Subj : Linspire 5.0
To   : MARTIN ATKINS
From : Charles Scaglione
Date : Sat Sep 17 2005 03:19 am

On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 01:49:00 -0400, MARTIN ATKINS wrote:

 MA> I have no experience with Linspire so in that respect we are both in the
 MA> dark. If however some of the apps are commercial then they would have
 MA> their own licensing arrangement and of course it would be incumbent on
 MA> the user to abide by them. I would speculate that Linspire probably
 MA> doesn't hold license over those apps either. Perhaps if someone has it
 MA> installed they may clarify the situation for us.

Linspire is a debian based distribution of Linux, however, it is not free
for downloading (exception is the Live CD which can be downloaded).
Linspire can be purchased either by an E-download or you can have the CD
mailed to you.  ($49.95/$59.95)

When you purchase Linspire (formally Lindows) you also have the option to
purchase a subscription to download software from their repository. Their
repository contains open source and free software which is available from
any debian based repository.  However, their service offers a way for
novices to obtain and install Linux software with ease.

You do not have to use their subscription service if you choose not to.
(The service is called "CNR").   However, in order to download software
and install it in Linspire without using the CNR service, you must edit
the repository list file and thereafter do an update from the Konsole
terminal.

Nothing illegal about the procedure and the Linspire folks themselves in
their FAQ state that you can if you so choose, install software without
using the service.  They do give a warning about possibly installing
software that is not compatible with Linspire.

Linspire is like any other debian based Linux distribution:  same file
structure, same system files, etc.   It's very similar to Kubuntu, MEPIS,
or any other debian distro that uses the KDE desktop.

 MA> For a start Charles Scaglione is offering to help Obtaining and
 MA> installing software and in the next line he states he will show them how
 MA> to do it legally. This is not unusual in the open source world. Let's
 MA> for the time being assume Linspire is entirely open source, then all
 MA> they have done is bundle other peoples hard work at no cost to them
 MA> other than time.

It is based on open source, but again, it's not free.  Don't forget,
there's lots of open source software for both Windows and Linux that is
sold for a small nominal price. The folks at Linspire did have a free
download episode of around 5 days where the distro including both the live
and install CDs could be obtained.  The response overwhelmed their servers.

 MA> I do not receive my pay check by piggy backing off the free labour of
 MA> others. I would be interested to know if Linspire has a licensing clause
 MA> with their public release. Linspire has already been in hot water when
 MA> it came to grief with Microsoft as Lindows. Seems they have no moral
 MA> scruples when it comes to free loading of anothers name. :-}

They have a license not unlike that of most open source software. No EULA
as in Microsoft!  Anyway, if you would like to continue this discussion
let's move it to the Linux echo.  I monitor that echo same as this one.
We've already gone beyond what our moderator would consider a simple
discussion of another operating system.

Regards.

chscag at gmail dot com

--- Pan/0.14.2.91 (As She Crawled Across the Table (Debian
 * Origin:  (1:123/789.0)

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