OSNews

- What’s New and Improved?

That one I have a problem with your comment , it seem that you think and that you imply that most of the work whas done by Linspire , when the fact is they contributed very little outside of the L series of software and some hardware tweak. Its nice that they include other people software , it just sad that they dont give them the respect that they deserve, I am sure that they do a lot more work then I and other give them credit for , simply because they dont have yet the habit of communicating openly the change they made to the software made by others and giving back to those who give it to them free in both sense of the word.

" I have to admit I would prefer Firefox"

its availaible from cnr , and I think they said they where trying to release it with firefox but that the work whas not finished and too unstable to use it this time.

http://www.linspire.com/search_results.php?q=firefox

" Linspire has an easy to use GUI VPN client now."

I think I would prefer they make it the most secure vpn , those things have the nasty habit of beeing the tool taken over by hacker , bots and trojan in order to get to control other people machine , its nice that its GUI , but SSL and totally secure would be more interesting for everyone.

"They are not the first, this honor goes to Xandros"

Actually there whas a GUI VPN in KDE 1 , I think SUSE and MandrakeSoft where the first.

- What needs work?

" OpenOffice – It’s just plain ugly by default! "

1) its a complete office suite , if you say this is ugly I would have hated to be you in the dos time ...

2) I dont think that people really know the amount of work that goes into an office suit , Microsoft certainly dont include it , and yet we get one of the best for free as in no cost and freedom to make copy.

3) I think that Linspire should offer a Pro version and that the money made from it pay developper to work on it full time to give Linspire and the GNU/Linux community more OpenOffice.org goodness.

4) After all we both know and they know it too that most people would pay to get the best and latest in an office suit.

5) I am going to be sending the blame to OpenOffice.org here , they should include a theming system so that developper can offer visual theme for everyone.

"Boot up Speed "

I agree on all your point , and support them , but , I know that Hardware maker support is not what its supposed to be. Time and development will hopefully solve this.

"More Applications are needed"

Agreed but are you willing to make a specific list and contribute money for its development ? I read In Michael Minutes that He personnaly spent 20 million of is own money in the last three year , its not much for GNU/Linux but none the less , I very much thank him for it , because I know I certainly dont have that laying around or availaible. We have the luck and chance that the software are made free as in cost and free as in Freedom or like in this case paid by somebody else. In a microsoft world the same system would probably cost in the 50k for as complete and as feature availaible a solution.

"Apps need to be updated more frequently."

I think the Linspire users need to contribute a little if they whant an up to date system , the Dev and Linspire employee have so many hours per day to do the work that they do. Just reporting an outdated software might be that thing needed.

"I would also like to see more Trial ware such as VMware Workstation, Win4Lin and so on."

For this I am sure you have the software company to blame.
and not Linspire.

"Hardware"

They should have a free open to Linspire user Database , so that review like yours get to be browsable and informative to all linspire user. And they should offer the space for uploading Master or complete Setup.

- Summary

"For someone coming from Slackware, Gentoo, Debian and some of the other less user friendly Distros out here"

Ouch , this is the same software , there not less useable or user friendly , there less integrated and complete out of the box.Linspire is Building a model house and selling it to you.The other offer the materials and some basic assembled piece , but you have to work on it to have a finished house. Others offer the tools to work on the house , Linspire dont offer them out of the box in the public packages.

" all the handholding would probably offend them. "

I think your repeating a lie , Linspire might be a king in integration and final solution , but freedom and availaibility of customization and choice is not a Linspire priority.

"Keep in mind Linspire’s target market, new users and users coming from Windows. "

I am sorry to say that even Linspire forget there primary market. New user should have a wider choice of pre-installed computer offered from Linspire. Also they should not forget that the world is not just Windows , there is Apple and mostly other Gnu/Linux distribution.

I know the software Dev , test a lot of hardware , but the one that do really work should get picked by the OEM/reseller system and offered from a Linspire hardware store at a better price the there windows counterpart.

I think this somes up what I add to say regarding your review , again Thanks for sharing it with us , I hope your not too offended by my comment and that this is the start of a long series of your contribution.

- Roger

P.S. note to the OSNEWS dev and mods , can you fix the preview so that it say how many words one as written , thks.