Linspire

[henri915]

I just put together an old Gateway with Linspire. I got a free copy of it through a retail training website. I've otherwise been a Windows user for a while, I like Windows, so that's my comfort zone.

The Good: it uses a GUI very similar to windows, I can figure it out and just use it. The way you'd access options within programs is nearly the same. The CNR service is great. All kinds of stuff out there for it. Ripping CD's/DVD's and burning them is MUCH easier than it it in Windows. The Utilities available are much more elegant and still give a great amount of control. Adding harware like a video card has been stupid simple, you plug it in, when the machine boots you tell it to reconfigure and then it comes up with the new hardware working.

The Bad: Setting up a windows shared network printer comes across as easy, but I haven't gotten it to work yet. I may just buy a print server and go TCP/IP with my printer rather than using my windows box as one. The sound doesn't work, but I expect that I just need to add a sound card and that the onboard sound is cooked. My logitech USB headset doesn't work. I haven't seen the stability that everyone's talking about. The Mozilla web browser crashes pretty frequently. I expect that's because I'm running it on a 700mhz Pentium III and only 128mb of RAM. Not knowing much about other renditions of Linux, I expect that this one just needs more powerful hardware to work efficiently. Managing hardware from inside the operating system hasn't been intuitive, I need to learn how to work the machine better. That's not the operating system's fault, it's mine.

Overall I like the product. I'm sure if I did this as a dual boot on my windows machine the Linspire setup would absolutely SMOKE windows in terms of performance. I don't see myself replacing windows with it, but I do see myself using Linspire to do things like DVD burning and web page editing. The tools it comes with are as powerful as those that you'd pay hundreds of dollars for with Windows.

I'm interested in other people's opinions of Linspire. I'm sure the real hardcore linux fans don't like it, it's too much like Windows. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a computer with this preloaded on it, The only thing I'd find myself wanting for is a way to game with it.

Any comments/flames/opinions would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

[Josh1964]

I haven't tried lin but have several other distros and bsd. Some Linux "purists" feel that an effort to be more like windows is the wrong thing to do, but if no effort is made to be like windows per se, but rather to make operating the system more intuitive and rational, it would meet with much more acceptance.

[jeofrey10100900]

you should order some ubuntu disks its absolutely free!! give it a try. i'm a novice to linux and so far this is the easist distro i've tried. after installing it my network card is already configured and ready to go and i was able to browse to the internet right away.

[Josh1964]

My one caveat on Linux is account permissions and overall system security. Many distros depend on the user to know how to enable a firewall and set account permissions, sometimes a rather cryptic and involved process. You can be hacked just as easily running a misconfigured Linux distro as any MS product.

[henri915]

Originally Posted by Josh1964 My one caveat on Linux is account permissions and overall system security. Many distros depend on the user to know how to enable a firewall and set account permissions, sometimes a rather cryptic and involved process. You can be hacked just as easily running a misconfigured Linux distro as any MS product.

Thank you! You hit the nail on the head.

I'm learning these things as I go along. These days, if you have a broadband connection and aren't using a firewall router, forget it.

I still like it, I may set up my windows box as a dual boot

[Josh1964]

Go for it.
I am more partial to the bsd's though, the one true free American os. As if that mattered. Try it if you want something different.

[kilgoretrout]

If your intersted in Linspire, you should also check out their recent free version called "Freespire":

http://wiki.freespire.org/index.php/Download_Freespire

Also, their Click 'N Run repo is now also free for users of Freespire and Linspire. The commercial stuff you still have to pay for of course but the majority of the software in CNR is free.

[henri915]

I'll check that out. I'm enjoying Linspire for now, I got it for free anyway through a retail training website. What I have is a legitimate copy.

Linspire does need a more powerful computer than what I'm running it on however. Upgrading the box to 256 mb ram and a 32 meg video card has made a difference. It doesn't like either of my ATI cards that I have sitting around though.

[Josh1964]

Linux desktops seem to be owned by nvidia at the moment. Perhaps in the future this will change.

[jglen490]

The Linspire folks seem to have learned some lessons about Linux in terms of free and freedom. I'm still not a big fan, but it's your choice . One question, did you set up both a root user AND a "regular user"? Hope so.

I hope you enjoy your Linux experience and perhaps you will explore some other distros, other desktops, and expand your software horizons.

[henri915]

I learned that yes, setting up a second user account is prudent with Linspire, I tried deleting the Root account; big mistake.

Getting a printer to run over the network, even a TCP/IP printer isn't at all intuitive. I recently bought an HP Photosmart C5180 All - in- one that I run over my network. It recognizes the printer, but if I wanted to do any kind of photo printing with it, forget it. Setting this up is not intuitive.

I found a 933mhz processor and scoffed an NVidia 5500 AGP 128mb video card for this box, it is running a little quicker now.