I was just curious about the sub300.com website and was looking around when I came upon their challenge to convert 164 milliion US computers over to Linux. If you ship them your computer they will remove windows and install Linspire and Open Office for free. Then you can pay for them to ship your computer back. Great, if you don't mind being without your computer for a week and a half and paying probably over $100 for Linspire.

They also have a do-it-yourself kit - Linspire and Open Office on CD for !9.99 S&H included. The website says they'll send you the latest Linspire version but then in the store it lists Ver 4.5, not Five-O. Maybe an email to them would clear this up.

Sub300 164 Million Computer Challenge
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Disclaimer:

I don't, nor have I ever used Linspire. I just thought this would be useful information for those who are considering it.

OR you could just ya know download it for free and install it your self...considering that open office and linux are both free.

Read the replies here.
Have a new laptop ordered from Wal-Mart here in U.S. (http://www.walmart.com)
Linspire pre-installed on this.

Do not particularly like Linspire, and wonder if Xandros would be better???
Think that this Debian-based distro (Xandros) would be better than Linspire (which is also Debian-based).
If not Xandros, than maybe Vector or Knoppix's Debian?

How about Xandros getting its own LQ forum??
Anyone else agree?

Personally I use Vector Linux 5.0 SOHO

The best part about it is community and you have all the slackware packages to choose from.

They have done some brilliant script work to help with setting up the majority of the configuration files. Check'em out.

Thanks for the feedback!
Have done some initial research and here is what this LQ member has found regarding the 'Sub300 Challenge' with both Linspire and alternatives to Linspire :

- Linspire's upgrade model for apt-get is CNR as those reading this can see from the LQ Linspire wiki Note that the CNR upgrades will cost $25-50USD ON TOP OF the $20USD fee mentioned in the title of this thread.

- Xandros is also apt-get-based similar to Linspire, but has a graded fee structure as noted in the LQ Xandros wiki. There is a freely-available Xandros bit-torrent download available at
http://www.xandros.com/products/home/desktopoc/dsk_oc_download.html , but the "non-disabled" main releases do cost $$$. There is no LQ distro forum or LQ ISO-download site yet, and this Corel-upgrade distro is admittedly aimed at those wanting the desktop appearance and ease-of-use of M$-Windows similar to Linspire.

- VectorLinux SOHO 5.0.1 is Slackware-based like the full Slackware 10.1 and is free (see the LQ VectorLinux wiki and the LQ Vector SOHO ISO download webpages).
It does have a separate
LQ VectorLinux forum just like Linspire's here, but the LQ VectorLinux forum itself seems to be less visited than Linspire's and certainly less than Slackware's (see the LQ Linux Distributions forums list page).
Might be a great choice for the new Wal-Mart laptop, but likely NOT for something less than a Pentium III with 196MB RAM, at least according to the VectorLinux SOHO 5 Hardware Requirements
This LQ member does like the LQ VectorLinux ForumID in particular though

- Knoppix 3.x and MEPIS are based upon Debian and apt-get similar to Linspire and Xandros, but are absolutely non-commercial (see both the extensive LQ Knoppix wiki and the LQ MEPIS wiki). Knoppix and MEPIS have two advantages or disadvantages of being 1st) self-booting liveCD distros and 2nd) being fully installable onto the hard drives of a very wide gamut of PCs.
While there are no LQ forums specifically for Knoppix and MEPIS (see the LQ Linux Distributions forums list , at the same time since Knoppix and MEPIS ARE so much more altogether tied into Debian than are Linspire or Xandros, support for these liveCD distros is therefore often tied into that of Debian's, such as is the current case here at LQ (see the LQ Debian forum)

Knoppix or MEPIS would also seem to be very strong strong "non-$20USD" choices for the Wal-Mart laptop currently with Linspire pre-installed, other than VectorLinux SOHO 5.


-nycace36