Linked by Michael Valentine on Mon 28th Mar 2005 19:49 UTC
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.
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The second reviewer doesn't tell us anything we haven't already heard a zillion times: why pay for free software. Well, I have got news for you, sir: I buy almost every new release of SUSE Pro and that costs much more than $49 a year.
The first reviewer is an insider, and yet manages to stay pretty objective. No wonder there, because the Linspire users and management are among the most open minded I have ever come across. I am myself a lifetime member: I don't really use Linspire, but I decided to support the ideal of a linux distro for the masses.
I found a lot to praise about 5.0
Some minus I found:
1)CNR either failed altogether to install some apps (one was either Gltron or Armagetron, not sure), or once installed they didn't work properly.
2)I was a bit disappointed with video streaming support: neither RealPlayer nor Mplayer in Mozilla worked very well (hint: maybe they should replace Mplayer with Kaffeine)
3)The OS is, IMHO, a bit too flashy out of the box, but that is easily solved.
Now let's be honest: the release of 5.0 has been an immense effort. I am sure that point releases (and Linspire is very generous with that) will take care of any issue which might be left.
In any case Linspire 5.0 is a true milestone in linux ease of use. Anybody who is fed up with Windows has no excuses any more