News about the Linspire (formerly Lindows) distribution and Michael Robertson, CEO.

 $199 Linux PC Now Available at Sears.com, Jan 17, 2008

Linspire, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of a $199 Linux PC, after $100 mail-in rebate, through Sears.com

Linspire, the developer of the Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux distributions, yesterday announced the launch of CNR.com (Click-n-Run) beta, a free Web-based Linux package management system for desktop Linux users.

A while back the good folks behind Freespire, the free version of Linspire, sent me a CD with version 2.0 for me to review. I was very happy to look at it as Linspire has been a leader in getting preloaded Linux systems into retail and online outlets, something I believe is critical for mainstream Linux adoption.

Former Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony has shown all the loyalty of a free agent athlete. Just a few months after resigning from Linspire, Carmony has traded in his old company's Linux operating system for Ubuntu.

Linspire, Inc., developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire community desktop Linux operating systems and CNR.com, a free Linux software delivery service, today announced the immediate availability of Linspire 6.0, the latest commercial release of the desktop Linux operating system.

Linspire, the company behind the Linspire commercial and Freespire community desktop Linux operating systems and CNR.com, a free Linux software delivery service, has announced the immediate availability of its first commercial paid support offerings for Freespire 2.0 users.

Michael Robertson, founder of MP3.com and Linspire, a Linux distributor, thinks the world is ready for a 'virtual' desktop on the Web. Is he right?

I personally liked Freespire, but it may not be the best choice for a person coming straight from Windows, as I found some previous Linux experience necessary in order to fully enjoy it.

Linspire, Inc., developer of the Linspire commercial and Freespire community desktop Linux operating systems and CNR.com, a free Linux software delivery service, today announced the immediate availability of Freespire 2.0, the latest version of the free desktop Linux operating system.

In an interview today with Linux-Watch, controversial Linux leader Kevin Carmony confirmed rumors that he had resigned as CEO of desktop Linux vendor Linspire on July 31. Carmony said he plans to work on several of his own business projects, and on Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.

On July 5, Microsoft quietly released a "Covenant to Customers" to clear up how it is handling its patent deal with Linux distributor Linspire. Instead, it did little but puzzle and annoy members of the Linux community.

It's a bit later than Linspire had planned, but the company's CEO Kevin Carmony told DesktopLinux that the new commercial version of its Linux distribution, Linspire 6.0, along with the free version, Freespire 2.0, and its revised CNR (click-and-run) software update system, should be out before August.

When Linspire 6.0 is released next month, it will include the fruits of the recently announced marriage between Linspire and Microsoft. Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony says he has been in talks with Microsoft for about a year and a half before reaching an agreement.

Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that it will license instant messaging and digital media technology to a small desktop Linux distributor, Linspire Inc., adding to a growing number of deals meant to help the Windows operating system work more smoothly with open-source software.

Linspire, the company behind desktop Linux operating systems Linspire and Freespire, has announced the availability of its Win4Lin Pro Desktop.

Linspire has published the release schedules for its two Linux distributions -- Linspire and Freespire -- and the overhaul of its CNR (click-and-run) software update system to support multiple Linux distributions, including Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu.

Linspire and CodeWeavers today announced the release and support of CrossOver Linux 6.0 for CNR.

Canonical and Linspire yesterday announced a deal that will see Linspire building its Linspire and Freespire Linux distributions on Ubuntu and Ubuntu users gaining access to Linspire's click and run software repository.

Several weeks ago, desktop Linux distributor Linspire Inc. announced that it was going to open up CNR (Click N Run), its Web-based software downloader/manager, to other distributions. Now, the company is revealing more about what this new Linux software distribution system will look like.

This week we announced that CNR will soon be available for many of the most popular desktop Linux distributions, not just Linspire and Freespire.

Commercial desktop Linux firm Linspire and personal video recording firm SageTV have teamed up to bring place shifting to the open source operating system.

The pair have developed SageTV Media Center 6 for users of Linspire and Freespire which lets users watch, pause and record TV programmes on desktop and living room Linux PCs.

Linux developer Linspire Inc. and SageTV LLC, one of the first digital video recording (DVR) and home media center software developers, have collaborated to make SageTV Media Center Version 6 easily available to users of the Linspire and Freespire desktop Linux operating systems. SageTV previously favored Gentoo users.

Some folks who like to plan ahead are wondering if Linspire is going to host its Desktop Linux Summit this spring in San Diego, as it has for the past four years. It looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer to find out.

Linspire Inc., which on Nov. 28 introduced a French-language version of its popular commercial Linux operating system, today announced the immediate digital availability of Linspire 5 in four other languages: German, Dutch, Espanol, and Standard English (UK).

Linspire Inc. today announced the release of its first French-language version, Linspire French 5, challenging Mandriva on its home turf.

Linspire Inc. has signed up a company headed by a former Microsoft Corp. executive to distribute its desktop Linux operating system in the Middle East and Africa.

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 first of many free services offered to desktop Linux users today.

My first choice to install on her Averatec laptop ended up being FreeSpire. I liked the possibilities of the OS -- based on a secure, tested, open source system but with Windows compatibility, multimedia capabilities, and some user friendliness.

System builders have long considered the Linux desktop equation, but a lack of incentives and support has forced the majority of system builders to stick to the tried-and-true Microsoft Windows model.

... the chief executive of software vendor Linspire says he's eager for Windows Vista's debut -- especially after what happened last week

Freespire is the new, cost-free alternative from Linspire. How well does it compete with the likes of Ubuntu's Dapper Drake?

In a move that some may have sensed was coming, Eric S. Raymond—one of the co-founders of the open-source movement—will become the newest member of the Freespire Leadership Board on Sept. 27.

Linspire launched a revamped partner program on September 14 that will pay system builders a percentage on all commercial Linux software and services purchased by users of either Linspire or Freespire pre-installed desktop and laptop computers using the company's CNR (Click N' Run) technology.

Is Michael Robertson afraid of anything? The entrepreneur has a made a career—and a fortune—playing rough with giants. Now, though, he’s turning up the volume: predicting an end to Apple’s hold on digital music, shaking up the Linux community by looking to marry open source smarts with proprietary know how, and talking trash about Microsoft’s new Zune.

In a surprise move, Linspire is now offering its CNR ("Click 'N Run") software service at no charge to its Linspire and Freespire Linux distribution customers. In addition, the company will soon be open-sourcing the CNR Client.

Starting on August 7th, the final version of Freespire 1.0 became available on BitTorrent and some download sites.

In two weeks, Linspire Inc. will release Freespire, its community Linux distribution. This new distribution isn't just another Linux distro. It will represent the first Linux to include most of the legally licensed and available, third-party proprietary codices, drivers, and software.

The first BETA of Freespire Linux was released on Friday. Freespire is a no-cost version of the Linspire operating system based on Linux and Open Source.

Linspire, Inc., developers of the leading consumer desktop Linux operating system, along with AOpen and Mirus Innovations, announce the availability of the Linspire Mini Koobox, the first small form-factor Linux machine on the market.

Kevin Carmony is the president and CEO of Linspire. Kevin kindly agreed to answer a few questions, and talk about his new project: Freespire.

Kevin Carmony has taken the heat from some in the FOSS community for offering non-free software in Linspire, and in particular, for attempting to lure the FOSS community into contributing to Linspire via Freespire. Don Parris spoke with Linspire's Kevin Carmony to learn more about his position. Are the community's accusations fair? What other options are there?

So, what's one more operating system between friends? Linspire is preparing a new Linux-based operating system that uses AJAX as the interface for all of its applications and documents.

In short, welcoming proprietary software into Linux is like being a little-bit pregnant. You either are, or you're not.

Here's something nauseating. Linspire has announced at the 4th Annual Desktop Linux Summit their latest "We'd like to make money from the community's free stuff without honoring community values" strategy.

Freespire will be a Debian-based, community-driven and -supported project tied to the commercial Linspire distribution, Carmony outlined, in much the same way as Fedora Core and openSUSE relate to their parent commercial distros, Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux, respectively.

Last November, Linspire issued a press release announcing that Micro Center would be devoting floor space and staff to desktop Linux. I decided to take a trip to my local Micro Center this week to see how that initiative was going. Unfortunately, the answer is not so well.

Chances are that you think Linspire lets you run Windows applications, that you have to run it as root, and that it's really not quite a proper Linux. Wrong, wrong, and wrong. At LinuxWorld in Boston this week, CEO Kevin Carmony explained what Linspire Linux is, and isn't all about.

So will this software delivery method revolutionize the industry like Michael Robertson thinks it will? Maybe, but chances are that it will take a long time.

Linspire President Kevin Carmony doesn't want Dell selling and promoting Linux desktops -- at least not yet.

CodeWeavers and Linspire on Wednesday announced CrossOver Office for Linspire 5.0, the first time the software has been made available for the Linspire Linux OS.

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