I have to say that I am somewhat bothered by the Linspire bashing that has been going on throughout a lot of these threads. Am I a registered Linspire CNR user? ...yes. For numerous reasons I signed up for CNR and I would just like to put my 2 cents worth in.

I have been using/playingwith/blowing up Linux since 1996. My registered Linux user # is less than 150,000. I have several copies of various Linux distros that I bought at CompUSA/Best Buy (yes, PAID for in the late '90's) and I have dozens of distros I downloaded. There are not many I haven't tried. Linspire was one of the easiest to install and maintain.

I run and maintain about 20 Linux servers, 5 Windows servers, a few Netware servers and support 300 XP workstations at work. The Linux servers are running either SuSE or RH. The distros are different because each distro serves a purpose. At home I have 6 boxes, 5 of which have some sort of flavor of Linux (2 Linspire, 2 FC3 and 1 Debian). Again, the distros are different because each serves a different purpose.

I have recently moved off the Windows platform by using Linspire. Linspire's purpose for me was to make the transition to Linux on my main workstation as painless as possible. My main workstation has 12 years worth of e-mail and files that I did not want to part with. There are also about 1/2 a dozen Windows apps that I cannot part with because the equivalent is not available in Linux. I did not want to lose this stuff. When I installed Linspire nothing on my main partition was lost. I haven't fired up XP in two or three weeks and I am quite happy.

The point is: I am a geek. Not necessarily a command line geek (though I use command line at work), but someone who isn't afraid to try some things out. I would call myself an early adopter of technology. I always believed Linux was there to give us a choice. Linspire serves a purpose and that is to attract people away from MS. And it's working!

I have been advertising/promoting Linux for years. Encouraging clients, friends and family to give it a test drive. Linspire is one the first distros that I would recommend to them with confidence. A lot of people are getting interested in Linux. Linspire is a great and safe choice for all the non-techy MS users. With Linspire, they are able to see that it is not the geeky Linux that they have been afraid to try.

The purpose of Linspire is to break into the mainstream. Linspire is now at some major retail stores (Fry, CompUSA, Best Buy to name a few). In order for ANY flavor of Linux to make it mainstream it needs exposure to the mom and pops out there. Linspire made it really easy for anyone to use. And I commend Linspire for their efforts.

To me CNR is awesome. I don't want to mess around with apt, searching for packages, making sure it it's the right kernel version, etc on my main workstation. I save all that for the FC3/Debian boxes. I go to the CNR, look over the new apps available, click on an icon to install and it's all set. I spend 5 minutes, selecting, downloading and installing. That's what I want. The CNR service runs in the background and let's me know when there are any updates available for anything I have installed through CNR. Click on the update icon and the apps get updated. That's why I don't have a problem with the $50 subscription. It's a service and I am paying for the convenience and simplicity. By the way, I could install Linspire on all my machines and it would still cost $50. The subscription is not based on per computer. My $50 went to Linspire to support their efforts. Marketing costs money, people. If it helps Linux, then I am willing to do my part.

The bottom line is...we are all on the same team. Linux is about choice. And I think it is absolutely awful that there are people out there putting down people who have made a different choice. Linspire is a distro that was created to attract users away from Windows. That's its purpose. I am technically savvy, know my command line and support the FOSS community. But I chose to plunk $50 down because it was the easiest path of transition off of Windows. I would much rather give my $50 to a Linux distro, than for a subscription update for Norton Antivirus for Windows! Will I stay with Linspire: I don't know. But for the remainder of my CNR subscription, I will support them. I am looking forward to 5.5 or 6.0 (which will be free as a CNR user)

By the way, Mandrake and Linspire were the only two distros that properly ran on my Toshiba laptop. I had to tweak Mandrake to get sound working properly. With Linspire, EVERYTHING worked out of the box (including a non-Linspire supported WiFi card and it doesn't use NDISWrapper). Kudos to Linspire for taking on this huge endeavor.

Just remember, Linux is about choice and everybody is different. Let's not scare of possible Windows converts no matter what their distro choice is. We should all be playing nice and fair together...as a team. Linux will never "win" if this kind of bashing keeps up.

Hi!

LinuxQuestions.org has a place to put your reviews and score them too:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/reviews/index.php

or you could simply post in an existent thread, since you are adding nothing new... Personally I think Linspire is so much like Windows that if I had to use Linspire, I'd use Windows. Paying for "free" software and pretending to be in an environment I personally dislike is not my cup of tea.

P.S: watch the link under my signature too...

Well thanks so much for the welcome mat Megaman X.

This wasn't a review on Linspire. This was a "review" on the the attitudes (like your condescending attitude) that have been prevelant in the Linspire forum at Linuxquestions.org.

I don't understand your statement "Linspire is so much Windows". Please explain. It looks like a KDE desktop to me....just like Xandros, SuSE, Mandrake and all the others.

So since you didn't "add nothing new" to my original thread, perhaps you should refrain from replying because by the attitude of your 1st reply, you are just another Linspire basher.

That's so true. I really hate Linspire and found it useless. I would give more respect to it if the free programs they charge for would be given a percentage of this cash for the "real" developers. Putting together a Linux distro and replacing the "K" to "launch" with a nice logo and wallpaper can even be done by me...

If peoples don't want to try Linux as it is, they should stick with Windows. It's so simple. As once somebody in this forum said, "Asking Linux to be more like Windows is like asking tea to taste more like coffee". That's what Linspire is trying to do, be more like Windows: Charging for things that are free and creating a similar Interface pretending to be the other OS.

Again, you should collaborate with existent threads, so I'm not replying to this thread any more. Just like to make it clear that I really do, hate Linspire, Sun Microsystems, Windows (not MS) and SCO, so our little "debate" won't takes us anywhere

Megaman X,

Maybe you should do more research, but I think you are just trolling.
When people pay for CNR, they are paying for an installer, bandwidth,
product development, etc. They are not paying for the apps.

-Red Hat has a pay for patch service, or they used to in the days
of Red Hat personal.

-Mandrake (Mandriva) has the Mandrake club.

Are you going to accuse Mandrake and Red Hat of charging for GPL
software because of the 2 items that I mentioned above?

If you even understood or read the GPL, you would know that you
“can” charge for that software, but that is not really the issues.
The issue appears to be your lack of knowledge of GPL licensing
and you bash what you don't understand.

Read the parts in red to help educate yourself:
https://forum.linspire.com/forum/sho...ev=#Post364561

I know very well how GPL works, have even released a few applications myself using that license and pygame, so don't you try to look like Mr.Big Shot, or call me a troll when you have 4 posts and have not help with anything in the forum, but talking useless things as "I can install applications in Linspire when I'm drunk", as you did in the other thread.

Linspire is an abomination and hurts the image of Linux, trying to be like Windows. Linux is strong enough to stand on it's own and don't need to be a clone of Windows to be good or popular. That's what I dislike on Linspire.

And I'm not saying it's wrong to charge for GPL'ed software. Lot's of companies do that, as Crossover Office or Cedega. However, unlike Linspire they offer more then just a "pretty XP-clone-Gui with launch button". And Cedega developers are descent enough to even provide a free downloadable version of Cedega through CVS.

And for the record, Redhat and Mandrake sells support: their .iso's have always been available for free, as well as software.

I am closing this thread. It's clear that Linspire is a very emotive issue.