Linspire 5 Beta (Warning LARGE Images!)

[Tobb555]

I didnt even know that people used that OS.

[Hans2000]

A few misc. comments from this thread...

1. I'm running Linspire Five-0 (beta) and the screenshots shown in this post are set to have the icons REALLY BIG. By default, they are much smaller, which I prefer.

2. "Do you have to be an ubergeek to do simple things like.......get your modem to work?" Not at all. They even have step-by-step dialers for all the most popular dial-up services, such as Earthlink, NetZero, Juno, etc. They EVEN support AOL with a special dialer Linspire built. For broadband and wifi users, they even have a wonderful network profile that auto detects when you move from home to work and back.

3. Linspire IS Lindows. After a failed attempt to sue Lindows, Microsoft ended up having to pay Lindows $20 MILLION to change their name to Linspire. =)

4. "Is it simpler to use than Mandrake?" Definately. Particularly with file type support. Because Mandrake is 100% open source, they don't put ANY licensed codecs, etc. in their program. Linspire, however, to help make it easy to use and work when surfing the net, includes Java, Flash, Quick Time, Windows Media, etc. Everything works right out of the box, even better than Microsoft Windows which doesn't support these things without having to install the plugins.

5. "try to sell $35-50 bundle of openoffice and firefox all free software you can download" Huh? So let me get this straight...you think open source should ONLY be available via download??? What about the the MANY average computer users that like to get things in pretty boxes from retail stores? This is why Microsoft KICKS LINUX'S ASS! Linux just doesn't get it!!! As long as Linux is only on line, and not in the retail channel, Microsoft will keep laughing their asses off at Linux. So, if you want OpenOffice and Firefox to get to the masses, then IT NEEDS TO BE IN THE RETAIL CHANNEL! And do you think boxes and CD's are free? Do you think WalMart, Best Buy, Fry's, COMP USA, etc. are interested in FREE software??? Of course they're not. They want to SELL something. I say Kudo's to Linspire for getting open source software in the main stream, retail channels!

6. " I don't like the fact that they mislead naive people thinking that it can run windows applications natively," Huh??? You must be talking about Xandros or Codeweavers. Linspire (Lindows) stopped trying to work with MS Windows applications about three years ago!!! They are the main company THAT REFUSES to bundle WINE. They are supporting NATIVE Linux application development more than anyone else!

See: http://linspire.com/mswindows and http://linspire.com/opensource

7. " Xandros is aimed at the workstation/business user which is shown most prominently with the built-in VPN support." Linspire Five-0 comes with VPN support built right in.

8. ".I mean seriously, can they make ANYTHING where they don't copy something?" This is another favorite thing MICROSOFT LOVES TO HEAR! The world speaks "Windows." 95% of all computers run Windows. Microsoft loves it when Linux geeks try to convince these 95% to learn some new, foreign language! If you drop someone who speaks English in the middle of China, and everyone is speaking a new language, it's hard to feel comfortable and get along. Kudos to Linspire for trying to be comfortable to 95% of the world. People like Linux because it's affordable, stable, secure, open, and configureable. THEY HATE IT HOWEVER because it's new and hard to learn! Microsoft loves that however.

9. "linspire makes a pretty bad overall OS" Huh? When it comes to ease of use, which is very important to 95% of the world (most people are NOT geeks), Linspire is hands down the best. No way would I give my mom Mandrake, SuSE, Fedora, etc., but my FIVE YEAR OLD uses Linspire without any problem. She loves using CNR to install games, etc.

10. "I just dont see how it's really helping the linux community. " Linspire touches every piece of the software, far more than ANY other distro. Mandrake and others just toss in the latest KDE, Kernel, etc. Linspire actually makes enhancements and GIVES ALL THOSE CHANGES BACK! They added SIP phone support to GAIM, in-line spell checking to Mozilla, Lphoto, Nvu, Lsongs, Reiser 4, etc. etc. etc. They have done more to advance Linux on the DESKTOP than all the other Linux companies combined. http://linspire.com/opensource

11. "doing their best to put the most noob-friendly face on Linux." Exactly. Have any of you heard of a little company called AOL? You know, "So Easy To Use, No Wonder It's Number One." Sure, Geeks would never use AOL, but 28 million other non-geeks were brought to the Internet via AOL. These 28 million AOL users also brought lots of eye balls, dollars, etc. to the net, which helped to create incentives to build up the back bone, pipes, etc. to the Internet, which we all then benefit from. The more people who start using Linux, the more developers who will be attracted to it. If Linux stays in geek land, it will never get more than 2 or 3 percent marketshare. Not everyone who drives a car is a car mechanic and wants to change their own oil. Most people who use computers are NOT geeks, they need something EASY.

12. "I didnt even know that people used that OS." It's the number-one selling desktop Linux. If you visit http://lraiser.com you can even see a map of how many new Linspire users "light up" each week. Linspire has been very successful because they did NOT focus just on downloading .iso's or selling the OS in a box, but rather in getting it pre-installed on computers. I have a friend who works at Fry's and he said they sell about 30,000 Linspire computers each month. Linspire has over 350 OEM's that pre-install it on their computers. Keep in mind that the majority of people DO NOT EVER in their entire life install an OS. They use the OS that comes on the computer they buy. If it's not on the computer, they don't use it. Linspire understands this and that's why so many people use Linspire today. Now, granted they're not geeks or making posts to sites like this, but they're out there being turned on to desktop Linux none the less.

Hans

[Rahul]

not bad , good enough for office use

[Refrozen]

Slackware baby! :D