Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 30th Aug 2006 17:05 UTC, submitted by jcpinto
Starting today, Linspire does not only offer a free OS, but also its CNR Basic service. " Linspire, Inc., developer of the commercial desktop Linux operating system of the same name and Freespire, the free community desktop Linux operating system, announced the immediate change in pricing for its popular CNR Service from an annual subscription fee based offering to a completely free service." CEO Carmony said: "We're thrilled to now be in a position to offer this excellent service to desktop Linux users absolutely free. CNR really makes using desktop Linux easy, and we want everyone to have access to this quality service."
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:38 UTC
"The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 13:30 UTC, submitted by JRepin
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 22:06 UTC
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:45 UTC
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 15:53 UTC
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 22:43 UTC
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 21:50 UTC
PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/19/13 23:15 UTC
"This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.More News »
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2005-07-12
Well, this latest anouncement (free CNR), and this discussion thread has inspired me (pun intended) to try Freespire. I've used Lindows/Linspire in the past, helping my mom with her computer, but I've usually preferred more hardcore distros. But at the same time, I like things that are both easy and polished.
Freespire as a desktop distro, all I can say is, WOW!
Run in live CD mode - flawless
Configure network connection - flawless
All hardware working - flawless
Look 'n' Feel - Beautiful, polished, professional, comfortable, easy, productive
Assortment of Apps - great
Install to Hard drive - Super easy, super fast (about 12 minutes), and completely flawless
Add in software with CNR - flawless, super easy (easier than standare apt or Synaptic), great selection - including titles not typically included in standard Debian repos (I've added jEdit and NetBeans).
Add users - easy, flawless
Configure - easy, flawless
Speed - good, above average. I've had pure Debian, Slackware, and perhaps Kanotix running faster on the same, old hardware. But Freespire compares very favorably to all the other desktop oriented distros, and is perhaps faster.
Stability - can't comment. I have to wait a month or two on that to give an honest assesement.
Really, I'm technical oriented, I'm not afraid of the command line, text based installers, editing text files for configuration, running/configuring services, writing C, C++, Java, C#, Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby code and compiling/running it, or a plethora of other technical oriented stuff. I like that stuff, and it's part of my work and my hobby/leasure time.
But I really like a polished, easy, no fuss no muss, everything working out of the box, desktop oriented distro.
And I've been in search of just the right one - using Mepis, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, SuSE, Kanotix, Knoppix, and PCLinuxOS. Each one of these fell short in one category or another, or many. Of these, PCLinuxOS and Kanotix have come the closest to being the complete package for me. But not quite.
But it's looking like Freespire might be the complete package. Everything Freespire is so easy, polished, fun, productive, complete.
We'll see over time if Freespire remains this good for me. We'll see about performance, stability, package updates, etc. But it is looking really really promising right now.
I totally applaud Linspire for making a complete Linux Desktop product/experience. I applaud them for both including proprietary codecs/drivers, and the choice to go pure OSS. I applaud them for running a business, based on value add on top of OSS, as well as selling proprietary software/services, as well as providing software for OEMs (the best way for desktop Linux to grow).
I also applaud Kevin Carmony for having the guts and integrity for getting on often hostile message boards and point out the facts about Free/Linspire. The FUD and hostility and zealotry, and plain stupidity, he has to deal with is incredible. Yet he remains calm, logical, humorous.
Good job all the way around.