Another Linspire review, this time at ExtremeTech along with screenshots.
Linux Made Easy: Linspire 5.0
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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YaLR! And no single SuSE 9.3 review this far.
How many pages does that stupid site want me to go through?
how is suse 9.3 ?
is it possible to upgrade from 9.2 to 9.3 using YOU ?
it is simple enough using urpmi in mandrake to go from one version to another, but what about suse ?
I am slowly being tempted to try suse, but past experience shows it to be very slow, even compared to mandrake.
dunno, but if more people would base their reviews on the system itself rather than what you get with kde/gnome, then the linux reviews would be better.
have a look right here http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=10317
cheers
anyweb
Holy smokes. I love the way the copied iTunes.
Installing my WiFi drivers, the easy way – with Linspire! 😐
When they say “Desktop Linux”, they really mean it!
Just read the review and, hey, this is a pretty good review actually!
This is not a review for SuSE people! Give some credit to the author here.
“This is not a review for SuSE people! Give some credit to the author here.”
I’m a SuSe people!
But I know what you mean. And like I said, you have to give the author credit because it’s a good review, better then most reviews that were already published.
Doesn’t change the fact I’m still craving for a SuSe review. But I received my box today, so I’ll be writing one myself.
I was impressed with the reviewer’s writing style. He pointed out both the pros and cons from his experiences with 5.0 with complete professionalism and objectivity.
All in all, a very good review.
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=293&slide=3…
You can get a free legal download of Linspire 5:
Go to http://www.linspire.com/product_page.php choose buy Linspire. Click on buy now at $49.95, then choose apply coupon and put “linspire4RA” as coupon #. Then click on apply coupon…$49.95-$49.95=$0. You will have to create an account with Linspire and the get the free iso download.
Whos coupon-code is that? Freely handing out coupon codes that are supposed to be for a specific organisation is not raelly right.
It may be that this code is fine to spread around, but please quote your sources to avoid any confusion.
Ok, it comes from Redflagdeals:
http://www.redflagdeals.com/deals/main.php#e15526
Yah,
but do you really want a copy of Linspire? Free or not?
I sure don’t.
HEY FOR FREE! I WILL TAKE IT FOR SURE!!!!
cause linspire cds sure make great thingys to sit your drink on! or shiny things to hang from your rear view mirror! or as the bottom cd on your spindle to make sure your other cds dont get scrtached! or well… you get the idea
So will my linksys wireless lan card be autodetected by this thing? That’s all that stands between me and linux at this point. I can type “ls” instead of “dir”, but I can’t install my own wireless lan drivers (yet).
I’m a software engineer developing commercial applications using linux, and I use Linspire. Most of my co-workers use Gentoo or some other free distribution. Yes you can get the same stuff done, but Linspire is well worth the money for me. It takes a lot less time to have all the newest packages configured and “just work”, than with other distros I used.
It’s a polished distro, and when you use click and run it just works.
What card? Linspire comes with almost all available drivers preinstalled, so in theory all the cards that are listed as working on this site http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Wireless.html should work. In theory.
In practice, Linspire has been giving me loads of grief in regard to several “working” usb wlan cards.
Hey, give it a try… I have a proprietary USB 802.11b card that is intended for use with an embedded stereo device and clearly says that it’s ONLY for use with that, and they (D-Link) don’t release drivers for it, yet it worked just fine with the Linspire 5.0 Live CD, but hasn’t worked with Knoppix or Ubuntu’s live CDs.
Ooops… should have mentioned… When I said that they don’t release drivers, I meant that they don’t even release drivers for Monopoly OS!
I’m glad to share my thoughts about Linspire.Almost all the apps you can can install via cnr (click no run,slow as hell) are avaible with the average propietary or downloadable distro.Adobe acrobat reader 7.0 is dowloadable for free at adobe,gimp comes standard with every distro etc etc.
When you click on “Free Trial” in order to get a free trial of cnr you have to give some billing information.Fortunately i checked before as aforementioned.Additional ther’re a lot of icons in the taskbar like the surfsafe and virussafe,when you click on them you get directly a page with $49 displayed.Ironically,that page loaded very fast,lol.
The financials
The OS itself ($49,download version,means no CD/DVD,handbooks ,no nothing,what if you have to install again?),cnr subscription ($49 annually,for apps that every distro provides for free and with updates),makes $98,and SuSE or Mandrake both very good distro’s have also support plus handbooks and more important CD’s/DVD in case you have to install again.
Conclusion:Crapware,a lot of potential costs hidden in a shiny jacked that only performs fast when a “pay here” page is has to be displayed.
I would rather use windows XP and buy the additional software in the stores or better yet go for MaOSX (The real stuff of convenience, but really good,and very good styled)
I’m glad i have seen more or less some light and happily run Solaris and Linux.
good point! What happens if linspire goes belly up or MR decides he doesnt want to keep shoveling money at this? Then what good is CNR going to do ya. All you have to do is learn
‘apt-get install packagename’ or heck does it get any easier than synaptic? Is a one click installer needed? Heck maybe so! I dont think so but then again people may be right so why not biuild a “ezinstaller”? It would actually be fairly trivial to write some scripts that are tied to a webpage that the user clicks the “install” link and away we go…. might just do that
…..stay tuned…..
Click and run is not much easier than apt-get, so I don’t like when people say you just have to learn apt-get. Click and run uses a linspire tested repository of packages. These packages, work, and look consistent, and get configured correctly. When you use apt-get, often the packages are broken and the applications crash. That’s why I said linspire “just works”, because it does unlike debian, which I have used for years prior to finally paying for linspire.
Seal – it certainly shows that you haven’t used this product for more than a short time. It also shows that you know little about it.
The extra costs are costs you would have to pay if you used Windows. So you are complaining that you have to pay to the same company instead of to different companies? But that’s only if you want to buy the AV software. I personally don’t feel it is needed yet with Linux (including LinSpire).
The $50 per year also includes all updates to the OS as well as any patches of any kind. You will auto-notified of these and it is very quicky and easy to install. If you can’t handle that they no, you wouldn’t like LinSpire. Go troll somewhere else.
Seal – it certainly shows that you haven’t used this product for more than a short time. It also shows that you know little about it.
Good one,i installed nonspire out off curiosity,after 45 secs to be exact i installed gentoo back on the hd.
The extra costs are costs you would have to pay if you used Windows.
I don’t use windows either,to much $$ and to little delivery.
I prefer Linux and Solaris or *BSD.
Serious
You could buy a SuSE or Mandriva, etc box for $89 with manuals,CD’s/DVD,support ,all the apps linspire has and more without an annual subscription.
The $50 per year also includes all updates to the OS as well as any patches of any kind
Again,with the purchage of an propietary linux box that’s all part of the one package.All software on the CD’s/DVD’s,and yes ladies and gentlemen even the gimp and emacs,(without an extra cnr subscription of $49),cmon.
Nothing against payment for good things,what i don’t like are sharks who misuse the uninformed to immitate Apple and get rich and famous.
Well said. I use Linspire on a daily basis. In fact, it’s my main PC (desktop) OS. I, in just the last three days, tried installing Mandriva LE, Ubuntu, Kubunu, and Lycoris Update 4. Mandriva was nice but I couldn’t figure out how to install software as the Install Software link in the toolbar only installed software from the CD’s I burned. I tried to locate a specific build of apt for Mandrake but didn’t have any luck with that either. Ubuntu loaded but I’m a KDE man and don’t feel at home with Gnome. That’s just me. I had the same problem with installing software though with Ubuntu… it was difficult. Kubuntu wouldn’t even install. After about 30 minutes of running, the installer would fail. It could be the media but I’m guessing it’s the distro. As for Lycoris, that thing wouldn’t boot past the install spash screen.
As for Linspire, I reinstalled it on my laptop just for fun yesterday and it took all of about 15 minutes. It recognized everything in my Thinkpad T30 including the IBM High Rate Wireless LAN PC card. Installing apps was a piece of cake as well because of CNR. I am gladly paying Linspire for a subscription to their Click and Run warehouse because it makes installing the free, open source, applications easier than ever before Plus, I get the benefit of being able to install great apps like Lphoto. It’s well worth the money to me.
So as you can see, for my money, Linspire is the EASIEST desktop Linux to use. This is just my experience… your mileage may vary.
“These packages, work, and look consistent, and get configured correctly.” So you are saying that CNR always works, all the packages are up to date and that they always install perfectly and never come up with dependecy issues? I could show you post after post at the linspire forum that seems to state otherwise!
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“When you use apt-get, often the packages are broken and the applications crash.”
Have used apt for a long time and as long as I am not trying anything crazy then apt works beautifully, and it is very rare that any packages are broken in stable and rarelyever broken in testing.
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“That’s why I said linspire “just works”, because it does unlike debian”
I dont know what you were using but everything “works” perfectly for me in debian! I can visit the linspire forums as well as numerous reviews and see that many things in linspire do not “just work” for a lot of people.
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If you feel like you get something for dishing out that money then that is super for you! I personally find it much easier to learn a few commands than to bother working extra hours to pay for my OS. And considering you have learned linspire while I have learned linux, I hope that CNR comes in handy if you have to use another system.
“I, in just the last three days, tried installing Mandriva LE, Ubuntu, Kubunu, and Lycoris Update 4. Mandriva was nice but I couldn’t figure out how to install software as the Install Software link in the toolbar only installed software from the CD’s I burned. I tried to locate a specific build of apt for Mandrake but didn’t have any luck with that either. Ubuntu loaded but I’m a KDE man and don’t feel at home with Gnome. That’s just me. I had the same problem with installing software though with Ubuntu… it was difficult.”
……………
So what you are saying is that since using linspire and CNR you are not able to figure out how to use other distros, or install software unless it is using click and run?… And you consider this a advantage? You consider this a good thing? I personally can install most any distro and have no trouble installing software on any of them and I am no expert by any means! So, once again I ask if MR shuts it down tommorow, what does that leave you with?
thats all folks
I agree that you can get all of what you pay for in Linspire working for free with Debian. So far I found that Linspire worked for me better. Upgrading KDE worked, while I have experienced debian “unstable” breaking my KDE when I tried to upgrade it. I’ve also experienced debian working fine upgrading KDE. It all depends on whether or not someone goofs something up in the repository.
So far it’s been working better for me and I don’t mind paying $49.95/year. That’s $3.83/month. I don’t exactly have to work a lot of overtime to cover the costs, and like I said it seems to be saving me time.
So, once again I ask if MR shuts it down tommorow, what does that leave you with?
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What if the community supporting debian goes away? what does that leave you with? I know that’s not likely. But I also don’t see Linspire going anywhere since their user base is currently growing. Also, the people working on it actually get paid money. So me paying them will actually motivate them from going away.
For remote installation on Mandriva, go to http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/ – it’s a little script which generates commands for the ‘urpmi.addmedia’ tool that adds remote sources to Mandriva’s native package manager, urpmi. Tell it you’re using 2005, hit ‘proceed to stage 2’, pick some mirrors from the list (my favourite are club-internet.fr and anorien.csc, the US mirrors are mostly crap) for main and contrib, hit ‘proceed to stage 3’ then copy/paste the commands you’re given and run them in a root console. Then you can install just about anything from the Install Software program or from commandline urpmi. You can also install apt (it’s packaged in contrib), but there’s not much point.
Nice… thanks bro. I’ll try that tonight and see how it goes.
I finally after years of using Red Hat, Slackware, and Fedora Core now, finally splurged with my extra cash that I didnt blow at the bar on booze and women. I discovered that I made a very wise decision. I got a system fully working up and going in less than a half hour (including the download of the DVD player, updates, and a few CNB (click and buy) games. It doesnt break. Any slight problem is easy to correct. And moreso — stupid simple. All of the programs are categorized so I dont NEED to know that nvu is a web editor aforehand, because its marked as a developer tool.
Before whining look at wht its supposed to do and whether it does that job correct and well. Its made to make USING the computer a simple job. It does that. Unfortunately Red Hat (my #2 at the moment), SuSE, and Slackware are not. Dont tell me that gentoo is simpler. The amount of work to get a stage 3 install is not for the weak of heart, much less a stage 1. Fedora Core is far too unstable still. And YaST is far too flaky to be relied on (aka spend money).
This is my take. I seem to think and see that the whiners about Linspire, CNR, and Michael Robertson are people who don’t/won’t use it since … OMG It Costs a few bucks!!
This is my take. I seem to think and see that the whiners about Linspire, CNR, and Michael Robertson are people who don’t/won’t use it since … OMG It Costs a few bucks!!
Heh we don’t troll but give arguments what we don’t like about
Linspire,and why we (I) don’t use it.Doesn’t mean it’s bad for everyone.Some people aren’t so smart,don’t have the time or interest in learning Linux.especially basics like the use of a package manager like emerge,yum,apt-get,synaptic.Others like to learn the ins and outs of different OS’s and everything related,which is probably the main reason why they hang around here.
So ,no prob and continue to Linspire if you feel comfortable
with what they offer:-)
Serious
You could buy a SuSE or Mandriva, etc box for $89 with manuals,CD’s/DVD,support ,all the apps linspire has and more without an annual subscription.
Again,with the purchage of an propietary linux box that’s all part of the one package.All software on the CD’s/DVD’s,and yes ladies and gentlemen even the gimp and emacs,(without an extra cnr subscription of $49),cmon.
Nothing against payment for good things,what i don’t like are sharks who misuse the uninformed to immitate Apple and get rich and famous.
? Man what are you talking about. Linspire cost $49.99 for download $59.99 for the Box with CD, Book etc. On top of that the CNR subscription is free for the first 30 days if you buy it so you can get all the aps you want (Just not updates from CNR after that)
Also Linspire comes with APT. You don’t have to pay for CNR if you don’t want to.
But if you get CNR, yes it costs a little more in the first year then SUSE to get Linspire and CNR but after the first year the price drops to half of SUSE and Mandrake because as long as you pay the $49.99 year for CNR you never have to pay for the OS, patches or updates again. (Unlike with SUSE and Mandrake) And on top of that you get Tech Support for life of your CNR subscription (not just for 30 days like with SUSE and Mandrake)
Me I don’t mind paying less then $5 a month for something that is going to be there and just work. I also love the fact that unlike with APT etc CNR gives me a list of all the software I have EVER installed. If I need to set up a new machine, I just install Linspire, go to click and run, enter my account, go to my products, select all and click install, then have a cup of java while it installs my software in the background.
with debian i just keep a text file that lists the packages that i like to have installed for each system or specifically for the purpose that I use that machine for, then I just install debian, open a console and type apt-get then paste in the list and hit enter and in a few minutes I am done since all my packages are sitting on my network… How are you going to do that if linspire goes under? WHat if next week linspire decides that the price for CNR is $99 a year? $199 a year? Sounds like they got you hooked and I cant wait to see the action when they reel you in!
Thanks but still not worth 50 bucks a year
Oh and with mandrake I have a handful of cds and even if mandrake goes under I still have my cds, what do you have?
(no i dont use mandrake, just making a point)
You could buy a SuSE or Mandriva, etc box for $89 with manuals,CD’s/DVD,support ,all the apps linspire has and more without an annual subscription.
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Not true. I would like you see you play a DVD legally using Mandrake or Suse. It can’t be done. They don’t have a legal DVD player. Linspire click-and-buy does!
Oh and with mandrake I have a handful of cds and even if mandrake goes under I still have my cds, what do you have?
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You can save the downloaded click-and-run repository to a CD. You will always have that. If Linspire changes their price, you don’t lose what you have already got.
I currently use SuSE here at work, and knoppix on my home machine. In the past I’ve used Redhat (never fedora though), Slackware, and gentoo on various machines. The other day my friend installed linspire on his machine, along with another friends machine. For the first time ever, everything worked. I am extremely impressed with it. Toss in the very nice look of the desktop, and good management tools, and it seems to me like the best linux distro that I have seen.
I don’t see a big deal with using and paying for click n run. If it makes life easy and works extremely well, then 50 dollars/year isn’t really much to ask. I have paid more than that on things that are less useful.