Linux Online
[ Register ]

[ Applications ]
[ Documentation ]
[ Distributions ]
[ Download Info ]
[ General Info ]
[ Book Store ]
[ Courses ]
[ News ]
[ People ]
[ Hardware ]
[ Vendors ]
[ Projects ]
[ Events ]
[ User Groups ]
[ User Area ]

Running Linux, Fourth Edition

[ About Us ]
[ Home Page ]
[ Advertise ]

Freespire: Great idea? Awful idea?

Publication:DesktopLinux.comDate:May 05 2006
Reporter:Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Advertisement
It's a simple idea. Take the Linspire Debian-based Linux distribution and bundle it with every proprietary driver and program that's available for Linux. Ta-da, an instant Linux that's compatible with far more hardware and applications.

The problem, of course, is that by combining proprietary software with Linux, you're also legitimatizing the use of proprietary programs with open-source. To paraphrase Pamela Jones, editor of Groklaw, Linspire's mangling of the language of Free Software can only pervert and confuse the open-source community and audience.




Comments: feedback (at) linux.org
Advertising: banners (at) linux.org
Copyright Linux Online Inc.
Compilation ©1994-2008 Linux Online, Inc.
All rights reserved.