Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 17th Oct 2007 20:34 UTC
"Former Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony was pretty gung-ho about the company's upcoming release back in June. He said it would 'fill some key holes in our current offering'. Unfortunately Linspire 6, released last week, lacks the refinements you'd expect in a distro you pay USD 50 to download. It drops some key distinguishing features, and in return gains only some Microsoft technology as spelled out in the Microsoft patent covenants Linspire agreed to. This release seems to be about deferring to Microsoft."
Thread beginning with comment 279075
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[2]: Linspire.........Sigh
by segedunum on Thu 18th Oct 2007 14:30
in reply to "RE: Linspire.........Sigh"
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:
2005-11-05
The problem with Linspire, as with a lot of these types of distributions and tech companies like Xandros, is that they never looked at the software they are using from the ground up and looked at what they needed to do with it to move forwards. Sadly, a lot of these distros think that signing some deal with Microsoft ..., is the sole key to success. ... They just seem to have completely ran out of ideas.
I suspect the reason is simpler. Ubuntu ate Linspire's lunch and the lunch of a lot of other hopefuls. Ubuntu boiled it all down to a single and above all free silver platter that worked from here to Jakarta and back. Their publicity was extremely effective as were their support forums, and they succeeded in capturing word-of-mouth approval from sysadmins, developers, IT folks and others in a position to swing things. Linspire and a host of others never came anywhere near this. It is not just a matter of apps and innovation. People pushing for something is just as if not more important.
As it happens I'm no fan of Ubuntu or of Gnome since I dislike evangelism and the intolerance that always goes with it (Debian and Opensuse plus KDE here). But kudos where kudos are due. Ubuntu thought it all through a lot more thoroughly than others: Linspire and their ilk are now paying the price of an inferior business plan. There never was a credible niche for their brand of pay-for Linux.