Linspire Archive

"I first demoed Versora Progression Desktop at LinuxWorld Boston in February of 2005, and was impressed by what it could do. Basically it takes all of your essential data and program settings (and even some decidedly nonessential settings) and transfers them to GNU/Linux. I hadn't heard much from the company since then - until Linspire announced a partnership with them recently. The deal is, Progression Desktop will move you from Windows to Linspire without any hassle."

Linspire has started another attempt at selling computers pre-installed with their operating system - this time by teaming up with Mirus - called the Koobox. Ars looks at the situation: "At this point it is hard to assess the potential of the Koobox systems. If it succeeds, the product could help legitimize desktop Linux and bring it further into the mainstream. Regardless of how many get sold, the availability of yet another budget Linux PC illuminates the growing popularity of the Linux platform, and contributes to the perception that Linux is applicable to desktop computing."

If Microsoft makes good on its self-destructive threat to pull Windows from the South Korean market rather than accede to local damands to un-bundle its proprietary media and IM apps, there's a safe harbour waiting in the form of blanket, country-wide licenses for the OS formerly known as Lindows. Linspire honcho Kevin Carmony has made a formal offer to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun to license every computer in the realm for the bargain price of $5 million (E4.2 million).

Intentionally or not, Linspire may be trying to become the "Education Linux" distribution. The desktop Linux software maker, formerly known as Lindows, Thursday launched a new, low-cost licensing program for schools who wish to install a Linux desktop operating system as an alternative to the more expensive Microsoft Windows operating system.

OSNews reader Frank wrote a review of Linspire 5.0, have a read here.

In a short story with a happy ending, the developer of a free version of Linspire called Freespire has agreed to change the name of his project, and Linspire is offering free copies of Linspire Linux for a few days. Freespire, which first popped up on Distrowatch last week, described itself as a free variant of Linspire Linux, with proprietary components and trademarks removed.

If you are looking for a desktop Linux with all the ease and user-friendliness of OS X, Linspire Five-O is a great option. It may not be the best for advanced users, but home and SOHO users will be happy with its performance, support, and great looks, the review says.

Michael Robertson has given up day-to-day control of Linspire and is leaving the company in the hands of new CEO Kevin Carmony.

Another Linspire review, this time at ExtremeTech along with screenshots.

Gary Krakow wrote about Lispire on the MSNBC web site saying "1,200 improvements create slick, easy-to-use computing experience". Read the article here.

Linspire has always intrigued me, it's a professional class operating system aimed at the mainstream market, and one of the few Linux distributions available in boxed sets. I've never really been a big fan of Linspire though, because I am a power user. Still, I was intrigued enough to inquire about reviewing Linspire, and they were nice enough to provide me with a digital download copy with a trial Click N Run (CNR) subscription. I wasn't too keen about blowing away my Fedora installation (I only have one computer with enough resources to run anything above DOS) but eventually curiousity took over, and I went for it.

I signed up to become a Lindows Insider (now Linspire) back in February 2004, after giving Lindows 4.5 Developer Edition a try and walking away very impressed about how far Lindows had come. I was very hesitant plugging down $99.00 for something you could do free with most other Distros which I thought was beta testing and voicing your opinion, but figured I had nothing to lose since they offered a 100% Money Back Guarantee on the program.

Here is another review of Linspire 5 with some useful details in it.

I decided to write this review to provide a quick inside to the new Linspire 5.0 released on March 15th, 2005. The review will determine the use of Linspire 5.0 in a SOHO (Small Office Home Office) Environment. The download was free for me since I'm a current CNR subscriber. UPDATE: Another Linspire review, and the Linspire 5.0 Live CD is now available for free download.