but offcourse there are also GUI's for this.

but fact is that with CNR you only need to click 1 button to install someting, where with a DEB or tarball it takes some more action, is that a problem ? Not for me, but for some people it's well woth spending the little money for the service.

It's like Michael once said, "You can change the oil of your car yourself, or you can go to jiffylube and pay them to do it for you".
It's all about choice here, people using CNR do that because they choose to do so (I'm not forcing them to use it).

It's like Michael once said, "You can change the oil of your car yourself, or you can go to jiffylube and pay them to do it for you".
Actually changing oil implies some skill is needed and the consequences would be dire if you screwed up. So I think of it more like, you can go to that gas station and pay X dollars and pump your own gas, or you can go over there and pay 2X and they will pump it for you. Why pay twice as much for such simple service, service that with a little common knowledge you can do it as well if not better....

Yes I know I am being negative again

Well I think that's a personal opinion.
You are right that changing the oil of a car takes some knowledge and skill, but for someone comming from windows installing from source is as difficult (or even more) as chainging the oil of a car.

Just recently I saw a post on the Linspire forums from a windows user (or former windows user) who said CNR was like the best thing they ever saw. Offcourse for people like you and me it might be something much less since we know how to chaing the oil ourselfs.

You gas analogy is more for DPKG packages since that's pretty easy to install so you might have a point there. Also notice that Linux got a lot more userfriendly in the past years (and I'm nog gonna give Linspire all the credit for this). but when they started with LindowsOS and CNR there was more of a need for someting like CNR (now you have a tool like that for almost every distro, you have Synaptic (I think this is the original but maybe that's just because I'm a Debian fan ), Xandros Networks, Klik, Klik-it (is this the same or a diffrent tool ?) ...

i wont argue with ya mr.cloudy!

After I've installed a few packages via source code, I must argue with you a little. Your only real problem (or at least mine) is the dependency quagmire. Most of the tarbals I've tried to install have had the same few steps:

1: hit the README file that's often with it. It'll tell you any specifics you may want.
2: type ./configure. It will make a few preperations, and if there are any dependencies, it will often tell you about them at this point.
3: If everything's up to snuff, type make. It will make a few more preperations.
4: Type make install. That will "land" the software so that it's ready to use. Sometimes, you may have to do some customizations (maybe put it in your $PATH, make a config file, etc.) to have it conveniently ready to do what you want.

This is similar to changing the oil on your car, pretty straightforward for most of us who have gotten used to seeing it.

Also, and I may be wrong here, but I think before there was a Lindows, there was a RedHat Package Manager. I remember seeing it back in the days of Mandy 7.2, when I started with Linux. ...so I would bet that RedHat, Debian, etc. all had their package managers in place.

Yes, from YOUR point of view installing from source is pretty easy (and I agree) but for someone who's comming from Windows (after the MS-DOS age) it's a bit harder to do (those people don't even wanna see the CLI).

Sure there were RPM's and DEB's before Linspire, I'm not gonna argue about that since that's a known fact. (there was even APT before CNR ) but APT is a commandline tool (very powerfull and my personal choice over CNR) so it leaves you with Synaptic and the likes (of you want to compair with CNR). and that's also a very good tool.

I personaly don't see a big difference between CNR and Synaptic (other then that CNR has some more eye-candy) offcourse the packages are customized for Linspire but the same is true for the stuff in APT that's customized for Debian GNU/Linux.

I know most Windows users don't know what a command line is, or what to do when you get there, but even RedHat Package Manager has had a decent GUI front-end that handled it. All you got to do there is double-click the RPM you want to install. ...and this was since pre-Linspire, Mandy 7.2! ...of course, it's since gotten better for the most part, though I hate that I have not found an easy way to see what package is in, I liked Mandy's tree system. ...and again, if there's a dependency, it will tell you. I've had a harder time with Windows' InstallShield on most programs than I have had with RPM or DPKG. You normally don't even have to care where it goes, it's landed and ready to use as soon as the package manager says "done".

It's really better once you get used to the new system. Try installing your Windows programs with just 4 clicks!

LOL, Yeah I know what you mean

Told ya RedHat was better!