Linspire

Linspire, formerly known as LindowsOS, is a commercial operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and Ubuntu and is currently owned by PC/OpenSystems LLC. From 2001 to 2008, it was owned by Linspire. Inc. and from 2008 to 2017 of Xandros.

On July 1, 2008, Linspire's shareholders decided to change the company's name to Digital Cornerstone, and all assets were acquired by Xandros.

On August 8, 2008, Andreas Typaldos, CEO of Xandros, announced that Linspire would be discontinued in favor of Xandros; Freespire would switch its codebase from Ubuntu to Debian; and the Linspire brand would cease to exist.

On January 2, 2018, it was announced that PC/OpenSystems LLC had purchased Linspire and Freespire from Xandros, and that Linspire 7 was available for $79.99, while Freespire 3 would be free.

Its software package management system, CNR: Click-N-Run, allows users to install programs with just a click of their mouse; before it was paid, in a subscription version, but apparently, after negotiating with Canonical (company that legally represents the Ubuntu Linux OS), it released this service.

History

Headquartered in San Diego, California, Lindows, Inc. was founded in August 2001 by Michael Robertson with the goal of developing a Linux-based operating system capable of running core Microsoft Windows applications. It based its compatibility with Windows on the Wine API. The company later abandoned this approach in favor of trying to make Linux applications easy to download, install, and use. To do this, a program called "CNR" was developed: based on Debian's Advanced Packaging Tool, it provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface and a slightly modified packaging system for an annual fee. The first public version of Lindows was version 1.0, released in late 2001.

In 2002, Microsoft sued Lindows, Inc., claiming that the Lindows name constituted infringement of its Windows trademark. Microsoft's claims were rejected by the court, which stated that Microsoft had used the term windows to describe graphical user interfaces before the Windows product was released, and that the use of windows had already been implemented by Xerox and Apple Computer many years before. Microsoft requested a new trial and, after it was adjourned in February 2004, offered to settle the case. As part of the license agreement, Microsoft paid approximately $20 million and Lindows, Inc. transferred the Lindows trademark to Microsoft and changed its name to Linspire, Inc.

On June 15, 2005, Michael Robertson resigned as CEO of Linspire, Inc. He continued as president and was succeeded as CEO by Kevin Carmony Carmony resigned from Linspire on July 31, 2007.

Linspire became a member of the Interop Vendor Alliance, founded in 2006.

On February 8, 2007, Linspire, Inc. and Canonical Ltd, the primary sponsor and developer of the Ubuntu operating system, announced plans for a new technology alliance, with the goal of Linspire "starting to base...[its] desktop Linux offerings on Ubuntu".

On June 13, 2007, Linspire and Microsoft announced an interoperability collaboration agreement focused on document format compatibility, instant messaging, digital media, web search, and patent agreements for Linspire customers. This agreement has been criticized, notably by the Groklaw website, as short-lived and limited, and against the spirit of the GNU General Public License. Kevin Carmony, in one of Linspire's regular letters, stated that the deal" would bring even more options to Linux desktop users and offer a "better" Linux experience."

Linspire releases its codenames for products based on fish found near its headquarters: Linspire/LindowsOS 4.5 was codenamed Coho; Linspire Five-0 (5.0 and 5.1) and Freespire 1.0, Marlin; and Freespire 2.0 and Linspire 6.0, Skipjack.

Freespire

In August 2005, Andrew Betts released Freespire, a Live CD based on Linspire. Some users mistook this for a Linspire, Inc. product. Linspire, Inc. offered users a "Free Linspire" (purchase price discounted to $0) using coupon code "Freespire" until September 9, 2005. On April 24, 2006, Linspire announced his own project called "Freespire". This followed the model of community-oriented releases from Red Hat and Novell in the form of Fedora and openSUSE. Freespire was a community-driven and supported project tied to the commercial Linspire distribution, and included previously proprietary Linspire items, such as the CNR Client, while other items, which Linspire, Inc. licenses but does not own, such as the Linspire libraries. Windows Media audio compatibility, they remain closed sources. Consequently, there are two versions of Freespire, one with the closed source libraries and another, called Freespire OSS Edition, which includes only open source components. Freespire 1.0 was released on August 7, 2006, three weeks ahead of schedule.23] It is now known that Freespire will switch its codebase from Ubuntu to Debian in future releases.24] On July 10, 2007, Linspire released Linspire 6.0, based on Freespire 2.0. The final release of Freespire was 2.0.8, released on November 30, 2007. This was based on Ubuntu 7.04, which was supported for 18 months and reached EOL on October 19, 2008. Therefore At this time, Freespire does not receive any security updates from upstream. The distribution is now considered "Discontinued" by DistroWatch.

Criticism

Linspire has drawn some criticism from the free software community. This for including proprietary software, GNU founder Richard Stallman commented: "No other GNU/Linux distribution has regressed this far from freedom. Switching from MS Windows to Linspire doesn't give you freedom, it just gives you a different master." Also, following the initial announcement of Freespire, Pamela Jones of the Groklaw website published an article titled "Freespire: A Linux Distro For When You Co couldn' Don't Care Less About Freedom;" that she was highly critical of Linspire, Inc, and the Freespire project, for including closed-source components and advertising them as a plus point - an action she called ignoring the values of the free and open source software (FOSS) community in a "community-driven" distribution, stating that "Free Software is not about proprietary drivers" and that "proprietary codecs, drivers and applications are not Open Source or open in any way". In response, Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony stated via a Linspire website reporter that in ten years of holding its own, the FOSS community has made relatively little profit, that many users are already using proprietary software, and, although some hold out longer, most would rather have something that works than nothing. He also stated that the company believed in open source software, but also in the freedom of individuals to choose the software they want.