I'm a to linux. I jus loved the look of linspire desktop and program it has pre-installed. But when it comes to installing a program other then CNR warehouse its a little messy problem for me as a newbie . I read the article to install program on Linspire but it says it require Alien or DPKG to install rpm or debian based program.

My issue is that I can't install program from CNR cuz I don't want to give credit card info for registrartion of CNR. 15 day trial period. That's why Im looking for some other or free way to install program on linspire.

I want to know how to install program which are in TAR form. For compiling and installing them on Linspire. I tried to use console in linspire but couldn't get in on root directory plz let me know how to get to it.
I'll appreciate it if your answer is brief.
-ty

unzip tar package
enter directory
./configure
make

su root
password
make install

Linspire is a somewhat propietary distribution based on Debian with KDE, but it is not pure Debian or KDE.

You could add unstable/testing repositories to the sources.list file in /etc/apt/ but it may break your system.

Linspire isnt meant to be used this way, unfortunately. They want you to pay.

If you want another newbie distro thats similar to Linspire where the software installation is free you should try Suse or Mandriva.

Why aysiu hasn't gotten here before me, I don't know; but if you're looking for beginner distros that are free ("as in beer"), Debian based, & use KDE, then consider SimplyMEPIS (my preference) & Kubuntu. Here is a link to MEPIS Free Download mirrors in case you need it.

Note that both MEPIS & [Ku|U]buntu are commercial ventures, they differ from Linspire in how they try to make money. [Ku|U]buntu wants to sell service, but gives away the software. MEPIS, like Linspire, is in the subscription business, but doesn't break apt-get so you have no trouble using the regular Debian sources. Also, MEPIS has a free ($0) version -- SimplyMEPIS.

Although they take different approaches to balancing security & simplicity, neither take the (IMO horrible) approach of defaulting to root for the normal user.

And yes, I know at least one person who has her mother on Linspire & swears it is perfect for Mom's needs.

I use CNR, but that is just me.

you can try Klikit!. It is a graphical program installer that works in Linspire. I have it on my laptop and tried it out with about a dozen programs just to make sure it worked before I started recommended folks try it. It works fine and it didn't mess up Linspire or the CNR installer.

Archtoad6.....do you just kind of lurk in the Linspire section of this forum to try and dissuade people from using it? Just curious, it seems like that's all your posts in this section are for.....to dissuade people from using it, rather than to answer their questions about it.

I like it. I use it, it works for me....I also use ELX BixDesk 4.0, PCLOS 9.1 and SuSE 9.3.

Sorry. I was a bit slow on the ball...

No, I don't lurk this sub-forum, I just subscribe to the daily 0 Replies e-mail. Then I go anywhere that is interesting, where I subscribe w/o posting; or anywhere I think I know the answer, when I am likely post. I come to the Lispire area when I see something related to my 2 main gripes w/ the distro: security & business model (& "business model" is the polite way of titling that reservation).

I would post here less if I weren't in a position to see damage that Linspire does to spreading Linux when it is bought naively. The reason is that I run a weekly Linux Workshop at the local computer club here in Houston. Think "install fest" every week. How many places do you know that have a weekly install fest? Because of this, I do or assist or watch over so many installs of so many distros, that I don't count. That is how I experienced Lindows & why I have come to have my opinion of it & its successor.

Please note, I did not jump in here until the 3rd post, & only when it was obvious that the OP had a problem that I only know how to solve by leaving Linspire. If you know a , then please share it w/ us. It would give both the OP & me an answer we have been looking for.

This brings me to the other reason I bother to come here: I am hoping to find an answer to that Q -- which would "solve" half my objections to Linspire. And while I don't think there is an easy fix to my security concerns (root by default), I am hoping that Robertson & Co will eventually "see the error of their ways". If only because they that there is a large base of experienced & intelligent GNU/Linux users who are at least a little bit (if not a whole lot) angry w/ them for what we perceive is a dangerous unnecessary approach. And for me, it is the unnecessary aspect of said approach that generates the anger.

Meanwhile, I am mindful of the rules of the site & try to give reasons for what I think & feel.

I don't ever intend to dissuade people from Linspire if they're truly interested. In fact, when Windows users complain that Linux (as if there's only one distro that is Linux) should be more like Windows or should be all point-and-click and hide everything from the user, the first response I usually give is "try Linspire."

However, I do get the sense from the OP of this thread and a few others that they don't know what else is out there, and that they're not totally satisfied with Linspire. If that's the case, they should know that there are plenty of distros out there that are more or less point-and-click (maybe in Synaptic you have to click twice instead of just once to install software) and that are completely free in every sense of the word. Education is never a bad thing.

KlikIt seems like an interesting idea. Apparently, it doesn't conflict with CNR. But it also seems to draw from the sources.list and sounds a lot like Synaptic/apt-get (which I know from experience doesn't exactly work well with Linspire).

Here are some quotations from the KlikIt blog:

In the case of the Linspire user the intention of KlikIt! is to provide ANOTHER option, and not as a sustitute of Click-N-Run, which should remain as the main way of dealing with software, because it is 100% compatible with the OS.

The repositories that KlikIt! uses are the ones listed in the the /etc/apt/sources.list file, so if you plan on using it please do not modify this file.

I don't think you can use KlikIt exclusively, according to the above quotation, as a replacement for CNR, so if someone doesn't want to pay for CNR, that person should probably not being using Linspire.

Also, Linspire defaults to root-only use, but there is a part of the installation process in which you can add a user. I think it's just a matter of letting people know that they should add a user and use that user, not just run as root. Of course, if Linspire changed their installation setup, that'd be a good thing, too, but we can always educate people to do what's right and secure.

P.S. I tried installing Klikit! on Mepis 3.3.1 and Linspire 5.0 and kept getting an error every time I tried to launch it. When I Googled the error, all I got was a thread in the Klikit! forums about how you're not supposed to use it with Linspire 4.5x and that it should work with Linspire 5.0. It doesn't.

APT-GET INSTALL KOMMANDER. Then run klikit! It should run fine then. As far as using it without CNR, I have one box that I have never logged into CNR on and use Klikit! exclusively to install software, so you don't have to use CNR to use Klikit! with LOS5.0.

But I thought CNR was the greatest thing on earth and well worth the money? I thought CNR was the reason for the season and all that???

Did PusterRacing say that? Who said that? You can't just lump all Linspire users together. Some like CNR. Others don't. I'll discourage people from using Linspire as much as the next person, but this is ridiculous!

I all depends on the Point-of-view of the user.
I see CNR as a nicer version of Synaptic, but for someone comming from Windows CNR might be a great tool, and for those people it IS a grat tool.
- no adding diffrent repositories if you need something that isn't in the default Debian respositories (mplayer for one IF I'm correct).
- I click install (Synaptic needs 2 clicks )
- no risk of breaking stuff (in SID you have a bigger risk).
- software is "tweaked" to work well on Linspire (like making the default save directory $HOME/My Documents, as much as I hate their decision to call it "My Documents" and not "Documents" it's a nice feature for people comming from windows who are used to a default directory for documents).

CNR was a bit expensive in the past, but at their new price (alost $20/year) it's a great deal for people who don't want to spend a lot of time in installing and setting-up the system.

Also many of the Linspire users never visited This forum or the Linspire forum and probably never will.

I prefer Debian with APT myself but I can understand that other people like Linspire and are happy paying for the CNR Service.

I use CNR, and I have a CNR account. I also like to be able to help ALL users out, and there are users who DON'T use CNR. If I am going to endorse Kilikit! as an alternate way of installing programs, then, by-golly, I'd better know it works. How can I know it works if I don't use it? So, to answer your question....to ME CNR is well worth the money. That is just me, and believe it or not, not everybody shares my opinon. So, when I endorse an alternative I want to know it works.

What does this mean? Well it means that if I am going to endorse or nay-say a product, I actually use or have used that product for a length of time. If Klikit! didn't work or I didn't like, I surely wouldn't troll their forums or forums dedicated to it and nay-say it. I'd only offer my INFORMED opinion when it was asked for.....in a general setting, not one dedicated to the product. But, that is just me too.

First, Puster, please pardon me if I edited your comments too far in the interest of brevity and made them say something other than you intended. But as I read your original remarks you struck a bit of a nerve.

I've used Lindows/Linspire for about two years now, starting with v3.0 and currently running v4.5 on two machines. Well, one-and-a-half machines. My teenage daughter's machine runs v4.5 exclusively while my runs v4.5 dual-boot with Win98. It's a nice intro to Linux for a Windoze user and the CNR is convenient. But.... I do very much resent the way the geek level software installation methods have been sabotaged in a not so subtle attempt to to force users to subscribe to CNR.

At the moment, Linspire on my dual boot machine is essentially broken because I tried to install KGet using apt-get instead of continuing to pay the yearly CNR fee. Nothing major happened except that apt-get replaced numerous *.linspire files with essentially the same *.deb files during the install to meet dependencies. Now many programs installed under CNR no longer work. It's one thing to OFFER a convenient, subscription method of install for those not willing or interested in the more technical methods. But it's another thing entirely to sabotage the non-pay installation methods in order to keep that subscription revenue coming year after year. That smells too much like a certain firm in Redmond.

At the moment, I'm experimenting with several Live CD distros, KNOPPIX chief among them, to see what I'm going to use to replace Linspire on this machine. KUBUNTU is tempting but KNOPPIX 3.4 has done a good job of allowing me to access the software and files on my Linspire partition and seems to get along well with this old machine (AMDK6-2 333Mhz.)

Well I don't think they are "sabotaging" stuff like APT. It's just that Linspire does a lot of tweaking and that makes some packages not compatible with the standard Debian packages.
I would like to see APT work on Linspire aswell but as long as they don't start their own APT repositories for Linspire it's not gonna happen. It's basically like this :

They get a "frozen" version of Debian (last version 5.0 is based on Unstable SID and the 4.0 and 4.5 is based on the (then Testing) Sarge). While they work on building Linspire from that frozen version of Debian the development of Debian continues (newer packages with newer dependancies). and they tweak it to do their stuff (I don't know what they tweak exactly but Duane told me it's a lot). now after a while (with SID it's faster then with Testing or Stable since SID had updated packages almost on a daily basis). the stuff in Linspire is outdated to the Debian ones so when you APT a program it might require newer versions of installed libraries (a good example of a program that trashes the Linspire install is DigiKam) like libc6 (or whatever it's called). Also a newer version of KDE in APT will "wreck" the custom Linspire KDE and replace it with the default (some might call this broken ).

So it's not realy them sabotaging APT it's their distro not beeing compatible with Debian anymore (unlike other distro's like Knoppix).

Nice exposition, CloudyWizzard.

Brolin_1911a1,
If you're tired of the CNR fee, I stand by my earlier remarks: If you prefer Gnome, then install it on SimplyMEPIS, or start with Ubuntu

I'm curious, you've used Linspire for 2 years, but only now tire of CNR, was it a good beginner distro for you or your daughter? Especially did you worry about root by default?